In this episode, Adam and Christopher interview Justin Wenger (William Jewell), Senior Director of Engagement for the Fraternity, about the Affirmation of Knighthood Ceremony. The Affirmation of Knighthood is a ceremony marking a collegiate member’s transition to the alumni chapter. During the episode, Adam, Christopher, and Justin talk about the importance of the Affirmation of Knighthood, why it’s often underutilized by chapters, and how chapters can begin implementing it.
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The Gavel Podcast - Ep 30 - The Affirmation of Knighthood with Justin Wenger (William Jewell)
[Intro Music]
0:00:42.0 Adam Girtz: Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of The Gavel Podcast. I'm Adam.
0:00:46.0 Christopher Brenton: And I'm Christopher.
0:00:47.2 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.
0:00:57.2 Christopher Brenton: To find out more from the fraternity, you can always check out our website @sigmanu.org. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @sigmanuhq, or by searching for Sigma Nu Fraternity.
0:01:07.7 Adam Girtz: Alright, here we are, we're live! Christopher, it feels like a... Maybe it's just the weird scheduling and the fact that we did so many episodes back-to-back in the early part of the year. It just feels like we haven't recorded in a little while. How have you been?
0:01:24.0 Christopher Brenton: I've been good. Well, the last episode or the last interview that we did, we didn't even participate because it was just Fred and Kim, which was a great episode. And hopefully, people don't prefer that model [laughter] where we're removed here in the process.
0:01:42.0 Adam Girtz: Yeah, I was going to say, I kind of liked it. Maybe we should shovel our work off on other staff members more often, I like that.
0:01:48.3 Christopher Brenton: Absolutely. But yes, it is good to be back with you. And we actually have another guest with us, which is a special experience for us. Do you want to introduce our guest?
0:02:02.1 Adam Girtz: Yeah, speaking of shoveling work off on other staff members, we've brought one of our favorite Shovel recipients on here on the podcast for his first time: Justin Wenger. Welcome! Welcome to the podcast for the first time. I can't believe we haven't had you on yet.
0:02:19.0 Justin Wenger: Yeah, first time, first time, excited. Be a new experience for me, for sure. And hopefully, my voice isn't too horrific for recording.
0:02:31.4 Adam Girtz: Your voice is wonderful.
0:02:33.2 Justin Wenger: So but no, excited to be here and looking forward to it.
0:02:34.4 Adam Girtz: Justin, yeah. You've got a voice and a face for radio, as I say. [laughter] Well...
0:02:44.0 Justin Wenger: Definitely the face, definitely the face.
0:02:48.9 Adam Girtz: Well, welcome to the show, Justin. Glad to have you here, first of many episodes, I hope. Christopher, I hear we have some announcements.
0:02:56.6 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, before I get into those, though, actually, since Justin, you are... This is the first time you've been on the episode, I thought, actually, maybe helpful if you want to provide folks with your chapter and university designation, and then kind of a brief description of what you do for the fraternity.
0:03:15.4 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:03:16.2 Justin Wenger: Yeah, sure, sure. So, from the Beta Psi Chapter at William Jewell College. Most people, when I say there are like, "Where is that?" So it is in Liberty, Missouri, which is what I describe as the northernmost suburb of Kansas City, is kind of the best way to describe it. I currently serve as the Senior Director of Engagement for the fraternity, which I describe in lay terms as being one of two, in partnership with Adam, is the National Alumni Relations Chairman, is how I would describe it for most people. But I tend to keep my work focused heavily towards alumni chapters, mentoring, really, just kind of overall general fraternity engagements, so as we're working towards development of events and advising consulting alumni on things that they can be doing at the local level, that sort of thing.
0:04:24.5 Christopher Brenton: Nice, awesome! Well, always want to make sure that people know what your area of expertise is because as we get into the episode a little bit later on, it'll make sense why you're on this episode. But as Adam indicated, so we had... Do have a couple of announcements that are important for our listeners, and hopefully, these are timely as we're going to be talking about at least one event. And so for our listeners, if you're listening to this as this episode's released, this will be relevant if you are listening to them in the future. Long after these events have concluded, you can maybe skip over the next a minute or so.
