Elders Investing In A Better Chapter

This year the Phi Epsilon (University of Maryland) elder association is paying for six actives to attend convention. The elder association has been paying for a group of actives to attend convention for a few years now, and have chosen to restart this tradition for the first in-person convention since before the pandemic. This is funded each year by Zete4Life, other donations and budgeting.

Representatives of the elder association Andrew Frisvold and Dominic LoPiccolo say that the purpose of convention is to help the actives that attend communicate Zeta Psi news to the larger brotherhood in the chapter, through the various LTI’s and the Grand Chapter meeting. By sending more than a Phi or a delegate to convention, it helps to spread the word and gives the Phi some support, if necessary, when relaying any news to the chapter.

Convention also opens up the actives to the Zete world outside of their chapter. Before COVID, Phi Epsilon was very open to hosting chapters that were Comstocking and they would visit a few chapters during the year themselves. Convention helps them to form new relationships that are conducive to Comstock trips and this often makes them want to attend successive conventions so they can build upon these relationships.

The LTI’s provide great training for our officers and aspiring officers, and I hope all of our attendees find value in some of the professional and personal development courses that are offered. The roundtable discussions let our actives learn from other chapters and what works and doesn’t work for them. Then when our actives go back to the chapter, they feel empowered to take some of the things they learned and implement them.

Every year, our elders in attendance at convention will take the actives out for lunch. This is a chance for us to get to know each other, to chat about any major updates, see where support is needed, and plan alumni events for the upcoming year.