In this episode, Adam and Christopher interview Sigma Nu’s 68th Regent, Brother Maury Gaston. Regent Gaston was installed as Regent during the 70th Grand Chapter in Fort Lauderdale. He will lead the Fraternity’s High Council (Board of Directors) over the next biennium (2023-2025). During the episode, Adam, Christopher, and Regent Gaston discuss the Fraternity’s updated Strategic Plan, Maury’s vision for the Fraternity over the next two years, and highlights from his inaugural remarks.
The Gavel Podcast is the official podcast of Sigma Nu Fraternity, Inc. and is dedicated to keeping you updated on the operations of the Legion of Honor and connecting you to stories from our brotherhood.
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The Gavel Podcast - Ep 35 – Interview with Maury Gaston (Auburn), Sigma Nu’s 68th Regent
[Intro Music]
0:00:42.6 Adam Girtz: Hello and welcome to the latest episode of The Gavel Podcast. I'm Adam.
0:00:46.3 Christopher Brenton: And I'm Christopher.
0:00:47.4 Adam Girtz: The Gavel Podcast is the official Podcast of Sigma Nu fraternity, and it's a show dedicated to keeping you updated on the operations of the Legion of Honor, and connecting you to the stories from our brotherhood.
0:00:56.8 Christopher Brenton: To find out more from the fraternity, you can always check out our website at sigmanu.org, you can also find us on Instagram and Facebook, @sigmanuhq, or by searching for Sigma Nu Fraternity.
0:01:07.2 Adam Girtz: Christopher, hello. Big interview tonight, huh?
0:01:12.8 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, I know. This is an exciting on. When the podcast launched in 2021, even though I wasn't a part of it yet, it was right in the middle of... I guess I should say it was right before the Grand Chapter where Regent Tim Huffmyer would rise and become the Regent for the fraternity for the next biennium. And I think that the... We're still trying to figure things out. We're trying to identify where the podcast was going to go and how we were going to use it, and we never had the opportunity to interview brother Huffmyer, but with now Brother Maury Regent coming in to his regency and leading us through the next biennium, we thought we didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to have him on and be able to talk to him about his vision for what he wants the next two years, the next biennium to look like for the fraternity. Also, I heard that Maury is one of our biggest fans. We can consistently hear from Maury about his appreciation for the podcast and how he's enjoying the content. Certainly, we make it for guys like Maury, but then also it's especially fun to hear from the Regent of our organization that he in particular is appreciating the content, so, happy to have him on for that reason as well.
0:02:42.2 Adam Girtz: Yes, absolutely. And hopefully this is the start of a tradition of having the Regent address the general population of Sigma Nu members and alumni through this type of platform. I think it's a great platform for it. We had a great time interviewing Maury and getting his thoughts on what's the vision, and I think it gives him the opportunity to be a little more conversational, maybe than remarks at Grand Chapter which his remarks at Grand Chapter were remarkable.
0:03:21.5 Christopher Brenton: Yeah.
0:03:22.9 Adam Girtz: But I think giving it a little interrogation and a little bit of opportunity to converse about it in a more open format, I think is a good platform for it as well.
0:03:34.5 Christopher Brenton: Yeah. Well, just to give folks who may not be as familiar with the governance of the national organization, I'll give you a quick primer. So, every two years, the fraternity convenes for a Grand Chapter. We recently had our 70th Grand Chapter in Fort Lauderdale. And during the Grand Chapter, the body of representatives that are there are tasked with the election of a High Council. And that is our effective board of directors for the organization, and leading that board of directors is a Regent. Now, the Grand Chapter elects a Regent elect every Grand Chapter, that person serves in that role for two years and then they ascend to the position of Regency at the following Grand Chapter. So technically, the Regent is not elected. The Regent elect is, but then they assume that position automatically. To think of it in US government terms, it would be the equivalent of if we didn't elect the president, we instead elected the vice president and then after two years, they became the president automatically.
0:04:41.0 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:04:41.0 Christopher Brenton: And that's the equivalent of how that would look. But the Regent as the chairman of the fraternity's Board of Directors, the High Council, Maury now will lead the organization and the execution of the fraternity strategic plan, the High Council hires the executive of the general fraternity, who then hires a fraternal staff or a staff of employees that do the work of the Grand Chapter. All of our High Council are well established in their own careers, they don't have time for the day-to-day minutia of running a national organization, and so they hire a general fraternity staff to do that.
0:05:25.0 Christopher Brenton: But we looked to the High Council for their leadership and their vision on where they want to see the fraternity go, and then we are stewards of that will, and so we assist with the execution of those plans and carrying out the strategic goals of the organization. So in this conversation, you're getting to hear from Maury, who is our new national president for the organization, so you're going to hear us talk about his ascendancy to the position of Regent, but then also the strategic plan which the High Council recently adopted at the strategic planning retreat earlier in Lexington. And that again will be the guide for the next two years and what the fraternity hopes to accomplish. So that's just a quick primer for those of you who may not be as familiar with the fraternity's governance model, so that the next 30 minutes will make sense for you.
