e-Communicator PHI DELTA CHI PHARMACY FRATERNITY October 2013 In This Issue... • Collegiate Affairs Update: Regional Directors and Project Director for Collegiate Expansion • Alumni Affairs Update: To Enhance Alumni Involvement, Major Changes Proposed GRAND PRESIDENT
Amy Valdez (Beta Iota) 503.704.4783 gp@phideltachi.org
REGIONAL DIRECTORS AND PROJECT DIRECTOR FOR COLLEGIATE EXPANSION
GRAND PAST PRESIDENT
Brandon Sucher (Beta Rho) 561.351.9482 gpp@phideltachi.org
GRAND VICE PRESIDENT FOR COLLEGIATE AFFAIRS
Lexie Turner (Alpha Iota) 678.982.2276 gvpca@phideltachi.org
GRAND VICE PRESIDENT FOR ALUMNI AFFAIRS
Traci Thompson (Lambda) 214.415.7386 gvpaa@phideltachi.org
GRAND VICE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS
Ryan Costantino (Eta) 518.366.1023 gvpc@phideltachi.org
GRAND VICE PRESIDENT FOR STUDENT AFFAIRS
John Mondin (Epsilon) 724.288.0767 gvpsa@phideltachi.org
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Kenny Walkup (Alpha Upsilon) 350 S Lafayette St South Lyon, MI 48178 800.PDC.1883 execdir@phideltachi.org
Grand Vice President for Collegiate Affairs Lexie Turner (Alpha Iota) gvpca@phideltachi.org Brothers, Thank you so much for your vote of confidence at the 69th Grand Council in Omaha, Nebraska allowing me to serve another term as your Grand Vice President for Collegiate Affairs. I am excited for the opportunity to continue building a stronger Phi Delta Chi. I would like to welcome and introduce to you the newly appointed Regional Directors of Collegiate Affairs for the ensuing year. • Great Lakes – Jeffrey Tingen (Beta Kappa) • Mid-Atlantic – Tony Mitchum (Alpha Gamma) • Midwest – Rachel Branson (Delta) • Mountain – Jackoline Livingston (Alpha Zeta) • Northeast – Stephen Esker (Alpha Theta) • Pacific – Monica Dawson (Gamma Beta) • Southcentral – Tiffany Johnson (Gamma Eta) • Southeast – Kyle Wheatley (Gamma Zeta)
Edited by GVPC Ryan Costantino
Please also join me in welcoming to the office of Project Direcetor for Collegiate Expansion, Erica Diamantides (Beta Chi). Erica Diamantides is from North Reading, MA, a small town north of Boston and Erica Diamantides (Beta Chi) upon graduation was accepted to Northeastern University’s Pharmacy Program. She is a P4 Student at NU currently on her rotations. After school she hopes to pursue a residency and eventually sees herself working in hospital administration. Most importantly, she would love a career that can allow for further involvement in the Fraternity. She was initiated into the Beta Chi Chapter of Phi Delta Chi in November of 2009 and since then has not been able to get to enough fraternal events having attended ERC 2010 in Boston, LDS 2010 in Madison, Grand Council 2011 in Buffalo, NERC 2012 in Albany, LDS 2012 in Lexington, and Grand
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Council in Omaha. In addition to these regional and national events Erica has participated in the Chapter Initiations of Gamma Mu at Husson University and Gamma Tau at Western New England College as well as various regional events including Northeast Regional Olympics in New York City/Rutgers and countless Wing Dings in Albany. Erica has held the positions of Worthy Keeper of Finance (2010 - 2011) and Worthy Chief Counselor (2011 - 2012) for the Beta Chi Chapter. In 2013, she was presented the Derek Hursey Leadership Award , an internal chapter award given to the Brother who has exemplified leadership in the profession of pharmacy. The Beta Chi Chapter of Phi Delta Chi has made large strides in growth since Erica was initiated in 2009, having been chartered in 2005. Erica hopes to share these experiences with new chartering colonies and chapters who may struggle with similar challenges to eventually streamline their learning and development process and lead to a stronger chapter when they are chartered. Erica looks forward to working closely with the GVPSA, Lexie Turner, and all the RDCAs over the next year and together bringing solid chapters into the Brotherhood. The Directors and I are all eager to assist you and your chapters. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us for help. Wishing you all the best! AAAE,
Lexie Turner - AI 866
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Regional Directors of Collegiate Affairs
GREAT LAKES Jeffrey Tingen Beta Kappa
MID-ATLANTIC Tony Mitchum Alpha Gamma
MIDWEST MOUNTAIN Rachel Branson Jackoline Livingston Delta Alpha Zeta
