Continual Values Based Member Development Programs

[PhiPsiRuss]

Who has implemented a values based member development program?

What obstacles have you faced either implementing it, or persuading your chapter to adopt one?

If your national organization has such a program, is it mandatory?

This is a strong trend in the fraternity world, with programs like Beta's Men of Principle, Phi Psi's Men of Excellence and Sig Ep's Balanced Man.

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ETA Lists of GLO Programs for post-AM/NM/pledge education:

NIC+
Beta Theta Pi Men of Principle
Phi Kappa Psi Men of Excellence
Sigma Nu LEAD program
Sigma Phi Epsilon Balanced Man Program

NPC
Alpha Delta Pi Total Membership Education
Alpha Sigma Alpha Advantage
Gamma Phi Beta Complete Sister Program
Delta Phi Epsilon PEARL Program
Kappa Kappa Gamma Pathways
Pi Beta Phi Leading with Values

[GeekyPenguin]

We are starting a new one I believe this spring - from the preview I saw of it at our Regional Leadership Conference last year, it looks a whole lot like SigEp's BMP.

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by GeekyPenguin
We are starting a new one I believe this spring - from the preview I saw of it at our Regional Leadership Conference last year, it looks a whole lot like SigEp's BMP.

Will Gamma Phi make the program mandatory for all chapters?
Of those chapters participating, will all collegiate members have to participate?

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by russellwarshay
Will Gamma Phi make the program mandatory for all chapters?
Of those chapters participating, will all collegiate members have to participate?

Yes - it's basically our new New Member Education program, but it will be covering everyone in the chapter - a big thrust of it is to keep girls interested in staying involved in their last years of school. All chapters have to participate, and what a chapter does, a member does. I think it will be good for us as we didn't really have a cohesive International NME program, so things were very different from chapter to chapter. I believe it's going to be called the "Complete Sister" program - I'm sure SmartBlondeGPhB or GPhiBLtColonel could comment on it more extensively than I am.

[erniegurl00]

Pi Phi has had a values program, Leading with Values, since last year. It started as an educational thing, and is slowly working its way through to the new member education. I know a lot of how we approach new member ed will change. This is something that is required of all chapters. I don't know that much about it because it is still new. Feel free to check out our website (www.pibetaphi.org) for more info.

[ISUKappa]

Kappa has something similar, called Pathways

from the Kappa website:

Pathways...Kappa's Continuous Education Experience is the educational framework for the future of the Fraternity. Based on our founding principles, our Mission Statement and current women's needs, Pathways focuses on the personal and intellectual growth of each member by providing her access to a variety of resources at various stages of life. Living up to all that is fine in life and thought and character, Pathways provides exposure to and an awareness of issues, topics, and ideas so each member will grow and learn. If each Kappa is exposed to at least one item in each of the four areas of Pathways each year, she will have grown as a person.

Link: http://www.kappakappagamma.org/Conte...t_Pathways.htm

It is continual education, for actives and alumnae alike. It's used during our NME programs and also for Educational programs. It's only been in place about 3 years, so I'm not sure how each chapter is using it. I don't believe it's mandatory, per se, but very strongly encouraged--HQ has a lot of ideas and resources for programs and activities to make it easier and less time-consuming for members to partake in Pathways.

[33girl]

You need to find an acronym for that LOL.

Anyway...our program is called Advantage. It was piloted in I think 2000 and phased in to all chapters by Fall 2002. It is now mandatory that all collegiate chapters and all collegiate members use Advantage. The alumnae and alum chapters are encouraged to order the materials and work through the modules, but it is not mandatory.

As to the reception it received from members, I have heard reviews ranging in all ends of the spectrum...alphabug02 would be more qualified to discuss it than I am.

Here is a link if you want to check it out: http://www.asa-advantage.org/

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by 33girl
You need to find an acronym for that LOL.

Anyway...our program is called Advantage. It was piloted in I think 2000 and phased in to all chapters by Fall 2002. It is now mandatory that all collegiate chapters and all collegiate members use Advantage. The alumnae and alum chapters are encouraged to order the materials and work through the modules, but it is not mandatory.

As to the reception it received from members, I have heard reviews ranging in all ends of the spectrum...alphabug02 would be more qualified to discuss it than I am.

Here is a link if you want to check it out: http://www.asa-advantage.org/

Yes it is a long title. How does COntinuous VAlues Based Education, or CoVaBE sound?

