Where is the podcast studio at Headquarters? What's the best place to eat in Lexington? What's so special about Grand Chapter being held on odd-numbered years again? Adam and Drew take some time during the summer break to answer questions from listeners. Note: Due to a technical issue, there's a small jump cut at the 35:40 mark which is explained in the episode.
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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Hosts for this Episode
The Gavel Podcast - Ep 7 - Summer Break Questions and Answers!
[Intro Music]
0:00:30.6 Drew Logsdon: Hello, Adam.
0:00:32.2 Adam Girtz: Hello, Drew. Good morning.
0:00:33.5 Drew Logsdon: How are you doing? Good morning.
0:00:34.5 Adam Girtz: Or Good afternoon, depending on when the listener is listening to this.
0:00:37.3 Drew Logsdon: That's true, that's true. We're recording this in the morning though.
0:00:40.6 Adam Girtz: Oh, we're breaking the fourth wall, the illusion. [laughter]
0:00:44.8 Drew Logsdon: Exactly, exactly. Well, how are you, man?
0:00:48.0 Adam Girtz: I'm great. How are you?
0:00:49.5 Drew Logsdon: I'm doing good, I'm doing good. Grand Chapter is behind us, which from a staff perspective, it's a monumental undertaking, well for everyone. Alumni, collegiate brothers involved, everybody who was involved in that, having that Grand Chapter accomplished and done and behind you is always a good thing to have, and the Grand Chapter did excellent work from that one.
0:01:16.0 Adam Girtz: Yeah. Oh, yeah, we got done what we needed to get done, and we are set. I don't know if I could say this or not, but now that we're on off biennium's odd years, that's definitely going to bother me, but I understand. I understand why it's necessary.
0:01:31.2 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, it's... So I get it. I get why it would bother some folks that we're on even years now. But actually, this works in our favor.
0:01:39.9 Adam Girtz: How so?
0:01:42.6 Drew Logsdon: So Sigma Nu was founded in an odd year, 1869.
0:01:48.5 Adam Girtz: Oh, true.
0:01:48.8 Drew Logsdon: So now when we celebrate our 200th anniversary, we will celebrate it at a Grand Chapter.
0:01:55.7 Adam Girtz: Wow.
0:01:57.2 Drew Logsdon: We couldn't do that, you know, DC. That Grand Chapter served as the kickoff to the 150th celebration, the year of celebrating Sigma Nu, our 150th anniversary, and so we had that and everything, which was really special, but now, yeah, now Grand Chapter will fall right during the summer of the year we were founded in, so a bit of silver anniversary at Grand Chapter, which I think is really cool.
0:02:19.4 Adam Girtz: Well, yeah, 2069, we're going to be ready to go.
0:02:24.9 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, and originally, Grand Chapters were originally on odd years.
0:02:29.5 Adam Girtz: Oh, I didn't know that.
0:02:31.3 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, they were originally on... I think they were originally on odd years. I have to look at my Heritage History of Sigma Nu, which is lying around here somewhere. But yeah, originally... I believe so. I'm pretty confident, originally on odd years, although certainly a listener can email us and correct me on that, as no doubt they will.
0:02:48.3 Adam Girtz: [chuckle] How can they email you?
0:02:50.4 Drew Logsdon: You can email me by... It's adam.girtz@sigmanu.org, subject line, "Grievance with the podcast." That is how you can email me.
0:03:02.1 Adam Girtz: Well, it's funny that you mentioned that because I actually have a list of grievances here. And let me tell you, you're top on the list. [chuckle]
0:03:09.9 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, yeah, so as folks may... Well, they'll still recognize, this is a bonus episode. We are in between seasons. Season 1, which was six episodes just wrapped up in June, and so we are in between seasons right now, and I think the natural ebb and flow of kind of how this will work is we're going to do maybe a couple of bonus episodes, take a month off in between seasons. That gives us time to do production and stuff, and Season 2 will kick off again and get started at full speed in August.
0:03:42.7 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:03:45.3 Drew Logsdon: So we take this opportunity to have a little bonus episode. We don't want you go a month without the podcast, right?
0:03:49.8 Adam Girtz: Yes.
0:03:49.8 Drew Logsdon: That would be a disservice.
0:03:51.6 Adam Girtz: We'd like to stay regular.
0:03:53.4 Drew Logsdon: Exactly, exactly. But we do have... Over the past six months, we've gotten some questions from some listeners, and we thought it'd be fun to dive through these, not a ton of questions, but some really good ones, and to dive through these and kind of drill down some things here and have some little bonus episode here.
0:04:12.8 Adam Girtz: Yeah, just give you guys a picture of behind the scenes to the podcast, I guess.
0:04:18.0 Drew Logsdon: Exactly.
0:04:20.1 Adam Girtz: To be candid, I've had a blast recording this over the last six months here and I think I speak for Drew as well, that this has been something that is maybe a departure from the norm of communications that we've done for the fraternity and something that's been a really fun experiment. And the response to Season 1 has been awesome. Everyone has provided your positive feedback or being in a meeting with someone and hearing them say, "Oh, yeah, I listened to such and such episode and really enjoyed it." That's been really cool.