0:05:04.0 Christopher Brenton: But first things first, Grand Chapter registration is now live. So we are excited to announce that we are gearing up for the 70th Grand Chapter. Fred, who has been a long-time participant on the podcast, I know he has been working on this for a while, but at least, from an external public perspective, things are really starting to be set in motion as we prepare for our Grand Chapter in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The event will be taking place from June 28th through July 2nd, and registration can be accessed at www.sigmanu.org/grandchapter. We fully expect our collegiate chapters to send at least two... Well, they should send two representatives. Each collegiate chapter has two votes during the legislative portions of the Grand Chapter experience, but we also welcome our alumni, as well. Alumni chapter representatives have one vote during the legislative events, but then, we also have our past grand officers, division commanders, all of those stakeholders who have a role to play during the Grand Chapter's legislative meetings. So please, we are excited to reconvene for the first Grand Chapter in the past five years, our last Grand Chapter being virtual. So please try to attend if you can. We know it's going to be a really exciting event, we're in a great location, and it'll be a lot of fun just being around so many brothers once again.
0:06:51.0 Adam Girtz: As an alumnus, I've only been to one Grand Chapter, and that was the one that I worked at in DC. So I highly encourage it. If you're within driving range, grab some of the boys, grab your alumni brothers, and head on down. It's going to be a good time, and yeah, you can hang out at the business sessions, and you'll see some of that. But also, just spend some time connecting with brothers from around the country, so please, please show up. It's a lot of fun.
0:07:27.0 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, and if you are a, let's say, a secondary representative for your alumni chapter, you're not necessarily going to have a vote on the Grand Chapter for... Of course, all alumni, per the law, are welcome to speak on the floor on certain matters, but there are going to be plenty of additional events that are exciting for our alumni to attend. We're going to have our, Sold for Sigma Nu Live Auction. We're going to have area alumni receptions. So there's going to be more to do than just the legislation... Legislative portion of the Grand Chapter. Of course, that is the most important portion. But again, this is going to be a super exciting event for all of our alumni and collegiate members to attend, and we hope that you do.
0:08:11.3 Christopher Brenton: The other announcement is that we are very close to the deadline for Pursuit of Excellence and for our Alumni and Collegiate Chapter Awards. So April 30th is our annual deadline for both Pursuit of Excellence, as well as our award applications. So if you are listening to this and you are... This is right around the time that this episode is airing, I would strongly encourage you to connect with the rest of your collegiate chapter, as well as your alumni chapter, to make sure that your chapter's putting forward a strong Pursuit of Excellence submission that is representative of what you've accomplished over this past academic year. But then also, that you are nominating members from your chapter and from your alumni chapter who are most deserving of recognition.
0:09:02.7 Christopher Brenton: So, there are multiple award categories. We have our Merit Award winners that includes Man of the Year, Scholar of the Year, Talent of the Year, Athlete of the Year. But we also have Alpha Affiliates, which are our top graduating seniors. So 10 of those individuals are recognized every year. That is the highest recognition that our collegiate or undergraduate members can earn outside of the individual Merit Awards. And then we also have alumni categories that are similar, so Chapter Advisor of the Year. We have House Corporation Officer of the Year, etcetera. So strongly encourage you to check out the website for information related to those awards and to strongly consider applying. So Adam, those are the two big announcements, unless I missed anything.
0:09:55.2 Adam Girtz: Nope, that's all that I've got. I'm really excited to dive into our topic and to hear more from Justin, so if we're ready for that, let's go!
0:10:07.0 Christopher Brenton: Yeah! Well, Justin, to kick things off, before we get going, Adam and I have a tradition for all of our episodes, which is that when we have a new guest on the podcast, specifically, a Sigma Nu brother on the podcast, we like to get to know a little bit more about your Sigma Nu story. So we know that you joined the Beta Psi Chapter at William Jewell, but for you, what was it about Sigma Nu that you were excited to join? Why Sigma Nu? And what were some of your takeaways from that collegiate experience?
