Cross & Crescent

This past fall, I was in Boston, Massachusetts, and had a chance to visit some of our Fraternity’s historical landmarks. One of these places is 22 Joy Street –- which is where it’s believed the words “Lambda Chi Alpha” were first mentioned.

This also is where founder Warren A. Cole (Boston 1912) and his friends began to brainstorm about what would one day become one of the world’s largest fraternities.

The founders who met at 22 Joy Street could not have envisioned that their ideas would result in a Fraternity with more than 255,000 initiated members, or where 10,000 undergraduates would be experiencing Lambda Chi Alpha on 200 campuses across North America.

True Brother Initiative

With our history in mind, today’s undergraduate brothers (the “Millennial Generation”) are very different than generations from the past. The Baby Boomers, the Greatest Generation, and Generation X have more in common with each other than they all do with the Millennial Generation. This new generation is not better or worse than the rest, just very different.

To remain relevant to today’s students, who prefer an experiential learning model with a road map to success, the Fraternity has created the True Brother Initiative, an educational model with three progressions.

One of the single most important aspects of this new initiative is that we are measuring outcomes. Specifically, we are taking stock of our chapters, as well as individual brothers, to establish the direction we need to provide for the experiences we offer.

On the chapter side, early information collected this past fall (August 2007 through December 2007) indicates that chapters implementing the Outer Circle, when compared to chapters implementing little or none of the Outer Circle, recruited more men, initiated a higher percentage of men, had higher grades, and had higher campus involvement.

On the individual side, we have learned that associate members from chapters implementing the Outer Circle retained a stronger sense of self-awareness and self-esteem once initiated, compared to chapters not implementing the Outer Circle.

This work is truly groundbreaking, not just for Lambda Chi Alpha, but for the Greek movement and the higher education community.

2007 Stead Leadership Seminar

In July, more than 750 brothers gathered at the University of Memphis, for the 2007 Jerre L. and Mary Joy Stead Leadership Seminar. There, the True Brother Initiative was introduced to the chapters, in addition to other programming that chapter leaders were able to take away, including updated tools and information about recruitment and ritualism.

Alumni leaders assisted as facilitators, coaches, and mentors, bringing an educational experience of a lifetime to the undergraduates who attended. The event was the largest gathering of Lambda Chi Alpha members in decades, and many feel this single experience can be credited with the reason for a solid increase in membership this fall.

The Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation granted $140,000 to underwrite the educational aspects of this program, essentially lowering the cost to attend by $200 per brother.

We feel that this funding enabled several hundred additional men to enjoy the personal benefits of the experience and return to assist, lead and strengthen their chapters. What a difference alumni support makes!

Neville Advisers College

Attendees at the 2007 Stead Leadership Seminar also included more than 100 chapter advisers from across North America. These brothers joined together for a new educational certification program designed and facilitated by experienced Lambda Chi Alpha chapter advisers.

This experience has been named The Ronald A. Neville Alumni Advisers College. New chapter advisers and “seasoned” veterans came together to share and learn about mentoring and coaching today’s college men. This was the third such annual gathering.

The Neville Alumni Advisers College provides new and experienced advisers with the tools and information that will help them as the fraternity and campus environments become more complicated.

Specific topics covered included:

• Understanding a new philosophy of advising
• Facilitating member development in Lambda Chi Alpha
• Advising within Lambda Chi Alpha’s mission, vision, and values
• Updates and training in Lambda Chi Alpha initiatives
• Understanding our partners in fraternity: the university, the parents, the community
• Helping chapters demonstrate their relevance on today’s campuses and their educational goals
• Case studies on current challenges facing chapters and their advisers

A grant from the Educational Foundation of $68,000 made the difference for this conference and other educational opportunities to engage alumni to enhance the undergraduate experience.

2008 Winter Leadership Retreat

Over the years, winter and spring educational conferences have taken a variety of forms, from conclaves hosted on campuses, to regional conferences, to the international leadership retreat that has been held for several years.

This year, in January, 300 undergraduates and alumni gathered at the T Bar M Ranch in New Braunfels, Texas, for the 2008 Winter Leadership Retreat.

For the undergraduate members there were workshops on:

• Leadership and chapter operations
• Recruiting based on Lambda Chi Alpha’s Seven Core Values
• Sexual harassment and respectful relationships with women
• Team building experiences
• Accountability
• Legal liabilities and responsibilities
• History and ritual of Lambda Chi Alpha

The undergraduate members also were able to meet the Grand High Zeta members and Fraternity staff leadership team.

By video, attendees were welcomed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Alumni brother Joe Driver (North Texas 1971), a representative in the Texas State Legislature, declared the attendees honorary Texans and inspired everyone with his reflections on what it means to be a Lambda Chi.

Alumni Associations

In the summer of 2006, three regional alumni associations were on the Lambda Chi Alpha map –- Dallas-Ft. Worth, San Antonio, and San Diego. As of February 2008, the Fraternity has a regional alumni association presence in 12 additional cities, bringing our total to 15.

While Lambda Chi Alpha’s primary focus is to develop undergraduate leaders of character, additional resources have been dedicated to growing alumni volunteers across North America. More than 90 alumni are actively engaged in the leadership of these 15 regional alumni associations.

Some of the alumni association activities include social and professional networking events, community service projects, and the use of online communities that bolster more than 1,400 registered alumni participants.

With the General Fraternity’s support, five new associations were formed in the fall of 2007: Washington, D.C.; Indianapolis, Indiana; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; St. Louis, Missouri; and Nashville, Tennessee.

Our 15 alumni associations all have the common goal of bringing a greater number of alumni back into touch with the Fraternity and creating a greater awareness of Lambda Chi Alpha in their respective city.

Centennial Celebration

Yes, our Fraternity will turn 100 years old in 2009, and we have a century of true brothers as evidence.

In Lambda Chi Alpha, anything that’s worth doing is worth overdoing. Therefore, we will celebrate our centennial for 18 months, not just one year. The Fraternity will kickoff the Centennial Celebration this summer at the final dinner of our 52nd General Assembly in Phoenix, Arizona.

We will then bring the celebration to our members with more than 30 events in various cities across North America. The pinnacle celebration will take place from July 31-August 1, 2009, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Our final event, November 6-7, 2009, will be a tour of our historical landmarks in Boston, Massachusetts.

We hope you can join the thousands of alumni and undergraduate members who will participate in some aspect of our Fraternity’s Centennial Celebration; in addition, we look forward to what the next 100 years will bring for Lambda Chi Alpha.

Lambda Chi Alpha is truly a great Fraternity –- and our alumni and undergraduate members are what make it so.