Hello everyone and welcome to Dr emit emmer senior you better stand your watch leaders and Leadership podcast today I have a very special guest uh from the uh Academia Arena he’s an educator he’s uh uh a heavy influencer in the community and we’re going to get into some things
He’s an educated very unique unique area kind of blew away and he’ been doing it for years it’s Mr corus H Ivory III the thir my brother that mean you got and and it’s a fourth out there too now so wow I’m I’m working on that too I’m
Going see if I can actually do that you know that’s generations and generations that you got to work on okay my brother tell him um about yourself H one more thing he L be of someone in my fraternity you hear me say B is lion brothers and I like to say lion Brothers
A lot but it’s cap side fraternity so tell them about yourself tell me all about yourself all right good evening thank you Dr for having me here uh my name is kis ay III I am a uh currently a teacher in Hillsboro County Schools uh I’ve been teaching for 21 years now wow
Um prior to me teaching I was in the military for 22 years in the Air Force sorry about that I was Navy okay and I I I decided to retire and when I retired I thought um maybe I I’ll start teaching and so I teach mathematics I have a
Degree in uh electrical engineering I have a degree in mathematics and then I also have a a master’s degree in electrical engineering wow so I decided after I finished the air force that uh I wanted to do something in the community and so I started teaching uh teaching
High school as a matter of fact wow see a lot of people don’t have that that drive to to to want to give back in that fashion uh especially coming from the military come from the military you’re more in that demand and and that authoritarian stage where you really
Don’t want to put the kids correct correct yeah it was like that when I initially started teaching it was kind of tough on me because I as you say coming from a military background you have a more structured um authoritarian background but when you get into the school environment it’s a little bit
Different than that and you have to kind of be a little more flexible um with the youth these days and I can tell over time you know my last 21 years that the U behavior of the kids and the and the demeanor of the kids has changed over
Time so what do you mean things at time you know when I first started teaching I I I started halfway through the school year so I started in January so I didn’t have that um the background that I needed to to start at the beginning of the school year uh in August preparing
Would that made a difference uh I think it would have I I think in in the sense that it would have given me a little more time to understand how the classroom environment is set up and things like that versus coming in the first day in January after a semester
Has already passed with a group of kids and then all of a sudden being kind of thrown into that situation say hey these are your kids now we want you to educate them so it was kind of a um a tricky thing for me coming from a military
Background I had retired um three months prior to wow three months prior to me starting teaching so it was you know I had some expectation as to what the environment was going to be like but as soon as I got into it it was a little bit different than what I expected you
Know I’m expecting kids to be a little more disciplined yes disciplined and they weren’t like that at all and so it took me some adjustment uh there was a mentor that I I latched on to when I first started teaching that had been teaching for about 2530 years so it was
Good for me to latch on to him to understand some of the nuances of what teaching was all about and so it took me some time to get you know where I thought I should be as a teacher so how much time did it take you to adjust to
That different environment versus the military environment the military you can tell someone what to do and they you hold them accountable for UCMJ correct correct kids you tell them to do that they don’t hear you correct yeah I mean it it probably took me a quarter cuz we
Were yeah cuz we I had a semester before the end of the school year so it took me about nine weeks before I could really adjust you know understanding what the classroom environment was about understanding how the kids behaved their um if if they had discipline issues and
There was a lot of things going on um in the school that I was in so it just took me some adjustment to be able to handle that situation but about about about a quarter you know n weeks that was fastpaced yes yes Florida school system is the fourth largest school system in
The nation Florida’s 67 public school districts are comprised of more than 4,000 Public Schools including Public Child schools that enroll almost 3 million students annually now what method of study do you recommend to potential new teachers preparation to take the Florida teacher certification exam not as they’re starting their first
Day how do they prepare themselves to take the exam there’s several ways that a new teacher can start out I a lot of teachers have said that that Florida exam is a little more difficult than what it was you know when I took it 20
Years ago in what way um they say it’s a little more challenging the the knowledge base that’s required from new teachers is a little different uh so I have I really haven’t seen the test the current test so I’m going to base my response off on what it was when I when
I actually took the test a little over 20 21 years ago so my preparation was you know I’m coming into the school system um and you have to take what’s called a a Content area exam based on your um the area that you’re going to be
Teaching and then you had to take a general knowledge exam which is kind of a broad-based um structure of you know English reading other things uh um the education environment that kind of thing that you had to understand and respond to so for me it was more of studying for
