I’ll be important so this is a webinar okay okay I think I think relay streaming live on Facebook we’re ready to rock and roll it looks like so we’ll give it one second okay we’re live here hey brothers this has been Robinson and Rob Kadel is on the
Split-screen with us Rob Rob how’s everybody in your household doing if I was doing healthy oh well I appreciate you asking man that’s good you know this morning had a chance to talk to a lot of brothers this morning which has been a lot of fun some of them from my chapter
And some from brothers that have touched base with us in some way shape or form and so it’s kind of nice to start off this Founders Day you know celebrating our 170 second birthday which is amazing if you really think about that time span that’s great so for brothers that are watching or
Going to be watching or looking at this later today what Rob and I wanted to be able to do is really to spend some time and share with brothers a snapshot of what’s going on in Phi Gamma Delta and and also some things that are not going
On simply because of the times that we’re in right now and really also to talk about some of the things that the fraternity is thinking about some of the plans that they’re making and and really give you a snapshot of what’s happening within fine Gamma Delta and so so for
All the staff this morning tell me tell me about one or two of the phone calls you’ve had today with brothers just catching up if you will well it’s been good then you know it gives us a good excuse just to make those reach outs so one of the first
Calls I had this morning was with a great brother I respect very much Mark Smith texas-arlington brother and former Archon and Mark and I catch up every now and then but this you know we’re both are we’re fortunate that our families are doing well we also look
Into the future and seeing what comes next for us all but though it’s just a good good to catch up good conversation but yeah I in a short period of time I’ve had a chance people of 10 different brothers today I either just kind of chapter chapter brothers I’m catching up
With or calling some brothers who’ve been very generous treats already today as well so it’s good to hear that the fighting spirit is is very strong today yeah it is and you know so our challenge so our challenge out there today brothers is free for you to call other
Brothers and really just maybe reminisce catch up check up on each other you know in this time of covet 19 that we really touch base just to make sure we’re doing okay and so our challenge is four so all of all the brothers on staff from you
Know and within the Arcana and the foundation board is to call five brothers and then encourage them and challenge them to call five by their their brothers or friends you’re really just a touch base and so hopefully later today we’ll kind of have some numbers and what that might look like we
Repurposed today you know in the past we call this giving day but because of everything going on you know instead of focusing on giving simply because x or x are kind of crazy we wanted to focus on brotherhood and and you know we made a lot of changes within three weeks from
Giving day to a day of brotherhood and it’s kind of it’s been very refreshing as we were building up and come preparing for today some of the things that we were looking at that reminded us of brotherhood reminded us of our founders or reminded us maybe of some
Challenges in the past that we’ve been through so in a lot of ways it’s been very refreshing and so hey Rob why don’t we start out and this morning kind of get to our topic um you know everything is rolling along and March and then BOOM
You know the world kind of hit the brick wall same thing for Phi Gamma Delta I mean every organization is kind of going through kind of going through the stop can you kind of open us up a little bit just sharing with us what kind of what
The impact or what’s happening in Phi Gamma Delta maybe starting with our chapters just what’s happening or not happening with our chapters if you want to start there that’d be a good place I think well then I will but but first I need to get two quick clucks all right
Just some housekeeping things the brothers first of all I think I’ve been an organ ops are gonna get some updates here but we want to hear from you morning your questions so whether you’re joining us via the zoom webinar you can submit questions there or if you’re joining us on Facebook live just
Reminder to the plug some questions in there the staff is going to feed those to us we’re going to get to those later the other thing I’ll mention brothers I mean I found it very refreshing to really be thinking about friendship today and I think we think about
Friendship really is the basis of who we are the foundation but as you as you celebrate Brotherhood today I need to ask you something and that’s that’s the help and it’s considered a gift to support the fraternity so not to uh not to take from from my my educational
Foundation friends but just a plug here brothers you might have seen there’s a challenge out there for the next hour that any brother who makes a donation directly to the fraternity the international fraternity via our page if I Gandalf / Brotherhood that gift will be matched so you can double that gift
That if you make it directly to the fraternity over the next hour so I hope you will consider that yet and help support in rabaa plan o up little making a gift during this hour for that very purpose just to direct dollars to to the fraternity so thank
You for that reminder that’s great I want you to that man alright but baby you asked a question just how are things going on right how are things coming but I think as we can all imagine every every one of our chapters every single one of our undergraduate chapters has
Been impacted by this scope in 19 and emic didn’t know happen at once but I think it happened very quickly as we think back to margin been you can remember there’s just a lot of every hour there are new information in the office and we’re trying to figure out
Which way is up and what’s going on but ultimately every one of our chapters effectively had to change the way it was operating every every one of our institutions stopped its in-person classes most of our institutions essentially got students off of campus which puts which put our undergraduate some very unfamiliar territory sure
So you know chapters had to adapt very quickly but the thing I will say primarily here is I’m very proud of our brothers I’m very proud of everything that we saw happen so quickly our chapters our colonies and their gradual brothers due to a great job supporting them made very quick changes and
