Tag Archives: VPSA

2021 National VPSA Announcement

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Greetings Brothers!

I hope that the start to your school year is going well, and that you are enjoying the return to IN PERSON band practices and performances!  I wanted to provide you with some updates, as we have started the biennium!

National Vice President for Student Affairs

Here is an overview of the VPSA selection process:

  • The Application Window for VPSA was open from July 26, 20221 – August 23, 2021.  The announcement was posted on the kkpsi.org website 
  • Brother Bang Co, Former VPSA Zac Humphrey, and I held a VPSA Chat on the VPSA position for interested Candidates.
  • Once the application window closed and all packets were received, they were placed in a google folder for review by the National Council.  We received 14 packets for consideration.  
  • The candidates were then ranked.  We chose the top 8 candidates for zoom interviews.
  • All candidates were asked the same questions and received a 30 minutes interview.  National Council members provided feedback after both nights of interviews.
  • From the 8 candidates interviewed, we narrowed it down to 3 candidates.  We discussed the strengths and areas of concern of all 3 finalist candidates.  I also gave council members the opportunity to discuss other candidates if they wished – we did discuss another candidate who ranked 4th.
  • I then asked National Council members to email me their top candidate with feedback.  I received emails from all voting members, who were able to come to consensus.
  • The National Council then unanimously voted to recommend a candidate to the Board of trustees.
  • The Board of Trustees unanimously voted to accept our recommendation.

On behalf of the National Council and Board of Trustees, it is with excitement that I announce that Brother TarShae Odom, active member of the Zeta Eta Chapter of South Carolina State University, has been appointed to the National Vice President for Student Affairs Position.

Brother Tar-Shae` Ra-Jun Odom is a non-traditional student and a Spring 2018 initiate of the Zeta Eta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi at South Carolina State University. As an active brother of the Zeta Eta Chapter, he currently serves as the Service Chair. Most recently, Tar-Shae` has served the fraternity as the Southeast District President, Zeta Eta Chapter President, and as a member of the National DEIA Task Force.  Brother Odom is a 2021 winner of the J. Lee Burke Student Achievement award, the highest award a student of Kappa Kappa Psi can win.  Throughout his time at South Carolina State University, Tar-Shae has played french horn in the South Carolina State Concert Band, Symphonic Band, and Wind Ensemble.  He also played mellophone in the marching band, and this year, serves as one of the student conductors for the South Carolina State University Band Program.

On the South Carolina State University campus, Tar-Shae` serves as Chair of the National Interfraternity Music Council (NIMC), and is an advocate for student activities. Additionally, he is a member of Delta Phi Delta Dance Fraternity where he served as Chapter President of the Magnificent Mu Chapter, Southern Regional Director twice, and also National Vice President of External Affairs. Serving has played a major role in Tar-Shae’s life. Since high school, he has served as drum major, class president, school vice president, and tennis captain.  Brother Odom never runs from the opportunity to serve others, and believes that the act of serving others is what matters most at the end of the day. 

Outside of school and serving the band,  is a full-time bar manager at the Orangeburg Country Club.  He is a proud member of New Bethel Apostolic Church of Dillon, S.C. where he serves as an assistant choir director, and the keyboardist. 

As a leadership team, we are excited about Brother Odom’s vision to Rediscover, Rededicate, and Reclaim to Restore.  His ideas align with our national vision to help ReCharge our Brotherhood, and he is passionate about bridging gaps between students, national leadership, and alumni across the country. 

The National Council will have an officer installation for Brother Odom, which will be hosted live on facebook on Monday, October 11th at 7:00pm CST/8:00 pm EST.  We will also be hosting a National Council Meet and Greet session, for active members to get to know our council members, at the beginning of November.  Information about registering for this session will be coming in the next few weeks!

Brothers, the Officer Installation Ceremony reminds us of the following: “Just as any melody, from the most basic motives to the most ornately crafted themes, may be enhanced by a wise use of harmony or destroyed by discord, so too is the Brotherhood. It is your duty to assist your officers in working toward the goals which animate us all.”  I encourage you to reflect on these words, and take the time to be intentional to lend your assistance and support, not just to Brother Odom as he transitions to his new position, but to the rest of your National Leadership, your District Leadership, and Your Chapter Leadership.  We cannot do it alone.

Brother Odom may be reached via email at  trodom4@kkpsi.org.  We look forward to the work he will do as our 2021-2023 National Vice President for Student Affairs!

Striving to reCharge our Brotherhood,

Jessica Lee

48th National President of Kappa Kappa Psi

Life Member, Eta Alpha Chapter – Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania 

Call for Applications – National Vice President for Student Affairs

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Brothers:

At the 2021 Kappa Kappa Psi National Convention, no candidate received the simple majority vote needed to elect a National Vice President for Student Affairs for the 2021-2023 biennium. 

