ROAD MAP 2001-02 Winter 2001 Beta Foundation sponsors seven undergraduates to NIC’s Futures Quest program for newly initiated members.
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end result of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time. ~ T. S. Eliot
April 2001 Beta Theta Pi hosts Interfraternal Education Summit in Oxford as a means for inter/national fraternities to exchange lessons learned and further explore successes and challenges of one another’s educational efforts. June 2001 L. Martin Cobb, Eastern Kentucky ’96 promoted to Beta Foundation staff; Vincent E. Mikolay, Bethany ’00 and David J.D. Rae, British Columbia ’00 appointed staff directors of Men of Principle initiative. Summer 2001 In collaboration with former Administrative Office staff member Jayson Gaddis, Utah ’95, the Beta Foundation sponsors two inaugural sessions of The Beta Wilderness Challenge in the Uinta Mountains of Utah. August 2001 The Men of Principle Implementation Team launched to broaden the pool of high-caliber facilitators for Kickoff Weekends and the Fraternity’s evolving leadership programs. December 2001 Thomas C. Olver, Central Michigan ’98 appointed the editor of The Beta Theta Pi. Summer 2002 The Leadership College launched in Kansas City, Mo., to improve undergraduate programming during the Convention experience. Summer 2002 Standard Chapter Operating Expectations adopted by the Board of Trustees to reinforce consistent performance measures for all chapters and colonies.
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The Beta Theta Pi
Over the past 10 years, 492 non-Beta men and women have volunteered as advisors and program faculty to help bring the Men of Principle initiative to life for Betas everywhere. They have been one of the most critical ingredients in this successful recipe celebrated and known as the Men of Principle initiative.
Stoking the Fire
A recent, pivotal moment in the life of the Men of Principle initiative was the launching of Beta’s ground-breaking $15 million capital campaign for educational programming, Upon These Principles – A Campaign For Every Beta. Resulting from the reality that all of the Fraternity’s new leadership programs were putting the organization in an unenviable position of having created demand without a long-term strategy for providing supply, more resources were needed to keep the momentum and cultural-change initiative going. In spite of the economic downturn in the early 2000s, the Board of Trustees and Foundation Board of Directors chose to press forward with the campaign because the leadership development needs of Beta undergraduates everywhere were on the line. Simply put, it was not the time to play it safe. Beta Theta Pi was on the brink of a major cultural breakthrough.
Thankfully, thousands of enthusiastic and loyal Betas, parents and Friends of Beta rallied to the cause, and — at the 2006 General Convention in Toronto — Honorary Campaign Chairman Senator Richard G. Lugar, Denison ’54 and Campaign Chairman W. H. (Bert) Bates, Missouri ’49, announced publicly that $20.1 million had been raised toward the overall campaign goal. It was electric. At the point of celebrating the Upon These Principles campaign, Beta laid claim to the largest fundraising campaign in Greek world history. Fortunately, many of Beta’s peers have since launched even larger capital campaigns — a testament to the positive direction, tone and energy of today’s interfraternal movement.
Relevance, Once Again
By all accounts, Beta’s Men of Principle initiative has become a case-study in organizational change. True, systemic cultural change. As director of leadership development Ryan King, Southern Illinois ’01, former staff director, reflected, “Men of Principle has shown us that Beta Theta Pi’s success will forever be dependent upon the integrity and personal responsibility of undergraduates, alumni and Friends of Beta everywhere.” So, whether it is the quantifiable hard data that points to the effectiveness of increased accountability and discipline at both the