0:10:38.8 Justin Wenger: Sure! So why Sigma Nu? Well, at William Jewell, basically, the Sigma Nu Chapter comprised a notable percentage of the football team. The other notable percentage on the football team was members of FIJI, and the KA chapter played basketball, and the Lambda Chi Alpha Chapter were... They were the smart guys on campus. And I went to Jewell, fortunate enough to go to William Jewell to play football and baseball. And so there was four or five of the Sigma Nu brothers on the football team, were the first guys I met when I got on to campus. Turned out that the guy I got rude with for dinner in my first set of two days was a quarterback, which was interesting because I was a defensive back. And then Menoli Patsu, great guy, and I kind of attached myself to him a little bit, and he was... He really found a kindred spirit with the Sigma Nu guys, and I was connected to him. So like, "Yeah, we'll give this a shot and see if they give me a bid." And somehow or another, they did, and off we went.
0:12:08.6 Justin Wenger: So, we were a smaller chapter. So it was if you were an officer or not, you were getting plugged in right away, regardless of position or tenure. And in many ways, we were kind of... Animal House would be too extreme, but we were a rough and rowdy group, to a degree, but I think well-liked. We had the reputation of being wild, but at the same time, the wild guys that you like and you enjoy hanging out with. There was... It was a pretty diverse group. William Jewell wasn't... It wasn't a trust fund school, but there wasn't a whole lot of us that were coming from the hardcore blue collar families. And I think a number of us came together in the Beta Psi Chapter, so there was that, but it was just a great mix of guys who got along really, really well.
0:13:23.1 Justin Wenger: From there, I had a chapter brother who actually went to work, came to work for the General Fraternity in 1999 to... No, I guess it would have been 2000. Nelson Canning came to work here at the General Fraternity. Through him was my first introduction to Jeff Fightner, who was a past Director of Expansion on the team, and that guided me into the application process. So joined staff in 2002 with the intention of being here for a year before going on to law school. And enjoyed my first year on the road so much that my old academic advisor at Jewell helped me to get a deferment for a year at University of Missouri Law. And enjoyed the second year so much that I decided, "You know what? I really don't want to be in... I really don't want to do the law. I think I found what I want to do, at least for a little while longer." And anyhow, 18 years after making that decision, here I am. So have done a number of positions. A lot of people ask me, "What do you do at Sigma Nu?" I like to joke around and say, "I create jobs at Sigma Nu."
0:14:39.0 Adam Girtz: Thank you for that.
0:14:39.7 Justin Wenger: There was no... Yeah, there was no Director of Education with the General Fraternity until I did it. And then there was no Director of Financial Operations until I did it. And there was no Director of Engagement until I did it.
0:14:56.7 Adam Girtz: Yeah? And there was no Senior Director of Communications until I made you a senior.
0:15:00.4 Justin Wenger: Right, right, so... That's right, yes.
0:15:02.5 Adam Girtz: Hopefully, that wasn't just me making you feel old.
0:15:07.6 Justin Wenger: Ah, well, well, my kids do a good job of making me feel old, so... But yeah, yeah, that's been kind of the story. The takeaway, I think, from me, from my experience has been, and this attributes over to my time on staff, as well, really, it's just been the friendships and the relationships that you build in your chapter, and how important and strong those are, and... Apologies, if it sounds like Tokyo is being destroyed in the background. My two-year-old is going to town right now, so hopefully, it's not bothering anybody too much.
0:15:48.3 Adam Girtz: That's fine.
0:15:52.7 Justin Wenger: But those relationships, what I've realized when I joined the General Fraternity staff, the importance of that knowledge of having gone through the initiation ceremony carries a lot of weight as you meet brothers across the country, right? The moment you meet somebody new, and there's that realization that you're both initiates of Sigma Nu, suddenly, some of that guarded demeanor melts away. The shield and the wall kind of fall down just on the basis of knowing that he's a fraternity brother.