Adaptations it became very clear to me that really the basis of the Brotherhood that friendship was was going to keep us going through this so you know how did it work there were a lot of certainly a lot of quick adaptations to using technology and a lot of undergraduates are pretty
Adept at this already right there they’re talking like this already right they’re doing this already but certainly saw a lot more but I think what we started to hear more and more as brothers are doing a good job checking in on each other maybe not as many
Chapters doing you the normal you know formal meetings as we would like to see but I think overall chapters have been doing a good job catching up with with one another other they’re doing that via zoom they’re doing that via Facebook they’re doing that Google Hangouts you
Name it all sorts of things I’ve never even heard of but I think we really appreciate seeing it because that’s been our push you know from from a staff and we had to make some quick pivots as well for those that know the field start position imagine doing that position and
Where you’re not able to travel right right so you know so very quickly it’s just just one example all those men were off the road and they were stationed in Lexington so very quickly we did some pivoting on the staff as well recognizing the chapters are going to
Need support our brothers are gonna need support we had to find a way to offer it to them so we’ve been you know we’ve been continuing to kind of see what happens next and make those plans I think brothers have probably noticed a lot more activity from us in the way of
Virtual communication town halls webinars a lot of information being pushed out hopefully not too much but really I think we find that we need to make sure that our brothers have what they need to keep their chapters going because that’s the expectation we’re gonna keep this thing going we’re
You know we keep monitoring what’s going on and I think the my mine might take a message brothers is we’re gonna weather this storm write our chapters can and will survive and hopefully thrive so I think we’ve got to keep that in mind and we just need to make some edits
As we look to the fall that’s where that’s where our eyes are next that’s what staff is looking at next and to say what could we expect and I think we expect an array of different scenarios that we’re going to have our chapters deal with that I’m sure we’ll
Talk about more of those details throughout the day yeah you know and I do want to I do want to comment as as we were having as everybody was having kind of adjust on the fly I do agree that you know just watching our undergraduate brothers you know be as creative as they
Can be and I think sometimes I forget that you know when we were in college we could be creative maybe a little too creative but but it’s that you know but that’s you know that’s that’s extremely important there in these times that everybody says okay let’s put some let’s
Put our best thinking together and not and not say oh we can’t do that because we’ve never done it but say hey let’s try it we’re going to learn something and I think that’s a you know right now that’s probably one of the best messages that we can send to everybody is that
You know things that we may be doing things a little differently but it could be very good for us to even go through that thought process so I’m glad the fraternity is doing I know I know y’all been busy y’all been very planning there was a there’s a point in time when
Things change I guess literally they were changing every hour and you know we were trying to make trying to make decisions as those things are happening so very proud of the fraternity and what it’s doing so we’ve got our chapters that are kind of you know operating in the completely
Different mode kind of I’m not gonna say that they’re closed because they’re not closed chapters in our courts they’re not closed they are in operational mode and I do want to get to that in a minute but also let’s talk a little bit about the headquarters operation because you
Know the office is closed not from we were in business but the building is really kind of shut down in the sense that the governor’s asked you know that’s because not to come into work so tell us a little bit about what’s happening with with the staff and
How we’re reaching out to our chapters and that kind of thing and what’s going on with the headquarters operation well yes I mean and Benes if you’re starting to say I think it’s been about six maybe seven weeks now that we’ve effectively shut that shut the quarters up headquarters down
Working working there person fortunately the majority of our staff is well positioned to work from wherever a lot of us do a lot of travel anyways we’re used to working from wherever so for most of our staff that was not that big of a jump but I think just for all
Brothers to be aware we are not permitted to have our staff in the building right now right I mean I think you can tell by Ben’s background that’s he’s working there he’s only one in the building and we’ve been purposely limiting that out of respect to what
We’re being asked to do and advice to do here locally and that’s the first thing we’ve all got to keep in mind it is for the health and safety of others one of the things we need to be doing after we do things different so that meant that we’re shifting people everybody’s
Working from home and that even means that we are we’re bouncing off of satellites so that when you call eight five nine 25580 48 someone is still answering the phone and directing your call the only weird thing about is it might take a few of the true second spot goes from our
Office to a cell phone back to the office to its cell phone and we’re just found some things around but find a ways to add ads right we’re finding ways to adapt and we’re gonna get into that way for a while you know here in Kentucky things are starting to ease just a
Little bit it’s a real slow opening but it’s not going to be full bore and I don’t intend to reopen the office for either we’re going to continue working remotely for some period of time that guys making these folks back in to get a little bit more productive we’re going
To do that but we’re gonna make those adjustments as we look into the future into the summer and fall we might have other adjustments you may not see the same level of travel from the fraternity staff just out of necessity but we’re going to continue to do everything we
Can to support our chapters no matter the situation we’re in and find ways to work around our normal modes of operation yeah was I was talking to some of the directors over the last week and you know so you know working on recruitment and chapter support and educational operations or educational