0:06:18.4 Adam Girtz: Yeah, Maury is the captain of the battleship, and we are manning the engine room and shoveling coal and making sure it's... Everything's ship shape, right?
0:06:28.5 Christopher Brenton: Absolutely.
0:06:31.9 Adam Girtz: Awesome. Well, let's dive into the interview with Maury and then we'll see everyone on the back end.
[Transition Music]
0:06:57.6 Christopher Brenton: Hello and welcome back to at The Gavel Podcast. We are pleased to be able to bring you a special conversation today. We have with us our esteemed Regent, Brother Maury Gaston Beta Theta chapter at Auburn University. Brother Gaston was recently or recently ascended to the position of Regent at our 70th Grand Chapter, and so we wanted to have him on just to, one, introduce him to folks who may not have had the opportunity to meet him yet as in effect, the national president for the organization.
0:07:30.8 Christopher Brenton: Maury will lead Sigma Nu for over the next biennium. And so we want people to know who he is and what his vision is for, for the fraternity for the next two years. And so we're going to introduce him to you, give him the opportunity to introduce himself, I should say, and then go into an interview where we can learn a little bit more about what the High Council has been up to for the past couple of months.
0:07:55.5 Christopher Brenton: As they have set out to develop their strategic plan, and I know that this has been in the works for a while, as Maury as the last two years as the Regent elect, and so he's had plenty of time to think about what his vision is going to be for the next biennium that he'll oversee from 2023 to 2025. So without further ado, Maury, welcome to The Gavel Podcast.
0:08:20.0 Maury Gaston: Thank you, Christopher. I know you haven't introduced Adam yet, but thank you, Adam, as well.
0:08:26.9 Adam Girtz: Yeah, I'm glad to have you.
0:08:28.5 Maury Gaston: Pleasure to meet you.
0:08:30.6 Adam Girtz: Our biggest fan of the podcast finally gets to be on the show and it's been a long time coming. Good to have you, Maury.
0:08:36.4 Maury Gaston: Well, I do enjoy your programs. I try to catch all of them and I'm really excited about this new addition to our media portfolio.
0:08:46.1 Adam Girtz: Love it.
0:08:47.8 Christopher Brenton: Well, Maury, before we begin, we do have an itinerary laid out, as you know, some behind the scenes work there, but we love to kick off each episode with our interviews with our special guests to ask them the question, what is your Sigma Nu story? Essentially, what brought you to Sigma Nu? And or why Sigma Nu in some cases? So just to keep a tradition, we would love to hear that from you before we dive into the rest of the interview.
0:09:15.4 Maury Gaston: Sure, and thank you. Regent Lee Perrett used links and a chain as the theme of his regency. So I can tell you about my chain, so to speak, and it goes back to a man who actually became Regent himself. John M. Ward, and he was Headmaster at Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee. And I grew up in Sylacauga, Alabama, a small town, and my dad, along with many of his classmates from Sylacauga went to high school at Castle Heights, and this was in the 1940s when military high schools were more popular and prevalent than they are today. And John Ward, while he was not headmaster at Castle Heights while my dad was a student, he remained in close contact with the school and the students who were there. By then he had moved on professionally, and he was actually involved in Chapter leadership at Beta Theta being a division inspector and served as Regent...
0:10:28.0 Maury Gaston: While my dad was a student at Auburn in the Beta Theta Chapter, and John Ward actually signed my dad's initiation certificate, which I have hanging on the wall in my study. So then my dad had a wonderful Sigma Nu experience. I grew up looking at the ring on his finger, looking at his composite in his study, hearing conversations between him and his Chapter Brothers, so I pretty well knew where I wanted to be, and fortunately the Chapter was willing to share themselves with me, and also with my older brother. I have two older brothers, one is the self-described black sheep of the family. He went to a different university and pledged a different fraternity, but the middle of the three of us, Joel who was at Grand Chapter.
0:11:27.9 Maury Gaston: And you may have met him there and I followed my dad to Beta Theta in Auburn, and then Joel's two sons have graduated from there. And I've actually, as I highlighted, Grand Chapter, both sides of my wife and my family have very strong and rich Sigma Nu heritages, and I have a nephew from my wife's side of the family, so to speak, who was also a Beta Theta graduate. And I find it very interesting that my Sigma Nu story, as you describe it, can be traced back to John Ward, who was the first Regent from Beta Theta Chapter. And now, here I find myself in that same situation, and it looks almost providential.
0:12:23.7 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, no, that's really cool. I'm glad you had the opportunity to share that. I remember being at Grand Chapter and hearing you talk about all of the family connections that you had to the fraternity and thought that was pretty remarkable, so it's neat to see how far back those connections were made and certainly providence, I think as you expressed, has a lot to play in that. Well, Brother Regent, we will get into our interview. So to kick it off, I think it's, again, talking about something being remarkable, you look at your history as a volunteer for the national organization, it spans almost three decades starting in 1997, when you join the Beta Theta House Corporation you would then go on to become the President of the House Corporation. You would then serve as a Division Commander, Grand Chaplain, Vice Regent, Regent elect. And now, Regent. Certainly for anyone, any one of those positions is significant but your storied and significant service of the Legion of Honor is both appreciated and is inspiring.
