October 2010 Paragon

In this Issue

Pi Lambda Phi Paragon Volume XIV Issue II

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Online Frater October 2010 Fall 2010 Recruitment Using Dynamic Recruitment Fall 2010 Conclaves Elimination of Prejudice The Frater Is Now Online!

Living the Creed PSU Homecoming Float If you have yet to take a look, please view the online Give Us Stories version of The Frater : September 2010, as well as the 2010 Presidential Awards Banquet Program.

Within The Frater’s 28 pages of content, Jeff Buhler details undergraduate growth initiatives and Chip Luman does the same with the Educational Foundation. An abridged six-page version was mailed to 23,657 brothers without email addresses (on file). Over 4,500 additional alumni and student members received The Frater electronically, for a total reach of >28,000. That's almost 20,000 more than last year!

For the year-end publication (online only), we will have initial 2011 Leadership Survey results, fall recruitment numbers and updates on the matching gift campaign, The Elimination of Prejudice and Pi Lambda Phi University, as well as your ready-to-publish articles. Please submit news, Brothers Making a Difference stories and Alumni Events by November 15th to Shawn Upchurch at smu@upsearch.com.

Fall 2010 Recruitment Classes

Congratulations to all chapters and colonies who recruited a new member class for the Fall 2010 semester!

With an unofficial count of over 260 new members, down from last year, we hope that each of you help create an enjoyable learning experience through their new member program and begin training them to become the leaders of our chapters for the future. The International Headquarters would like to recognize some of our chapters that had the most success recruiting this semester:

Chapter

# of Men Recruited

FL Epsilon Lambda

15

MA Theta

18

MD Pi Phi

19

MI Delta Beta

17

NY Kappa Tau

17

OH Beta Tau

19

We would also like to recognize those chapters that set a specific goal for the number of men they wanted to recruit and met or exceeded that goal: PA Gamma Sigma chapter at the University of Pittsburgh, VA Delta Chi chapter at the University of Virginia at Wise, VA Omega Rho chapter at Virginia Commonwealth University, VA Omicron Zeta chapter at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and WA Epsilon Alpha chapter at Eastern Washington University. We hope that all chapters and colonies can create and begin working towards recruitment goals for the Spring now so you may have more opportunities of achieving those goals. Recruitment is not a time period, it is a lifestyle.

Dynamic Recruitment In Action

by Nick Hoagland, Rex of Towson's MD Pi Phi Chapter and current Undergraduate Representative to the International Executive Council These last couple of semesters my chapter has been very successful in our recruitment, bringing in 24 new members last year and currently educating 17 new members who are well on their way to becoming outstanding, involved and committed brothers this semester.

So what really is dynamic recruitment – well it’s essentially a new way to look at making friends. A year ago I went to convention with our past Archon Aaron Gower and we took the lessons we learned from Phired Up, applied them and saw outstanding results. I hope you can use some of our tactics and lessons we’ve learned and apply them to your recruitment methods.

Recruitment is all about motivation and education. We began pitching it to our chapter with the horse and mule story from Phired Up. This is a great way to begin because your brothers begin to hold each other accountable. It’s funny and extremely worthwhile if you create an atmosphere in your chapter of striving to be a horse... continue reading here.

Fall 2010 Conclaves Thank you to all the chapters who hosted a Conclave this Fall! Conclaves are always a great opportunity to bring together brothers from different chapters for a great learning and relationship building experience. We hope that of the over 170 brothers who attended a Conclave that each walked away with some new ideas, information and relationships as well as an increased motivation and understanding of what it means to be a brother of Pi Lambda Phi. This semester we had more conclaves than recent years past, by holding three in each region to allow for smaller, more interactive sessions and a greater opportunity for more brothers to attend. We will again

have multiple Conclaves planned for the Spring semester and will be contacting chapters and colonies to discuss hosting locations within the next few weeks.

Thank you to our host chapters and all the brothers who attended!

Conclave Experience

by Casey Clarke, VA Alpha Psi While traveling to Richmond, VA for our regional Conclave, the last thing I wanted to do was get dressed up and sit in a room full of strangers listening to the same power point presentations I’d seen not 3 months ago at Convention. However, I quickly found out this was not the case. Brothers from NC State and VCU, where conclave was being hosted, warmly greeted me and I even saw a few familiar faces. Seeing our Regional Leadership Consultant, Romano, wasn’t half bad either.

To my surprise, we didn’t sit through one single repetitive power point. For the most part, Conclave was all dialogue and the chapters working together to solve each other’s problems through both examples and sharing of actual experiences. We practiced pitching the fraternity to each other as if one brother was still a recruit, or rush. This was at times painfully embarrassing, but exponentially helpful. It challenged my thought process in multiple ways. The first being pitching the fraternity in an original manner, and secondly, having the fraternity pitched to me and attempting to block all the biases I already had.

Click here to finish the story.

Elimination of Prejudice By now you have hopefully heard of one of Pi Lambda Phi's most recent and most exciting initiatives, the Elimination of Prejudice Philanthropy. Within the past

few weeks you should have received two messages, including videos that continue to explain what the Elimination of Prejudice is and how it will further connect us with our purpose as a fraternity. Some brothers have asked questions like "what can we do now to participate?" and "how do we begin fundraising?"

