Summer Strategies for Chapters

During its annual summer meeting of 2009, the Executive Committee of  ΠΕΑ approved a plan proposed by the editor of the Pi Sigma Alpha Newsletter to begin publishing a third issue of each volume annually, in conjunction with the publication's move to a machine readable World Wide Web-based format. One of the primary objectives of this action was to help facilitate ongoing, regular communication between the Society, its chapters, advisors and student members in the summer months, which are usually very slow to dormant in activities and meetings. For this debut summer issue of the Newsletter, therefore, the National Office was instrumental in distributing a very brief  "editor's questionnaire" to chapter advisors, which in turn produced an impressive 32 responses from very kind and helpful chapter advisors across the nation!

The summer lull in a traditional academic year can take its toll on every Pi Sigma Alpha chapter, regardless of size, host institution, dedication of the advisor or student officers or any combination of many other variables. Graduating members slip away to their future life's pursuits, and often don't maintain contact with the Society-- or even their local chapter. Of the potential group of returning members, most of whom are initiated as juniors and are presumably coming back as seniors in the chapter, anything from a handful to a flood may simply not return or not take an active part in the new academic year's activities because of new commitments, more highly prioritized older ones, efforts directed at post-baccalaureate plans and so forth. Some may believe that  ΠΕΑ initiation is a one-time mountain that has been conquered; it is on the resume and the dust has cleared from initiation, so it's time to look at other extracurricular or academic pursuits. Fortunately, in a majority of chapters that responded to the questionnaire, it appears that there is also a regular core of committed students who take membership more seriously-- they understand the great ongoing benefits of Pi Sigma Alpha affiliation and in remaining active, contributing members of their chapters for as long as they can do so. Summary results of the Newsletter's four-question survey of chapter advisors appear below, therefore, as a first step in promoting a dialogue between members, faculty and the National Office as to how we can share knowledge about member retention and chapter activism, and hopefully continue to impress the lifetime value and meaningfulness of Society membership upon its student members. As such, this article should not be read as a one-time feature, but rather as the first part of a greater series that has, as yet, no defined boundaries. If you, as a ΠΕΑ member, faculty advisor or alumnus, have ideas to share within the context of this dialogue, please don't be shy about writing a letter, essay or other contribution for publication in a future issue!

And now, the questions and summary comments about their answers from our 32 outstanding advisors:

1. How would you characterize your chapter's activity over the summer months?  Do you, your officers and/or our returning members meet at all, or does any official chapter business get done?

Almost unanimously, the answer to this question was "none" or "nothing at all," indicating that chapters, like their host institutions, tend to go very quiet between academic years. This should not be much of a surprise given that most students have left the school for summer vacation and/or employment, and faculty (including chapter advisors) often leave on research projects or their own other professional opportunities or vacations. Still, one advisor reported that his chapter has a member email list that is constantly updated, and returning members use it to pass ideas for the coming year between each other in a sort of quasi-internet social networking type of activity. This practice "keeps returning members thinking at a sort of infrequent level about Pi Sigma Alpha, and, given the normally high attrition rate of graduating seniors we've had, allows even a small handful of students to hit the ground running when we re-constitute the chapter in the Fall."

2. When do you elect officers for the coming academic year?  At the end of Spring semester last year or at the beginning of Fall semester in the coming one?  How/Why?

Twenty-three respondents-- approximately 75% of the total-- indicated that their chapter elects officers for the following academic year in the Spring of the preceding year, and a substantial plurality said it was connected in some way with the chapter's end-of-year initiation ceremony. The remaining 25%, except for one respondent who did not answer this question, indicated that officers were selected in the Fall Semester, usually after an initial membership drive of some sort. The consensus among "Spring initiation" chapters was that the practice gave experienced returning members the opportunity to hold a leadership position in the organization. The "Fall initiation" chapters tended to indicate that the practice lent some continuity to the year, given that officers were selected as the first order (or one of the first orders) of business as the chapter had an organizational meeting to kick off the new year. Of the chapters that reported selection methods, the overwhelming majority indicated that member election was the standard process-- but one indicated that, under the bylaws of the chapter, the Faculty Advisor chose officers based on student commitment, advice from departmental faculty members, etc. Article V, Chapter 3 of the Pi Sigma Alpha Constitution appears to allow both of these selection methods, indicating only that "Each local chapter shall have at least the following officers: a president, a vice-president, and a secretary-treasurer, and their names shall be reported to the (national Executive) Director."