0:13:38.3 Christopher Brenton: And I want to know from you what has inspired you and motivated you to continue to be involved with the national organization that serve in this capacity?
0:13:47.3 Maury Gaston: Sure. Thank you, Christopher. I know my collegiate and alumni fraternity experience has been enriched by those who came before me, by those in the chain of Sigma Nu before me, so I want to contribute to those who will come after me. One of my Sigma Nu heroes recently said, "When you drink the water, remember who dug the well." Well, I've been refreshed by the water of many others before me, and I hope to perhaps provide some refreshments for those who come after me. We all stand on the history, traditions and heroes of the past, and yet at the same time, we are building the history, traditions and heroes of those who will come after us. And I believe strong and that we must be good stewards for those who follow us.
0:14:39.7 Adam Girtz: Well said. So Maury, I had the pleasure of hearing your remarks at the 70th Grand Chapter in Fort Lauderdale. It was a wonderful time down there and one of the things that you talked about is your vision for Sigma Nu, moving into the future, especially over this next biennium. And a quote that I wanted to pull out was, you said that sigma Nu will provide the best collegiate and alumni fraternity experience in America. So what do you hope to see from the fraternity over the next biennium as we advance towards fulfilling that vision?
0:15:16.5 Maury Gaston: Sure, Adam. Thank you. I envision our collegians and our alumni, both having a greater awareness of how the fraternity has enriched their lives and having a stronger desire to help others benefit from those same experiences and those same relationships.
0:15:36.6 Adam Girtz: Tell me more, please.
0:15:38.1 Maury Gaston: Well, we need to avoid complacency and not take for granted this enrichment that we've enjoyed through our Sigma Nu experience. We should have a passion to share these experiences with others for their benefit as it benefited us, awareness of our blessings of the Sigma Nu experience will create gratitude. And that gratitude will create a desire to give back to something so important and so much bigger than any individual.
0:16:08.7 Christopher Brenton: Another part of that, of your speech was a focus on the research and evidence for the benefits of fraternity/sorority life as released by the Gallup organization. You spoke, I think pretty at length about some of the benefits. Were there any findings in that Gallup research that stood out as particularly powerful to you?
0:16:32.7 Maury Gaston: Well, all those Gallup findings, I think are powerful and impactful and perhaps would be able to share that Gallup summary in the show notes perhaps, but the most striking to me was the five times more likely to donate to their university as an alumnus. It seems to me that university presidents and university advancement officers need to stand up and take notice of that.
0:17:00.0 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, it seems like it'd be foolish to not invest in fraternity sorority life if that's one of the outcomes. How can alumni and collegiate members utilize that data or that specific finding or any of the other data to better advocate for the fraternity experience?
0:17:14.8 Maury Gaston: Well, if we can share this report from Gallup in the show notes, they can go to that, they can become more personally aware, become comfortably conversant in discussing these findings. They can recruit quality men to Sigma Nu, whether they're in your family or whether they're attending your alma mater or campus or another, I don't think our alumni should focus solely on their home chapter when they're recruiting and rushing young men to join Sigma Nu.
0:17:46.7 Maury Gaston: If you've got a sharp young man in your community and he's going to college 700 miles away, then make contact with that campus and introduce him to the folks there that would be involved in recruitment and become proactive advocates for the fraternity experience in general, and Sigma Nu in particular.
0:18:08.9 Christopher Brenton: Nice.
0:18:09.5 Adam Girtz: For notes on how to get in touch with that chapter, please refer to our previous episode with Mac McNeilly on recruitment. We actually got to talk about that exact thing, so definitely a great call to action, Maury.
0:18:24.9 Christopher Brenton: Yeah. So for those of you who are intrigued by the Gallup study, we are certainly going to include links to all of that research and those findings in the show notes. But Maury, for those who are listening in, can you kind of dive a little bit deeper into findings, those findings from Gallup?
0:18:45.5 Maury Gaston: Leading off those findings, Gallup says fraternity members experience stronger mental health and wellness, and this is especially significant in today's environment. Fraternity members came out of the pandemic in better condition because they had a support network of close relationships at hand. It's easy to get lost among 300 calculus classmates on a campus of thousands or get lost behind an apartment or dorm door. But within the sheltering walls of a chapter, one can receive significant support and encouragement. That's the cover story, as both of you very well know, of our most recent Delta featuring our historic new chapter at Kansas, and that too is available on our website. Also, you may have heard recently in the news that the Surgeon General said there's an epidemic of loneliness and weak social connections, and those health risks are as serious as smoking. That's a pretty attention grabbing data point.
0:19:58.6 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:20:00.4 Maury Gaston: Fraternity relationships are an antidote to loneliness and weak social connections, both within our collegiate and our alumni experiences.
