Visiting Delegates

The in-person support and encouragement our collegiate sisters receive from our Educational Leadership Consultants (ELCs) and Educational Leadership Specialists (ELSs) can be traced all the way back to Henrietta Maria Coone (Beta-Northwestern) and Carrie Park Jones Sauber (Alpha-Syracuse), who created the visiting delegate position during Henrietta’s tenure as Alpha Phi president from 1892-1894. Voted into existence at the Convention of 1894, the visiting delegate was a solution providing support and guidance to Alpha Phi collegiate chapters.

The visiting delegate position was a historic first for Alpha Phi, as no other fraternity or sorority had adopted such a position at that time. Members were instructed upon the appointment of Carrie to the role, “Remember that she comes armed with questions and clothed with authority from Convention, and that her appearance means that the time for rendering accounts has come… her visit will be productive of much pleasure, as well as good to the Fraternity.”

As visiting delegate, Carrie visited chapters for one week to 10 days, and the work proved valuable. Collegiate members were able to learn from her, and Carrie was able to observe strengths as well as opportunities for growth. Members felt the visiting delegate united them closer than ever before. Her confidential reports to the Board were matched with a greater understanding of chapters’ strengths and struggles, as well as clarity around how best to offer support.

Carrie Park Jones Sauber (Alpha-Syracuse)

Past delegate, Lise Edwards Ricketts (Epsilon Alpha-Ashland) who traveled in 1974-75, shared how things we might now take for granted were different for earlier visiting delegates. “We went from chapter to chapter, arranging our own travel in the days before Uber and car-sharing. When we would prepare to wind down one visit, we called the chapter house of the next campus we would be visiting to arrange for an Alpha Phi to pick us up at the airport and take us to the house.”

In the 1950s and 60s, however, delegates famously traveled with all they needed to make the business side of the operation come together. Susan Brink Sherratt (Beta Beta-Michigan State), who has served in a number of leadership roles within Alpha Phi over the years, including past International Executive Board member and past Foundation Board Chair, and was a field representative in 1980-1981, shared, “We typed our reports on borrowed typewriters at the end of our chapter visits. Personal computers had yet to be widely embraced, so we carried the printed copies of every officer notebook in a heavy suitcase when we traveled.”

Over the years, the visiting delegate has also been known as the Educational Leadership Consultant (ELC). In the last several years, ELCs who stayed on an additional year have been known as Educational Leadership Specialists (ELSs) and in 2022 the Fraternity added the role of Leadership Program Consultants (LPCs), who specialize in developing current and future leaders and programming opportunities in collegiate chapters. What began as one individual who visited collegiate chapters has adapted and grown to the team of 26 ELCs, ELSs and LPCs we have mentoring chapters today. No matter the era in which they served as our visiting delegates or ELCs, these 571 individuals (and counting!) have created meaningful and lasting bonds, not only with the members they inspired as they shared best practices and encouraged growth, but with one another.