Our brothers at Eastern Washington University have answered those questions by raising $800 towards our philanthropy. Now the challenge is set, who will be the next chapter or colony to take up our cause and help Eliminate Prejudice?

Tattoos 4 Tolerance

Tattoos 4 Tolerance, formally known as “Greek Ink,” was conceptualized in 2008 as a fundraiser by Brother William “Blue” McCreight. The Washington Epsilon Alpha chapter, at Eastern Washington University, was in search of a new and unique idea for raising additional funds for the chapter. Brother McCreight, who is a tattoo enthusiast, recommended a discount tattoo event where an artist would offer tattoos at a special discount price and then split the proceeds with the chapter, netting the chapter on average $300 per event.

After three successful Greek Ink events the chapter learned at the 2010 International Convention and at their Conclave in Berkeley, CA about the new international philanthropy, The Elimination of Prejudice. Motivated by the steps the International Executive Council (IEC) and the Foundation were taking to bring Pi Lambda Phi to the forefront of the fraternity system, the WA Epsilon Alpha chapter decided to increase the scale of Greek Ink and adapt it into a philanthropy event supporting The Elimination of Prejudice.

Read more here.

Living The Creed

by Jeffrey Jackson, OH Beta Tau In the fall of 2008 I began my journey as a Pi Lam. Little did I know that my journey had begun long before my first semester at college. Throughout my life I had done service events, fundraising, and many other things that relate closely to what we do as a Fraternity. Nonetheless, I had no idea why I was doing it, until I learned our creed.

The creed has come to mean everything to me, it has brought purpose to things I did before my time as a Pi Lam and changed the things I was doing wrong. For instance, I volunteer in a food pantry and have since I can remember. Because of the creed, I no longer judge the people I am helping based on who I assume them to be, I try to get to know them, understand them, and judge them based on the content of their character. I do it because they are just the same as I am. They have the same needs, wants, and goals. The only difference is in the opportunities we have had.

As you can tell the one line of the creed that speaks to me is the line about the opportunities and privileges of freedom. I try to share our creed by giving everyone I encounter the same opportunity to become my friend, gain my trust, or receive my help. While it may not be the most world changing concept I feel that it makes a difference. People feel a more personal call to accept others based on their character when they are accepted themselves. My goal is for the people I meet to then do the same, and continue to pay it forward. While I can only show one person at a time, I still have to do it, or else, I may have missed an opportunity to change the

world, by helping one person at a time.

While my college journey is not complete I realize that through the next two tears and beyond I will go through many trials and successes, but no matter what I should always live my life the Pi Lam way: by forwarding our creed and the elimination of prejudice.

- Jeff is a junior at Baldwin-Wallace College majoring in Accounting and Finance. He currently holds the position of Keeper of the Exchequer and is involved in multiple outside organizations including POP Lutheran Church Chancel Choir Section leader, College Republicans, Accounting Association, and BW Singers.

PA Omega Gamma Float Rated Best At Homecoming Parade

by Ben McKee, PA Omega Gamma The brothers of PA Omega Gamma teamed up with Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority this year for Homecoming 2010 at Penn State University. We took part in the various Homecoming events and competitions, including the first ever For the Glory Talent Show, which turned out to be a huge success and a blast for everyone involved, as our Pi Lams and the lovely Tri Sig ladies performed a fun and interesting dance routine to a mix of everyone’s favorite music. The Homecoming Carnival on the Old Main lawn was a lot of fun despite some rainy weather, and the Pi Lam booth featured a “Pin the Tail on the Lion Shrine” game which everyone

enjoyed. With “The Little Mermaid� as our chosen theme, our float took a lot of time and work, from the planning and design, to the building of the frame, and finally the pomping, but with everyone doing their part and pitching in, it was a great time for everyone, and seeing a larger-than-life King Triton dominating the skyline in the Homecoming parade made it all worthwhile. Many onlookers during the parade remarked on the sheer majesty of the float, and even for days after the parade people passing by our house were telling our brothers how impressed they were by our float. We were very excited to hear when Onward State, a popular and influential student-run blog site at Penn State, rated our float as the best of the entire parade.

As always, it was great to see plenty of visiting alumni throughout the week, both young and old. We are always seeking to improve relations with our valued alumni, and Homecoming continues to be a great way to assist with this. Thanks to the generous donations of alumni brothers, PA Omega Gamma rose over $3000 throughout Homecoming Week to go towards house improvements, and our brothers could not be more grateful. Despite a loss for the Penn State football team to Illinois in the Homecoming football game, Homecoming 2010 was a fun, exciting, and rewarding week for the Pi Lam brothers of PA Omega Gamma and for the Penn State community as a whole.

Check out the chapter in the campus news: Homecoming Parade Showcases Floats Good and Bad and Fraternities Pomp Up the Volume on Floats.

- Ben is a Sophomore Nuclear Engineering Major at Penn State and currently serves as the chapter's Webmaster.

What Is Going On In Your Chapter?

If you or your chapter/colony has achieved individual or group accomplishments that you would like to get recognized for or have a story you would like to share,

please email IHQ at headquarters@pilambdaphi.org or get in contact with your favorite staff member so we can include your stories in future Pi Lambda Phi publications.

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