0:20:11.0 Christopher Brenton: Yeah. What else was included in this study?
0:20:14.7 Maury Gaston: Gallup showed that fraternities serve as an accelerator for professional excess, success. For example, fraternity men are three times more likely to have a collegiate internship. And we know that collegiate internships are very important to securing the first time job that you want to have. Gallup also found that fraternity men are almost twice as likely to have secured full-time employment before graduation, probably because they're three times more likely to have had those internships. They're twice as likely to encourage others to attend their alma mater. Something else for university presidents to stand up and take note of. As I said earlier, they're five times as likely to donate to their university, and then they're four times as likely to be a satisfied university alumnus, to say that they would do it all over again. And that's a significant metric that the universities use to rate their own performance. So the amplification of those university affinities on the part of fraternity men is remarkable. For these and so many other reasons, fraternities should be embraced by university administrators, by the public, by the media, in all institutions, in our culture, in our society.
0:21:46.3 Maury Gaston: And as I said in Fort Lauderdale, to be perfectly clear, fraternities improve and enrich our culture and our society.
0:21:55.5 Christopher Brenton: Yeah. Those first two points you shared, I think, really stand out to me as particularly strong and as evidence that we're not just piggy backing off the data of other fraternities. We see this in our own actions. Sigma Nu recently announced the launch of the new mentor network, or the evolution of the mentor network that has been in place for a while. And so if you are dialed in or this may be news to you, we are launching the navigators program, which is intended to directly connect alumni to collegiate members to ensure that they are receiving the best possible career networking advice, professional development opportunities. And so we're not just about these statistics but we're seeing them in action, which is really neat.
0:22:45.0 Maury Gaston: That's right. A lot of people ask me, why do you do what you do? And I answered that earlier in the beginning. But another reason why, is the opportunity to develop relationships and friendships with these collegians. It's absolutely gratifying and fulfilling to know that you're making a positive difference in the life of a young man.
0:23:10.5 Christopher Brenton: Absolutely. Maury, was there anything else in the Gallup study that you found interesting?
0:23:17.7 Maury Gaston: Fraternities create lifelong connections to the campus, to the community and to fraternity peers. Gallup's research shows fraternity membership not only better prepares for career readiness, but it connects men to the university in a way that non-members simply don't experience. One of your earlier guests said that he's so thankful for his Sigma Nu experience because without it, when he returned to campus, he would not have a place to go. And he could point to a dormitory building and tell his family, yeah, that was my dorm. But because he was a Sigma Nu, he's got a place to go and a group of people to be with when he returns to campus.
0:24:08.6 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, absolutely. Well, why else do you think this is impactful for Sigma Nu? Can you summarize that a little bit more?
0:24:17.5 Maury Gaston: Yeah. Those who oppose fraternities and let's be candid, a lot of people do, those who oppose fraternities likely don't understand the value that we bring to society, to culture and to universities. The fraternity experience in general and the Sigma Nu experience in particular, in my view, makes a better man, makes a better citizen, makes a better husband, a better father. And our national organization plays a vital role in this message in educating and equipping us to communicate that message. If our local members in their civic clubs, if our alumni in their civic clubs, in their neighborhoods, schools and churches would be more conversant about these measurable benefits, we could further communicate and increase awareness of the fraternity experience and its value to young men, to families, and to society.
0:25:17.4 Christopher Brenton: Thanks, Maury. I completely agree with you, and I'm really glad that you had the opportunity to share this in your speech at Grand Chapter. I think this data is certainly fascinating, and we want to make sure that everyone is aware of it as much as possible. You mentioned the spring 2023 issue of the Delta that included the new chapter house story about their 100-year anniversary on the cover. Included in that issue at the very back, is a report on these Gallup findings. And so if you receive that copy, I encourage you, just not stop at the new chapter story, but keep going in the Delta. You'll get to that story in the higher education section of the Delta, but it is really incredible data and findings that really showcase the powerful benefits of fraternity membership. So, Maury, thank you for sharing that.
0:26:10.7 Maury Gaston: Yeah, you bet.
0:26:11.8 Adam Girtz: Yeah, I think it's great because I think if asked, each of us could individually state the benefits that we felt to ourselves. But to be able to have some empirical data behind the impact across not just all of us that were part of it, but across society, I think is very powerful. So, Maury just... Okay, go ahead.
0:26:33.9 Maury Gaston: Let me interrupt.
0:26:35.3 Adam Girtz: Please, yeah.
0:26:36.0 Maury Gaston: Interrupt here, Adam. I was talking to a family recently whose son is actually going hundreds of miles away from here.
0:26:43.1 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:26:43.3 Maury Gaston: And I said I want to introduce him to the Sigma Nus on campus. Oh, no, he's not going to pledge a fraternity. He's going to focus on his grades. And I said, "Well, do you know that if he joins Sigma Nu, he'll be twice as likely to get an internship?" I said, "Well, let's talk about that."