0:04:53.3 Drew Logsdon: I just got... To that point, I just got a LinkedIn message, a message on LinkedIn, just a few weeks ago saying, "Hey, just found the podcast, listened to the Curt Menefee episode. Love it. Great job. I can't wait to listen to more." And so we've gotten really good feedback on the podcast so far, and you're right, it's different than what we do, but it's a cool medium.
0:05:18.4 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:05:18.5 Drew Logsdon: It's a cool medium talking to a microphone and going across the air waves to folks, it's got a very vintage feel to it.
0:05:26.1 Adam Girtz: Definitely, yeah, it was especially the microphones that they have in the Honor Library where we record this.
0:05:33.2 Drew Logsdon: Which is a good segue for our very next question. That's a... Well, look at you, setting it up on the T for the T-shot here.
0:05:39.8 Adam Girtz: I'm technically a podcast professional now.
0:05:44.4 Drew Logsdon: [laughter] So our first question is, where is the studio at headquarters?
0:05:48.8 Adam Girtz: Yes.
0:05:50.0 Drew Logsdon: Adam, where is the studio at headquarters? I've never seen it. Where is that?
0:05:57.3 Adam Girtz: So personally, my studio is at my desk in my office in De Moines, Iowa, where I currently live with my fiancée. So that's where I record from, and I'm sorry if that shatters the illusion that we were recording this on site at headquarters in some awesome studio or something like that with a bunch of awesome equipment. We do have awesome equipment but it's just in our home office. And I don't want to dox you, Drew, but where are you recording from?
0:06:36.1 Drew Logsdon: I'm recording from a little town south of Nashville called Thompson's Station where I live, in the Greater Nashville area at my home office, at my desk. That's where I'm recording from, so yeah. Folks, we've gotten asked, at least once or twice, where is the studio at, and there've been some good guesses like, "Do you record this in the Honor Library? Do you record this in the LEAP classroom?" We do not. This project started during the pandemic, when the headquarters' office was closed and all of our staff were remote, and so we record from our own homes. We do have professional equipment. Hopefully you've noticed the change... You've noticed an improvement...
0:07:17.5 Adam Girtz: From episode one.
0:07:17.8 Drew Logsdon: And an improvement in quality over the course of the episodes, but yeah, we record this from our own offices in our own homes and we do have some professional equipment. And maybe we'll put that in the show notes sometime. Yeah, maybe we'll put that in the show notes for this episode, just the equipment we use, so if anyone's listening and interested and, "Hey, I want to do my own podcast, what equipment do I need?" and we'll send them out what we use.
0:07:46.1 Adam Girtz: Yeah, and if you have advice on how to improve that, let us know because we are also... Even though we do technically get paid to make a podcast, we are still amateurs, I think, in some respects, so appreciate that as well. So the second question that we get, and this is something that we've, I guess, gotten before the podcast, but just as staff members that we hear a lot is... It's framed as, "Hey, my chapter or my family is on vacation or there's a couple of alumni that were on spring break and when we're going to be passing by headquarters, we're stopping for a pilgrimage in Lexington, where should we go out to eat?" [chuckle]
0:08:35.4 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, where should we go to eat, what things should we go see. This is a great one and I think, Adam, you and I both have probably similar suggestions but also very different ones as well too. You spend enough time in Lexington, you get your own little favorites list, if you will.
0:08:57.0 Adam Girtz: Definitely.
0:09:00.9 Drew Logsdon: And so I think, initially, you almost have to break it into two groups. A collegiate Sigma Nu member coming to headquarters may not have the budget for a Southern Inn experience.
0:09:15.9 Adam Girtz: True, yeah. Southern Inn being a wonderful restaurant and bar in downtown Lexington that I absolutely recommend.
0:09:24.1 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, Southern Inn is great and if you want to have a really cool dinner or even lunch, Southern Inn is a great spot too. And let's overarch all these recommendations with, almost anything in downtown Lexington is a good spot.
0:09:40.5 Adam Girtz: Pretty much, yeah.
0:09:43.3 Drew Logsdon: If you want a hotdog from a gas station at downtown Lexington... Not my recommendation but I'm sure that'll satisfy you as well too, but Lexington is this great... It's this great small town. It really is. It's like a quintessential college town, this little hamlet nestled in the mountains in the Shenandoah Valley, and it's got some great places. I think though some of the traditional stuff that pilgrimages would do... So if you're coming and you stayed at the Carriage House, right across the street, you walk across the street and down a little bit, two traditional spot that members would frequently go to are Don Tequila's...
0:10:30.0 Adam Girtz: Yes, Don T's. Love it.
0:10:32.7 Drew Logsdon: Or Frank's.
0:10:35.9 Adam Girtz: Yes. Frank's the, I guess, Italian eatery, right? I guess, what would that even be, subs and more?
0:10:44.0 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, subs and 'zza. Get yourself a pizza or a calzone, or a hot sub or cold sub. And in fact...
0:10:54.9 Adam Girtz: Calzone was the first thing that I had when I was in Lexington, actually.
0:10:58.1 Drew Logsdon: Was it?