0:16:27.8 Adam Girtz: Yeah, it's that certain level of shared connection, right? Like you have... I know that...
0:16:30.7 Justin Wenger: Right, I mean when you think about that this is an organization, been around for 154 plus years, more than 255,000 people have been initiated into Sigma Nu, right? There's right around 200,000 living members right now, all different walks of life, all different nationalities, and creeds, and every other demographic separation there can be. And yet, there's this one thing that brings us all together, right? So it's so awesome to think about.
0:17:10.6 Adam Girtz: Yeah. Well, that's really cool. That's kind of a great segue into our topic today. So we're talking about, today, the Affirmation of Knighthood. And if you're unfamiliar with that, that is a part of our ritual that we have that is really dedicated to transitioning from an active collegiate member to an alumnus. So really, a neat ceremony that we have, and one that is not as ubiquitous, definitely, as the Initiation Ritual or the Candidate Induction Ceremony, but I would argue is almost more important than that because it sets up the rest of your life as an alumnus, right? To level set for everyone, can you just give us a brief explanation of what is the Affirmation of Knighthood? I know I tried to explain it, but you could probably do a better job than I did.
0:18:16.4 Justin Wenger: And you know, you did pretty well, Adam. It, the Affirmation, that is our formal ritual transition from being a collegiate brother to being an alumnus brother. It's to... Important concept for our membership to consider because there are some things that occur in this ceremony that they don't happen in any other ceremony, in the ritual. But the main thing is that this is the formal transition, per our ritual, from being a collegiate brother to an alumnus brother, which is where we spend most of our membership, is as an alumnus.
0:19:00.7 Adam Girtz: Yeah. Okay. It's just four years in and then the rest of your lifetime really as an alumnus, right? So one thing Christopher and I wanted to do was just get everyone's experience here from the show on the Affirmation of Knighthood in our discussions beforehand, it sounds like we've all could have had very different experiences with it, so Christopher, would you care to start and just share with us your experience with The Affirmation.
0:19:32.6 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, so in full disclosure, I never participated in the Affirmation of Knighthood as a collegiate member, so for any listeners who they're like, Maybe you came to this episode and you're like, I have never even heard of the Affirmation of Knighthood, or don't know what it is, or maybe you were feeling a little embarrassed that you as an alumnus, had never participated in as a collegiate member, you're not alone, and that's kind of the reason for this episode, but I didn't have a collegiate experience with it... Well, it really wasn't until I joined staff that I learned about it, and then subsequently have had opportunities to participate in it, at least as an observer. And so, I want people to not have this experience that I had, which is that they missed out on what I think is a really beautiful and powerful ceremony. So that was my experience.
0:20:24.8 Adam Girtz: Yeah, I'm kind of glad you had that experience because you can be that portion of our audience or the representation for that. Justin, what about you? Was your chapter able to do it?
0:20:38.3 Justin Wenger: So, we did not do it at the Beta Psi Chapter, but I have had the opportunity to participate in the ceremony as an alumnus. So, similar to Chris, I was not familiar with it until I came on staff, but again, I have had the opportunity to participate as a participant in it. And I've also participated in it as an officer participant in there, and it is... I think Chris used a very good word in describing it, it's really a very beautiful ceremony. As I mentioned before, there were some things that occur in that ceremony that do not occur anywhere else in the ritual. So it's very unique in that regard. And for a lot of the people that I've spoken to who have participated in it, very meaningful. There's a lot to it. There's a big reminder of what our membership means and the obligations that we took when we were initiated, and it's got a good focus on reminding us of those obligations and those commitments. So there's a lot of meaning to it, and everybody I know who's been through it, it's carried a lot of weight for them.