That general knowledge exam versus the content area because I knew the content area I having a background in math I knew it wasn’t going to be difficult for me to do the the content based so I really didn’t focus on that area because my understanding was that you know I got
The study guide for it and I kind of looked through that and I thought I don’t I don’t really need to spend my effort on this because I know the content here let me go back and look at what the general knowledge exam is in the education area because I didn’t have
That that background I’m coming from a from a military background and my my degrees were not in education specific degrees they were you know cont specific uh degrees so I had to I had to focus a little bit more on the education aspect of those exams but if if teachers can uh
Get those study guides or go to professional development that Hillsboro County offers I think that would be the best thing for them at this point if if the if the structure of those exams is similar to what it was when I took it okay good he mentioned hisb County uh
Audience hbor county is a county in in in Florida around the Tampa area uh that that he teaches in so you hear him say hsbor County you hear me say hsbo County and that’s what we about hsbor County please explain Florida assessment student thinking they call it fast fast
Touches very different aspects in the educational part of of the Arena but I want you talked about the area of interest that you in the mathematics area yes um several years ago the the governor decided to in the legislature signed the new Fast the Florida assessment of student thinking used to
Be call Florida um standards assessment FSA so now the Florida uh student Florida assessment of student thinking the fast in mathematics is kind of divided up into uh several different areas third grade through the 10th grade uh there’s an Ela which is English language arts and then there’s the
Mathematics part so students that are in the 3rd through the 10th grade are now required to take these progress monitoring exams as they go through the school year year so they’ll they’ll do a progress monitoring exam in preparation for the end of course exams that are
Given at the end of the school year what do you mean by progress monitoring progress monitoring is let’s say for example when the school year starts in August the kids are given an initial assessment to find out where they are on the scale of whatever the course that
They’re in okay um whether it’s Algebra 1 geometry so they they measure the the the um proficiency of that student when you first get into the um the the new school year so they’ll do it in in the August time frame they’ll do it again right at the semester uh December
January time frame and they’ll do it again at the end of the school year just to see how proficient the the kids have become over that school year and how much learning that they they’ve accomplished in that in amount of time so they’ll have three progress monitoring uh assessments during that
One school year you know for those kids that are in those end of course exams so progress monitoring is considered to be PM PM correct so in 2022 and 2023 pm1 results compared to 2022 and 23 pm3 results that’s pm1 through pm3 uh results in hillsbor County was pm1 equal
12% pm2 equal 32% and pm3 was 54% please explain the reasoning for the increas in percentages well see that that’s that’s why they do it they they they give it to you at the beginning of the school year to to get a baseline okay to find out what knowledge you have
At that particular time so as you progress through the school year those numbers should increase makes sense okay right makes sense best BST standard for mathematics based upon an executive order 1932 19 T 32 on January 31 2019 that’s why we got Co because of that order it is developed with input
From thousand of Floridians and countless hours of work from dedicated Florian educational leaders and mathematic teachers like yourself please explain Florida’s Benchmark for excellent student thinking which is referred to as best algebra one in of course you said in of course and everything was initial was EOC assessments the the best standards uh
The Excellence student for student teaching these are a set of standards that uh teachers in particular courses even though they might be in Algebra 1 or geometry all the the curriculums or the courses that that are taught in Hillsboro County have standards that should be met by the students so what
Happens is as an educator begins to teach uh during the school year they look at these standard depending on the topic that that the the students are in at at a particular time so let’s say for example if you’re starting a year and you’re in an algebra 1 student and
You’re going through some uh solving equations you know there are standards that have to be met that kids have to understand at the end of this twoe period onewe period I should be able to do this particular assignment or I should be able to understand this particular lesson so as you go through
The school year these standards that are created you’re just monitoring what the kids are doing and how they’re doing over the school year so that by the end of the school year you have this end of course exam and all of those standards that that the kids are required to meet
Reviewed those standards throughout the school year as teachers are going through their curriculum okay uh and trying to meet those uh you know educational standards I hear um often the phrase the kids should understand how and what method is used to get the kids to understand
Or to stay focused to understand you you know depending on how your lesson planning is on a on a day-to-day basis we’re required to identify what the particular standard is that we’re trying to meet for that particular lesson how do you identify that we we lay that out