In accordance with the Kappa Kappa Psi National Constitution, if a vacancy occurs in the office of National Vice President for Student Affairs, the Board of Trustees, upon the recommendation of the National Council, shall appoint a National Vice President for Student Affairs. (Section 3.214)

The Kappa Kappa Psi National Council and Board of Trustees invite interested and qualified individuals to submit their name and qualifications for the position of National Vice President for Student Affairs for the 2021-2023 Biennium.  The qualifications and responsibilities of the National Vice President for Student Affairs are outlined in Section 3.208, Section 3.401, and Section 3.711 of the Kappa Kappa Psi National Constitution.

Interested individuals should meet the following qualifications:

  • Be at least twenty-three (23) years of age.
  • Completed at least two (2) years of college work.
  • Must be an Active Member, Associate Member, or Member of the Kappa Kappa Psi Alumni Association.
  • Possess outstanding business or professional ability.
  • Capable of representing the Fraternity under all ordinary conditions.
  • Willing and able to devote the necessary time to the execution of the duties imposed by the office.
  • Possess a thorough knowledge of developing and implementing student engagement programming.
  • Experienced in working with individuals and groups of diverse backgrounds.
  • Capable of mentoring and coaching students in the areas of leadership, event planning, and conflict resolution.

Interested individuals must submit the following information to the National Council (council@kkpsi.org) no later than 11:59 pm CST on August 23, 2021. 

  • Letter of intent for the office of National Vice President for Student Affairs, why it is being sought, what contributions you can make in that office, and information detailing how you meet the above qualifications.
  • Resume/Vita, which highlights professional, band, and fraternal experiences.
  • A minimum of three (no more than five) letters of recommendation, one of which should be from within the applicant’s profession.
  • A campaign statement, which provides a list of goals for the office and how you plan to achieve them.
  • Biographical profile for publication on the National Website.
  • One professional photograph, suitable for publication.

After a review of applications, the National Council will choose several individuals for a Zoom interview. Following the Zoom interview process, the National Council will recommend a candidate to the Board of Trustees, who review, approve, and appoint a National Vice President for Student Affairs.

Interested Brothers can submit materials electronically, in PDF format, no later than 11:59 pm CST on August 23, 2021, to: 

Email to: council@kkpsi.org

Email Subject Line:  National Vice President for Student Affairs Application

For more information, interested candidates can review the following:

  • Sample Candidate Packets:  Candidate packets will be posted on the elections website as examples.
  • VPSA Chat – VPSA Q&A Panel: Hosted on August 8th at 6:00 pm Central Time.  Registration Information for this session will be released in a few days.

Questions may be addressed to National President, Jessica Lee at jessicalee@kkpsi.org and to Board of Trustees Chair, Eric Morson at eric@kkpsi.org. We hope that you will consider applying for this unique opportunity to serve on the National Council!

AEA,

Jessica Lee

Kappa Kappa Psi National President 

Life Member, Eta Alpha – Lock Haven University

Student Advisory Committee January 2017 Report

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Brothers,

Below you will find an outline of what took place during the January Student Advisory Committee meeting on January 17, 2017. George Ishii of the SWD took notes for the meeting. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask. You can reach me at zac@kkpsi.org or the whole committee at StudentAdvisory@kkpsi.org.