0:10:58.8 Adam Girtz: Yeah, I think we went to Frank's as one of the first meals and I got a calzone which might have been an aggressive choice on an interview weekend but who knows? [chuckle]
0:11:09.6 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, calzone. Well, you can also... And the calzones at Frank's come in two sizes. There's a regular-sized calzone, there's a large calzone. The large size is equivalent to the size of a small elephant, I imagine.
0:11:24.6 Adam Girtz: [chuckle] Yeah, it's like a large pizza folded in half.
0:11:29.1 Drew Logsdon: Yeah. It's like if you order an extra large pizza and someone just made that, and then just folded it in half that is the size of the large calzone.
0:11:37.6 Adam Girtz: There you go.
0:11:39.6 Drew Logsdon: And two things there. The first is, I never... Maybe I'm just blind to it but I went to Frank's, my first visits and got a sub and what you get with it is a bag of chips, which is pretty... But a bag of chips is like the standard side item in Lexington. If you go to lunch anywhere and you get... You don't get a burger and fries, it's like a burger and chips, or sandwich and chips or something like that, a soup and chips. It's like the standard go-to side item, I feel like, for a lot of places.
0:12:11.7 Adam Girtz: A lot of places. Although if you are interested in genuine fries... I'm thinking burger and fries but my favorite burger and fries in Lexington is Sweet Treats, I think. That's what I would say. I don't know if there's really competition, I guess, as far as just a good burger and fries place.
0:12:34.0 Drew Logsdon: Well... Woah, woah, wee-woo. I mean, The Palms...
0:12:37.5 Adam Girtz: True, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, yeah.
0:12:40.6 Drew Logsdon: I mean, I'm not saying it's better but competition, The Palms is the classic. You can't go wrong. You go downtown, you go to The Palms, it's like a corner restaurant, classic looking, get yourself some fried pickle chips, get yourself a burger, some fries, soup of the day. You can live high on the hog at The Palms for not a whole lot, which is really good.
0:13:06.9 Adam Girtz: So those are some of the restaurants. Any other restaurant recommendations?
0:13:11.7 Drew Logsdon: Napa Thai. Oh yeah.
0:13:15.3 Adam Girtz: I was going to say, that was going to be my kind of crowning, like leave it off before we go. But Napa Thai is, I think, the one... If you're going to go to one place, that's where I would say you should go. I don't think it's necessarily like the Lexington Place, but if you want good genuine local food, that is incredible. And the woman that runs it is also incredible. She's so nice. Every time we go there, she's also happy to see all the consultants walk in.
0:13:47.6 Drew Logsdon: If I had to do my top five in no particular order, but a top five, like this is the five... You won't get this experience probably anywhere else. I would say The Palms... The food's similar to other places, but The Palms just for the classic college restaurant and bar kind of feel.
0:14:09.6 Adam Girtz: The place.
0:14:10.2 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, Palms is there. Napa Thai for just quality.
0:14:15.3 Adam Girtz: Yes.
0:14:16.5 Drew Logsdon: The owner of Napa Thai... They're closed on Mondays. And it's because I think...
0:14:21.7 Adam Girtz: She goes to DC to get the supplies from spices, and I guess food supplies from... I don't know this for a fact, but from someone in her family or someone that she knows that gets it directly from Thailand, which is awesome.
0:14:43.1 Drew Logsdon: Yeah.
0:14:43.5 Adam Girtz: So it's worth it because it's like, "Oh yeah, you can't go there for lunch on Monday, because she's busy getting all of the supplies to make everything fresh."
0:14:53.0 Drew Logsdon: Yeah. Napa Thai, amazing quality Thai food, just a great place. So that's one and two. Three would be Southern Inn, which we've already said. It's just a great restaurant. It's an amazing restaurant. A really cool feel. It's in the historic Downtown Main Street, a great feel to it. And so that's definitely one. And then my two others are, if you are of age to consume alcohol and you come to Lexington and you'd like to do that, but you're an alumnus or an older brother maybe or something like that, Heliotrope Brewing just recently, fairly recent, past couple years, up and up downtown...
0:15:34.0 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:15:35.4 Drew Logsdon: They've got a brewery, they got some small plates, you can get there too. And I was going to say also Brew Ridge Taps, which is a really cool place because you can go there, they have racks where you can make your own six-pack kind of... But they have a great draft selection. But also you can play a great regional board game at Brew Ridge Taps called Chickapig.
0:16:00.0 Adam Girtz: I haven't played it actually.
0:16:02.2 Drew Logsdon: It's like a Chinese checkers with pigs and cows and cow poop, it's interesting. We don't have enough time in the podcast to explain how this game is run.
0:16:11.5 Adam Girtz: This is no longer a bonus episode. This is now a Chickapig fan episode.
0:16:16.3 Drew Logsdon: It's a Chickapig fan episode, yeah. But it's co-created by Dave Matthews and another old friend of his, who, I think his friend also owns Rockbridge...
0:16:25.2 Adam Girtz: Of the band fame?
0:16:26.1 Drew Logsdon: Of the band fame, yes, of the band fame Dave Matthews and his old friend who also runs or co-owns Rockbridge Guitars.
0:16:35.0 Adam Girtz: Interesting.