Programs you know how all of them all of them were staying really busy just talking to talking to individual officers or chapter members or whoever they’re you know working directly with but as I mentioned or earlier that you know our chapters are still there’s still things administrative leave that our chapters
Are having to do while well initiations or things like that may not be taking place there’s still a lot of the kind of end of the year chapter operations if they still have to kind of take care of remotely but I mean yeah it’s been it’s been a there’s been
A lot of activity through them from those directors just constantly in the communication that I’ve had which is good I mean I think that’s you know that it can be very helpful to undergrad just keeping that line of communication open so the business can still be conducted because I know forget from the
Foundation side you know we’re still issuing scholarships we’re still you know issuing triple A’s chapter scholarships or doing housing grants and even grants to the fraternity I mean all that still happening actually like it normally would and so it’s kind of it is kind of interesting to be doing it
Remotely and then having everybody trying to communicate back and forth so yeah you’re right it might take a little bit longer for us to do it but we’re going to we’re going to get it done other thing that’s most impact is if you send us something to mail right beyond
That I mean beyond that to keep our operations pretty pretty smoothly so I’m you know through this wonderful thing a technology I can see questions that are coming up if somebody sending me a chance or one of the things it says that I’m encouraged brothers that if you’re
Watching on Facebook you can submit questions via chat and those watching on zoom’ you can submit questions via the Q&A feature down at the bottom of the down the bottom of the page so there’s a question coming in that we’re going to that we’re going to get to that one in
Just a minute but you know so so we’ve got chapter operations in our field you know field secretaries who are a big piece of our undergraduate operation is they could continue to communicate or doing the exact same thing and there I think there’s they’re scattered back home most of them now yeah yeah
Fortunately or unfortunately when everything started to happen back in March the boosters were all back in the office as a planned we week back in the office we scheduled it on get back together so when it when it first start happened we just rounded everybody and said what we’re just gonna
Keep working here for a little bit and then that just continued to evolve so chapters probably heard a lot more from the field stories than they normally do whether they liked it or not right but that was idiot additional air support but as time it has gone on we did allow
And most mostly Pfister’s truckers up on that to kind of scatter from Lexington and in most cases go back to their permanent homes their parents homes just to have a little bit more breathing room if you will let’s hey Rob let’s talk about what’s you know there are a lot of
Things that we had planned the summer the summers use it can be really busy for us and so we know that that there been activities that we’ve had to cancel but let’s just kind of run through for everybody some of the cancellations and you know and let’s get to the question
About the ecclesia what we think you may or may happen there because that’s one of the questions that came up from Brian Price hey Brian hope you’re doing well so let’s let’s talk about some of the stuff that the Kenton the summer’s been kind of shifted change or closed for for
This someone well I mean even just backing up a little bit BAM you look let’s just technology recognize that a lot of chapters have those impacts as well so you think well how many big dinners we typically see late March and April I had to guess 60% of our chapters
Have a big dinner in that four to five week period right those were all pretty well just postponed somehow I cancel most postponed a lot of a lot of creativity and brothers going around to do these original big dinners as well so we’re gonna try our hand at that tonight as well right
So I think we need to recognize that a lot of champers having other other normal philanthropic events and social events that had to be had to be pushed so it’s a big adjustments you know in that same vein yet there are big international training programs that typically happen it was something that
Did not I think it was five or six years ago we started with the Institute an immersive leadership program that now is up to two summer sessions brings about 200 people in over the course of those two sessions happens here in Kentucky that those had to be those had to be
Canceled we did not feel there’s any way to do those safely and looking I’m glad that we did just for the safety for the safety of our brothers right typically at the end of June we also have what’s known as the summit a training opportunity for recruitment chairmen and new member education and
Again we had to adjust how we’re doing that we didn’t feel comfortable bringing in brothers here to Kentucky and so what we’re doing is we’ve adjust that actually that kicks off tonight in a virtual series rather than a weekend long educational session brothers will see a summer long series of educational
Programming geared around Chapter II recruitment and new member education so if if you’ve not picked up on that if you’re not sent up for that yet kick off the kick off for that series is later today and Jake’s they could manage me don’t remember exactly what time six o’clock
It’s 6 o’clock 6 o’clock and I think tonight tonight joining us will bring a lot of excel side experts in to help us walk through this by joining us not as as a former staff member Matt Farrell who’s gonna help us walk through some some things you need to consider for
Recruitment moving forward and then of course the big question is if I should back up there was another nut maybe big as a size but big s and as an important certainly that we were supposed to have an archons meeting in Houston just this past weekend as you might expect we
Could not go to Houston which we were very disappointed by the Houston graduate chapter was well poised to show some fantastic hospitality to the archons when they were visiting but unfortunately they have canceled that and we had a day and a half long meeting via zoom as best we can so I appreciate