Keep Striving!
Zac

—January SAC – Minutes 1/17/2017—

  • Introduction/Attendance
    • Midwest: Sarah Person – Sec/Treas
    • North Central: Abigail Johnson – VP for Membership
    • Northeast: none
    • Southeast: Ariel Clouse – VP for Membership, Evan Schlameuss – VP for Programs, Jerome Hall – Sec/Treas
    • Southwest: George Ishii – President, Arjun Jeetan – MAL
    • Western: Alyssa Maher – VP, Jake Rocco – MAL
  • District Updates
    • Midwest
      • no update provided
    • North Central
      • Winter Council Meeting week and a half ago
      • Convention in Columbus, Ohio
      • Met all FOUR host Chapters (All chapters located in Columbus)
      • DLC is next Saturday, in Hope,Indiana
    • North East
      • n/a
    • Southeast
      • Winter Council MLK Weekend
      • SED Con 2017 Tampa Florida, University of South Florida
      • DLC at Vanderbilt February 11th
      • Iota Nu Colony at Alabama A&M will be installed
    • Southwest
      • Busy with convention planning
      • Workshop season is about to get underway
        • going to be hosting a signing competition
    • Western
      • DLC – UCLA MLK Weekend (200 People!)
        • Had guest presentations with some National Officers
        • Tailored workshops to the age of the membership
        • Used an app as a digital schedule
        • Carpool Karaoke district-wide compilation video
        • Workshop to help sec/treas plan certain projects, contact for more info
        • Music Leadership Building Project – able to bring up problems and solutions together
  • SAC Topic #1: Do chapters in your district have local dues in addition to national dues? What are they used for and when are they collected?
    • Reach out to Chapters in your District and find out how much their local dues are and what that money goes towards, report back to VPSA
    • How does your own Chapter handle local dues?
      • The total varies per chapter: $5, $40-$50, $100
      • Money goes to:
        • General Service Funds
        • Chapter Polo shirt
        • Buying stoles for graduating seniors
        • Sending Delegates to Convention
        • Candidate Scholarship (pays for dues)
        • Beginning of Year Startup Funds
        • Determined to Chapter Vote
      • Many chapters have payment plans and priority is given to getting national dues in on time.
    • How do you feel about local dues?
      • Chapters should vote to approve local dues
      • Guidelines for payment plans would be welcome
        • Could setup payment plans during the last meetings of the year
          • guidelines for how to set these up would be welcome
      • Service funds should be fundraised by Chapter, local dues are for personal Chapter expenses
  • National Council Updates
    • Met in Orlando, FL for Winter Council at NatCon Hotel
    • Marco and Zac are working on a budgeting tool with Headquarters to get Chapters to NatCon
      • Rough estimate for 4 people in a hotel room for week with registration is $125 for Convention and $132 for hotel room
      • Parking is  $16/day
      • More to be included in the tool
    • February 1st is date for NatCon Website to go live
    • Curriculum Committee
      • Recorded hour and a half of audio for the KKPsi Presents Podcast
      • Will be a part of the National Town Hall at District Conventions
    • 75-80% of the way through budget, on track
    • Due to growth of National Organization, discussion on whether to suspend the automatic dues increase at NatCon
    • KKPsi Presents Podcast to be reformatted into segments
      • Will be asking for submissions from all Brothers about their own stories
    • Awards
      • Jack and Marco have reviewed Leadership Funds
      • Solicitation for Boh Makovsky Award, for an outstanding conductor
      • Gold Star Recognition – Brothers who have served/passed away during Military Service
    • Chapter Petitioning Documents are being scanned into an online database for Chapters to be able to access
  • District Feedback/Concerns
    • Curriculum Pilot Chapter Feedback:
      • Candidates enjoy being able to plan and execute their own fundraiser and service project
      • Has given Candidates a more collaborative and inclusive experience
      • Western District got feedback that they felt they were growing as leaders, but were less sure of the identity of the fraternity
        • lack of focus on chapter, district, and TBS identities
  • Announcements and Wrap up
    • J. Lee Burke are open to all Brothers, not just District Presidents
    • A. Frank Martin given to someone with a regional impact
    • DSMM top award given to someone with life-long contributions to music

Kappa Kappa Psi Presents Announcement

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Taking into account feedback received following prior Kappa Kappa Psi Presents sessions, coupled with conversations had with students and alumni since national convention in Lexington, I am happy to announce the transformation of Kappa Kappa Psi Presents into an ongoing podcast. Episodes will be similar in structure to the sessions from the fall where I along with a guest or two get together and talk about a topic. The only difference being instead of an hour or hour and a half session once a month, we are aiming to deliver a 20 to 30 minute episode weekly. In addition to chapter operation related topics like finances, the OMRS, and recruitment, we are also aiming to provide snapshots in time of our organization by bringing you interviews with current active and alumni members, as well as current and past members of the national leadership team.

While I am still in the process of recording the first handful of episodes and investigating the best way to disseminate the podcast, I wanted to share this exciting announcement with you (especially since I let the cat out of the bag at the Northeast District Convention this past weekend).

Now, you are probably wondering how you can actively participate in this project. For starters, I have created a google form where you can submit ideas, questions, and topics to be covered during future episodes. In addition, please feel free to tweet your questions using the hashtag #KKPsiPresents. Or you can email us directly at kkpsipresents@kkpsi.org. Despite the pre-recorded format of of the episodes,we are still aiming to have this be a collaborative conversation. We even plan to do some live twitter chats where we will take questions and record our conversation during the chat and then post the recordings later.

In addition to general suggestions for ideas and topics, we are aiming to create episodes on the topics covered in the fall as well as the one that was postponed due to scheduling. If  you have anything you have always wanted to know regarding the OMRS, chapter finances, continuing membership education, or recruitment, please follow the links to the associated google form for those topics specifically.

OMRS: http://goo.gl/forms/w0KnJWSjr4

Finances: http://goo.gl/forms/PaMMlvX4Nq

Continuing membership education: http://goo.gl/forms/kNraF0ZYm3

Recruitment: http://goo.gl/forms/RFIv5UYTxr

Suggestions: http://goo.gl/forms/Mq0dihdHM0

I’m looking forward to continuing the conversation as we embark on this exciting new project together!