[PsychTau]

Wanted to bump this to hear more discussion on it.

What do YOU think of the educational programming for your GLO? Does it meet the needs of your members (or is it stuck in a previous decade )? Is it a program where everyone is doing the exact same module/worksheet/presentation topic? Or do you pick 3 out of 5 choices to complete each semester? How is it presented to your chapter (during each meeting, once a month, once a semester, etc)? How much work/time does it take?

Sorry for all of the questions, but I think it would be interesting discussion. Of course, only share info that you are able to share....

PsychTau

[PhiPsiRuss]

In the early 1930s, Phi Psi changed the name of our fraternity education from "pledge education" to "fraternity education." This reflected the prevailing thought in the interfraternity world, that fraternity education should be for all members.

Most GLOs have similar pledge (or AM) education programs. There have been many decades of development, and many decades of interfraternal cooperation. I own pledge manuals for many national fraternities, and there was a time when more than half of the content was absolutely identicle. About 30 years ago, the manuals began to become more specialized to their respective organizations.

Two years ago, Phi Psi changed all references back to "pledge education" and added new references to total member development, in anticipation of the launch of our Men of Excellence program. This reflects the current trend to tailor fraternity education to the needs of the members.

Pledges (or AMs) have different needs than a senior, who served two years as a chapter officer. The goals, of these new continuing education programs, are ambitious.

Many national fraternities have launched such programs, and most have failed. Phi Kappa Psi never launched our first such program. We knew that there were major problems and held back. We watched Sig Ep and Beta succeed, and others crash and burn.

What did we learn from those who failed? Keep in mind that Phi Kappa Psi is one of those who failed, we just didn't do it publicly, so this is not meant as a swipe at others. Of the programs that have failed, we noticed that the implementation was too ambitious. These fraternities took a heavy handed approach, and sometimes required that everyone in a chapter, and perhaps that all chapters must participate. This is in contrast to Sig Ep, who did not mandate that all of their chapters become Ballanced Men chapters. Phi Psi is making adoption of our program optional. Of those chapters that do adopt it, a majority, but not all, of the active members must participate. A chapter may mandate that all of its members participate.

We entrusted a Phi Psi, who is a professional greek life director, at an old greek system in a prestigous university, with the development of our new program. A beta version was introduced to a handful of chapters in the Fall of 2002. Some of the goals of our Men of Excellence program include; reinforcement of our core values (occupy the actives with meaningful behavior, before they fill an activities vacuum with undesirable behavior), renewed relevance of the chapter to older actives (i.e. end "senior burnout"), and produce better alumni.

We did a full scale launch this past Summer, and we have our chapter chaplains oversee the program. So far, the chapters who have adopted this program, love it. As the program becomes adopted by more, and more chapters, our national culture will have this program at its core.

[moe.ron]

The Balanced Man Program continues to lead the fraternity world. Our chapters and local volunteers are the driving force behind the success of the program. SigEp is a visionary organization and strives to promote the healthy and continuous development of our undergraduates. Through the use of Sound Mind and Sound Body programming, SigEp is making significant impacts in the lives of our brothers. The proof of our success lies in the academic performance of our chapters, and the increased recruitment and retention of our members. Simply put, SigEp adds value to the college experience. Academically SigEp outperformed all other national fraternities with a 2.87 national accumulate grade point average. SigEp recruited more men last year than any other national fraternity and more significantly retained 95% of those new members. SigEp continues to set the pace.

More Information Here

[dakareng]

Pi Beta Phi's program Living with Values, is designed to be fluid, and allow chapters the autonomy to present information/ programs that meet the needs and interests of their members. We provide tools, but the international requirements fit into broad categories in which chapters and individuals can select how they want to meet the 'requirement'. It was just presented at our convention last summer so this is the first year that chapters are utilizing the program and we are still in an education process... hard to break habits but it was designed to NOT add requirements but rather allow chapters to use university required programs/ activities as well as tailor it to their campus.

[ThetaPrincess24]

Kappa Alpha Theta's Program is called Theta for a Lifetime and consists of four modules over a period of 4-6 weeks.

As far as specific bonding or skill building types of actitivities and basically all new member activities are planned by the Vice President of Education(who teaches the program).

After initiation, the new members have a few ritual workshops with the Ritualist for self explanatory reasons.

[33girl]

COVABE! Bump.

[Kevin]

We have the LEAD program -- more details can be found here:

http://www.sigmanu.com/lead/