3.  Does your chapter regularly have returning members (juniors rising to senior status) and, if so, do they have any special obligations or activities to help prepare the chapter for new members?

Answers to the first part of this (technically) compound question tended to cleave, interestingly but not necessarily surprisingly, along lines of college/university size-- or at least the reported average size of the chapter historically, in a few cases where that information was shared. Larger colleges and universities that tend to have more members in a given year generally reported a larger cohort of returning members, while smaller liberal arts colleges tended to have fewer-- or in some cases on a semi-regular basis, none. Many advisors agreed that the upper-level nature of the Society, admitting juniors and seniors, made retention difficult over a longer term, particularly (as one advisor wrote) since there was "no chapter activity or interest from among the grad students" at that school, which had graduate programs. Three respondents noted some formal, ongoing chapter connection with other departmental entities, however, for example a "political science club" that was open to all students, regardless of academic class, from which the chapter then recruited qualified upperclass students at the appropriate time.

As for the second question about special obligations or activities, the universal answer was "no." Again, while not surprising, this result was suggestive of the need an ongoing dialogue about how to overcome the inertia of the summer months both quickly and effectively at the beginning of a new academic year!

4.At what point(s) in the new academic year do you solicit and/or accept new members?  How do you get the word out about Pi Sigma Alpha to potential initiates?

This question produced the greatest distribution of responses of all those in this admittedly short and highly unscientific questionnaire-- roughly one-third of respondents fell into the following camps: (A) in the Spring, for the remainder of the current academic year and/or the beginning of the next one; (B) in the Fall, usually at the very beginning of the year and for its remainder; (C) both Fall and Spring, usually at the beginning of each major semester, with either a one-time initiation of all new members at the end of the academic year or, in the case of two reporting chapters, separate initiation ceremonies in the Fall and the Spring respectively. One chapter reported that recruitment and admission is an ongoing process throughout the academic year. One other added something of a twist in an attempt to promote member activity-- the chapter has recruitment drives at the beginning of both Fall and Spring terms with a single end-of-year initiation ceremony, but potential initiates are advised in writing that their membership is "probationary" in the sense that "those who join to pad their resumes and then plan to drop off the face of the earth are warned in writing that if they don't show any commitment or level of activity throughout the year, the chapter will refund their membership dues and refuse to initiate them formally with the National Office by way of a membership certificate, meaning they will never actually become a Pi Sigma Alpha member and cannot claim membership on professional documents."

Recruiting methods were varied, but most of them included the use of flyers on departmental bulletin boards and/or email announcements to students. Some respondents indicated that they asked (or department chairs required) all faculty to announce the chapter's solicitation for new members in classes. Others had presences on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to facilitate communication with interested students year-round. Two respondents indicated that they worked with their institution's Registrar's Office to produce a list of eligible students based on grade point average and class standing criteria; they then composed and mailed invitations to join to the identified students.

In a final open-ended comments item, respondents were invited to share any additional thoughts or comments they had about the general subject matter of the questionnaire. While many respondents did not avail themselves of this opportunity, the handful that did so were generally uniform with respect to the biggest issues of the "summer chapter"-- member and officer retention, and the need to find more effective ways of hitting the ground running with programs, activities and/or grant proposals for the new academic year. One advisor indicated a great desire to be able to "find officers more committed to the organization.... I'd love to have them."

The Newsletter would like to thank all of the advisors who provided their timely, insightful and helpful contributions to this survey!