Me the endurance of the archons to do that one but those are the adjustments you make so to Brian and again crying good good to hear from you hope you I hope you and your family doing well enjoy watching watching your family on social media to the ecclesia
That’s everyone’s big question we are scheduled to have a 170 second ecclesia in Phoenix this August the answer is we don’t know yet we don’t know yet we want to wait as long as we can to have as much information as we can to make a decision how we’re going to proceed with
The ecclesia I will tell you that we we will certainly not be having the ecclesia as we normally do that that’s we know that’s not going to happen the couple things that we’re exploring and looking at again we’re just waiting to have as much information as we can
Before we make this decision we may go forward with an in-person ecclesia in August but a very reduced version a very a version the focus is on the business sessions only probably does some work in advance with with committees and probably limits well certainly limits the brothers that are there even down to
The required delegates that’s out of a concern for health and safety and just the unknown of what we need to be doing more than two months from now but but also very sensitive to the cost of those events and how can we bring that the next option would be looking at the
Possibility of a virtual ecclesia where we’re exploring those those avenues and the platforms that we need to have in place in order to hold the business again focus on the business of the fraternity yeah in order for the ecclesia body to elect archons to pass a
Budget and to mend our laws those are those are some of the core things that we know we need to get done we feel like we could get those done virtually but we know the brothers I think tend to like to be with each other when they can then we just want to
See what the best options going to look like the third could be of the leg there is no no law on our books that says the ecclesia has to be in the summertime right the occlusion may be called by the archons or they or the previous ecclesia and so certainly one
Consideration is delaying that potentially as late as is into January of the judicial PGA Academy time there’s all sorts of complications and considerations with all those so I’m just Tony brothers here some of the things that we’re thinking we will probably make a decision mid to late May
I don’t know I don’t know that we’re gonna have anything ready to announce before late May but that’s that’s what we’re aiming for we ask for others to keep holding the dates for us but but certainly don’t work any travel and that’s such you know I think every every
Fraternity that’s going to hold their convention this year it’s kind of in that same boat and so there are a lot of moving parts to making that decision so I know I know something that y’all you probably think about everyday as you’re going into the summer you know you’re going into the
Summertime but thanks for that update you know as we as we think about once we get through the summer you know I think one of the one of the big questions out there is is thinking about you know I think that the six hundred billion dollar question I think is is our school
Is going to be coming back you know our campus is going to be operating in the fall and there was an article in The Wall Street Journal just yesterday about this exact same thing and it’s probably shows up in every paper at least once a
Week can you kind of share a little bit about what what you’re seeing or thinking or hearing about the fall and just kind of how we’re even approaching that knowing that that also changes probably every week and as we look as we look to the beginning of this well we
Call the school year yeah well that’s that’s the new piece that changes every hour right I think we’re we’re going to go into the summer and it’s a planning for the fall knowing that we are probably going to be based in a lot of scenarios all at once okay I think
That’s first and foremost I don’t expect that every higher education institution is going to do the exact same thing and so I think we’re gonna have to be in a position where we are prepared to help our chapters regardless of the circumstance and they’re they’re probably going to fall into a couple of
Buckets and I’ll back this up say I’m not just making this up okay we’ve been we’ve sort of been talking with folks at the internal level our trade association the N I see has been highly engaged in helping us all consider and plan for those things we might think about and
We’ve been looking looking at and having the experts give us guidance as well and back to even having some some experts with us just last week at the archives maybe to give it to give them some some background guidance but I think what’s most likely I have a band as I think
Schools that I’ve already kind of given that indicator we’ve seen a lot more in last couple days where schools given an indicator that they plan to go into the fall with students on campus right that’s that’s the plane not everyone is practicing that by saying is as long as
It’s safe to do so the hope is certainly and that I think what everyone is starting to see is that it seems to be a likely scenario that we might go to have students on campus which I think they are higher education partners really feel the need to try and
Make that happen if at all possible it was a very it was a very abrupt shift online classes this prep this past spring for the most part students don’t seem to appreciate online classes nearly as much right so I think there is an interest from higher education to try
And make that shift as best I can i I don’t think there would be any campuses there would be very few campuses that are just that are just back as as normal I just I don’t think that that’s what we’re going to see most of what we’re
Gonna see is probably more of a hybrid model I think most the cases where students are likely back on campuses but it’s going to look a little different those large events could be cancelled or limited so the impacts to fraternity could come into play when you think about typical approaches and
Recruitments and social events and philanthropic events and there’s going to be some shifts and adjustments based on what’s going on state by state city by city campus by campus I think there there’s a lot of consideration generally speaking the college-age population is not at a huge health risk that’s
Generally what what people are thinking insane right generally speaking young young people who were healthy previously generally don’t have the same impact from from coving health impact that others might so it’s not to say that college population but it’s it’s all the others it’s nice because University staff and faculty members