0:27:00.4 Adam Girtz: Yeah. And has a ready made study room, study partners, tutors, older brothers there that have done the same classes and can help guide him. Yeah, absolutely. I think the best way to focus on your studies is to have that supportive group of young men around you. Absolutely.
0:27:18.2 Maury Gaston: And chances are that Sigma Nu chapter has a higher GPA than the non-Greeks on that campus.
0:27:24.8 Adam Girtz: They're good. So Maury, in mid-August, just a little while ago here, the High Council had gathered in Lexington, Virginia, for a strategic planning retreat focused on our goals for the biennium. So as that retreat wrapped up, the Council had identified, I believe it was five strategic imperatives that it's going to focus on for the next two years.
0:27:46.6 Maury Gaston: That's right.
0:27:47.2 Adam Girtz: And those were chapter strength, alumni commitment, educational excellence, communication and awareness, and growth and innovation. Correct?
0:27:55.7 Maury Gaston: That's correct, yep.
0:27:57.5 Adam Girtz: So was there a particular imperative that you feel the most passionate about seeing if fraternity advance?
0:28:04.1 Maury Gaston: Well, they're all important. That's why they're called imperatives. And they're all a part of our strategic plan, which makes them important as well. And they're all complementary to one another. However, in my view, chapter strength leads them all because it contributes to the success of each of them. A strong chapter produces positive collegiate and alumni experiences. Our Pursuit of Excellence program, the criteria for Rock Chapter, descriptive metrics of what makes chapter strength, outlines objective metrics based standards for chapter strength. It's as good a set of metrics for organizational excellence as I've seen, and I've seen a lot of those organizational metrics.
0:28:54.0 Christopher Brenton: So one of the hallmarks of our board, and I believe this is a contributing factor to the success that the Legion of Honor has seen over the last decade, two decades, has been kind of a smooth transition of leadership from one Regent to the next, and a High Council that is continuously committed to seeing the work of the previous High Council carried forward. And so it wasn't really a surprise to me to see that the focus on alumni commitment and engagement that was really, that has really started to become kind of a center of the High Council's focus, especially under the work of Regents Hearn and Huffmyer that that would carry forward and continue to be a part of this council's strategic plan. Maury, in your opinion, why has the Council increased or continued to increase its focus on engaging our alumni and volunteers?
0:29:51.0 Maury Gaston: Well, Sigma Nu is for life. To paraphrase our creed, the relationships we develop in the fresh morning of our youth will go with us unmoved into the darkening shadows of life's closing day. We have a lifelong benefit, and there should be a lifelong understanding and commitment concerning that.
0:30:13.0 Adam Girtz: Beautiful. I always love that quote. I think it's, just, it reminds me of initiation and kind of that feeling of like, dang, these guys are my guys. And then going through my senior year initiation with young guys come on. It's like, yep, I'm that guy for these guys, and these are my guys. To say it maybe less eloquently. So Maury, would love your advice. If you could give advice to a young alumnus who's maybe unsure of how he can support and be engaged with the fraternity after graduation who maybe he feels like just one small piece of a larger puzzle, but doesn't quite see where he fits in. What advice would you have for him to stay engaged after graduation?
0:30:54.5 Maury Gaston: Absolutely. Get involved early on in the community where you begin your professional career. In my own case, I moved far from home four times early in my career. Small town Alabama, went to college at Auburn where I had been going all my life and knew it as well as my own hometown. And at age 23, the company sent me to New York City.
0:31:24.2 Adam Girtz: Whoa.
0:31:27.3 Maury Gaston: And then I went to Florida, then I went to California, and then I went to Texas. So I know from those experiences over those 15 years that community engagement is a key component of happiness, of mental health, and of well-being when a young person moves away. And Sigma Nu is a uniquely valuable organization for relationship building. There's likely a Sigma Nu Alumni Club, an alumni chapter or Riley Society in the communities that our young people will relocate to to begin their careers. National can help you find it, and if not, you can contact national proactively and establish a local alumni club. I and three others from Auburn did just that for our alumni club in New York City of all places. It was dormant when we got there. I inquired about it and next thing you know, the four of us were working to revitalize it. And it's a strong, robust chapter today.
0:32:34.1 Adam Girtz: Absolutely. Yeah. Get in touch with me or, and Justin Wenger and we can help you out there. Absolutely. Anything else for a young alumnus as far as staying engaged?
0:32:45.3 Maury Gaston: Well, subscribe to and read and I would say listen like this podcast.
0:32:49.8 Adam Girtz: Yes. Thank you.
0:32:51.6 Maury Gaston: To everything that the fraternity and your chapter provides. Many chapters have newsletters. Make sure your contact information is kept up to date. Change your.edu email address to your postgraduate email. Keep your physical address up to date. Support our educational foundation, which is working hard to ensure that Sigma Nu has the resources we need to continue to thrive. A modest monthly gift can soon multiply and make a significant impact. A young alumnus can be a black and gold donor or an omega donor at $1,000 a year with little impact on your monthly budget. It's most everybody can afford an $83 monthly draft from their checking account, but if you wait to write $1,000 check in December, it's going to be a little more difficult. So I'm a big fan of small incremental monthly drafts.
