Happy New Year brothers! The national council recently met in New Orleans for our annual winter council meeting. While there, we gave updates on the work done since national convention and began planning for the next six months. The weekend was full of great conversation and planning for the future. Below you will find a brief update on the work the council tackled during our meetings.

AEA,
Jack Lee, National President
Evan Thompson, National Vice President for Colonization and Membership
Marco Krcatovich, National Vice President for Programs
Zac Humphrey, National Vice President for Student Affairs
Doug Stotter, National Vice President for Professional Relations

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TRAVEL

Earlier this quarter, Jack attended a meeting with Chair for the Board of Trustees, Rod Chesnutt, and National Executive Director, Steve Nelson, in Fort Myers, FL. This meeting has occurred for several years and was an opportunity for Rod and Jack to work with Steve to kick off the biennium.

Kappa Kappa Psi had representation at The Midwest Clinic with Evan, Marco, and Doug, as well as multiple other members of national leadership including governors and board of trustee members. The conversations following the clinic indicate that it was a great meeting.

The fraternity and the sorority will have representation at the annual Honda Battle of the Bands event held in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with Jack, Evan and Zac will attend on behalf of the fraternity.

DISTRICT CONVENTION PLANNING

Jack is currently working with the district presidents to provide feedback on their convention plans. This process involves the use of a convention plan template created by Immediate Past President Christine Beason that allows for all convention related information to be included in a single document. This makes the review process more efficient and streamlined.

In addition, Marco has notified the district councils of funds they were awarded based on leadership fund requests submitted prior to the winter council meeting.

NATIONAL COUNCIL MEETINGS

The council has made plans to begin meeting on regular basis in between our in-person winter and summer meetings. These meetings will be a venue to give updates on projects in-progress as well as discuss current fraternity business to help give more time to the big picture conversations and planning discussions that take place during in-person meetings.

COLONIZATION AND MEMBERSHIP

Evan shared that our three active colonies are on track to be installed within the next few months and that we have already begun receiving applications for colonies using the updated application that debuted in the fall. The council reviewed these applications during our meetings in New Orleans.

The council also had a discussion relating to a national leadership development program that would replace the National Leadership Symposia that was discontinued in 2012. Evan and Marco are both working on how this can be done in a way that will most benefit our membership.

Evan reported that as of our council meeting in New Orleans, there were 210 total chapters, with 4,613 dues paying members. He also shared that the average chapter size is 20 brothers.

Evan also gave an update on the Curriculum Development Committee, which had a series of in-person meetings directly prior to the start of the winter council meeting. The goal of this committee is the development of a National Membership Development Program and more on that will be presented at the upcoming district conventions.

The fraternity currently is accepting applications for new Chapter Field Representatives (CFR) as the current two are entering into their final semester. The council wants to thank Andy Melvin and Chris Young for all of their hard work and dedication over the past two years. If you are interested in applying for CFR, check out the more on the application process here.

Evan has also begun the process of planning for this upcoming District Leadership Conference that is attended by the district presidents over the summer. This work is coordinated with his Tau Beta Sigma counterpart, Jonathan Markowski.

PROGRAMS AND AWARDS

Marco shared the progress of his work towards streamlining the awards application process as well as leading a conversation centered on the evaluation of awards and program applications. He is going to be working with National Headquarters staff to create dedicated sections of the national website for each award or program that will also feature past winners, FAQs and other resources that would be helpful for aspiring chapters.

Marco also reported improved participation during November’s National Month of Musicianship. This year 170 chapters listed at least one participating event on their Fall Activity Report (FAR), with 28 chapters meeting his goal of four activities throughout the entire month. This is up from the 2014 totals of 150 chapters doing at least one even and 17 reporting that they did four. The resulting conversation centered on effective ways to promote programs like this. It also led to a discussion about expanding the theme months to other pillars of Kappa Kappa Psi. Marco and Zac are going look at how best to implement this idea moving forward.

STUDENT AFFAIRS

During the meetings, Zac relayed many concerns and questions that have cropped up from active students throughout the fall. These ranged from changes made at national convention to if and how districts could accept credit cards for district related events. Concerns like these led to conversations about ways that the council could communicate upcoming changes in a more effective way, as well as making better use of the District Convention Town Hall format.