0:16:37.0 Drew Logsdon: They make custom guitars. They made this book, if you... And here's the thing, it was a small regional thing, like it's a cool little kickstarter kind of board game, and now they've got books and plushies and they're at Target. You can find the board game at Target, I think. And Chickapig, check it out.
0:16:53.4 Adam Girtz: Chickapig. Well, there's your, I guess, five restaurants and/or breweries slash places to consume things to put in your body, I guess.
0:17:05.6 Drew Logsdon: Yeah.
0:17:06.2 Adam Girtz: And I would also suggest that we recommend what is the... Hey, I'm stopping at headquarters and I would like the Sigma Nu pilgrimage experience. What are the things that I need to make sure that I see?
0:17:21.5 Drew Logsdon: Well, for starters, let us know. Email headquarters@sigmanu.org, tell us when you're coming, like date and approximate time window and...
0:17:30.2 Adam Girtz: We'll have someone there to help you.
0:17:35.2 Drew Logsdon: The guidelines are changing every week, it seems like, in Virginia with COVID. And so that plays a role too of what tours we can do, but... Let's answer this in a traditional sense, in a normal post-COVID world, ideally, post-COVID, right, if everything went back to normal tomorrow. A tour of headquarters hands down obviously is a given.
0:18:00.0 Adam Girtz: Yes. Number one, yeah.
0:18:03.5 Drew Logsdon: Visiting VMI. Absolutely.
0:18:06.2 Adam Girtz: Yeah, you got to do VMI, got to see the parade ground, see... My favorite thing there, while we're on the topic of VMI, is the museum there. Definitely do not sleep on the museum. A lot of...
0:18:14.9 Drew Logsdon: It's amazing. It's a sleeper hit because you have to go into the chapel and go downstairs to find it.
0:18:26.2 Adam Girtz: Yeah. It's not obvious, there's not a sign, there's not a big old sign, that says, "Hey, this is the place that you go when you're at VMI". It's like, oh no, it's like tucked in there. But it's like, you have Little Sorrell the horse, which is awesome. Leading up to my favorite thing, which is the gun museum, which is incredible. Seeing all of the old guns and just thinking, wow, somebody was like, "Hey, I have an idea, what if we put a can of compressed air on this and see if it'll shoot a bullet." And then he was like, "Does it shoot a bullet?" "Kinda... " [chuckle] But we're going to use it.
0:19:03.0 Drew Logsdon: I don't know that this is for a fact or not, much like many of the things I say in the podcast... Yeah, I think it might be either the or one of the largest private collections of firearms in the nation.
0:19:18.9 Adam Girtz: I've heard that as well. So either we were both misinformed by the same person or it is a fact.
0:19:24.0 Drew Logsdon: Yeah. It's a huge collection, and the museum also has this really cool life-size replica of a barracks room at VMI. So civilians are not allowed in the barracks, right? That's just for cadets and the staff and everything, but you can see this life-size recreation of a barracks room and you can see the desk and kind of the beds and what they do and learn about that, and really cool gift shop. And they've got class rings and different class rings from past classes at VMI that you can see... It's an awesome museum. It's really cool, but again, you have to go into the chapel, Smith Hall, you have to go in Smith Hall, which... And the chapel is not that hard to find, it's pretty obvious, but you have to go inside and you need to go downstairs, and this awesome museum and gift shop is open and they have signage and everything, but like you said, there's not a big building that sits somewhere with a big sign at the top that says, "This is the museum."
0:20:21.6 Adam Girtz: There's no funnel to funnel you into like, hey, this is the museum, or this is the place that we direct everybody, it's just there.
0:20:29.8 Drew Logsdon: Yes.
0:20:30.2 Adam Girtz: Definitely a thing to see.
0:20:32.8 Drew Logsdon: And when you go to VMI too, you need to obviously find the Sigma Nu marker, which isn't hard to find, it's along the main road on VMI, on post. It's right next to the parade grounds.
0:20:42.4 Adam Girtz: On the parade ground side, yeah.
0:20:45.8 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, and the marker will actually tell you how many paces in what direction was the limestone outcropping, and so you can walk from that marker to just about the exact spot that the original limestone outcropping was where Sigma Nu was founded. Now, of course, the outcropping is not there anymore. They expanded the parade grounds...
0:21:09.8 Adam Girtz: And it's leveled, yeah.
0:21:12.4 Drew Logsdon: It's leveled yeah but you can see that, you can see the cannons out front of VMI, the four gospels as they call it, and it's just a... VMI is just a really cool, it's a really cool, not just institution, but a really cool place to visit because... Well, it's like any service academy when you go visit, there's a lot of tradition on post. And when you step on it, you are, not taken back in time, but you are in a completely different place.
0:21:44.9 Adam Girtz: Yeah, and that's something about Lexington in general that I think is really neat is like, I guess, as someone who grew up in the Midwest, grew up in Minnesota and living in Iowa here, I'm very used to... Everything about the cities that we have is very planned because we expanded later on, and it's like, okay, I know that if I get off on this exit, there's going to be a gas station, and then right next to the gas station, there's going to be a fast food place and all of these things, you get used to kind of the lay of the land and the same things, but Lexington is part of an area that like east coast where everything is built on very old bones and you can tell. It's very obvious when you're there, it's like, oh, these streets don't make any sense because they were built for horse and carriage.