It’s the surrounding community and all those that that’s that community spread that better by talks but that’s that’s where a lot of concerns lie so I think you might see from a decadent academic perspective you might see where you might have had a three or four or five
Hundred person lecture that could go to a five hundred to a virtual a virtual session right but at the same time those smaller classes those labs those those course components that you’re able to scale a little bit or already scaled those are likely to continue I think there’s good opening for those continue
But maybe in a larger space to allow some distancing and I would not be surprised if everyone is walking around with we’ve got to be prepared for this so you know for our chapters I think we we need to start with chapters in our chapter we shouldn’t you start thinking about what
Are these things we need to be considered how does this really change our recruitment as we start to learn more how do we still maintain those essential pieces and really continue those friendships maybe in a different environment that’s everything from recruitment to how we practice our
Ritual so there’s gonna be a lot but the international phrase is working to provide some guidance on as well you know and I think that’s part of what Jake is gonna be talking about you know this summer is really even if you even if your campus is back open they’re
Going to be certain things that you’re going to be doing differently in recruitment and we got a we got to think through that and plan for it and talk about it so that we’re prepared when we get back you know if you if you can try to anticipate what’s ahead you can plan
For it and come up with some great ideas and also you know this as you’re talking about how campuses are going to be we know we know the campus life is going to change no matter what happens and it just it makes me it just reminds me of
How important getting you know people actually getting together is I mean yeah we can go we can do an online and you have online education getting together is so important as I think as everybody now is beginning to realize for this last two months you know human contact
Is so important and that’s one of the values of being on a college campus certainly one of the values of fraternity and sorority life is that you know we provide that that human side of the educational equation within that context and so it’s just it just reminds
Me how important what we do really really is to some of the questions have there we have two questions that are kind of very similar well one is about recruitment which I think you know trying to answer the question dole Smith from Colorado School of Mines asked about he’s concerned about recruitment
In the fall and he’s he’s IFC recruitment chair so he’s got his hands full but I think I think talking a little bit about if we can even just trying to look ahead to try to offer some advice to – some of our undergraduate brothers about that any thoughts that you want to
Share we’re gonna let we’re gonna let Jake take that well the front of Jake on the mechanics of how to resist the urge to get on the soapbox you now is a perfect time to rethink what we think about in terms of recruitment okay now is the perfect time to adjust our
Expectations when we think about recruiting what we’re talking about getting to know people and why is it that recruitment suddenly means you have to get together at these two three four hundred person events to get to know somebody that’s one of the places you barely get to know somebody right I mean
I think certainly there’s one thing if you’re if you’re in a lockdown scenario writer get stay at home words that that is a little different than I think what we’re expecting I think by the fall we are all expecting some level of personal contact just probably not in those big
Group settings so probably just that we go get to know people right we reach out and try and we make friends and that is where we’ve got to shift the thinking fundamentally on some campuses some campuses rely on a highly structured recruitment that has relates to everybody going from place to place to
Place to place where we’re not gonna able to do that we can’t do it and and I think that needing that structure should not be an excuse for nothing on a recruitment let’s just just be look creative with it do we really think that our founders are brothers anywhere
Before 1940 when about recruitment in this way and look how much we grew in that first period of our history we have it in us we can certainly do it it’s a matter of all we’re going to be willing to make some changes in actually for all
Of our brothers to exert the effort to go get to know somebody that’s that’s where it’s gonna be I think that’s that’s really the basis of I think where we’re gonna start teaching I think it’s it’s back to the basics of recruitment it’s back to the basics of getting to
Know one another and really making an effort and I think all the way that’s one of those things we’re going to come out much stronger because we’re not going to be relying on these other processes to get us there yeah I think there to the myth we’ll move on after
After this but I think there are two very important aspects of a fraternity recruitment one is you got to remember that the people that that haven’t people that are out there they they want to be a part of something when they go to college they want to go get an education but they
Also want friendships they want to be a part of something else and so they they also going to be looking and trying to figure out how to do that so if we can meet them even halfway most people join Phi Gamma Delta because one or two people had a major impact on that
Recruitment process I mean I know the people that were that were important to me joining and I think if we all were to share we say yeah there there’s just a handful of people that said hey I want you to join and here’s why and so using
That 101 get to know each other is still the greatest tool that we have in recruitment I don’t care if I don’t care if you’re at the smallest chapter or the largest chapter that’s still a very powerful tool that that cannot be replaced by any other mechanism you know
I’m gonna every brother listen think about for a second why did you join Phi Gamma Delta I’ll tell you right now Mike Dalton right Mike Dalton Dan Chaffin Dale Adams right Mike Dalton was my RA he introduced me to this whole fraternity thing we became pretty good
Friends Dan Schaeffer became a very good friend of mine as I got to another turn even better I distinctly remember sitting with those two and then also made Adams we’re talking about this thing they call a bid right so this I mean it’s getting back to those basics