The future of the Kappa Kappa Psi Presents/VPSA student chats was also discussed. Based on those conversations, Zac is going to experiment with the podcasting format and transform the Kappa Kappa Psi Presents sessions into ones where brothers can submit questions and comments ahead of time or during a prearranged time period. Zac and his guests will then discuss those submissions and other points relating to the topic of the episode. These conversations will be recorded and made available to brothers nationwide. Be on the lookout for more information regarding this going forward.

It is hard to believe that it is almost Thanksgiving! Where did the fall term go? The national council met last week and wanted to be sure brothers around the country knew what we have been up to over the past few months. The update in September was well received, and our goal is to publish a council update every other month going forward. Below you can see some of what the council has been tackling.

Also, as the holidays and finals are fast approaching, the national council hopes that you have safe travels and a successful end of term!

AEA,

Zac Humphrey, National Vice President for Student Affairs

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National Council Updates

Jack Lee, National President – lee.jack.d@gmail.com

• Have regional premieres (each district) of the commissioned piece “Of Blood and Stone”

  • Jack, along with National Vice President for Professional Relations Dr. Douglas Stotter, National Executive Director Steve Nelson, and Tau Beta Sigma Vice President for Professional Relations Beth Bronk have been working diligently to ensure that we have “regional premieres” of the Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma commissioned piece Of Blood and Stone that was premiered at the 2015 National Convention. Currently we have a handful scheduled, but we are working to finalize the remaining. This list will be publicized to the entire membership on the website as well as advertised in major band publications.

• Changes within the Kappa Kappa Psi Governor Corps

  • All governor positions are filled, and there are no intentions of additional changes in the Fraternity’s governor corps this biennium. Jack is pleased to welcome Mr. John Leonard to the national leadership team as one of the Northeast District Governors. Mr. Leonard is currently the associate director of bands at Northeastern University located in Boston, MA. He is eager to get started and is excited to begin this journey within Kappa Kappa Psi.

• Review the Fraternity’s presence at Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and State Music Educators Association Meetings

  • National Executive Director Steve Nelson, Tau Beta Sigma National President Kathryn Kelly, and Jack have been working to finalize the details of the Fraternity and Sorority’s presence at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. We will have a strong contingency from Kappa Kappa Psi that will include Jack, VP for Colonization and Membership Evan Thompson, and VP for Professional Relations Dr. Douglas Stotter. While at Midwest we will work to promote the National Intercollegiate Band, make valuable connections with directors across the country, and help spread the mission, vision and values of our fraternity.

• History and Archives Committee Special Project

  • Jack has been working with the History and Archives team to establish the plausibility of a special project that would involve digitizing much of the Fraternity’s historical documents. Our hope is for this project to come to fruition and enable chapters across the country to have access to historical documents – possibly chapters’ petitioning documents – for resources and membership education purposes.

• Fraternity Employee Retirement Plan

  • With the help of many individuals on the national leadership team, the Fraternity and Sorority are now providing a 401K retirement plan for our National Headquarters employees. Jack signed the official document on behalf of a unanimous national council vote authorizing National Executive Director Steve Nelson to allow the fraternity to formally offer this to our employees.

• Stillwater Property Renovations

  • Jack has also been working closely with Steve Nelson on fraternity properties relating to the necessary renovations and updates. The roof has been replaced at the CFR Duck Street House and the window replacement at National Headquarters is in progress.

Evan Thompson, National Vice President for Colonization and Membership – evan@kkpsi.org

• Colonization Update

  • Gamma Eta at New Mexico State University was installed on November 15, 2015.
  • Evan is collecting forms/fees and planning pre-installation visits for Illinois/UC, Illinois/Chicago, and East Tennessee.
  • Evan is also creating a new colonization application that will be available on the website November 15, 2015. Many thanks to Robert Bratcher for his work on this project!

• Membership Update

  • Unfortunately, there are several chapters that have failed to meet their financial obligations with the Fraternity. Evan, Jack, and our National Headquarters staff have been working with chapters to rectify these situations. Any chapter that fails to submit payment for membership dues on time and with the required signatures and documentation may be placed on suspension, which means no chapter activities may occur.
  • Evan sent emails to every chapter Vice President of Membership or Membership Educator offering assistance. If you have not received an email please contact me!
  • Evan met with the Curriculum Development Committee to review recommendations made by active members from the 2015 Colonization & Membership Committee. The committee’s plan is to present information and updates to members during the 2016 district convention cycle.
  • National Chapter and Colony Education Coordinator Yvonne Daye and Evan designed an investigation protocol document that has been reviewed by members of the National Leadership and Headquarters Staff. The document was set for an October release, but leadership was in agreement that the document be reviewed by our legal team.
  • Evan is continuing our work with chapters on discipline status to complete requirements and build a healthy, successful culture.