0:22:38.2 Drew Logsdon: Yeah.
0:22:39.3 Adam Girtz: And we've just layered the modern everything else on top of that and... Go ahead.
0:22:45.7 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, no, no. It's a great old world feel, but it's modernized. There's a lot of modern stuff and we just listed off a bunch of restaurants, all those places we listed off are downtown.
0:22:58.1 Adam Girtz: Yes, yeah, and I'm not saying that you're going to be driving over cobblestones or whatever. [chuckle] But you can tell that it has maintained some of that same planning and VMI is kind of that same thing. It is everything is, like you said, everything is modernized and there are... Everything like that, but when you're there, you get the sense of the history and everything. And talking about the museums and all that, I think that is an important part of it as well, because you get the... It is a historical place, in a historical location that has a particular history. So you have just the sense of like, what was it like to be a 14, 15-year-old cadet and be told, hey, hold down the fort, we're... All of the older cadets are going to fight in the Battle of New Market, you know what I mean?
0:23:54.3 Drew Logsdon: The walls, the walls of VMI still have marks from cannon fire.
0:24:00.5 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:24:03.8 Drew Logsdon: And you're in an area of the country that kind of Virginia Shenandoah Valley kind of Maryland, Pennsylvania area, is really one of the epicenters of Civil War history, and really American History. Washington and Lee University was started way before the Civil War, you're in a place of the country that is very historical and has done a very good job, in my opinion, of not bulldozing over that history, but kind of finding ways to incorporate that with how the community is today, and the differences in the community and what has changed over time, and they've done a very good job, in my opinion, and can always do more, and always will do more, but it's really cool. Yeah, VMI, if you're a Sigma Nu come to headquarters, a trip to VMI, and if you're coming with family, there are tons of outdoor things to do in the area. It's mind-boggling. You are real close to the Appalachian trail, right?
0:25:10.5 Adam Girtz: And accessible parts of it too where if you had your little cousins there, it's like, you don't have to like, "Oh, we can't do this hike because it's too intense." Everything is very accessible.
0:25:25.7 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, and in fact, every summer, the community gets through hikers, through hikers come through and they'll hitch a ride into town and get a hot meal or something, and then maybe re-supply, but you do get all this really cool outdoors, you get Big House, Little House Mountain, which kind of overlooks Lexington, and that's a pretty easy hike depending on which one you do, it's a good hike. It's certainly no walk in the park. I mean, it is a walk in a park, [chuckle] I guess you could say that, but you're right near Washington National Forests, you're right near the Blue Ridge Parkway. And you're just really in this really cool commitment to preserve natural history as much as we're preserving American history or our country's history, or our regions or cities or State's history. You're in a cool place that's preserving natural history and natural resources as well too, so I mean...
0:26:23.1 Adam Girtz: Understanding the people that have walked on the land before you, right, no matter who they are. I think that's something that I was struck by when I'm there, and it's understanding that in context, I think it's a cool thing.
0:26:37.0 Drew Logsdon: And you're close to Roanoke, which is a cool town. They got a really cool downtown, and they got the Roanoke star at the top of the mountain, and you're close to Charlottesville, you're close to Richmond. I say close, all these things are roughly an hour or a couple of hours' drive away. Harrisonburg is a cool town... You're near a lot of cool stuff if you're coming to Lexington. Yeah.
0:27:03.1 Adam Girtz: Yeah, and depending on the size of your trip, I guess close enough to DC that it's like if you're driving from north to south or south to north along the coast, you can stop at headquarters and stop at DC on your way. Obviously, that's a three-hour drive from headquarters, but close enough that if it's a big road trip, you can do both of those things.
0:27:29.2 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, but if you're on a pilgrimage and you are coming in just for a weekend, you dont have a ton of time, hopefully those meal suggestions helped you out a little bit, but definitely visit headquarters, visit VMI. And I will also say if you're a collegiate chapter in a pilgrimage, take advantage of being at headquarters, like do a ceremony, do a ritual ceremony at headquarters in the Alpha room. It's such a special experience, man, you are immersed in history and the Alpha Chest, dude, the Alpha Chest is there. You are with the original piece of fraternity property the fraternity owned outright and drew a history and do some lead sessions. We want chapters to come visit and take a look at headquarters, but take advantage of the place you're at and the professional staff that are at your disposal to assist you in doing these really cool workshops or lead sessions or tours or ceremonies or what have you.
0:28:27.4 Adam Girtz: And I will say too, and I don't know if this is a thought that some people have or whatever, but definitely people who have done pilgrimages before understand this, but the staff is genuinely very excited to welcome you to headquarters. It is one of the highlights of, I think, like the time spent at headquarters is being able to share those cool things with people that... Even if you've been there before, but especially people who've never been to headquarters before. One of my favorite things about being present at headquarters during the summers that we were there, or time that we were spending there, is being able to share like, "Hey, this is a cool thing that I learned that I'm excited to share with you." So yes, so definitely don't be afraid to ask for a tour or stop by, you're not wasting anyone's time. Quite the opposite, it is one of our favorite things to be able to do there is share that.
