Hello Tau Bates,
We want to extend greetings to the leaders of all our collegiate and alumni chapters – welcome back to a new academic year! We are looking forward to an exciting Fall semester with you, and we hope to see you all in person at one of the 3 upcoming Fall Meetings across the District.
In the meantime, your District 7 Team is here to help! As you begin your semesters we wanted to send along a couple quick reminders for your chapters (below). Feel free to reach out to us at (note the new group email) for any questions you may have or challenges your chapter is facing.
1) Convention Registration (Sept. 1st)
- Tau Beta Pi’s Convention is the Association’s supreme governing body, where each chapter sends a delegate to conduct official business, build leadership skills, and network.
- Every chapter gets a voting delegate for FREE! But they have to complete their individual registration by the deadline (Sept. 1st). This should be the same individual who you listed on your Convention Credentials report. See the Association website additional information.
- Chapters that are fully endowed through the Association’s CEI initiative (MI-G, MI-E, MI-Z, OH-A, OH-B, OH-G, OH-E) may have the option to send a non-voting delegate completely covered. If you plan on taking advantage of this option and haven’t reached out to HQ to make the arrangements yet, you need to do so ASAP. More details here.
2) Chapter Reports
If you haven’t done so already, but sure to submit the following ASAP:
- Fall Information Update
- Report of Officer & Advisor Election (for the officers & advisors serving in the Fall term)
- Officer Signature Report (same as above)
- NOTE: If you received a link to this post, but no longer serve as a primary officer of your chapter, it is most likely because the above to Reports have not been completed. Among other purposes, they tell us who to contact with messages such as this!
3) Fall Meeting
Mark your Calendars! We will be hosting 3 Fall Meetings in person from late August to late September. This is an important meeting to help you prepare for Convention, and we will provide some District updates as well. Voting & non-Voting delegates for the upcoming Convention should attend; other officers/members are optional. We are also happy to address any questions you may have about chapter operations as you gear up for the Fall term. See here for meeting details.
4) Semester Planning
- Successful semesters depend greatly on good semester planning. Take time now at the beginning of the semester to meet as officers and advisors and agree on a schedule of events, especially the sequence of events for bringing in new members that culminates in initiation.
- This is also critical for ensuring that you have all the right materials (certificates, keys, membership cards, creed cards, etc.) to provide to your new members on initiation day. This has been a recurring problem for the last few semesters, and while there are some factors we can’t control (e.g. shipping delays), we want to emphasize that this issue can be largely negated by good planning that allows for adequate lead times.
- For anyone who would like assistance with semester planning for their chapter or has questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
5) Share your Semester Schedule
We would like to visit each chapter, but we need advance notice of opportunities to do so! The first meeting of the year is great. Initiations are also great. But this could be for any event you hold. We look forward to meeting you and your members!
6) New District Website
- After several months of behind-the-scenes work, District 7 is proud to announce our new website!
- In addition to the District information, news, and updates, the site features new resources to help us stay connected:
◦ Matrix Server: Join us for instant inter-chapter communication!
◦ Community Calendar: Discover and share events happening across our District! - We look forward to seeing you on the Matrix server! If you need help in joining, please see instructions. Several apps are available to connect to our Matrix server on the go, but we recommend Element.
- If you would like to add any of your chapter’s events to our calendar for district-wide or region-wide visibility, please contact us and we would be happy to get you set up for it.
- We welcome any and all feedback, as we hope that our site becomes a valuable tool for everyone.
If you made it to the end, congratulations! Thanks for your patience, time, and dedication to your chapters. We remain dutifully…
- Director Lauren Logan (Findlay, OH)
- Director Michael Ustes (Plymouth, MI)
- Director Sergei Akhmatdinov (Ypsilanti, MI)
- EF Coordinator Shelton Caruthers (Cleveland, OH)
- NEST Coordinator Drew Boughton (Ann Arbor, MI)