On on our on our boards in the classroom okay so we identify depending on the lesson that you’re teaching we identify what the standard is for that particular lesson what requirement or what the kids should be learning at the end of that lesson and so you you you structure your
Lesson planning based off of that you structure your assessments based off of that and at the end of that particular lesson whether it’s a day lesson two-day lesson a week long lesson then you look at your uh what the kids what you’ve taught the kids what the kids have
Learned and then when you assess them then you can determine whether or not that they’ve met those standards that you’re requiring them to do to know before the end of the school year okay you mentioned the words assessment several times do you have your own measuring level based upon your own
Measur compared to the measuring level that the that the school wants or that the district wants it’s it’s a little bit of both you know you’re you’re trying to create um your internal in your classroom assessment level you know I want my kids to be at this level by
The time that I finish this this course not not the course but this particular topic so when I get done with that topic and I assess whether it’s a you know a short assessment in class or it’s a a a a slip that the kids fill out at the end
Of the into the lesson have they learned what I taught them at that particular time and then the county the districtwide there are assessment levels that students have to meet right when they’re done with that particular lesson that’s almost what the progress monitoring is is you know is for because
When they start out you know that you have that Baseline but as they progress through the semester through the quarter are they Meeting those standards and many those benchmarks as you’re presenting those lessons to those students now that’s a wonderful tool to use do you recommend that to the new
Teachers and so why well it it’s it’s almost required of new teachers to really to do that when you’re when in your classrooms like in our school in our classrooms we’re required to put the standard that the student is being um taught that particular day and what their what their students are supposed
To learn by the time the end of the lesson so when somebody comes in your room and says you know just walking around trying to understand what the kids are doing are they being taught the material that’s being presented to them on the board you know sometimes the kids
Don’t even know that material is up on the board but it helps the teacher stay focused and to understand okay for me to get my kids from this level to the next level and from this lesson to the next lesson I expect my kids to at least keep
Track of okay here this is what we’re going on this is this is where we’re headed this is what I need to learn at the end of the day so that by the time the next lesson comes the next day it’s either a continuation of the lesson that
You’re currently doing or you start a new lesson but that helps the teacher kind of focus what their lesson plan is for the day all right make them stay straight on that particular area correct makes sense best Algebra 1 EOC in hillsbor county for grades 9- 12 with
34% versus 89% for grades 8 in lore why was so low as it went further up in graad it’s really hard for me to answer that there’s a lot of there’s a lot of different things that can affect that you know are the kids how much are they
Learning you know the kids aren’t required in elementary when you get into high school it’s a lot more material that that students have to be required to remember and a lot of students have difficulty remembering you know as you said the co you know we had a time where
The kids were online right but they really weren’t doing what they were supposed to because no one was there their parents were there but they were really kind of on their own the high school kids were kind of on their own to monitor their own learning really and if
You’re not paying attention to the teacher that’s online or you’ve got your camera off or you’re still in the bed at at you know 10 o’clock in the afternoon or in the morning are you really doing what you’re supposed to for the teacher to get you to understand this m material
So it starts off I really don’t know what I’m doing but I’m I’m going to try it some kids stay focused some don’t stay focused without having that teacher present in the classroom it’s very hard to get those students to stay focused on what they they’re required to learn so
That’s probably why the drop off or the increase was not as significant for high school students as it was for elementary school students but with Co everyone’s at home even the parents so how much of a role did the parents did or did not play in those kids development through
Online courses yeah but a lot of times even even with the you know with with younger kids you stay focused on what they’re doing at home making sure that they’re responsible for what they’re supposed to do as kids get older you know sometimes the parents take a
Hands-off approach yes the kids go in their room turn in their computer they have their headsets on they’re supposed to be doing their lessons but right next to them they’ve got a video game going their parents aren’t just checking on them every 5 minutes every 10 minutes
The kids know what they’re supposed to do but are they really doing it the parents are at home but they’re not just on the high school student or a middle school student as much as they would be an elementary school student that’s true and for the individual who’s kept down
Playing those parents or being bad or mean to those parents saying it was their responsibility during Co to make sure them kids got the information it’s supposed be there step by step with the kids the parents is at home working as well correct so a lot of pressure was
Put on the parents at that time and then when Co was over guess who the pressure went to the teachers back to the teachers because now all these kids have come back into the school system but did they really learn in the let’s say if they were ninth graders did they really