0:29:25.6 Drew Logsdon: We are always excited to welcome any Sigma Nu home, which is why our headquarters exist. It is your home.
0:29:31.9 Adam Girtz: Yes, absolutely, and we are, I think privileged to, as a fraternity and I guess even larger as an organization, be headquartered where we were founded. That's such an uncommon thing that I actually... I didn't know or understand until I got on staff. I just assumed that, "Oh yeah, every fraternity is headquartered where they were founded, that just makes sense." But no, most of them are headquartered in an office building in Indianapolis. [chuckle]
0:30:00.7 Drew Logsdon: Yeah.
0:30:00.9 Adam Girtz: I think we have a very... We're very blessed to have that opportunity I think.
0:30:04.4 Drew Logsdon: A hundred percent, a hundred percent. Well, I think that nails down that one pretty well on things to do in Lexington.
0:30:10.5 Adam Girtz: Drew, I have a question for you.
0:30:12.2 Drew Logsdon: Yeah.
0:30:13.5 Adam Girtz: So I have a question for you, and my question is, what was your favorite topic that we discussed this season?
0:30:19.8 Drew Logsdon: Oh man, they were all... They were all great, let's just say that. Caveat, they were all great.
0:30:28.1 Adam Girtz: And I am not asking interviewee, every interviewee that we interviewed was wonderful. I had a big old blast to blast interviewing every person.
0:30:38.2 Drew Logsdon: I think my favorite topic was talking about team work with Coach Bill Morosco.
0:30:47.7 Adam Girtz: That was pretty cool.
0:30:48.8 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, that's a good one. If you haven't listened to it, definitely, definitely go back in the podcast episodes and check it out, or you can re-listen to it. But I think the reason why that was my favorite topic is because that's something I think that is applicable. All of our topics are really applicable to a lot of audiences, but that's one that no matter where you are in your life's journey, that's got key takeaways that you should take with you. Whether you realize it or not, you are throughout your life going to be leading a team or on a team and playing a role on a team, whether it's in your professional life, whether it's in the fraternity, whether it's in your home.
0:31:35.8 Drew Logsdon: Like, my home we have team Logsdon, it's me, my wife, and my two kids, and my wife is the team captain, as many would expect, we're co-captains of the team but we have specific roles that we have to play and we have to communicate, and just so much of that team work stuff is important. And that stuff that Bill does day in day out, and his success in it shows because since we've recorded the episode, Bill has left Independence Community College as their head coach and gone to Garden City Community College to serve as their head men's basketball coach. And so his success kind of speaks for itself in that realm, and I just think it's a really cool topic. Teamwork is important, and it's something I think we need more in our world, we need more people to embrace being on teams, and people willing to be good team leaders, but also people willing to be good team members.
0:32:39.3 Adam Girtz: Yes.
0:32:40.1 Drew Logsdon: And I think a lot of frustrations and issues can be attributed to, everybody wants to be the team captain, but we can't have 15 team captains. We got to have one team captain, and sometimes being a really good team member is as important as being a good team leader.
0:32:58.6 Adam Girtz: Oh definitely, yeah. I guess what happens when the captain, he turns around and then there's no team members behind him, right.
0:33:07.7 Drew Logsdon: Yeah. Exactly.
0:33:09.0 Adam Girtz: You're no longer a captain, a captain of what?
0:33:11.4 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, exactly. What about you Adam? What's your favorite topic from season one?
0:33:15.1 Adam Girtz: Oh man, I would say... I'm torn. I'm torn between the Ritual and Stress Awareness Month. Stress Awareness Month, just because speaking with Ross Szabo was neat. To speak with him about something that I guess... because I've used his curriculum with our collegians so much and you're doing... You're behind happy faces and everything, and then to interview him was interesting for me, but that topic itself, I think... I guess his work has had a lot of effect on me in terms of understanding and dealing with stress that I've dealt with, or especially this year, just understanding mental health and my own mental health was a really great interview topic, I would say. But then specifically the Ritual, and talking about as an organization is something that has historical significance to us, but also at the same time, feeds into how to be a successful chapter or even just a successful group of people, to have a ritual that you do or to have a set of guiding principles as a group to allow you to coalesce around is pretty cool. So I enjoyed that topic just because hopefully, either, whether it's our chapters that are listening or alumni that are listening, or I guess anybody who stumbled upon... If you're a non-member and you've stumbled upon this podcast, welcome... [chuckle] I don't know how you got here, but I'm glad you're here and I hope you got something from that episode in particular, because that is very Sigma Nu specific, but also at the same time not, right?
0:35:18.5 Drew Logsdon: Yeah. Yeah, those are great ones. The Ritual is such a special thing in Sigma Nu and such a unique thing.
0:35:27.4 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:35:29.4 Drew Logsdon: And so any discussion of that, it's going to be a home run, and Ross is so smart.
0:35:35.7 Adam Girtz: That was a really cool episode.
0:35:36.4 Drew Logsdon: We need to get Ross back on here, because we could pick Ross's brain on things...