0:33:54.9 Adam Girtz: Yeah, I sat down one time and I was like, is it really just $83 a month? And yeah, 83 times 12 gets you up to that $1,000 mark. And I was like, interesting, I guess it makes sense but I had never really thought that, yeah, that is really all it takes. So, yeah, absolutely. So, great suggestions and advice for guys that are graduating here. Our alumni brothers of really any age, especially for those young alumni excited to get out in the world and eager to continue on the connections that they made in school. And I think it's an exciting period then, because you get to go out and then make those connections with Sigma Nu guys that are around the country.
0:34:40.0 Maury Gaston: Yeah.
0:34:41.4 Christopher Brenton: So, Maury, we've got one final question for you. So kind of continuing on with the Council's focus on strategic plan, you had just shared kind of chapter strength as your top imperative for the biennium and certainly that is where the Council identified that as well within the larger strategic plan. With that in mind, what advice would you give to a Commander who is trying to turn a good chapter into a great chapter? How do they continue to make progress in their pursuit of excellence?
0:35:10.8 Maury Gaston: Well, first, come to College of Chapters every January, because that's the primary objective of that program, is to equip and develop new Commanders to do exactly that. And be sure to engage your fellow chapter officers, your executive team, to ensure that that entire leadership group is on the same page. And then that leadership group can engage the entire chapter in developing a strategic plan for that chapter to define exactly what must be done to become a Rock Chapter. You must create a vision and then get everyone's buy-in, because it won't happen overnight or without work and without effort. My own chapter had a four-year plan beginning in 2015 to become a Rock Chapter. You must, and it took four years to create that. We've got a great professional staff and alumni volunteers ready to help Commanders and their executive officers do all of this. As I said, make sure you attend college chapters where you can gain the knowledge, the skills, the relationships. You know what? Having another Commander at a nearby similar institution that you can lean on and ask questions and help each other is very, very valuable. Study the Pursuit of Excellence criteria.
0:36:45.4 Maury Gaston: Get familiar with the Best Practices Library, that's a deeply valuable resource and implement those principles. Recruit alumni engagement with your chapter through the Alumni Advisory Boards and especially through in-person lead session facilitation. It's all well worth it. It's all very gratifying. And as Regent Durham says, "Life in a Rock chapter is pretty good."
0:37:14.5 Adam Girtz: Awesome. Well, Maury, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. Really appreciate the opportunity to get to sit down with you. Any, I guess, any parting words for everybody on your first guest appearance here?
0:37:30.1 Maury Gaston: Well, I think I've said enough. I'd be happy to correspond with anyone and wish everybody the best as they move their chapters from good to great, from better to best.
0:37:50.0 Adam Girtz: Awesome. Well said. Alright everyone. Well, we'll see you on the other side.
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0:38:20.5 Adam Girtz: Alright. Welcome back, everyone. A great interview with Maury. I really enjoyed hearing the empirical evidence-driven initiatives or imperatives that we're aiming towards. I think it, having that data there to really back up and say like, hey, what we're doing is making a positive impact and we have the data to show it, and we with that data, we can guide what is important in the impact that we're trying to make. I thought that was a really unique part of what he had to say there.
0:39:04.3 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, we continue to hear from our constituents across the country that the universities are out to get them or the universities are hostile to the presence of fraternities, and I think a lot of that comes from university administrators who are feeling the pressure from non-initiated constituents who are like, hey, we're hearing about fraternities in the news. And we're hearing about these negative things, why do fraternities continue to exist on campuses? And so they feel like they have to respond in kind to avoid reputational threats or decreased enrollment, but the evidence continues to support that fraternities are not only a boon for individual members, but also for the institutions in which we are hosted.
0:39:54.9 Christopher Brenton: I'm really glad that Maury has centered that and had the opportunity to bring that up today. I'm excited to continue to share that evidence, and I'm really glad that Maury is also carrying that torch as well.
0:40:08.4 Adam Girtz: Yeah, I think it's good to reframe and having worked with the fraternity now as long as I have, five years here and you've had a couple of more years than I have, but I would assume that you've seen the same thing where really I think fraternity... The concept of fraternity can be part of the solution to the problems that we face across a large portion of society, whether it's in our campus communities or out, I think fraternity done right is the solution to a lot of these things, right?
0:40:45.3 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, absolutely.
0:40:47.6 Adam Girtz: Awesome. Well, any other comments? Yeah, please.
