The conference here in Hartford is officially over, but the bears are staying one more night. I had a pretty solid day highlighted by a seminar on transitioning and training new officers. I was drawn to the program based on the title "More than a Binder". When I was initiated into Kappa Delta Phi in March 2011 I was immediately voted in as the new philanthropy chairman. That was really exciting until I was given my completely unorganized binder, and no direction whatsoever. Luckily I figured it out, but as my chapter moves forward the time has come for me to help transition incoming brothers to their new chairman positions. I had some ideas of my own on how to organize the binder both digitally, and in print, but the seminar really showed me how to train people for the jobs ahead of them. I now feel that I'm prepared to help not only the philanthropy chairman, but every new brother.
A Recruitment Boot Camp session on chapter branding highlighted the differences in advertisements and chapter branding. We reviewed the ways in which iconic brands such as Coca-Cola and Disney have used branding through specific fonts and images, and what this means for branding individual chapters. One of the key details I took note of is the presenter's focus on not using fraternity crests in advertisements. there is just too much happening in the crest, and the meanings behind each part only come into focus and have meaning once someone has joined. What's truly important is creating an image that is easily recognizable and always makes the viewer think of the fraternity. For Kappa Delta Phi it would be far more advantageous to use our mascot, Ernie T. Krow, in our advertisements. The branding seminar also taught us valuable lessons about why people buy consumer products, and buy into groups like fraternities. The golden circle starts from the outside with what, and works inside to how, and why. Most people start with what they do, which sounds the same to everybody: "We have high GPAs, we do community service, we have socials, etc...". The how circle is not much better, but explains to people how they do each event. Why is what really brings recruits into an organizations. Our presenter compared this to how Apple does its advertisements. They are a simple computer company like Dell or HP, but they use advertisement to tell consumers why their product is necessary. When it comes to recruitment I have to let potential brothers know exactly why Kappa Delta Phi is right for them.
Our affiliation lunch was pretty interesting. I met two brothers from Southern New Hampshire, and talked to our formal national director, Steve Simo. I wasn't at our national convention last year, and missed our summer conference, so this was the first time in a while that I interacted with brothers outside of my own chapter. Steve no longer works for our national group, but was happy to hear that Alpha chapter is a live and happy.
After lunch I attended a fundraising session called "money money money" that was not all that helpful for me. Most of the session was focused on paying dues, and collecting from those who owe money in a timely manner. Within my chapter the bigger issue is not paying national dues, but paying local dues and putting on fundraisers to add spending money. I feel that with the right amount collected in local dues, we have the capacity to put money into fundraisers that can potentially double or triple the initial investment. Hopefully I can change the attitude of the brothers towards some of my ideas, and produce a bigger budget for everyone next year.
Our banquet and awards dinner was awesome. Everyone enjoyed some good food, and two awards are coming back to Bridgewater. BSU Greek Life was awarded honorable mention for last spring's Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event, and Jesslyn Lowell won an award for being an outstanding leader for her work as Gamma Phi Beta President. Definitely a great way to end the conference for the bears. I'm glad I got to come down here to Connecticut and experience the whole conference. It was an enlightening couple days for everybody here, and I should be able to bring back and implement a lot of new plans for my chapter.
Goodbye for now,
DC
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