0:22:05.4 Adam Girtz: Well, that's cool. It's interesting to me, and I think maybe instructive to our chapters that two-thirds of us, you have not been able to experience it as a collegiate member. So maybe this is a call from us as alumnus to our active chapters and as the General Fraternity advocating for it. That our active chapters put some priority on making sure that this happens. So my experience with it, I was able to go through, the Affirmation twice as a collegiate member. So the first one is the most memorable to me because I was a commander at the time, and was able to serve that role in the ceremony. And the active chapter commander role in that ceremony is more, "Hey, here's our graduating seniors, alumni. We entrust them to you now". Right? And then kind of stepping aside and allowing the alumni to perform the rest of that induction into the alumni ranks. And that experience, for me, it was really emotional because A, I was serving as commander, and you feel this ownership of the chapter, and these are also the guys that were sophomores and juniors when I was going through recruitment. And to then have these guys... To have a real true book end of, yep, saying goodbye to these guys, they're going off into the world, and I'm excited for them, but I'm going to miss seeing them every day at the house and all that stuff.
0:24:07.1 Adam Girtz: So that experience for me, being a younger member saying goodbye to some of those seniors was very emotional. Tears were shed from many parties, not a dry eye in the house kind of thing. That experience with it was... We were just at the Chapter House, there was maybe a half a dozen of us that were from the active chapter there, and maybe half that from alumni that were able to be present, but still a very emotionally impactful ceremony, so that was really neat. And then kind of a let down, I guess, but my second experience with it was my own Affirmation of Knighthood, and it felt like it just didn't carry as much weight, and maybe that's the senior experience. Is like, "Yeah, I'm out of here". It's a little bit maybe easier to say goodbye when you're headed headed off to go do great things.
0:25:07.5 Adam Girtz: But, I also think an interesting perspective on it, it wasn't taken as seriously when I went through as a senior. Not a dig on any of the new leaders in our chapter at that time, but it just wasn't as serious when I went through it, which is fine, and I think that's just a lesson to chapters though. Is like, this ceremony has a lot of emotional weight and can definitely set the tone for an alumnus as they're graduating and their thoughts and memories of the chapter. You're kind of putting a capstone on that. So it is a very important ceremony for the chapter.
0:25:54.5 Adam Girtz: So, it's interesting that we all have different experiences with it. I have not been able to participate in Affirmation of Knighthood as an alumnus yet, which is something that I would love to do. Some of you... Would love to make it back to my own chapter to do that, but, you know, wherever I could participate. That would be kind of neat. Any other thoughts on people's experiences? Christopher or Justin?
0:26:22.7 Christopher Brenton: I don't know if I necessarily have a thought of my experience, but I know that we're going to get into this in just a moment, so maybe this is kind of a transition, but I just think back to how chapters form meaningful relationships with alumni, and I think every one of our chapters that we interact with, regardless of whether they have really involved alumni or not, we hear this consistently like, "Oh, we want our alumni to give back, or we want them to donate, we want them to help us out financially, we want them to serve as advisors, we want them to do lead sessions". I think about my own chapter, and I feel like so much or so many of the candidate classes that come through, they're really tight knit, they go through initiation...
0:27:20.9 Christopher Brenton: Or they go through the canister together, they go through initiation together, and then they graduate together and then they stay close, and certainly I'm a good example of that as well. I'm close with a lot of guys that I first joined with, but because we didn't participate in that Affirmation of Knighthood ceremony, I think we really missed out on opportunity to have the ceremony that marked us for a larger purpose, that we were transitioning to this larger body and we had responsibilities as knights that carry on beyond the collegiate chapter experience, and I think that having missed out on that opportunity, I feel like maybe some of my peers, some of the brothers that I graduated with, missed out on the opportunity to re-contextualize their experience, like "Hey, now, I am no longer just a collegiate member or it's not that my experience ends at graduation, but rather I'm compelled or called to a lifetime of service". So I kind of look at it as just... I guess I am jealous of the chapters that do this and have this as a set tradition for their chapter experience, because I feel like it is a powerful opportunity, and I know we're going to talk about that a little bit more here, but it definitely is something that I think a lot about when I think about missed opportunities for my collegiate experience.