0:40:50.9 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, well, I was going to say... Sorry to cut you off. I was going to say, again, we mentioned this during the interview but just to reiterate, the Gallup data that has been referenced as well as the NIC research findings, we didn't name that specifically, but that's also where some of the data is going to be referenced. We will absolutely include that in the show notes, so if you are interested in checking out those details or we were just throwing out some numbers that might have passed you by too quickly, and you just want to see that in writing. We're going to include that in the show notes for you as well. Check those out, you can also find them on the website, specifically the value of fraternity section of the website, which you can find on the main page under the About Us tab, that's where you can also go to find some of this data. Highly encourage you to familiarize yourself with it, become an advocate for the fraternity experience today. It speaks for itself, but we need people to... We need to be able to get the data in front of people for them to know just how powerful it is.
0:41:52.1 Adam Girtz: Yeah, absolutely. And I would encourage too, if you are in a position where you're an alumni volunteer or maybe you are an officer of a chapter, let's share this information back and forth between those two groups. If you're a chapter president and you're listening right now, first of all, hello, what's up? Second of all be yeah, please go, grab that data and share it with your chapter advisor, share it with your Greek advisor. If you're a chapter advisor listening, again, hello, what's up? Go ahead and grab that data and share it with your chapter or your active member officers. Let's start a conversation about this. I think it's really, really powerful. Any other comments, Christopher, before we dive into some plugs that we have.
0:42:38.1 Christopher Brenton: I think that's it, and just really thankful for Maury for joining us in the episode and glad to be able to share him with our extended audience who may not know him yet.
0:42:48.4 Adam Girtz: Absolutely, and I do want to thank Maury as well for all of the support that he's shown the show over its history. It really is valuable to me and fulfilling to me to hear the positive comments that he's had for us, whether it's at College of Chapters, he and I having a quick chat and hearing about the episodes that he's enjoyed or every once in a while we'll get an email from him saying, hey, saw this episode, loved it. All of that, and we get that from new members and alumni all the time as well, all of that is really appreciated, really warms my weary bones. Christopher, it really does. It was 55 degrees here this morning in Des Moines, I need warmth in my weary bones.
0:43:39.8 Christopher Brenton: I'll take some of your cold if you'll take some of my hot because in DC, it has been 99 degrees after the last couple of days, and I would like for that to go away.
0:43:49.5 Adam Girtz: Yeah, we had that for a little while. When it hits triple digits, it's like, oh, I don't want to. I don't want to do stuff. Anyway, let's get into some plugs. We've got some cool stuff coming up here this fall. Everybody has returned back to campus now, so hopefully your semesters are starting off on a strong note. But from the fraternity side, we've got a couple of things coming up. First of all is National Hazing Prevention Week, that will be September 25th through the 29th. Any awesome fun communications initiatives we have going on with that, Christopher, anything to highlight?
0:44:27.7 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, you're going to see a full campaign of different types of content that we're going to be pushing out through our social media, we've done that for a couple of years now. Each day we're going to bring you an essay or a short, not story but an article from a different voice within the organization talking about our stance on anti-hazing, but then also why. Of course, we don't want to just say platitudes and this is something that we're against without giving an explanation of why we have this position and why we believe that fraternity can be created but without hazing and it is stronger in its absence. You're going to see articles and essays from constituents and volunteers, you're going to see other resources and materials that we put out that assist chapters with having discussions in their own chapter about combating hazing, but then also it can be all for their own personal use and just coming to terms or coming to a greater understanding of why this is such a value for the organization. National Hazing Prevention Week is a national effort, so you're going to see a lot of different organizations participating and Sigma Nu is proud to be a part of that.
0:45:53.4 Adam Girtz: Yeah, so if you're a, again, somewhere someone involved in Chapter leadership, whether you're an alumni volunteer or a chapter officer, go ahead and dig into the website there and set a plan for your chapter to get involved in. There will likely be new events going on your campus as well, so let's make sure we get out there and get loud about what we believe in. Founding core principle of our fraternity, it's a very exciting time for us to get in and make some good.
0:46:28.6 Adam Girtz: Next plug, we've got staff hiring, the priority deadline for consideration for a mid-year or a summer start is going to be October 15th. If you want to learn more about that, www.sigmanu.org/employment, is that short link that'll be in the show notes as well. Definitely head there. And you learn more about the position. Quick plug for that, for me it's been very beneficial. I really, I reflect back on my time as a consultant with fond memories. It's been awesome, especially now that I'm doing director work for the fraternity, it makes me appreciate. The interactions I have now make me appreciate having spent two years traveling and being those boots on the ground with our active chapters, because it really gets you this wide-ranging experience.
0:47:29.1 Adam Girtz: And for me, I grew up in the Midwest and went to school in the Midwest. I really wanted to get out and go see the world before I settled down and started my career, and this was an excellent opportunity for that. I was in Florida, I was in... I've been to Arizona, California, DC, all over the country, doing all these different things, a really valuable experience. But yeah, check out www.sigmanu.org/employment for the consultant interest flyer as well as the application.
