Our ITB Raft at SED ITB Takeover!! Such an awesome day and so much fun meeting all the brothers and sisters of the SED!!

Announcing the new Tau Beta Sigma SED Officers:

President - Katie Peterson, Eta Phi
Vice President of Membership - Rachel Kerley, Epsilon Alpha
Vice President of Special Projects - Rene Mark, Beta Xi
Secretary - Kevin Brenner, Eta Phi
Treasurer - Jonathan Arton, Beta Xi

I wish you all the best of luck!

Chris Meserve
SED Vice President of Membership 2010-2011
Epsilon Alpha

We all know that the membership education program is a very important part of our organization. This program is where our members learn a vast majority of sorority history, values and beliefs, and how to become a functioning active member in our chapters. Like all great programs, it needs to be reviewed from time-to-time to ensure that it is working effectively.

When should you review your MEP’s? They should be reviewed at least once a year and the spring is most ideal. This way any revisions that are made can be put in effect for the next academic year. Have your membership committee review the program and propose revisions to be approved by the chapter. Here are some key points to consider.

Selecting Candidates:
What do you look for in your candidates? A good rule to follow is quality over quantity. Quality traits to look for include, but are not limited to demonstrated leadership, positive attitude towards band, interest in service. Each chapter is different and ever changing, so you must always recruit to the needs of your chapter.

Candidate Requirements:
Many chapters require candidates to complete individual interviews, chapter interviews, signatures, service points/projects, fundraisers, social functions, etc. These requirements should be beneficial and relevant to the candidate process. Evaluate the effectiveness of these requirements. For instance, your chapter requires your candidates to interview every single active sister, but your chapter has 40 members. While it is important to for all active members to get to know all the candidates, that will consume a lot of time on both parts. Consider assigning certain sisters to candidate or create a set number of questions for the candidates to ask the active sisters and set a general time limit for the interviews.

Sorority Information and Testing:
Every program should test candidates on National, District, and Chapter Level information. This information will not change, but consider how you use assessment to determine whether candidates have learned the information properly. Typically, chapters use written tests that require a certain passing score. As all education majors know, there are different types of learners and test takers. A lot of information presented to candidates is strictly memorization. I have personally encountered experiences where it has been better to allow for candidates the option to verbally take portions of tests; more so when it comes to recalling the 8 to 5 and purposes. Make sure that your grading scale is comparable to the amount of information of each test. Consider a set point and/or rubric system when grading.

Grounds for Keeping or Removing a Candidate from the Process:
The purpose of the process is for candidates to learn Sorority information and grow or transition to become an active sister. Their performance throughout the process should always be examined from week to week so that they are progressing the way your chapter would like them to. How do you gage whether or not a candidate is performing to their full potential? A few suggestions to look for are if the candidate is completing requirements on time, how the candidate interacts with the rest of the class and active members, general attitude, and if they are being a good representation of the organization. Consider using an incident system to keep track of negative actions. As a chapter, determine a set number to which the candidate should be brought up for discussion on their future in the organization. Always remember to help guide the candidate by bringing these issues to their attention as they occur, so that you are giving them a chance to actually learn from their mistakes.

These are just a few ideas to consider when reviewing your MEP. Also, take into consideration the length of your candidate process when deciding what is to be included in it. Is it reasonable to ask for all the requirements of your MEP to be completed in 5 weeks? Is that enough time to really see the progress of the transition from a candidate to a sister? Remember, MEP’s need to be reviewed to ensure that your chapter and your candidates have the best and most meaningful education experience.

Chris Meserve
SED VP Membership 2010-2011 

Spring 2011 Candidate Class Initiation for the Epsilon Alpha Chapter of Tau Beta Sigma! Eta Beta and Iota Xi were also present!

Today is the deadline to have registered for convention and postmarked your payment before incurring a late fee.

Today is also the deadline to have your Win-Win Membership form into National Headquarters in order to be eligible for a free convention registration for your chapter’s delegate.

Today, Tau Beta Sigma has been providing service to college bands for 65 years!

Me with the Eta Phi chapter of Tau Beta Sigma at Vanderbilt University!

Have you taken in new members this school year? Have you heard about the Win-Win Membership Drive?

The Win-Win Membership Drive is a program dedicated to rewarding chapters who have increased their membership during intake. Chapters who qualify and send in the form two weeks prior to District Convention are entered into a drawing. The prize is a paid registration for your chapter’s delegate. All chapters that enter the Win-Win Membership Drive will be recognized at the 2011 National Convention!

In order to qualify, your chapter must have paid all dues, filed the Chapter Personnel Report and Initiate Registration, and submitted the Win-Win Membership Drive form to Nationals by APRIL 1, 2011!

Here’s how it works:

For every 10% increase you have in membership, your chapter is entered into the drawing. To figure out the percentage dived the number of initiates by the number of active members. So, if your chapter has 30 members and you intake 3 new members (3/30=10%), you are entered into the drawing once. If your chapter intakes 6 new members (6/30=20%), you are entered into the drawing twice, and so on. This increases the chances of you winning. Of course, all of your information must match that reported forms on file at National Headquarters!

The form can be found here:
http://www.tbsigma.org/Flyers/WinWin%20Membership%20Flyer.pdfForms can be emailed or mailed to Dawn Farmer:
Dawn@tbsigma.org
or
National Headquarters - Dawn Farmer
PO Box 849
Stillwater, OK 74076

We, we, we so excited. We gonna have a ball visiting with Eta Phi at Vanderbilt University this weekend!

sedvpsp:

Dear Sisters,

On March 26, 2011, Tau Beta Sigma will be celebrating the 65^th Anniversary of incorporation as a National Organization. The National Council of Tau Beta Sigma as well as the National History and Archives Committee would like to offer some suggestions of ways that you can…