And we can do it we can do we just we’ve got to be really – that’s the thing I agree agree Anthony Heflin I believe is for acronym asking about fill secretaries and what that might look like what you’re getting some – you’re getting some tough questions what what field
Secretary program I might look like some of our chapters in that kind of thing why ain’t they hope you’re doing well sorry I’m sorry I good – good see in April for a big dinner I think we have plans in October if that’s the memory
Right so hopefully we can do that we we don’t know yet exactly how that plays out so I know I think first and foremost I think we anticipate shifting how the military is typically I don’t expect we’re gonna have us tears traveling campus to campus to campus to
Campus or what is it equipment of about 30 weeks of a year in the coming academic year I just I don’t see that happening as we think wow it works for a specific campus I there might be some that we’re not able to have somebody visit in person right they just met that
Piece of gonna may not be there given local guidance state orders you name it so I think we just need to acknowledge that that could be the case does that mean there’s not going to be fraternity support at this report absolutely not I think we’re going to end up we’re gonna
then this is where it where some of the staff is working right now to say how do we make this adjustment what we’re likely to end up is the field stories are probably going to be working with chapters much more closely over a longer period of time as opposed to
Having everything happens on a visit happening while they’re there for three days right so it very very well could be the scenario that instead of visiting twice a year next year or once a semester the target is more for once of it once once there’s some time to make
It in a year but those same filters are working with the chapter officers much more frequently throughout throughout the remainder of the year or the semester I think that’s more we’re going what we’re going to see I’m sorry if the staff is now angry at me for going in
Direction they didn’t want to go or haven’t fully flush that out but I think we’re gonna we’re going to having to see some flexibility yeah yeah and the only times only times gonna tell you know when when we’re going to be able to make those those kind of shifts you know I so
Much of our or a lot of our operation is working with our undergraduates but a lot of a lot of the support that is given to our undergraduates are going to come from Grand your brothers so we’ve got it we’ve got a lot of volunteers
That are out there that do a lot of heavy lifting for Phi Gamma Delta and they’re scattered all over the US and Canada for everybody from peels the BCA house corporations section Chiefs then just other brothers that brother buzzes don’t even have a title right yet there they’re attending pig dinners
Are going to graduate chapter functions you know all of that they donate money they they advise us on particular issues where expertise is really needed so let’s talk let’s spend a little bit of time just talking about our graduates and kind of you know giving them a big
Pat on the back for the what they’re doing but also I think some of the things that you’re seeing Rob that that you may be spending time with our graduates and they’re in this period of time until we get to the summer until we get to school what do you see in what
Are some of the things you’re talking about with our graduates I mean well we’ve been don’t work with our graduates and primarily our key advisors about billionaires of BCAAs and also our house corporations not in the advisory role but in the other sense we’ve really been asking our advisors to
Over communicate right I think it’s almost the same as our guns two chapters is let’s keep this at level of connection but probably more so for right now a lot of it has been helping advisors and grants and resources for advisors to understand how they can of helping the best adjust and keep
Connected with it with their cabinets for example some of our graduate chapters have done a good job with staying connected with one another you see a lot of media piece on email just with other kind of events work that we’re seeing just to stay connected but
I think that that’s been the strong push for everybody let’s stay connected I think going into the fall I mean that there’s some other considerations should every every advisor should every purple Legionnaire for example attend an in-person meeting if it’s permitted to happen that may not be the case we’ve
Got to recognize that I think I want to be very very clear that I mean for our advisors this means some shifting as well under this bishop brothers you and I mean this with the most respect who may be a little bit up there in age maybe with some underlying conditions we
Need to take care of yourselves first and so if that means stepping back from some of your traditional in-person roles we need you to we need you to do that but there are creative ways to stay connected with our brothers not I think I would argue just in
Besides the point that we’ve been making now for some time the technology allows us to stay engaged to stay connected with with our undergraduates and gives us the opportunity to be involved or wherever we are so my hope often is that again we think about what are the
Changes that we make that ultimately help us in the long run I hope this is one of them right oh this is one of them that encourages brothers to understand and realize that you can have a tremendous impact on undergraduate chapter even if you’re 500 muscle here a thousand miles
Away now shift gears just a minute what have we been seeing I mentioned I’m very proud of our graduates I’m very proud of our graduate from a brothers had stepped up and in the midst of what could be we don’t always know but what could be very severe personal crises
Stepping up and in advising guiding giving great leadership to our chapter so I want to make a little bit of a plug here but a few that I’ve seen I want to give a big shout out to the Kansas State advisors particularly the house corporation with Dave Shrek at the helm
And the privilege an air of chriscookie those brothers have done an amazing job an absolutely amazing job to keep that chapter going the pace to handle some pretty complex housing scenarios and situations doing it all with with Brotherhood with grace right yeah I think that they didn’t really want to be