Learn what they were supposed to in the nth grade now that they’re in the 10th grade there’s a different math course yes they passed that course because they they were a little more lenient on what was required of the students while they’re at home right at home you know
With Co now they come back into the school system and the teachers demand a little bit more out of these students to make sure that they understand okay you’re now in the fth grade you’re in this course now in order for you to graduate you’ve got to meet these
Requirements you’ve got to meet these benchmarks but are you prepared to meet these these benchmarks the kids are you know they haven’t taken the time what that they should have taken while they were at home and now they’re struggling once they’re back in the school and how
Much pressure is that on the teacher or what on the teachers to get them to State Standards basically the lack of days of time they had for Co now no one’s talked about that how much pressure the teacher had to go on to get those kids back up to a standard there
There’s there was a lot of pressure and there’s still a lot of pressure on the teachers now to try to get those kids up to where they were CU they still not there they I I still don’t believe that they’re there I mean I I still have
Students that you know were in the co environment but they’ve Advan to the course that I teach now and I can tell that they don’t have the background or the fundamental knowledge that they should have had or should have gained by being online were they doing really
Really doing what they were supposed to I don’t think my students have really done what they were supposed to individually to keep themselves on Pace now you have students who you know that that that are they have their plan the college kids they know they’re going to
This college so so they’re going to put in the effort that needs to be done for that particular area for that particular area but you have the average student you know there’s a lot of lot of lot of us who are just average students but do
We have the fortitude to do what we’re supposed to when we’re by ourselves in an environment that’s a little more relaxed nobody’s on you every 5 Seconds to say do this do that are you going to spend the time and the effort to do what you’re supposed to to get through that
Lesson in order to be prepared when you go back back to school exactly I talked about mental health often and a part of mental health that a lot of people don’t look at that relates to the kids and I did a lot I don’t know if you did a lot was
Daydream so you sitting there and you trying to stay all sudden your mind drift somewhere else yes and you’re you’re not thinking about school you’re thinking about something else exactly and and those thoughts can be anything so mental health is definitely an issue and and and we’ve seen that from the co
Environment you there’s lots of lots going on some of these kids have had struggles during Co they’ve either lost parents or grandparents or siblings or whatever and so that has some effect on what they bring into the school environment and their learning process so it maybe it’s just me but I kind of
Felt that the higher up in the educational field let’s say state capital wasn’t focused so much on the kids as it was focused upon policies because they came out and said let’s have a Florida Civic literacy exam we haven’t from what I gather from you haven’t caught up from some of the
Things from the past that need to be at a certain level Florida is the fourth largest for education but it’s not the highest mhm for example my son came down from Chicago when he came down from Chicago to Florida schools when he started his his classes he already knew of all the
Stuff that he was teaching that mean that there wasn’t up to standard at that at that at the time but now you got more of the population coming down to Florida so why would you add more to it than anything can you please explain the the Florida Civic literacy exam what sort of
Impact does it have on you as a math teacher does it mean you have to start taking asonic now I mean I mean the kids in high school are already irir toate economics at some point during um their High School career in their government government classes the Civics exam
Doesn’t really have an impact on me as a math teacher because that’s more into the the government social studies area so they’re trying to learn you know how the how the government how the US government is structured how the Constitution was written what’s in the Constitution how it’s applied um
Founding founding documents for the for the United States so those things are more geared into the social studies government Arena the but didn’t we do that when we was young yes I remember looking at school house rock I learned a pram to the Constitutions conjunction Junction what’s your function I learned
All that stuff right by some of the the things that was on TV I don’t see that on TV anymore but we requiring the students to to learn that maybe if I had kids in school I understand it yeah I mean I I can understand why we
Need to learn that if it’s not on TV like it used to be so that kids can understand how the government is structured how the government operates because you can ask people now how that how that works and some have no clue so it’s good to have you know the the the
Civics part of that in you know in entwined in the in the lessons in the government lessons that that we have today I agree and I I I recommend other states put in their curriculum as well now I guess Florida’s committed preparing the students become civically engaged the topics includes Foundation
