LAF Delta Upsilon reflects on experiences from Delta Upsilon Northeast Regional Leadership Seminar Philadelphia February 2013

As the Vice President of Public Relations on our executive board, I was privileged to attend the Delta Upsilon Regional Leadership Seminar in Philadelphia, PA this past weekend. As a new member of the fraternity and the executive board, it was great establishing connections with the leaders from our International Headquarters and receiving feedback from alumni. The program does a great job breaking up the members of each chapter and really allowing the brothers to bond with new people; true promotion of friendship. In addition to the bonds created with our associate members, it was interesting and certainly beneficial to hear how other chapters are organized and lead. This allowed us to develop ideas and bring these changes back to DU Lafayette.

The members of our executive board unanimously agreed that the RLS retreat has allowed us to grow as individuals and provide the means to keep our chapter moving in the positive direction. During our executive meeting back on campus, we discussed exactly how we would translate our ideas into action. In the past, we have really struggled with member apathy, but we have recently implemented an academic incentive system and a strong judicial board. This allows us to create motivation and establish urgency to push our brothers from “members” to “active citizens”. Our executive board provided great feedback on the breakout sessions and each chair has been creating a plan to influence our brotherhood in a positive light. We are now in the works of creating a strong alumni base and intend to host more events that will pull DU’s back to the Lafayette chapter. We are also pushing engagement with the Chapter Excellence Plan and will continue to make strides in that direction. The most important change, however, is that we are truly focusing on the public perception of the Delta Upsilon chapter and the  LAF FS community.

This task will certainly come with time, but has begun with more engagement in service and philanthropy. We are working closely with IFC and other service organizations on campus to create a weekly service program and follow up with reflections to celebrate the good work our Fraternity and Sorority community is doing. After hearing the presentation about the image of Fraternity and Sorority life, we were astonished and taken back by the reality of the situation. It was also great learning more about the opportunities that can be gained from the Global Service Initiative and how that unique program is the ideal time to embrace our four founding principles.

Participants of the 2013 Regional Leadership Seminar East in Philadelphia spent the weekend thinking on and exchanging ideas.