0:29:02.8 Justin Wenger: Yeah, I think Chris makes some really excellent points there that can be true for any of us who didn't have the opportunity to experience it as a graduating collegiate brother. So fine points there to be sure. The one thing I would say is I think that an item that's out there is, Adam, you were talking about your experience when you were actually going through the ceremony as a participant, and perhaps it wasn't taken quite as seriously. And I think that happens sometimes. I think sometimes it's because maybe they're not taking it seriously or perhaps are trying to get started on it. So they don't quite have their head wrapped around the importance of it and the weight that it can carry...
0:29:49.6 Adam Girtz: And it's just the dynamic in the house too. We were, I think, kind of a more serious bunch when I was participating in my upper classmen's ceremony. But yeah, we were maybe a little bit looser and sillier when I was going through it myself as a senior, and that's fine. I still treasure the memory, because it encapsulates what it was like to be in the chapter at that time, and so it's not a dig at all, but yeah.
0:30:25.5 Justin Wenger: Yeah, so I think what my point of bringing it up though is that... Because I think for a lot of groups out there, when they're getting started or they're thinking about it, or groups who have, this has not yet been become a full-blown tradition for them, or they're thinking... Like I said, they're thinking about gettting started with it, is one ceremony that's obviously a long-standing tradition within the fraternity, regardless of the chapter, is the initiation ceremony. It's hugely important, everybody understands its level of importance, they take it serious. The Affirmation of Knighthood is certainly deserving of that same level of attention to detail in reverent. Because one way that I think that it becomes helpful for people is to think of the Affirmation of Knighthood as your initiation into the alumni ranks of the fraternity.
0:31:30.3 Justin Wenger: And I think in many ways, the ceremony itself really speaks to the shift of fraternal expectations as a collegiate versus as an alumnus. When we talk about the initiation ceremonies, there's references related to the fact that this is a lifetime commitment and that you are member for life. Those are not only in my reading of the ceremony, in my experience with it, those are not only reiterated in the Affirmation of Knighthood I would go so far as saying this, they are emphasized, to bring some emphasis on some weight to the fact of you're entering the longest stretch of your membership now in Sigma Nu, which is going to be as an alumnus. It's for the rest of your life. It is a lifetime commitment. So yeah, I put it out there, I think it's just... It's another way to consider, what is this ceremony? It is initiation into the alumni ranks.
0:32:46.4 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:32:47.8 Christopher Brenton: Well, Justin, to that point, and Adam, I don't know if you were about to do this, but I was going to say, I think this is an appropriate time to transition to our last question, which is why is this important? Why are we emphasizing this topic? What are the implications for a chapter adopting, the Affirmation of Knighthood as a standard practice? And just to put forward a fast response to that, Justin, to your point. So, often we hear chapters talk about apathetic seniors, un-engaged alumni, and I think those two pieces in particular, the Affirmation of Knighthood is never going to be a silver bullet, but it is a huge first step to addressing those two problems in particular. I think that there's been so many books written on this idea that men are wired for rites of passage. That we look for these moments of having been tested and proven to be fit for society. And we think about the measures of manhood. And as those have been prolonged, men get older, or sorry, men get married at older times, men have children... It takes people longer to have children, more people are going to college, and so they're not going into the workforce immediately after graduating from high school. There's been a lot of study about, or a lot of thought around like, "Well, how are men finding these markers of manhood?"
0:34:43.5 Christopher Brenton: And so fraternities are kind of filling an initiating role where we come into the experience and we have this innate desire to join a group of men to go through these rights of passage, these ceremonies, so our initiation ceremonies in particular. But, the Affirmation of Knighthood serves an incredible, unique opportunity for us to think about the latter years of our collegiate experience, so sophomore, junior and senior, where we've really not engaged with this idea of my worth. What do I contribute?