AEA,

Zac Humphrey, National Vice President for Student Affairs

Introducing, Kappa Kappa Psi Presents

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KKPsi_presents_logo
Brothers of Kappa Kappa Psi,
 
Thank you to everyone who participated in the availability poll! Based on the responses, the first VPSA-hosted student chat will be next Tuesday, September 22nd, at 9pm EDT. The topic for this first session will be the Online Membership Reporting System. Our guest co-host for the session will be Aaron Moore, National Alumni, Historical, and Development Coordinator. He has a long history with the development of the OMRS and is a great resource for your chapters. Please come with your questions and OMRS-related experiences to share!
 
The rest of this announcement will be in two parts. The first part will detail the new format and structure of these chats going forward this biennium. The second relates to the online meeting tool the fraternity has at its disposal. I will provide links to the tool’s website that include system requirements, download instructions, and FAQs.
 
I am excited to continue the great conversations that were started in Lexington! See you online Tuesday evening!
 
AEA,
Zac
 
Zachary T. Humphrey
National Vice President for Student Affairs
Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity
zac@kkpsi.org
 

Part I: Introducing Kappa Kappa Psi Presents
 
After listening to the feedback received in Lexington and the following weeks, I have been working with members of the national leadership, as well your district leadership, to revamp what was formerly known as the VPSA Student Chats. Out of those conversations, Kappa Kappa Psi Presents was born.
 
The idea behind Kappa Kappa Psi Presents is that once a month, your VPSA will host an online conversation between the active brotherhood nationwide that revolves around a central topic or theme. Participating in these conversations will be a knowledge-area expert from the national level that will act as a resource in addition to the VPSA throughout the conversation. An hour will be allotted, which will allow brothers to actively engage with each other as well as with members of the national leadership. Kappa Kappa Psi Presents will not be a video chat, but rather an audio chat, as video is one of the great limiters in online meetings. Also know that there is a 50 participant maximum.
 
To give brothers a sense of how the hour flow, I give the following breakdown. Each conversation will start with introductions on the theme and host as well as a quick update on the work of the national level. Next, I will turn the conversation over to the guest host and allow them to give a quick overview of their experience as it relates to the topic. I will then pose a series of questions that either myself and the other co-host have come up with or questions that brothers have submitted ahead of time. From there, the goal is to allow the bulk of the time be given over to the brothers in attendance to ask questions of their own and share experiences. Towards the end of the hour, I will begin to wind down the conversation and make any relevant announcements (the next chat topic and time, etc.).
 
You might be asking, “what if I cannot make a session, but I have a question or I want to hear other’s experiences on that topic?” Fear not! As mentioned, I am encouraging brothers to submit their questions or conversation topics relating to the Kappa Kappa Psi Presents topic beforehand. Starting on Saturday, September 19, brothers will be able to send emails to kkpsipresents@kkpsi.org that contain their questions.
 
In addition, I plan to record the audio of each session. The goal is to work with Robert Bratcher, our National Publication Manager and Multimedia Designer, to publish a monthly podcast with the recorded audio that will be made available following each session. This will allow access for brothers who cannot make the time, or for brothers who were not able to attend due to participant restrictions imposed by the software.
 
Now you are probably wonder what are the types of topics we will discuss during these monthly sessions. In the conversations since convention, some of the topics and themes that active brothers want to discuss are as follows:

  • the Online Membership Reporting System
  • the Podium/social media
  • 3rd degree, then what? (continuing membership ed/active-in-training when they get their bid/are candidates, etc.)
  • director and/or sponsor transitions/relations
  • de-mystifying the board of trustees
  • graduating seniors/alumni association/life membership
  • chapter: small and isolated? (small chapter problems)
  • chapter: too big to fail? (large chapter problems)
  • transitions (officer, membership status, etc.)
  • managing finances (not just how to fundraise, but acting in fiscally responsible manners, making financially sound decisions, planning for the future, etc.)
  • service (how do chapters address needs, come up with what to do, etc.) 

I figure this is something that will develop and evolve organically as the program gets going based on feedback, as well as trends that are observed by your district and national leadership.
 
Part II: Online Meeting Tool
 
The national organization has an account with OmniJoin. To access the online meeting room click here. I am linking OmniJoin’s FAQs and system requirements. The tool works on Windows and Mac based machines. Note that for Windows, it works on IE 9 or later, Chrome, of Firefox browsers. For Mac, it works on Safari and Firefox browsers. There is also a mobile app that works with iOS. You can find more info on mobile access here.  In order to participate, you will have to install either the browser plug-in or the client application on your computer or mobile device.
 
Starting at 8pm EDT on Tuesday, I will have the meeting room open to allow brothers the opportunity to try logging on as this is a new tool for the active membership. It is a fairly straightforward process to install, whichever method you choose. The first time I used it, it took less that two minutes to get up and running.
 
Please, if you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out!