Growth

EXPANSION UPDATES

TAKING SIGMA PI TO NEW (AND OLD) PLACES

by Drew Carpenter (Middle Tennessee ‘18), Director of Strategic Growth

New Members of Iota-Beta Colony at Delaware celebrate their colonization alongside Grand Sage Joe Palazzolo (Monmouth '00), standing to the right

In March 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic closing campuses, Sigma Pi had to make some difficult decisions in order to navigate the fall out of campuses moving to virtualbased classrooms.

More than a year later, with universities returning to campus appearing to be a reality, the decision was made to relaunch the Growth Department. The primary objective of the revamped department is to look at not only expansion to new campuses, but to also support and work with Chapters that were hardest hit from the pandemic and lack of recruitment. The decision was made by CEO Jonathan Frost to bring on a new graduate, who had excelled in his role as Chapter Sage, won multiple awards not only from Sigma Pi but from his campus, and that search led to bringing on Drew Carpenter (Middle Tennessee '18). “In order to work with and recruit college students, I felt it was important to hire someone with first hand knowledge of the college experience today. Drew’s experience as Sage, IFC President and handful of other extracurricular accolades brings a sense of knowledge and hard work to our team.”

Existing chapters have received substantial assistance in an effort to recover from the past 18 months. 12 chapters across six different states have received growth-related visits in the past three months. The number of new members reported this fall suggests these visits were successful. To give an idea of the progress since June, Sigma Pi has been in discussions with several alumni groups about reactivating their chapters, including but not limited to:

• Iota-Beta at Delaware

• Beta at Indiana

• Eta-Alpha at CSU-Sacramento • Eta-Omega at Johnson & Wales It is important to know that alumni involvement of both time and financial resources is important to these talks and efforts. The reason being that engaged and committed alumni provide valuable knowledge and resources to aid the young members in their pursuits and matriculation through college. In addition, we are looking at new opportunities to join a campus we have never been to with two of them already scheduled for Fall of 2022, that includes Coastal Carolina University and Kennesaw State University. While our focus will be working with alumni to reconstitute closed Chapters, we will also assess and evaluate the opportunities of new markets. The reason being, that we know the value of being a Sigma Pi man, and want to provide a place for young men to grow their leadership skills and we feel that Sigma Pi provides the best opportunity for that growth. If you know of a young man who is not attending a campus where we are currently located, it could be a great opportunity for him to start a Chapter and become a Founding Father on his campus. If you are curious about the process to re-open your Chapter, or know of an outstanding young man who can help open a Chapter, please contact our office at dcarpenter@sigmapi.org.