My College of Chapters Journal (Michigan)
College of Chapters
Editor's Note - Over the duration of the 2019 College of Chapters, we enlisted several attendees to journal their four-day experience through Sigma Nu's premier leadership training program. Participants chose from several prompts provided and answered their selections at the end of each day.
This journal comes from Gamma Nu Chapter (Michigan) Commander, Jack Behm. Jack was joined at College of Chapters by Lt. Commander, Paul Simosa.
Day 1 - Arrival
What was your journey like to Roanoke for College of Chapters?
My day started off with a 3:30am wake up to make my 5am flight out of Detroit. I had just come back from skiing in Jackson Hole with my fellow candidate Alex Londal, which was incredible. I spent most of the flights to Roanoke listening to my audiobook, The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. I spent some time talking to the representatives from our the Sigma Nu chapter at Kettering University which is not far from where I worked over the summer in Flint, Mich. I also met the Iowa Chapter Commander who happened to be deaf so we chatted over text for a while. I then got to the hotel with Paul and we went to get some lunch at Dominos before the weekend really kicked off.
Coming into College of Chapters, what are some of the challenges that your chapter faces? What do you want to improve on this semester?
One of the biggest challenges we face at this point in time is brotherhood. Our colony really came into fruition a few weeks before Thanksgiving so all of our fellow candidates were extremely busy with exams, so not everyone knows each other as well as we would like. Things we are most looking to improve this semester is our sense of brotherhood amongst our colony and looking for more efficient and proper ways to run our meetings and how our colony communicates.
What was your first chapter meeting like at College of Chapters? What chapters were represented in your chapter group? Who were your chapter facilitators?
The first meeting was really just cleaning house. It was based on showing each other that we were committed to absorbing as much information as possible to better our chapters and the fraternity as a whole. The chapters that were represented in our group were some other small chapters in the midwest area that are covered by our consultant Adam Girtz. Our chapter facilitators were Jamison and Adam from our Lambda Chi Chapter at Cal State San Bernardino and Eta Theta Chapter at North Dakota State.
Day 2 - Curriculum
What were your chapter meetings like today? What was the focus of the chapter meetings? What did you work on? What were your “Ah Ha’s?”
Our first order of business was an evaluation of how well we thought we were doing as Commanders and in our own personal values. Questions that can be summarized about what have you done in the past six months and do they align with who you are as a person. We then focused on sharing our strategies for the upcoming term so that we could build off of each others ideas. The meetings were extremely optimistic and you could see how motivated people were to improve their chapter. My biggest take away is the amount of support we have from nationals is incredible compared to other organizations and we should take full advantage.
What ideas have you picked up from other Commanders at College of Chapters?
One great idea to work further on our alumni relations that I learned from the Ole Miss Commander was creating a linkedin group page so that alumni and members can more easily share professional communications.
What were your core sessions today? Which Breakout sessions did you attend? What session stood out to you and what were your takeaways?
We had three core sessions today, the first on making your vision for the chapter into a strategy, then a briefing on setting up our chapter roster and finances, then the creation of goals and effective delegation. I attended the motivating you chapter breakout session learning some great practices when running chapter. I then went to the emotional intelligence session speaking on how to ease communication further with our fellow members and taking care of my own mental health in this high stress position.
Day 3 - Pilgrimage to Lexington, Va.
What was it like to visit Sigma Nu Headquarters? What stood out to you from the visit and tours of HQ and VMI? What did you learn about Sigma Nu?
When you walked into the Sigma Nu Headquarters you could feel the history, from the official trees of each state that that we have chapters, to the Alpha Room containing each flag from every chapter of Sigma Nu ever created. What stood out was the collection of every Sigma Nu author in the headquarters library. It was cool to see how much influence our institution has. One of the coolest things I learned was that there is still a chunk of the original limestone cropping where Sigma Nu was founded at at VMI.
What are three words that you would use to describe your College of Chapters experience?
Exhilarating, Informative, Happy-Exhaustion
What did you think of the closing keynote from Bill Courtney? What messages stood out to you from his remarks?
Bill Courtney is one of the most motivating people I have ever encountered in my life. Listen to a few words from that man and you will feel like you could lift a car with your bare hands. The message that he gave out that has been ringing in my head ever since I heard it was simply, why are you here? I am sure it made everyone aware that we were not there to just make connections or better ourselves, but our chapters and colonies as a whole to preserve the great institution that is Sigma Nu.
Day 4 - Departure
What have you realized about your role as Commander from your time at College of Chapters? What have you learned about yourself?
I learned how much responsibility I have in the department of motivating my colony to continue striving for success even after we charter and beyond, to keep our members from ever becoming complacent in our position on campus and in general. I learned about myself how ready I am to really get to work and make this one of the best chapters not just at Michigan, but in Sigma Nu as a whole.
What did you expect College of Chapters would be like coming into Roanoke on Thursday? How were your expectations correct? Incorrect?
I did not expect how much information we would receive all in one weekend. They take the phrase “Drinking from a fire hose” to a whole new level. I also did not think I would connect with as many other Commanders as I did, but when I think about it now we are all people united under improving our Fraternity, and that is a pretty special bond.
What kind of network did you build from attending College of Chapters?
Paul and I had a meeting after our last session at 10pm with all of the Michigan representatives at College of Chapters from The Universities of, Albion, Eastern Michigan, Kettering, and Michigan State. We all talked for about an hour about doing some big events together mainly a large community service initiative with the Michigan Food Bank and doing Michigan Sigma Nu barbeques so we can all meet and socialize with our fellow brothers in our state.