Of government law the American political system Civic and political prepar participation structure and function of government such as the role and responsibility of federal state local governments function of the legislator executive and judicial branches of government and the meaning and significance of historical documents such as the article Confederation the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States that mean the kids be able to hold Congress accountable for some of the crazy stuff they doing right now yes how did you stay informed about current trends and research and education and how does this knowledge influence your decision-
Making uh one of the ways that that it’s to uh to stay informed is through our professional de development that’s offered in Hillsboro County the School District offers uh professional development opportunities in your content area and outside of your outside of your content area consisent of what
You know courses short courses um we can go to a three-hour training session some things are online so teachers can stay proficient you know in that matter we have periodicals that we can read if you’re a member of the Florida Education Association or the National Education Association you get periodicals in the
Mail so that material can you know you can take time to read through those that material just to help you keep a breast of new new things that are or new uh new ideas that are coming out in the education area but the professional development that the Hillsboro County’s
Public School System The District offers um that’s that’s sufficient you know for most teachers if they just sign up take them on the weekend do an online course go to an online session after after school’s out three hours and you get that professional development that’s that’s really beneficial to you so you
Recommend at what point of the career say you started off and you three years into your profession at what point do you recommend that that you still breast on the current issues every year I I think you need to stay a breast because things change over time just like just
Like our standards have changed the school environment has changed every time we get it you know legisl legislates change so they change what happens in education so it’s kind of an ongoing thing where you need to stay AB breast on a regular basis by by uh attending those professional development
Sessions you consider yourself a servant leader yes very much so what is your role in being a servant leader at school and your profession versus the community uh in in school it’s it’s kind of uh making sure that you understand what the kids needs are okay uh so that
You know if you see a kid that that that’s struggling that you need to make sure that they that you pull them along so you’re you’re not just being the okay do this do that but if you see somebody struggling that you need to help along
How you do that same thing um you know you you can you can normally tell in the classroom those kids that are that are falling behind and need assistance so you can pull them aside you can talk to them you can call home give me an example Sun refle um sleeping in class
Absenteeism you know turning in work that’s blank or they actually do that or or barely done those are signs that show up early um in a classroom that a kid is already struggling when the school year starts you you know if you see that then there’s time for you to to interject
Yourself into that situation and say Hey you know I’m noticing that you’re having a little trouble with the this lesson or with this course is there something that we can do do we need to call home do we need to talk to your counselor uh what
Is it that we can do to help help you uh so being a servant leader kind of Falls along that line in the community you’re doing the same thing you’re trying to find out where there’s where there are needs in the community that you can kind of insert yourself especially if you
Have a background that will help whatever the need is of that particular person group or organization that you good point good point and how do you go about doing for me right now it’s it’s really through my fraternity you know that I we have within our organization
As much as we are out in the community we know where the needs are and where there’s uh deficiencies in our youth uh with our youth program we can see where the kids need help through our community service activities same thing uh we can see where there’s there’s shortages and
People that are struggling so that we can uh kind of help out as best we can he’s not only gave you all the information and all the his background on on academics and education but he also is the overseer the pollark of the alumni chapter capap side Fraternity
Incorporated um I consider to be uh the best uh fraternity ever I nor going get pushed back from other fraternity and sority but I could be biased to my answers yes and to my and to my thinking tell me about the foundation you started getting into the youth some individual cannot
Separate the fraternities sorties from college versus the attorney sority for alumni they think that everyone stays in college forever mentally some do right right but it’s a difference and the difference from college to alumni is you engage more within the community you tapped on you started talking about the
Youth give more information on the foundations and some of the things that uh your fraternity our fraternity okay one of the biggest differences is you know we there’s this uh a group called a Divine n so the divine nine is made up of nine historically black college and and fraternity uh Greek letter
Organizations both fraternities and sororities so with our organizations what happens is a lot of our members uh enter the organization through an undergraduate chapter while they’re on college campuses so they they enter or become members on college campuses well once they graduate we we’ve set up and
All of them are like this we’ve set up that there’s uh alumni chapters that you can join in your community and now you’re servicing the community you’re no longer on campus you know enjoying college life and and and doing whatever it is your fraternity or sority is is