0:35:42.4 Adam Girtz: Unfortunately, due to some technical issues right here in the recording was when we had a drop out of our audio, and so it kind of cuts off abruptly, but we'll bring it right back to our discussion where we answer a question of where did we get the idea to start the podcast?
0:36:00.0 Drew Logsdon: Context, we have discussed having a fraternity podcast for a couple of years now, a lot longer than probably most would think. The hurdles to doing that have been primarily a couple. One being, how do we make it sustainable? What you don't want to do is you don't want to have something that's a flash in the pan kind of thing, right, oh, it's really cool, we go all get excited to do it, and then we realize we don't have time to do it because of other stuff going on and so it falls off the radar and you sucked. History is littered with poorly founded ideas and poorly executed ideas.
0:36:42.0 Adam Girtz: And podcasts that have...
0:36:43.4 Drew Logsdon: Exactly, yeah, yeah. The listeners probably recognize there's podcasts they've enjoyed that have giant gaps in time between them or have fallen off, and so...
0:36:53.6 Adam Girtz: Looking at you, Dan Carlin. [laughter]
0:36:57.9 Drew Logsdon: Well, I think Dan puts a lot more production effort in his research.
0:37:03.2 Adam Girtz: That's a joke. Yeah, I suppose if we released six-hour episodes of one part of a six-part series and you'd take four months or more than that, he spent a long time in between episodes, anyway.
0:37:19.0 Drew Logsdon: This is the Gavel Podcast. Imagine the history... That would be cool to get Dan Carlin do the history of Sigma Nu. So the idea... So we thought about it, we have lots of ideas about it. But you have to, A, have the time to do it efficiently and sustainably. B, you have to have the technological know-how right? Anybody can record a podcast but not all podcasts are created equally. You have to have a certain... We expect at Sigma Nu, a certain production value of what we put out. We're not going to put out something that's one butt cheek, right. We're going to put something out, it's got two butt cheeks on it. Full butt in the seat, not one butt, not one cheek in the seat, if you will.
0:38:05.2 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:38:05.2 Drew Logsdon: And so we want to make sure we have that. And I think it really came to a head when the pandemic hit, we started doing a lot more virtual webinars, which we had a lot of good feedback from, a lot of good interest from, and we're still doing this. It's something that we're still doing, we're going to probably keep doing that, right?
0:38:21.8 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:38:22.7 Drew Logsdon: And we did the Gavel newsletter once a month, right, so every Sigma Nu, unless they told us to not email them, receives at least once a month an email from the fraternity that tells them what's going on, here are some things that may benefit to what place you're at in the fraternity journey. If you're a chapter advisor, your gavel looks a little different than if you're just a collegiate member and so on, so forth. So we had that, and then the podcast just became a natural kind of spin of that, hence the name, The Gavel Podcast, which was, "Hey, how do we continue to communicate to our audience?" And look at all the metrics out there. Podcasting is the new thing, and going to be around as the things... And so we wanted to get into that. And I think I'm speaking from communication side of it, so kind of the thoughts that were going through my head. And I think Adam from your side in member engagement, you guys were thinking very similar things and it kind of came to a head where you actually approached me, you and Justin Winger from our staff team approached me and said, "Hey, what about this podcast idea?" And it was sort of like, "Hey, interesting timing that you mentioned that." Right? We have things we've been talking about, and that kind of came to a head. And...
0:39:42.6 Adam Girtz: The stars aligned, if you will. Yeah.
0:39:44.9 Drew Logsdon: Exactly. And I'm glad it did. And so, we try to make it sustainable. We do one episode a month. We do a couple of bonus episodes here and there, if we can do it, but trying to have one episode a month is important.
0:39:58.1 Adam Girtz: Yeah. Yeah. And it did, just from our side of it as well, because we're looking at the success of our virtual meetings, like doing college chapters virtually out of necessity was something that we had to do because of limitations placed on us, on in-person gatherings and all that. But what we found was, hey, we did get some really great feedback on this. Obviously, when we can go back to in-person for some of those things that's what we want to do because that is the ideal, but there's now this whole new lane for us that's been created by the leaps in technology as far as virtual platforms and all that. And it's like, okay, so do we want to... We were talking about let's do virtual live webinars, or speaker panels, and stuff like that.
0:40:49.8 Adam Girtz: And then, it's like, "Okay. Well, what if you can't be there in person to listen to it live?"" Okay. Well, then we'll record it. And we'll post it somewhere. Okay. Well, if we're going to do that, why don't we just skip the middle man and make it a podcast, right? The most accessible, downloadable interview format. So, you can listen to this on basically any electronic device. I'm sure there's somebody out there with the Samsung smart fridge that can play a podcast, right? And you can... And it will live here forever, right? So, you have access if you've just found the most recent episode. If this is your first episode, again, welcome, hello, but you can go back and listen to, hey, all of the other episodes that we've already done in the season. So, I think that's a really great medium and I'm glad we've been able to do this. So, speaking of being glad to be... Season one in the bag, completed. Who are the guests for Season two?
0:41:52.6 Drew Logsdon: Oh man.
0:41:52.9 Adam Girtz: Paul Rudd. Harrison Ford. [laughter]
0:41:57.7 Adam Girtz: Eli Manning.
