2020 Leadership Seminars

Own Your World

Designed as an individual leadership development event, the goals of the Leadership Seminars are to provide each attendee with the ability to network with their peers, learn new skills, and assess their own personal strengths.

Throughout the month of February, our 2020 Facilitator team logged countless miles traveling to St. Louis, to Reno, to Atlanta, and to Baltimore engaging with over 750 AGR and Sigma Alpha members. Neither the participants nor the Facilitators would have ever anticipated that these would be the last events Alpha Gamma Rho would host in person before the pandemic interrupted our lives.

With the theme of “Own Your World,” the seminars tested the participants to think critically about how they can positively impact their surroundings, encourage their fellow fraternity brothers or sorority sisters to remain engaged with their chapter, and to continually strive for self-improvement. During the various educational sessions, attendees were presented with challenges to overcome using team collaboration while bolstering one’s self confidence to become an impactful leader.

While the primary focus of Leadership Seminars is for our collegiate members, this event is a great personal development opportunity for our Facilitators. When asked to reflect on their experiences, each provided their unique perspective on how the seminars have stretched their speaking abilities as well as content creation and presentation skills. University of Kentucky graduate and Omicron Chapter alumnus, Taylor Nash, said, “Being a Facilitator gave me an opportunity to impact the future of hundreds of undergraduates, establish my lifelong engagement as an alumni member, and gave me the confidence for the next steps in life.”

Leadership Seminar Attendance

St Louis: 132 AGRs; 359 Total Reno: 41 AGRs; 100 Total Atlanta: 76 AGRs; 159 Total Baltimore: 67 AGRs; 146 Total

From In-Person to Virtual:

Recruiting AGR’s Next Members

Each year, Alpha Gamma Rho works collaboratively with PhiredUp (a company specialized in recruitment, growth, and retention within the Greek industry) to host two Recruitment Schools. From start to finish, attendees actively learn the fundamentals of recruitment, set goals specific to their chapter on how to approach prospective new members, identify potential barriers, and successfully extend bids for membership. Any collegiate member elected to serve as the VNR of Recruitment, serves on the chapter’s recruitment committee, or who has an interest in helping the chapter recruit new members is encouraged to attend a Recruitment School.

While the pandemic prevented the Fraternity from hosting two in-person events in 2020, January’s Recruitment School saw collegiate attendees from 17 chapters and representatives from our SUNY Cobleskill Colony. Each group of undergraduates was able to eagerly work together to set new goals for the upcoming year.

When campuses began closing in March, spring recruitment initiatives and preparations for summer recruitment came to an abrupt halt. Many chapters were left asking, “How do we move forward with recruitment?” Alpha Gamma Rho took steps to further extend its partnership with PhiredUp by providing all collegiate members, Chapter Advisers and other volunteers engaged with chapter recruitment efforts access to PhiredUp’s digital classroom. Through their platform, brothers are able to learn many of the same key concepts taught during a traditional Recruitment School, with an additional emphasis on how to engage with prospective new members in virtual settings. Since introducing PhiredUp’s Certified Recruiter program, a third of AGR’s chapters have become Certified Recruiters.

Our members have demonstrated true resilience to keep the AGR name relevant on their campuses by applying the same learned recruitment fundamentals into actionable results. The Fraternity continues to be committed to helping each chapter responsibly grow their collegiate membership while retaining its current members through strategic recruitment tactics. It is never too late to become a Certified Recruiter today!