• Leadership Development

  • Evan met with Dr. Kirk Randazzo (Professor of Political Science and Director of the Carolina Leadership Initiative, University of South Carolina) to discuss current trends in leadership development and future plans for a new fraternity leadership initiative. More to come in Spring 2016.

Marco Krcatovich, National Vice President for Programs – mkrcatovich@gmail.com

• Month of Musicianship

  • In progress! The council will do an evaluation at the end of the month to see how it went overall and see which chapters lived up to the fraternity challenge of FOUR events in the month.
  • Be sure to take a look at the incredible stories posted on Kappa Kappa Psi’s social media channels around the month of musicianship!

• Awards, Programs, and Website Updates

  • The National Council will be reviewing all of the new documents, resources, and processes at our Winter Council Meeting and all approved changes will go into effect soon after. Stay tuned for a lot of changes to improve our national website!
  • KKPsi.org needs regular updates and revisions to best serve our brothers, the community and college bands, and the time has come again to do some cleaning. Marco will be announcing in mid-December a contest for suggesting changes to content, finding mistakes, and suggesting new material and resources for the website.

• Creation and development of new fraternal resources 

  • Marco is working on creating a strategic planning page for the national website.
  • He will also be creating some new chapter and national documents that are effectively FAQs on items like the Fraternity Budget, Chapter Leadership Speakers, and suggesting updates for the National Constitution. As each is completed, Marco will be contacting the brotherhood to let you know it is available and adding them to the website and Podium Online.

Zac Humphrey, National Vice President for Student Affairs – zac@kkpsi.org

• Kappa Kappa Psi Presents Update

  • Zac has hosted three Kappa Kappa Psi Presents sessions since September. These sessions have covered the OMRS, chapter financial planning, and active continuing membership education. While participation has been lacking at times, the most recent session had over 30 brothers in attendance. The conversations and fellowship have been great, and Zac is looking for ways to continue to improve this program’s efficacy. A special thanks goes to National Alumni Historical and Development Coordinator Aaron Moore, Board of Trustee member Danny George, and National Chapter and Colony Education Coordinator Yvonne Daye for their participation as co-hosts for these conversations.

• District Officer Collaboration

  • Zac has hosted three monthly meetings that have been open to all district officers. These conversations provided the officers a space to ask questions and share the work they are doing in their district with other district leadership. It has been awesome to see the work that is going on on a district level and it is great to see the brothers reaching across district lines for feedback and ideas.
  • Zac participated in the Western District #SuckersforService Online Hangout. It was a combined effort between Google Hangouts and Twitter to share all manners of experiences and questions relating to service.

• Chapter Interaction

  • During the November 13-15 weekend, Zac traveled to West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, for a weekend of fellowship and learning. He lead a conversation that looked at why brothers joined the fraternity and what keeps bringing them back. NED Governor Marie Burleigh and NED President Alex Thompson also lead conversations on page 50 of the ritual and on speaking up and engaging as an active member of the chapter, regardless of age. It was a successful venture, and he looks forward to seeing more events like this in the future.
  • Zac has skyped into Gamma Nu and Kappa Iota’s prospective member classes. In doing so, he introduced himself and more generally the national council to the candidates and gave overviews of the work that the national council does throughout the biennium.

Have you been wondering what the national council has been working on since you elected them in Lexington? Below you will find a list of goals and updates relating to those goals.

Jack Lee, National President – lee.jack.d@gmail.com

• Have regional premieres (each district) of the commissioned piece “Of Blood and Stone”

  • Jack has been working with Steve Nelson and Doug Stotter to review the contact of the commissioned piece that was signed several years ago to ensure that we can get the regional premieres. He has also worked with Steve and Doug on seeking out some collegiate programs that will premiere the piece for us. So far there are several that are willing. The fraternity will promote these regional premieres through our own mediums as well as through publications such as “The Instrumentalist” and “Southwestern Musician” (Two prominent band publications)

• Create and publicize the Fraternity discipline process so that all chapters can see what process we use

  • He has been working with VPCM Evan Thompson and CCEC Yvonne Daye to ensure that we have a documented discipline process. Much of the operation of the Fraternity in past years has been dependent upon institutional knowledge with little written down and documented. They  are very near to finalizing this document, and he anticipate that this will be uploaded to the national website within the next two-three weeks.

