The friendships I built due in part to the activities of our national organization are what I cherish most, and so on this day when we are asked to tweet “#myFraternity” I will say that My Fraternity – the friendships – will survive well beyond the 501(c)(7) organization of the same name.
I was at The Ohio State University working to re-establish a chapter of my fraternity in the spring of 2012. It was an interesting recruitment campaign as it was one of the rare instances where our entire team of five worked together to set up one chapter.
In our 2nd or 3rd week of the campaign, Woody Woodcock from Phired Up visited to offer coaching support to our team. Our recruiters were trained in part by Woody and his colleagues, and we had built a fraternal bond with one another over the course of our fall term – Phired Up staff would visit twice during each of our expansion campaigns.
Woody noticed some disorganization and distractions among the members of our team, so one evening he asked us to meet in one of our temporary apartments. We entered into a dark room, the only light coming from candles set on a table in the shape of our letters. The six of us stood around the table while Woody spoke. Some of what he said was written on a piece of paper, some of it may have been improvised, but the purpose of it was to reconnect us to why we were setting up a new chapter and the bond we all shared as fraternity men.
I enjoy digging through fraternity and sorority archives to learn more about our past, and I can no longer accept how readily we ignore the shame we feel beneath the glowing reviews of our histories. As I mentioned in my … Continued
New members of Delta Sigma Phi memorize the Preamble to the Constitution prior to their initiation. Many forget it shortly thereafter, and few are required to or ever take time to analyze its meaning, which is strange; It explains the … Continued
Eighteen months into my work at Delta Sigma Phi we hired a new Executive Director and CEO who spent his first few months traveling the country to meet our student and alumni members. He came from outside the field … Continued
“In 1899 at the City College of New York,” is how I started about half of the gazillion public speeches I gave as a staff member for Delta Sigma Phi. Our story is heartwarming.