Focused on but once you matriculate and you become a member of a graduate chapter then you’re looking at what do we do now that we have uh all these educated individuals both men and women out in the community doing things we want to make sure that we bring along
Those that come behind us those young people who are lost or confused or not sure where they want to go so that’s what these uh fraternities and sororities are doing once they become alumni members that we’re out in the community more we’re doing community service projects all of us have youth
Organizations we’re trying to get them scholarships we’re trying to Mentor them we’re trying to teach them how to be adults how to how to um stay out of trouble how to do things in the in society that will make then become better individuals so that’s that’s kind
Of what we do as an alumni organization is we try to we try to tackle those issues that a lot of people think um let that kid go but we’ve got to we we’ve got to try to save as many kids as we can yes so the alumni organizations
Basically take care of that in their responsibility now the undergraduates also do that they they have the same structure that we do as an alumni chapter but they’re closer in age to those younger people right but they don’t have the resources that an alumni chapter might have to in order to do
That now you mentioned the divine nine not every fraternity or sorority from undergraduate stays active after undergraduate can you explain go into more detail with that yes um you have to understand that when it when a when a individual graduates from college they are trying to start their career
Start their life you know get married so it’s kind of difficult for them to matriculate from graduating from college and now joining an alumni alumni organization it’s not that they can’t do that sometimes it takes them a while before they can do that because they want to make sure that they have their
Finances in order they want to make sure that they have their career path set yes and so as they’re doing that you know they can still participate with the organization but they may not have join the organization because of finances or their location where they are doesn’t
Have an alumni chapter the the alumni chapters are typically you know with cities so if there if there’s not one in the city that they’re in it’s kind of difficult for them to do that so a lot of them are still trying to to build their career path and once they feel
They they have their care career path set then they will they will join an alumni uh organization and then get actively involved again financially and and uh get out there and and do those Community Services things that uh you know we’re built for if someone wanted to know more about the Align Night
Chapter how can they find out we have a website uh the cap cap off side fraternity the Tamp alumni chapter we have our local website is my picture on there no I don’t it might it might be on there it might be from the last line I
Think the last Line’s picture is on there okay good but they can they can go to our website um I think it’s Tampa kappa.org or something like that I don’t know exactly what it is at the end of this podcast we have it put up so you
Can actually get to the website yeah go to that website and then they can read about what we do in the community they can understand you know if they were interested if male and they’re interested in joining the organization they can find out how to go about doing
That but that that information of what we’re doing in the community is all spelled out there we also have a a a foundation Tampa alumni gu right foundation that’s more geared toward uh helping out uh the youth in the community giving scholarships providing um College trips so that that’s part of
Our part of our organization too that’s our pH uh philanthropic part of the fraternity what age group do you see um uh 12 to 18 that’s pretty much the the age group that you know we focus in our cap what’s called our Capal league
Program is uh 12 to 18 why is that uh because that’s that’s where you can you can kind of Target the kids more they’re in they’re in the process of starting Middle School going to high school and moving on to college and so we’re trying to help those kids understand what it
Takes in order to get from point A to point B to graduate way to become a a law- abing citizen and doing something wonderful for yourself don’t be on the misconception that the fraternity only deals with Youth Foundations and youth organizations and things that nature what do we hand out neighborhoods um in
December uh turkeys just just a couple couple of uh weeks ago we had a big turkey Drive uh Christmas drive we gave out toys we gave out turkeys uh we did this in partnership with Metropolitan Ministries where they were giving out food food baskets and we joined up with
Them passed out turkeys Christmas toys and uh we do that annually I had had a good time yes I had a very good time now I had a couple of friends of mine were trying to be nosy and find out what Tampa alumni chapter cide fratority Corporation was and they said they they
Typed in on Google but it came up with Kapp silhouettes of Kappa appleside fraternity incorporation can you explain what is the Kappa Silhouettes who are the Capa Silhouettes are the wives of the fraternity members not not a girlfriend but it has to be the spouse of an active Kappa member say that again
Not a way uh not a girlfriend okay the spouse of a Capa member is called the silhouette uh they’re an auxiliary organization to the fraternity they have um you know their own officers they’re out in the community just like we are really yes and they’re they’re they do
Things to help help support uh the local alumni chapter when we had our our national meeting this past summer the the Silhouettes had their national meeting at the same time and they were very instrumental in helping us put on that what we call the conclave our national Convention um by being out in
