| Welcome to our Newest Colony at McKendree University |
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We’d like to welcome the women of our newest colony at McKendree University located in Lebanon, Illinois – right outside of St. Louis, MO. Women received Arc Degree on August 29, 2010 and was formally pledged to Tri Sigma. Their colony President is Melissa Funk (mmfunk@mckendree.edu). Please help us welcome the new members of McKendree Colony! 
Special thanks go to the women of the Alpha Chi Chapter who assisted with McKendree’s campus activities fair! Their combined efforts along with the National extension team also on campus resulted in another 40-50 women interested in joining Tri Sigma this semester. We anticipate welcoming more women over the next few weeks as they continue to recruit. We anticipate a colony of 40-50 women working together to achieve their installation goals! The colony is advised by Josie Blasdel - ΑΧ, Tracy Frey – ΕΘ, Lauren Harms – ΑΧ, Amanda Marsh - EO, Kimberly Omelson - AN, Sarah Sparks - ΓΨ, Jennifer Wagner - ΒΞ, and Kate Walls - ΑΧ. The women of the McKendree Colony are a group of campus leaders and we’re excited to welcome them to Tri Sigma!
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| Hazing Prevention Awareness Week: September 20 - 24, 2010 |
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National Hazing Prevention Week is observed on campuses and within organizations each year during the last week of September. Activities range from brown bag lunch discussions among faculty to movie or book discussions with students; training for
organizational and team leaders, to the signing of anti-hazing pledges.
Some plan an entire week of activities and programs and some simply plan one or two meaningful programs. Whatever you do, the important thing is to DO SOMETHING!
Read more at HazingPrevention.org
What are you doing on your campus? How will Tri Sigma be supporting Hazing Prevention Awareness Week on your campus? Let your Regional Consultant
know and we'll be sure to include efforts in our next edition of the Sigma Standard - be sure to highlight your efforts!
No plan as of yet? The HazingPrevention.Org website listed above also has
a list of activities and a planning guide. Perhaps Tri Sigma can lead the
conversation through your College Panhellenic or Greek Council.
Again...Whatever you do, the important thing is to DO SOMETHING!
 Sigma Sigma Sigma continues our partnership with Greek organizations in
establishing a national Hazing Hotline that
began operation August 1, 2007. The Anti-Hazing Hotline connects to a
dedicated voice mailbox at the Cincinnati law firm of Manley Burke, the
publisher of Fraternal Law, a well-known law journal that chronicles
legal issues involving collegiate Greek organizations and higher education.
Manley Burke monitors the anti-hazing hotline on a daily basis and will forward
all messages to the appropriate fraternal organization, along with the hazing
laws from the relevant jurisdictions. Callers are encouraged to leave their
name, though do not have to do this; they are only asked to identify the
university and Greek organization in question.
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 RM1 – Policy and Procedure Acknowledgement Form |
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Instead of annual policies and procedures being presented by the chapter alone, each individual member will need to sign into our member’s only section – Sigma Connect – review the policy tutorial and then sign an electronic RM1 – Policy and Procedure Acknowledgment Form. When members login, they will be routed to the Policy and Procedure review. Members cannot access other portions of Sigma Connect until this information is reviewed and the RM1 – Policy and Procedure Acknowledgement Form has been submitted to NHQ.
100% of members will be asked to review the policies and complete this form annually and before October 1. New members will continue to submit this form as part of their online Arc Sequence New Member Program. This change impacts initiated collegiate members only.
FAQs - Many of my members have never signed in before, are there instructions on how to create an account?
Yes, CLICK HERE for easy download and distribution.
FAQs – Members need to have an accurate email address to set up their account – what if it is wrong and they are getting an error screen?
Regional Consultants have sent an excel document to Chapter Presidents containing the names and emails addresses of all members on their roster. Presidents can use this to confirm members’ email addresses or indicate corrected email addresses for individuals. Return the excel document with the new emails to your Regional Consultant by September 15th so the information can be corrected at NHQ. Once corrected, members should be able to following the instructions provided above to set-up their account and complete the policy review.
FAQs – What if a member is still having problems?
Simply call NHQ. When there is an error, the number of NHQ is displayed on the screen. Here is a sample script for that phone call to help them get the best help here. It is detailed and please know the script is intended to help you get what you need with minimal frustrations. Our NHQ staff are there to help you but when women call frustrated some times they don’t provide all of the details to truly resolve the problem. We hope this script will provide a good guide to get access fixed quickly, smoothly, and with just a single 2-3 minute call! ☺
“Hi, my name is (first & last) from (chapter). I am a collegiate member trying to set-up my Sigma Connect account. It says my account is not recognized. Do you have a minute to make sure my email address is correct?
Great! Thank you! My name is (spell it to be sure your record is coming up correctly) and I’m from (City, State). My email address is ________. (Now, wait on the phone for the NHQ staff member to confirm that the email address has been saved in our database. Before hanging up, TRY entering your email address AGAIN. Does it work? If so, you’re ready to set up your account! Congratulations! If not, go to the next scripted section.)
Okay, I just tried my email address again and I’m still getting an error message. Can we confirm my email address one more time? (Ask them to read back to you what is in the database…correct if necessary.) I read in the Sigma Standard that my internet security tab needs to have my ID number listed as my login and that I need an expiration date listed on that tab too. Are those things correct? (If not, wait again for the NHQ staff member to update this part of your database record. Then try to login again. These two fixes should correct most problems. If not, the last item to confirm is that you are listed as an Active member (opposed to terminated or depledged for some reason) and that you have a chapter name assigned to your account. If those items are correct and you STILL cannot login, then the staff member should take down your information and they’ll need to work with Margaret Fields, NHQ Technical Coordinator, to resolve the problem with our database tech support. Again, most issues will quickly be resolved with a current and correct email address.)