0:41:58.6 Drew Logsdon: Well, Brother Ford, I think, is busy right now, filming Indiana Jones and...
0:42:03.9 Adam Girtz: What are they on, eight?
0:42:06.5 Drew Logsdon: It must be... And I get so nervous. He injured himself. It was in the news. He had a bike accident or something. I was like, "Come on. Come on Brother Ford. We need you to stick around as long as possible."
0:42:21.5 Adam Girtz: Speedy recovery.
0:42:25.3 Drew Logsdon: Yeah. So yeah. There's obviously famous Sigma Nus. We would love to have them on the podcast that we, we're still trying, right? But as far as our guests for Season two, I think folks are going to be really excited by him. I don't want to give away... You asked a question, I'm not going to answer it. I'll go ahead and reveal that now. I think folks are going to really like it. In Season two, we're going to talk about some broad topics that relate to the fraternity. We're going to talk about honor. We're going to talk about ethics and ethical leadership. Back to some of these topics that resonate with Sigma Nu men and will resonate with Sigma Nu men no matter where they are in their fraternal journey, whether they're alumnus, whether they're still in school, what have you. So, we got a lot of cool topics. We got a lot of cool guests lined up, but I don't want to reveal anything specific. We are... I'll give one teaser.
0:43:23.5 Adam Girtz: Okay.
0:43:24.4 Drew Logsdon: I'll give one teaser out. I think we're going to have the new Regent, Brother Timothy Huffmyer. Regent Huffmyer, the fraternity's new Regent, have him on a little bonus episode here to talk to him and get to know a little bit more about Tim and his Sigma Nu story and his vision for his Regency. If you want to get a sneak peek of what that may be like, definitely check out on our YouTube page where we posted Brother Huffmyer's remarks, his introductory remarks as Regent of Sigma Nu from Grand Chapter. That's a great one to look at, but yeah. We got a lot of good topics. I don't want to reveal guests just yet, I want to leave that a little mysterious, but...
0:44:06.0 Adam Girtz: Good.
0:44:06.6 Drew Logsdon: Think we got some... We'll have some good show stoppers, I think.
0:44:10.0 Adam Girtz: I'll give one teaser, Paul Rudd. He's on the show. We got Paul Rudd. [laughter]
0:44:19.9 Drew Logsdon: That's a joke. Speaks...
0:44:21.0 Adam Girtz: Speak it into reality, right?
0:44:23.4 Drew Logsdon: Yeah.
0:44:24.6 Adam Girtz: If we say it... If we say it... Yeah, if we build it, they will come.
0:44:28.7 Drew Logsdon: Well, a better teaser and more truthful teaser. We will mention Paul Rudd on the podcast.
0:44:35.6 Adam Girtz: We just did.
0:44:36.6 Drew Logsdon: Check. Done. [laughter]
0:44:40.3 Drew Logsdon: Promises made, promises kept.
0:44:41.3 Adam Girtz: Promises kept. Love it.
0:44:41.5 Drew Logsdon: The Gavel podcast folks.
0:44:42.8 Adam Girtz: That is it. That is it. Well, again, just thank you all so much for the feedback, for listening. And this has been a really cool thing to be able to do. And I've really enjoyed it. So, if you are interested in reaching out, if you have feedback for us, if you want to say hello, if you have suggestions, we love suggestions. We don't always necessarily incorporate everything, just because of the amount of time that we have and the schedule that we've created for ourselves, but we'd love to hear what listeners have to say and what our members are thinking and feeling. So, reach out to us again. Yeah. You can reach out to me directly, right, at adam.girtz, A-D-A-M dot G-I-R-T-Z, @sigmanu.org. I will field all of your podcast, Gavel podcast, wanderings, musings, questions, and gripes, grievances. Please.
0:45:44.9 Drew Logsdon: We'll put that in the show notes. And of course, if you forget that, we'll put that in the show notes, but you can also always email us at headquarters@sigmanu.org, that's another good way to reach us. But yeah. I mean it's been a great first six months. And I think we're excited for Season two and we're excited for where this can go. And you guys are the listeners. You all let us know what you want to hear, and what you want us to talk about, and what folks do you want us to seek out to interview and we'll try our best to do that so it's been a great one.
0:46:15.1 Adam Girtz: Love it.
0:46:16.3 Drew Logsdon: Yeah. And give questions, right? We can do another one of these in December or January, something like that. Do another little Q & A sesh. Well, Adam, I think we are just about at our close, or if not already there our hour mark for kind of what we aim for our episodes here. So, I'm going to go ahead and motion us to close.
0:46:38.2 Adam Girtz: I second that.
0:46:39.2 Drew Logsdon: Alright. All in favor.
0:46:42.9 Adam Girtz: Aye.
0:46:43.2 Drew Logsdon: Alright, Adam. Well, we'll see you next time. And listeners, we'll listen to you, or we'll talk to you guys next time on the next episode of the Gavel podcast. Have a good summer y'all. Talk to you later.
0:46:49.2 Adam Girtz: Bye everyone.
0:47:17.9 Drew Logsdon: Bye.
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