The community helping explain the conclave didn’t come back to that okay uh our conclave is we have a conclave which is our national meeting of all the undergraduates and lumni chapters every two years and this past summer we were fortunate enough to host the con clave
Here in Tampa first time ever that a Divine n organization was able to host uh a conclave or national meeting in Tampa so we hosted that we had over 4,000 members Brothers registered for that second second largest in the history of our fraternity but the the Silhouettes were part of that they’re an
Auxiliary group to us but they were part of that they had their national meeting here um they they put on events they gave out funds for uh local activities um so it’s a it’s a very big thing for us every two years where we get together and have this national meeting so and
Everything is voluntary isn’t it everything all this is voluntary no one gets paid for any of the the work that they do except for if you’re in the national headquarters and that is your specific job you’re hired to do that but everyone else is it’s all volunteer now
I mentioned the Silhouettes because a lot of the old school Brothers think that it’s still cple sweethearts out there it’s a difference between a sweetheart and a silhouette yes we uh they we no longer have sweethearts um it became an issue a concern uh several
Years ago um long time ago I it’s best to say that we no longer have cap what we call Capa sweethearts so but the Silhouettes are our our Gili organization that we support uh highly support good good good now please give me a few minutes and talk about your
Fraternities you have a event coming up yes Founders Day 113 years ago this coming Friday we will have been an organization for3 years 113 years 113 years we will be been an existence so 113 you hear that cues 113 years so our our 13 our our 10 Founders when they founded this
Organization in 1911 with the objectives that we have with our fundamental purpose of achievement we will be celebrating our 113th Founders Day this coming Friday and it’s it’s U it’s a time for for members and the brothers to kind of reflect on the 113 years to kind of reded rededicate themselves to the
Organization yes and find out where they can fit in to to help out if they haven’t been active in in quite some time it’s a good opportunity for those Brothers to come back you know re-engage with re-engage with the local chapter re-engage with the National Organization
To kind of say okay I you know I’ve been away for too long I’m ready to come back and help out wherever I can in the community yes to do what I can to help this organization move forward and we’re all about achievement it’s all about achievement that’s that’s a good point
That’s a good encouragement method too because sometime you stay away from things for a while and you little hesit about coming back you don’t know what type of embracing embracing you’re going to get you get back so well we we we do whatever we can to help out uh those
Brothers who haven’t been involved or engaged in in the fraternity in quite some time we try to reclaim them and try to make them understand you know what was your purpose what was your reason for initially joining this organization do you still have that drive do you
Still have that ambition to move the organization forward and if you do then we’ll more than welcome welcome you with open arms to say come on back we have lots of things that we’re doing in the community we have things that you can find out find your own Niche to help
Support the organization time talent and treasures whatever whatever it can be uh we’ll welcome you with open arms so that’s kind of what founders day is for is to kind of regenerate those uh those brothers who I don’t want to say lost it’s just that they haven’t been active
Because of you know life various reasons life goes on and sometimes they they get away from the organization but if they come to a Founders Day event they can see why you know why they initially join the organization and and and uh it’s an opportunity for us to to have them come
Back you said Founders Day event what sort of activities do you have the tap Tampa tapa have we’re going to have a uh we’re going to have a program on Friday forgot the location what’s the date January 5th our founding our founding date January 5th uh so it’ll be on that
Date and we’re just going to have a program where you know we go through and and introduce some of the me members who are 50-year members some of our members have passed over the last year so we’ll have some events like that we’ll have some refreshments just kind of a a
Program to say okay you know this is what this is what the fraternity is all about uh to kind of remind mind Brothers okay this is why you join we’re still here we’re still doing the same things in the community and come on back is anyone beside Brotherhood is welcome uh
No this is this is a brother only event so if you can only attend the event if you’re a member of the the um alumni not the alumni chapter but if you’re member of the fraternity then you can join we’ve invited uh brothers from Lakeland brothers from Sarasota brothers from St
Pete so in the surrounding areas if if they’re not having a Founders Day event they’re more than welcome to come and and celebrate with us it’s a fellowship yes exactly well thank you for coming um any last word for my audience uh no thank you very much for having me here I
Really enjoyed this and uh the conversation was uh very enlightening and I appreciate it good good to my audience on the way out happy New Year’s to you we had a good year last year uh as far as views and I encourage you to continue to watch these episodes also
Follow follow me don’t just go and look click the button say follow follow me I can have as many followers I as I can there’s no uh stipulations on numbers that I can have for followers I thank you until we meet again God bless you and Goodbye A
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