0:35:20.0 Christopher Brenton: And so, the Affirmation of Knighthood, I think tests our graduating seniors, our senior members, the chapter, to say like, "Hey, how am I actively contributing to my chapter?" And to sit with the idea of like, "Am I worthy to be initiated into the alumni chapter? Am I continuing to fulfill my vows as a knight of the Legion of Honor?" I think that's an important piece. But then, Justin, your point about, the Affirmation of Knighthood serving as a point of emphasis of, "Hey, the things that we talked about when you were a candidate, and that you committed yourself to as an initiate, now, we're doubling down on that. The four years that you were in college, or the five years, if you were a super senior, that was a trial run. This is where you put it to practice". And so, then that affirmation, I think, for those alumni that take it seriously, and that's a powerful moment for... I think they leave with this sense of purpose to continue to remain engaged with the organization, to continue to show up to events, to give their time, talent and treasure back to the chapter or the national organization.
0:36:34.7 Christopher Brenton: And so again, I think there's a lot more that goes into alumni engagement and building a healthy pool of alumni to continue to be involved with collegiate chapters and the national organization. But, the Affirmation of Knighthood is such an important first step.
0:36:51.8 Adam Girtz: So, and Justin, I'm definitely... I want to ask you kind of a question about this, maybe towards the end, because I think we want to get into advice for chapters. "Hey, if this is interesting to you, how do you get started?" But I want to lean into that or that later question by saying... Christopher, you said this isn't a silver bullet, right? Just by performing the ceremony, you're not going to instantly have engaged alumni that are breaking their backs to lift the house up at every moment, but it's an anchor point around which you can build a successful and fruitful senior transition program. And, Justin, I would love for you to touch on that when we ask for some advice for chapters. What are some of the other components of building that successful transition? But I did... I wanted to get Justin's picture first on the larger importance of this and really what is the impact that we can see on our alumni when chapters perform this, even if it's just anecdotally?
0:38:05.0 Adam Girtz: So, Justin, what is that larger importance? If every chapter did this, what might we see in our fraternity at large?
0:38:17.4 Justin Wenger: Yeah. So the larger importance here is really the fact of the ceremony is the culmination of your collegiate experience. And I think it was Chris that said it earlier and it was a great way of putting it. Your collegiate tenure is, that's when you're practicing all of these skills that Sigma Nu is instilling and teaching and educating us about. And you go to the Affirmation of Knighthood ceremony and in its way, it basically lays out to you that, "Hey, practice is over. Time to go play the game." So it carries a huge weight in terms of, this is your role as an alumni in Sigma Nu and... It's difficult to describe the larger impact without starting to dive into some of the details of how you build up to it, how you build up to this culmination that, the Affirmation of Knighthood is.
0:39:42.6 Justin Wenger: You're taking these young men who have gone through their collegiate career, they've gone through this extensive transformation of who they were when they entered college at 18 years old, and they've entered this new phase of life, this emerging adulthood phase, and they've gone through the last four or five years, and now we're about to release them into the world to go find their way. That's been the norm within the fraternity, right? Take these soon-to-be alumni and say, "Go find your way. We've given you these tools, go do this." We don't do that as parents with our kids, right?
0:40:38.6 Justin Wenger: It certainly wouldn't be a ground-breaking thought to have someone share advice with a friend about what they should do next, but unfortunately within the fraternity, we do this every year where it's just, "Okay, you're released, go." And I think that the Affirmation of Knighthood is... It's that gate. It's that gateway that says, "Hold up for a second. Let's remember what we've learned and let's remind ourselves what we're about, and let's make sure we understand our obligations moving forward." And I think that is part of the larger role that this ceremony can play, and I think it's partly why it carries so much weight for the people that have been through it.
0:41:36.1 Adam Girtz: Well, it's interesting because something that we would see a lot, and this is from my own chapter as well, is this concept of senior status where a chapter recognizes that, "Hey, our seniors are getting a little disconnected". And they kind of make the pre-excuse for them of, "Oh, well, they're busy, they're job hunting, they're doing thesis, projects, and capstone your project," so maybe they're working more, maybe they're starting a family even, and kind of let them off the hook for that and kind of give them this senior status where they're not expected to do all of the responsibilities that they normally would as a member.