It is working now! Thank you for your help and time! Have a great day! Good bye!
FAQs – Since this is being submitted to NHQ directly, how will I know who still needs to sign the RM1 so I can follow-up with the women in my chapter?
Consultants will receive reports each week listing the women who still need to complete the RM1. They will pass these on to you as they receive them. The week of September 27th they will distribute a list to you daily to provide you with more information as the October 1 deadline approaches. Reports will include the date/time they were run so you can determine if a member who says they completed it did so after the report was run. If so, they should be removed on the next report distributed.
FAQs – Some women in my chapter just don’t respond to my emails – what if I can’t get everyone to sign the RM1 by October 1?
This may be the case for a handful of members. Those women should be sent to Honor Council for not completing the form. This includes that woman who waited until 4:30pm on October 1 to set-up her account and is now having problems. If a chapter can demonstrate individual accountability via Honor Council, the chapter will not be held accountable – reporting points will be awarded and the chapter will not have their operations suspended for failure to submit the form. (see the President’s manual for more on suspension of activities due to late payment of National Dues and RM1 submission – p.8, 69, 102, and 111)
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1. All national fees should be billed using Other Fees.
2. We do not collect or accept paper checks or cash from members or new members as payments. Post a fee on their account in BillHighway and they should then login and pay through BillHighway. We should not be collecting and sending checks to BillHighway.
WHY? Very often these payments do not include a remittance slip or account number which makes it incredibly difficult to determine who should receive the credit for the payment. A common example is a Parent/Relative paying for member with different last name. When women pay online, the fees are connected with their personal account and there is a record of the payment.
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| House Director Policy Change |
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The previous policy indicated that any house with 10 or more residents needed to employ a House Director. As of August 2010, the policy is as follows:
Sigma Sigma Sigma affirms that a chapter with a house is best served by engaging a House Director. The individual House Corporation will be charged with determining the policy for the chapter and a live-in House Director.
In other housing news, two new housing projects have been started. The Alpha Beta Chapter at Kent State is making great progress on their new house. They will be using the new house for recruitment this year! Follow their house project on Facebook “Kent State – Tri Sigma”. The Eta Chi Chapter at Mizzou will also be starting a house project. They will have a ground breaking in the spring – for now they have property to build on and just recently put up a sign to announce the site of their future home!
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 Thank you to the following chapters who participated in the Vice Presidentwebinars on August 25, 2010. We appreciate you going the extra mile to be ready for the academic year and ensure the new member program is implemented effectively! We realize others wanted to attend but had recruitment and class so the webinar was recorded. Please contact your Regional Consultant for a link to obtain the recorded webinar.
Alpha Chi
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Epsilon Psi
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Lambda
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Alpha Epsilon
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Epsilon Theta
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Mu
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Alpha Mu
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Eta Iota
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Omicron
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Alpha Xi
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Eta Kappa
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Theta Alpha
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Beta Alpha
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Eta Pi
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Zeta Epsilon
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Beta Tau
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Eta Sigma
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Zeta Eta
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Beta Xi
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Eta Theta
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Zeta Gamma
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Delta Chi
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Flint Colony
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Zeta Omicron
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Delta Theta
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Gamma Lambda
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Zeta Pi
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Epsilon Nu
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Gamma Pi
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 Thanks to those who participated in the August calls – these calls are used to verify your Accreditation Standards, provide reminders on upcoming deadlines or support resources, and to help brainstorm solutions or new ideas.
Alpha
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Beta Delta
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Delta Chi
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Alpha Alpha
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Beta Tau
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Delta Delta
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Alpha Kappa
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Beta Upsilon
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Delta Omicron
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Alpha Rho
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Delta Beta
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Delta Pi
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Delta Psi
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Epsilon Phi
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Gamma Psi
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Delta Theta
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Epsilon Psi
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Gamma Rho
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Delta Upsilon
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Epsilon Rho
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Gamma Xi
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Delta Zeta
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Epsilon Theta
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Gamma Zeta
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Epsilon Alpha
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Eta Beta
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Zeta Delta
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Epsilon Epsilon
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Eta Iota
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Zeta Kappa
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Epsilon Eta
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Eta Theta
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Zeta Mu
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Epsilon Nu
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Eta Xi
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Zeta Pi
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Epsilon Omicron
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Gamma Beta
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Zeta Rho
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Recognition and praise should also be given to...
Alpha Alpha - They are having recruitment practices twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday nights) in preparation for their Formal Recruitment. Also, their Recruitment Director, Brittany Means, has put together the recruitment guide of all guides! It encompasses Dynamic Recruitment practices such as values-based conversations and new member selection criteria. This is all brand new to the Alpha Alpha Chapter and something they are very very very excited about! Shout out to Alpha Alpha!
Alpha Chi – They had a great recruitment, received quota additions, and have turned in all of their forms and paperwork….meaning, they have achieved their chapter membership recruitment goal for the fall 2010 semester. They are the first chapter to meet their goal!
Beta Alpha- They have the highest grades on campus and they are the only chapter above All-Women's Average. Great job putting academics first ladies!
Zeta Theta – Extreme Makeover Home Edition was in the area and the Tri Sigma women volunteers and participated as part of the show! See the Tri Sigma National Facebook page for some photos. They think the episode will air in October – it is the build in Idaho.
Zeta Delta - Congratulations to Zeta Delta for their successful recruitment! 24 new members to add to their 44 person chapter. This is their largest new member class ever!
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