• Identify and appoint governors for the Southeast and Northeast Districts

  • Following national convention the fraternity has two vacancies in our governor corps – one in the northeast and one in the southeast. Evan Thompson’s election to VPCM created the vacancy in the southeast district. I have appointed a replacement, and that replacement will begin duties immediately. Latrondrick Hunter will fill the SED governor position and there will be a formal fraternity-wide e-mail announcement this week. He is currently working with several individuals to fill the vacant NED governor position that was left empty with Casey Goodwin stepped down and her term ended at national convention.

• Schedule a meeting between the National Executive Director, the National President, and the Chair for the Board of Trustees

  • He has been communicating with Steve Nelson and Rod Chesnutt on scheduling a face-to-face meeting between the three of them. That meeting is scheduled for September 19th on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus in Fort Myers, FL. The meeting will be an opportunity for Steve, Rod, and Jack to update each of other on the work of the council, board, and HQ. It will also be used to begin planning some of the larger work of the biennium.

• Review the Fraternity’s presence at Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and State Music Educators Association Meetings

  • Steve, Kathryn, and Jack have been working to adjust our presence. They will have a booth at the Intercollegiate Marching Festival in Allentown, PA. There are many programs with chapters that march at this event. They will also be in attendance at Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic. and TMEA. They are currently discussing our purpose at these meetings and making adjustments as needed.

• Work with National Headquarters on the Fall Mail Out

  • The beginning of each school year, the fraternity mails (read: e-mails) out a formal document that helps recap national convention and the upcoming year.  It also includes important information for the active membership. That mail out should occur within the next several days.

• Review National Council Minutes for publication

  • Vice President Krcatovich has currently submitted the minutes to Past President Beason and Jack to review and submit any needed adjustments before publication. That document is currently being reviewed, and I anticipate that it will be sent along to Robert Bratcher for branding and publication extremely soon.

• Coordinate with VPCM Thompson, the CFRs, and HQ the CFR travel schedule

  • While VPCM Thompson completed the large majority of the work for this, Jack worked alongside him to ensure that we continued the necessary CFR focus that carries from one biennium to the next. The CFR schedules were completed, posted online, and the CFRs are already making visits.

Evan Thompson, National Vice President for Colonization and Membership – evan@kkpsi.org

• CFR program

  • Evan approved CFR travel schedules and continue to provide professional development and training throughout the semester.
  • Preparing for 2016 CFR Hiring Process. Developed criteria and worked with Robert to update the advertisement for the Podium.

• District Leadership Conference 2016

  • Planning for the 2016 District Leadership Conference this summer in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Will be providing leadership training for district presidents and quality professional development for Governors.

• Work through colony and discipline for this upcoming semester in an efficient and timely manner

  • Evan Finalized Discipline Letters with Yvonne Daye for Fall 2015 with hard deadlines set for September 15 or 30. Please follow up with those chapters. He also approved Membership Education Programs for Colonies and discipline chapters.

• Get chapter discipline protocol and flow charts finalized and approved for publication on the national website

  • Evan worked with Yvonne Daye to finalize discipline protocol and flow charts (will be available on National Website by September 30). The protocol and flow charts will allow the council to be more transparent in the discipline process

• Review, change, update, overhaul the colonization process (will be prepared for district convention season)

  • Evan is planning Pre-Installation Visits for New Mexico State and East Tennessee Colonies with 3rd Degree/Installation ideally happening in late September or Early October. He has also approve University of Illinois Chicago and UI-Urbana/Champaign for 1st and 2nd degrees.

• Hold mid-semester conference call with Governors and would like to do the same with District Presidents

  • Continue work on the Chapter Vice President’s Teaching Guide (will be prepared for district convention season)

Marco Krcatovich, National Vice President for Programs – mkrcatovich@gmail.com

• “Close the books” on the 2013-2015 National Convention: Minutes, Scholarship Notifications, etc. Update the National Constitution.  Publish the National Budget.

