See YOU at Convention!

By Kurt-Alexander Zeller, International President

In just a few months, Mu Phi Epsilon will be gathering for our first face-to-face convention in six years. It’s an understatement to say that a lot has happened in that time! In the last six years, some of our current Collegiate members finished middle school and had high school disrupted by a global pandemic and deep social divisions. Whole cohorts of Mu Phi Epsilon members completed their college educations and are now starting their careers—and never had the chance to attend a convention in person. Alumni chapters lost beloved members and longtime leaders even as they learned new ways of continuing their activities. We all have discovered how technology can build bridges across chasms of distance—and also how it still isn’t able to match the immediacy and impact of live, face-to-face music-making. So, wonderful as our 2021 online convention was, in 2023 it is time for us to gather together, to see each other and to share music and food and stories and laughter and be reminded of our common fraternal bond in a common space. I hope that you are planning to attend convention in July and to be part of building “A Bridge Forward” for Mu Phi Epsilon.

And when I say “you,” I do mean you! Our international bylaws require that every chapter be represented by a business delegate at convention, but convention is not only, or even primarily, about transacting the fraternity’s business. (If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it is that business can continue online for almost any kind of endeavor!) Rather, convention is an occasion jam-packed with exciting music, thought-provoking presentations, practical workshops and wonderful opportunities for developing and deepening friendship. Consequently, convention is a time for all Mu Phis, not just business delegates, and we really need you to make the event be all it should be. And we can promise you a Texas-sized good time — read on in this issue for more information about just some of the experiences in store for you at convention! So, whether or not you will be a voting business delegate, we need everyone to come and be part of the conversation about how we will bridge the gap between where the fraternity now is and where we hope to be able to go. Please plan to join us July 19-22, 2023, at the Embassy Suites in Grapevine, Texas!