NORTHEAST Stephen Esker Alpha Theta
PACIFIC Monica Dawson Gamma Beta
SOUTHCENTRAL Tiffany Johnson Gamma Eta
SOUTHEAST Kyle Wheatley Gamma Zeta
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TO ENHANCE ALUMNI INVOLVEMENT, MAJOR CHANGES PROPOSED Grand Vice President for Alumni Affairs Traci Thompson (Lambda) gvpaa@phideltachi.org Over the past several years and through multiple Grand Councils, the Fraternity has been in a stalemate attempting to address two issues regarding Alumni Chapters. 1. Should Alumni Chapters be encouraged to organize by location (e.g., city, state-wide, region)? 2. How should such Alumni Chapters be granted voting rights in Regional Conferences and Grand Council? We are happy to announce that a committee of Brothers has considered all perspectives and has proposed a solution. The proposed changes are summarized below, with details posted at www.phideltachi.org. Over the next few months, the Grand Officers want all Collegiate and Alumni Brothers to consider these changes. Then the proposed changes will be discussed in detail in policy sessions at the eight Regional Conferences in Spring 2014. The goal is to properly inform Regional Directors of Alumni Affairs
GREAT LAKES Dan Lysiak Alpha Theta
MID-ATLANTIC Joe Soultatos Alpha Theta
MIDWEST Dena Dillon Alpha
MOUNTAIN Kirk Hevener Omega
all Brothers of the proposed changes, gather input, and move forward to a final decision at the Grand Council in Albuquerque in 2015, either with the proposed changes, or to remain as is. Brothers for Life Forming Alumni Chapters focused on meeting the needs of our Alumni Brothers is essential for the continued growth and success of the Fraternity. Most social and professional fraternities, as well as university alumni associations, meet the needs of their alumni through location-based chapters. However, Phi Delta Chi’s alumni structure has not evolved as our Fraternity has grown and as Alumni Brothers have increasingly relocated away from their Collegiate Chapters multiple times throughout their professional careers. Our current structure was created to facilitate Alumni Brothers supporting Collegiate Chapters and Brothers. In doing so, the current Collegiate Chapter-based Alumni Chapters do not always support the Alumni Brothers who are actively participating in them, which typically causes those Alumni Chapters to weaken over time. The Alumni Constitution and Bylaws Committee has evaluated the issues holding back our Fraternity’s alumni affairs, and is proposing solutions that they believe will bring vibrant Alumni Brother activity back to the Fraternity and create a structure that encourages personal involvement and long-term viability of Alumni Chapters. To Our Collegiate Brothers
NORTHEAST Ilya Dubinsky Beta Zeta
PACIFIC Jay Parikh Omicron
SOUTHCENTRAL Andrea Bourque Rho
SOUTHEAST Nicole Edquist Beta Phi
Please consider that each Collegiate Brother of Phi Delta Chi will spend a significantly greater amount of time as an Alumni Brother. As an organization, we have failed to meet the changing needs of our Alumni Brothers and Alumni Chapters. We will need the cooperation and understanding of our current Collegiate Brothers to foresee their position in the years to come. Please consider your involvement in Phi Delta Chi and how it will fit together with your career plans, your family plans, and the other obligations you’ll have after graduation. Consider how many times as a Collegiate Brother you have seen a large-scale reunion of Phi Delta Chi Alumni Brothers at your school for the purpose of electing their officers or to plan events. We venture to say: not often enough. If this is your experience, consider if you can expect to be any different as an Alumni Brother or if you’d like to