In that scenario to have to say how do you handle a crisis they’ve done almost almost a model job of a family in that crisis and navigating that well and I think we especially thing about the complexities of dealing with the housing components that brothers moving out and
Dealing with the food service contracts and those things that’s particular our house corporations have stepped up and I just wanna say thank you for doing that I or have spoke with many many many high school patient members over the last six weeks and and and at no point if I said
Wow someone needs someone else needs to I’ve never had that feeling I’ve never thought that needs to happen most of time it’s it’s just talking and realizing those brothers know what to do they just want to make sure thank you Thank You brothers for all that you do
In there yeah you know our house brothers that have been I’ve been doing these roles sometimes for a long period of time I was on the phone call with a house corporation about a week or so ago and as the brothers are rattling off their their class here and how long
They’ve been on the house corporation I mean some of them had been on that house corporation for twenty years and so it’s almost like well they’ve seen everything right if you if you’ve done that job for 20 years you’ve seen it all and are very capable of solving those problems and
Some of those problems or you know some of them are tough trying to trying to figure out lost income where that’s going to come from but yeah you’re right Rob just doing an amazing job so a big panel big pat on the back to your brothers for for that work and just just
The content for one more second mean I was a mentor now she’s some other brothers brothers if you can imagine being a board member of an organization like ours when we’re going through a once in a lifetime kind of pandemic right certainly the archons yeoman’s work in
Helping to guide big decisions I want to give a big shout out to our brothers on the 1848 properties group in 1848 Housing Committee as they’ve really stepped in to do significant work to better communicate with house corporations get from these things I think while we have that opportunity I
Need to say thank you oh definitely you know this this is a big opera and what I always say it’s a big operation right and we’ve got a lot of people that help help make it run and we really appreciate them and what they’re doing and as a reminder we’re still doing the
Turnit ii match right now so we’ve got a brother who has is going to be matching I think it’s $3,500 right now just here this hour so if you want to give you’re going to give to the protective give to the fraternity there’s a brother’s going
To match that so you can double your money I don’t want brothers to forget to forget that oh I thought as we were talking the other one of the things just that I think might be important for us Rob well first I wanted to mention you
Know as we go into as we as things started to really stop last month and now that we’re through the month of April we kind of are seeing a lot of the a lot of the challenges that may be out there but I wanted to I think it’s
Important to communicate you know that the fraternity and the foundation both are in a good spot right now you know we’re we’re we’re being careful with our cash we’re trying to cut all costs that we just don’t need to be spending you know anything that we can push off to
Later or just stop for a period of time we’re doing that with maintaining staff and that kind of thing but but you know we have because brothers over time have been good to fight Gamma Delta we’ve watched our operations I mean that’s just important for brothers understand
We’ve watched that operation so we’re in a place where you know we we can get into the fall and get some things done with just minimal income but you know but so today is important in the sense of just giving and kind of helping if
You can and will get again it’s not it’s not critical that that that’s not the whole point of today but it is important I think Drive I understand we’re in a pretty good spot right now to get through the summer and to get into the fall and I think that’s important for
Brothers to understand that just because that we’ve tried to run a good operation for years and so want to communicate that also our undergraduates you know and well actually not just our undergraduates but our graduate brothers because it because of this pandemic has been it was so fast and in in the and
The blowback on it was so fast we just really want to check in on brothers mental health I think you know and and we all know that it’s a stressful time it’s a time when you know the things that were normal are no longer normal and we having to do things differently
And you can’t get out and about but really I think the message and you know it had a chance to talk to several brothers Jim Tumen being one of those who you know Jim has always been pushing you know for brothers to pick up the phone and talk to each other and you
Know just making sure you’re touching base with each other and so we thank him for what he’s been doing but just checking in on each other one of the things that’s important about today is checking in on each other to make sure that we’re doing okay you
Know and that we we know we got brothers out there that we can talk about and and and lean on and and and you know what and laugh and laugh appropriately about about the things that are that’s out there in life so really just encourage our undergraduates and our graduate
Brothers to you know check up on each other because that’s real important whenever there’s a whenever there’s a huge change it goes on in people’s lives and I think we’re in that position right now just a reminder that that’s part of what Brotherhood is all about and and
It’s okay if you if the times when you just need help to say hey I need to talk to somebody it’s perfectly all right and if they should pee we should encourage each other to reach out during this time to do that absolutely absolutely well then I think we’ve got a five more
Minutes let’s see how many more of these questions we can zactly expansions Dana talking about expansions maybe what’s going to go on with expansions and so you want to touch on that one I then I hope you’re doing well I heard good reviews from the Virginia Tech zoom
Beginner that weekend oh sorry sorry I could not join I remember the expansions in the same boat as the ecclesia we don’t know yet and we want to wait as long as we can so we can make the best decision that we can so by that I mean
There’s just so much more information that’s coming and coming and coming that we don’t feel position yet to say we’re definitively going to do this thing certainly we just we might be in a position where some of the campuses were planning to go we’re not able to do it