  • Marco closed the 2013-15 business and is working with Robert to post updated versions of the National Constitution and National Convention minutes along with the National Budget.  Updates to the Guide to Membership will be complete by mid-October.

• Create a new webpage for each award and build a new, uniform award application for each.  Aiming for a soft launch by January in advance of District Convention season.

  • Marco began work with Robert Bracher on the new Press Release template, new award and grant templates, and will be starting our work on new websites in September.

• Create a fundraising plan for the Trust Fund Scholarships account so that the fraternity can raise as much money as we give out each biennium and work towards a long-term fraternity goal of endowing our scholarships and leadership programs as we also endow the NIB and other projects.

  • Marco developed the fundraising plan to raise roughly $25,000 this biennium and will present it to the Development Team, Board of Trustees, and National Council at the end of September along with working on better outreach about programs like the National Headquarters Bricks to help in the kickoff for the upcoming capital campaign.

• Review the National Website and update all pages that are now inconsistent with the decisions at National Convention or are out of date.  

  • Marco began identifying updates for the National Website and identified some ways to get the active membership involved in reviewing and improving our national website.

• Create a regular schedule for promoting, notifying, and celebrating our national programs and awards to begin automating many of these annual processes so there is more focus on new projects and not rebuilding the current structure each biennium.

  • Marco created new internal deadlines for reports and Council documents and began work on a better template for National Convention reports and pre-convention communication to make the fraternity’s operations more transparent and accessible.

• Month of Musicianship!!

  • Marco crafted the Month of Musicianship plan and I will be reaching out to the District officers who deal with “programs” (VPP, MAL, etc.) to collaborate and cross-promote.

• Create sample applications for each award to document best practices and help chapters improve the quality of the applications they submit.

  • Marco is developing resources to improve not only the number of applications we have for our awards and programs, but improve the quality of those applications as well.

• Craft a personal evaluation process for the office that will be completed by active members and designed to identify where outreach is working and where brothers are learning about our awards and programs and where the information is not reaching the membership.

  • Marco will be reaching out to actives across the brotherhood to make sure changes are being noticed and to review his own work every six months to regularly identify areas for improvement as a brother and a leader.

• Develop new chapter/national press releases and begin regularly promoting our awards and programs to the general public.

  • In an effort to increase the reach of our programs, Marco is sending press releases for new awardees and notifying university administration when our brothers are recognized for their great work.  To do this a new press release template for the National Leadership and for chapters is being developed and it will be introduced to chapters this fall.

Zac Humphrey, National Vice President for Student Affairs – zac@kkpsi.org

• Finalize student chat schedule of topics and format to present to the active brotherhood by mid September

  • Zac researched alternatives to google hangouts for VPSA student chats. He also drafted a plan for the coming year in terms of student chats in terms of content and format that was shared with the national council. He recently tested out the OmniJoin online meeting tool during a meeting with district officers. He presented his vision for the new Kappa Kappa Psi Presents sessions to the active brotherhoods and planned the first one focusing on the Online Membership Reporting System.

• Work to promote the Podium Online as a medium for continuing conversation between the active brothers and the national level

  • Zac discussed with Robert Bratcher at HQ ways to better utilize the Podium Online and make it into a resource that is more utilized throughout the year. He also submitted a piece for The Podium that challenges brothers to submit their experiences to The Podium and the Podium Online.

• Work with Robert on developing the chapter social media database

  • Zac shared links to the social media contact info form that Robert created and helped publicize this project. This will become a resource that our students can use to share and connect with others online.

• Get the conversation from the national level more constant and consistent

  • Zac worked with Robert to come up with ways to streamline communication from the national level and have presented ideas to council and HQ on ways to make our messaging more consistent across various media while taking advantage of the inherent strengths of each medium.
  • He has also been working with Marco and Robert to come up with a way to make sure that we are staying active in our online presence throughout the year and that reminders are consistent and constant.

• Create and maintain a district officer hangout that happens throughout the year

  • Zac hosted a meeting with district officers to provide an update on what the national council has been working on since national convention. This is set to be a regular meeting throughout the year to not only provide updates on national council work, but also an opportunity for the district officers to collaborate and work together.

• Meet with all VPSA candidates and write up an after action report on the conversations that were had to present to the council

  • Zac met with the 6 other VPSA candidates to debrief from national convention and also look for ways to keep active and engaged alumni involved as well as have conversations about what the office of VPSA could accomplish in the coming biennium.