e-Communicator see a way for you and your Brothers to continue to be involved after you leave your campus. A Transition Period Proposed As part of the proposed changes, the committee is also recommending that there be a transition period established on our current system of Alumni Chapters and voting rights. The GVPAA will assess the need to create Regional Alumni Chapters in order to assure all Alumni Brothers are appropriately represented at Regional Conferences and Grand Councils. All Alumni Brothers currently living in that region will be designated into this Regional Alumni Chapter, unless the Alumni Brother has declared an alternate affiliation to a functioning Alumni Chapter. This would give our Alumni Brothers representation while allowing them time to establish an Alumni Chapter. Proposed Changes The proposed changes have officially defined location-based Alumni Chapters and have removed questions regarding their voting rights. Any type of Alumni Chapter (collegiate based or location-based) will be seen as an Alumni Chapter and retain the same voting rights as long as they meet the requirements of a functioning Alumni Chapter. In summary, the Fraternity is proposing the following changes that, if adopted, will be phased into effect between the 70th Grand Council (Albuquerque, 2015) and the 71st Grand Council (Host TBD, 2017):
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1. Alumni Chapters will be encouraged to form in two methods: based on a specific location (i.e. “Chicagoland Area Alumni Chapter of Phi Delta Chi”) and based on a Collegiate Chapter (i.e. “Beta Alumni Chapter”). 2. Alumni Chapters will establish uniform Alumni Chapter Constitution & Bylaws with which they will operate (with allowed variations based on local need). 3. Alumni Chapters will need 20 Brothers who pay National Alumni Dues to sign a petition for formation of a Chapter. 4. Alumni Chapters must demonstrate their functioning status by annual reporting on a core set of elements, including describing face-to-face meetings and reporting members and officers to the National Office. 5. Alumni Chapters will be considered functioning if they attend at least 1 Regional Conference and at least 1 Grand Council in a 4-year Fraternity cycle. 6. Alumni Chapters will declare Alumni Delegates and will receive voting rights at Grand Council and Regional Conferences by meeting requirements of a functioning Alumni Chapter. 7. Alumni Chapters will no longer be required to form a financial review committee to assess Collegiate Chapter finances. Instead, the Collegiate Chapters may appoint a committee of Alumni Brothers to assist with this function if needed. Use the links below to see full documents that detail what facts apply to our current situation, what discussion occurred, and what items were reviewed in leading us to the proposed changes. We encourage you to read the following
reports to provide yourself with the needed information. Please Click HERE for the Alumni Constitution and Bylaws Committee’s Background Report on Alumni Involvement. It will provide the details of the current status of alumni involvement and the current structure we have in place. Please Click HERE for the 2011-2013 Alumni Constitution and Bylaws Committee Report. It will provide detailed information into what was reviewed and considered before making the proposed changes. Please Click HERE for the Recommendations of the Proposed Changes to the Fraternity’s Constitution & Bylaws. This document provides the specific line-by-line changes proposed to the Constitution and Bylaws, and the reasons for the proposed changes. What’s Next? We understand and expect that there will be many questions, concerns, and even misgivings regarding the proposed changes, which is why the National Office has established a Survey Form online to collect the feedback from all Brothers on this topic. Please Click HERE to complete the survey. Please have the Proposed Changes to the Constitution and Bylaws available to reference. The Survey will be available for comment for 30 days from September 27th to October 27th. Please forward this information to all of your Brothers, active or not, Alumni or Collegiate. The information from the Survey will be reviewed and all opinions will be taken into consideration by the Alumni Constitution and Bylaws Committee. Following review and revision of the proposed changes, a Final Proposal will be released for review and
e-Communicator consideration at the eight Regional Conferences in Spring 2014. Then, the recommendations of the Regional Conferences will be reviewed by the Constitution and Bylaws Committee
www.PhiDeltaChi.org
again and a Final Proposal will be presented at the 70th Grand Council (Albuquerque, 2015) and will be voted on during that Grand Council. We encourage you to participate in each
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step of this process as this is your Fraternity and your Brotherhood, now and into the future.