0:48:07.6 Christopher Brenton: Yeah. Also really quick, typically for staff hiring, when we accept applications for the October 15th deadline, that typically translates to a starting date of June 1, 2020 XX whatever the following year is. For this year, that would be June 1, 2024. However, we are actually opening opportunities for folks who will be looking for employment sooner. We are basically extending an outreach to young alumni, recent graduates as well as men who will be graduating fall 2023, so this fall semester. I don't know the exact specific date, January 1-ish, but January 2024 six months prior to our typical start date, looking for folks to actually start probably around College of Chapters, and that day pattern is typically January 3rd through 6th, that would probably be around the time that you'd arrived for your first day of work with the organization. But if you're someone who is looking for working for the organization, you don't want to wait all the way till June 1st of 2024, this is a really exciting opportunity. We don't always look to hire people to start soon, but we just have a capacity at the moment that we're looking to fill. Highly encourage folks to consider replying, as Adam mentioned that the job itself is an incredible opportunity. We highly recommend it, especially for anyone who is looking to bridge the gap between your undergraduate and collegiate.
0:49:53.5 Christopher Brenton: Oh sorry, your undergraduate and graduate program. If you're someone who is looking to pursue an MBA, an MSC, you're looking to go back to law school or attain additional levels of higher education, but maybe you're looking for a gap year or maybe you're looking to have some money in your pockets, that way you can go into your next program with money to pay for classes or pay for your tuition, this is an excellent opportunity to bridge that gap. It gives you some professional experience, some opportunity to see colleges across the country. Maybe you can identify a campus that you like to attend, but then also you're not locked in to a career that you can't deviate from.
0:50:37.9 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:50:38.2 Christopher Brenton: But for those also who aren't interested in graduate school but are looking for professional development, again, I think the skills and experiences that you have through the leadership consultant program translate well to anyone who wants to go into business, sales, higher education, etcetera. Highly recommended. But yeah.
0:51:00.9 Adam Girtz: Yeah, absolutely. A wonderful pitch. If you're not fired up to be a consultant before, maybe you are now. Yeah, and personally, I would love to chat with anybody that's interested. I'd love to tell you more about it. We also have Scott Smith and Austin Lloyd that would love to sit down and chat with you a little bit more about it. Anyway, our last plug here, the Day of Giving. Sigma Nu's annual Day of Giving is coming up. It's going to be October 18th. For that, we are basically looking to promote the Sigma Nu Educational Foundation, the good that we are able to do through that, and also drum up support for the Educational Foundation on that day. We're always looking for support for that, and I think it's something that is important for our organization. One of the strengths that we have is our numbers and the resources that those numbers are able to give us, whether that's time, talent, treasure. On October 18th we'll be doing our Day of Giving, be on the lookout for emails in your inboxes and social media posts through the various places that we post, as we mentioned up top, Facebook and Instagram primarily.
0:52:26.0 Adam Girtz: But keep an eye out for that, for live updates on that day, as well as your email updates before that. We're also to that end we're looking for ambassadors to serve a volunteer role on that day, just a quick volunteer position, basically. Were looking for well-connected alumni to reach out to their brothers and encourage support of the Educational Foundation, whether that's through the phone, through text messages, through in-person meet-ups, if that's something you're able to do. And then social media posts as well about the value of the organization and the good that we're able to do. If you're interested in that, you could reach out to me directly, my email will be in the show notes and just let me know that you're interested in serving as an ambassador for the Day of Giving, and we'll get you ready to go for that. Let's see. Anything else on plugs or anything, Christopher?
0:53:37.2 Christopher Brenton: I think that's it.
0:53:38.6 Adam Girtz: Okay, awesome. Well, as always, thanks for listening. We appreciate you very much, and if you enjoyed the episode today or if you enjoy the podcast, best thing that you can do is share it with a brother, let a brother know that the podcast exists and have them go give it a listen. Christopher, what is one episode? If somebody was to start... If this was the first episode that somebody heard, what would your recommendation be for another episode to go check out?
0:54:09.9 Christopher Brenton: Oh man.
0:54:11.0 Adam Girtz: I know, putting you on the spot.
0:54:11.4 Christopher Brenton: Right on the spot.
0:54:12.5 Adam Girtz: I put you on the spot.
0:54:14.2 Christopher Brenton: As I'm talking, I'm trying to quickly go and look up episodes.
0:54:19.5 Adam Girtz: That's my man.
0:54:20.5 Christopher Brenton: I thought the students athlete experience with Luke Nemec from our Purdue chapter, I thought that was particularly fascinating, just hearing his experience and I thought he is a particularly great ambassador for brotherhood. I thought I was just really impressed with him and the efforts that he took to really invest in his chapter, despite the fact that there were many challenges that were in his way to be able to have both a student athlete experience and a fraternity experience. I highly recommend that one for anyone who hasn't checked out other episodes yet.
0:55:09.8 Adam Girtz: Absolutely. Well, my recommendation would be going back to December 2021 and listening to our episode with Ben Kirby titled Instafamous. I think definitely always relevant in our modern social media age, but just a really cool perspective on what's it like to blow up on social media, what's it like to have that happen was a unique experience, and I thought a very unique interview, so that would be my recommendation. But anyway, yeah, share the show with a brother and we will talk to you very soon. Bye everybody.
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