I had the great pleasure of attending the 58th Grand Chapter Conclave on the behalf of Indiana-ETA’s AVC.
While this was my first Conclave, I believe it will most certainly not be the last.
Just like CLA, when everyone that you ask what you should expect or how to prepare to attend, they are all true when they say “It’s something you just have to experience.”
This year has brought a lot of greatness to the fraternity as a whole. Just a few highlights
• Legislation was passed to change the rituals to have all knowledge exposed right away
• New education is available for our volunteer force
• Nationals is encouraging the hard discussion of mental health in our universities and how we can help
• Brother Paul Litcher – Class ’88 – received the Order of the Golden Heart
Let’s just get the best news for IN-ETA out of the way; Bother Litcher receiving the Order of the Golden Heart. Brother Litcher has been busy his entire life and I believe will always remain busy. On the last day of conclave at the Alumni Awards banquet, Brother Litcher was recognized for his hard work, dedication, and uncanny ability to get anyone to donate to SigEp.
Brother Litcher joins only 192 other OGH recipients overall; but he is the FIRST IN-ETA to receive this award.
To brother Litcher, we all appreciate your years of service and dedication to our cause of being different men. You have paved the way to ensure for future generations to come, they will be able to become different. “well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.”
It has been passed by the undergraduate chapters that the rituals are to be changed. Currently, the rituals are a tiered membership. Those in Sigma don’t know all that they should until they advance through Epsilon. The proposed changes would make Phi, Epsilon, and Brother Mentor public celebrations. Whereas Sigma will be Initiation where all secrets and important knowledge is revealed right from the start.
HQ is wanting our alumni education to be top notch and encouraging for new volunteers to hit the ground running. There are currently 10 education sessions that will be available from either the HQ website or MySigEp.org. 5 of the sessions will be geared toward housing management and the other 5 will be general volunteer and mentoring focused. This is just the first batch, so there will be room for growth and other sessions to be made.
Lastly, nationals is wanting to help the incoming classes with a growing issue, mental health. We raised $370,000 toward this goal to make the hard conversations not so hard, to show everyone that SigEp is the beacon for all those that may need a hand. This is the first college class that was affected by all 4 years of high school due to Covid-19.
I am excited to see what this year will bring for not only IN-ETA but all chapters of SigEp. If you want any of the education sessions that were held at Conclave, HQ can email over the PowerPoints for you to read and learn from.
Thank you! – Chase Goodson