We’re not able to because of the restrictions that they need to put in place for the Alpha their their communities in this case then that that’s the case and hopefully we can work with that campus to shift shift our timing to to a better time but we’re not
All right al opt-ins and expansions we’re very much flowing case by case to evaluate what ships we need to make if we can if we can still do that under under that scenario and if not what are the options either to postpone well hopefully to postpone in looking at
So here’s a great question this is from Carson hair and Appalachian State knew he says I’m a new graduate so congratulations Carson so what how how do individual brothers you know how can they have an impact on the fraternity either chapter specific or even you know widespread scale the impact of
Individual brothers what what are you thinking that we can share with brothers about that and I’ve got it I’ve got a few but I know I know yeah I know you have Polly me that we can talk about but what are two things to share maybe well
I think I’ll go back on on some of my comments earlier I think there’s there’s ways to be connected and stay involved no matter where you are so so Carson first and foremost I think that what I would encourage you to do is to look at look at two different scenarios one one
Is how can you still stay engaged with your with your chapter right our art tends to be work with our home chapter and that that is perfectly fine right and encouraged so you mentioned you’re moving across the country that that doesn’t mean that you can’t stay connected with your chapter that just
Means that maybe you’re not going to be there in person so what does that mean in terms of staying engaged with with those those officers with those men and also even making a commitment to return what you can for dinner like I think how can you stay connected with them in
Terms of reading reading what they’re putting out in terms of updates and use others and that sort of thing I think just being there as a voice and graduate brother I think is one of the most important things the other is wherever you end up wherever you move you know
That the hope is that there there’s a good opportunity to stay purple there so I encourage it to wherever that location is and you didn’t mention it feel free to reach out to us afterwards identifying that’s wherever you end up that hope you can get plugged in with a
Local graduate chapter that’s a local graduate group based on geography not not school affiliation so be engaged with that group and how they’re however they’re operate at that point time and or engaging with a local chapter much the same way you might with your own trying to get involved as an adviser or
Just to attend some of the things they might have coming up whether that be in person or via platform like this whatever whatever the case could be so man I know you have something before we you know what not actually that was very similar as I think is is nowadays you
Don’t have to be you don’t have to be present you can I think as you do this the most important thing is developing those relationships so that when you’re working remotely the person or people that your brothers that you’re working with already kind of knows that takes a
Little time remotely but it’ll it’ll get there because I think we all are having to go through that you know kind of go through that same experience one of the things I want before we have I know we’ve got a we got a clogged up here but
I want to share this because I think it’s important last month I had an opportunity to talk to a brother graduate from class of get this 1940 hmm George Irwin northwestern class of 1920 he’s a hundred and one years old and I asked I got his permission to share his name and everything
George is down in Florida he is doing real well and remembers being he we’re talking about his experience as an undergraduate and he was just talking about how pleasant the memories are of his undergraduate days in the northwestern chapter and the little little piece of information is his
Father was a member of a local fraternity that lived in the same house as the Phi Gamma house at Northwestern and so his George both lived in the same house so George sends his hellos to everybody in Phi Gamma Delta and 101 years old and his still he still
Cherishes his experience and I think that’s I think you know part of what we wanted to do today was just talk about where the fraternity was now how we’re kind of managing through all this knowing that things are going to change and and shift around a little bit but
Rob I’m gonna leave the last word with you because I know we got to close out you kind of close this out and and again brother Saints for the day thanks for what you’re doing and if you have questions you can call the headquarters or email us and we can try to get
Information to you if you need it thank you go ahead Rob Vika so Ben I appreciate you want preciate the foundation taking the weight on organized as a state brotherhood so let’s give credit there as well appreciate you all doing that helping us keep this this
Brother is feared a lot I think you know my three points to make for everybody in the midst of our current pandemic and just where we are today all right that our chapters in the Eternity can and will survive and thrive okay we we may need to we will most
Certainly need to adapt in certain cases but we will survive and thrive and we’re going to come out of this thing stronger that we work as as you mentioned previous have been fortunate news today is the International fraternities is well positioned to weather the storm so
As even as we have all this going on we’re gonna be doing everything we can to be conservative and to do our food our duty just just to make sure we continue as long as we can under whatever circumstance but we’re still here to support our men wear suits or to
Support our fraternity our chapters and we’re we’re still gonna we’re still going to be there flying the purple flag right the Phi Gamma Delta spirit well we’ll continue right the fighting out the spirit is not one of being and social events and that sort of thing the Phi Gamma the spirit is those
Friendships those connections that is ultimately the foundation of everything that we do and as long as we keep that in mind we will get through any situation that comes before us brothers happy Founders Day thank you for joining us we hope to see you at the events
Later on throughout the day more at Phi Gamma org slash Brotherhood take care brothers
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