0:42:28.9 Adam Girtz: And I think Justin would agree with me, but I would argue that the opposite should be the case, right? Seniors should be the ones that the chapter is able to lean on because they have the most experience and they're able to share that. So really, I guess this might be an appropriate place for it, but, Justin, what are some other components of you preparing seniors for this gateway, for this transition, this launch out into being an alumnus. As an active chapter, what can we do to set these seniors up, so that this ceremony can be that capstone, that gateway, that launching point?
0:43:10.9 Justin Wenger: Yeah. So in terms of what can occur at the chapter level? So let me start on the philosophical, which is very much in line with what you were just saying, Adam, in that absolutely 110% our chapters overall... So I'm not singling any chapters out here because there are exceptions to the rule. But as a rule, our chapters have gone way too far in terms of allowing senior members and upper classmen members to step aside and fade into the background. And I would suggest that there's too much allowance of, "Oh, I've put in my effort and I've put in my work for the chapter. Now it's time for me to reap the benefits." And so, think about it, that puts a ton of pressure on these first and second year members to make their chapter go and to be successful and provide this wonderful experience during the college years, and you're putting that on 18 and 19-year-olds who are still learning what the fraternity is about.
0:44:37.0 Justin Wenger: So that's one place where I think philosophically, yes, our chapters have gone the wrong direction in terms of allowing our upper classmen to go to the background. The other side of it is, as we all know, is an officer in just the chapter calendar in general, how busy those guys are, and when you're that busy, it's very difficult to sit there and necessarily remember and think about the other members of the chapter who are waiting for you to tell them or direct them on what's next. So the point being is that seniors often get kind of forgotten about in the programming, in experience side of the collegiate chapter. So, I think one of the things that chapters can do that can go a long way is, could be through an alumni relations chairman, could be through the chaplain, take your pick of what officer would take the lead on this, but developing a senior program specifically for your guys who are expected to graduate that year.
0:46:02.9 Justin Wenger: I think our senior program can incorporate... I think it can incorporate appropriate lead sessions. I think it can incorporate appropriate alumni who were going to come in and speak to them about professional development. It can incorporate the Sigma Nu mentor network in the various options that are going to be available there. I think you can incorporate things like a senior retreat or senior send-offs. I think you can incorporate built-in natural networking opportunities with alumni. And I think ultimately, it all culminates in the Affirmation of Knighthood. Seniors have huge value to the collegiate chapter, but they have so much to learn about what they're going to be walking into in a few months after graduation, right? And so, those things have to be balanced.
0:47:13.1 Justin Wenger: The seniors don't know at all either in terms of running a chapter and that sort of thing. But they can give guidance and they've got a different way of thinking, and all of that's going to be transferable to their life afterwards. So, I think it's about finding the right amount and schedule of programming for seniors, I think it's about getting them connected to alumni, and ultimately those things all add value to that senior year membership. And as you go through the year and then you get to that point in the spring, late March, early April, maybe mid-April depending upon when your institution does graduation, and you bring the alumni back and there is an Affirmation of Knighthood. And you have the chapter there, and you have however many scores of alumni that are there.
0:48:20.9 Justin Wenger: And all of this takes time to get to this point, but when you get to that point where you have an entire chapter there and you have scores of alumni there, all to focus in on this ceremony and this group of young men who are going to be graduating soon to formally and ritualistically, transition them from collegiate to alumni, the power and the meaning of that is, well, it's undescribable.
0:48:56.0 Adam Girtz: It's almost like the Affirmation of Knighthood isn't the engine that is providing the energy here, it's more, it's like the fulcrum on a lever that the chapter is able to apply pressure to and focus around and then can lift weight on the other end. It's a vehicle for you to center around when it comes to alumni engagement. It's such a, like you said, such a great opportunity to bring alumni back and have that be the focus. When you're in the active chapter, what's the most exciting thing that's going on for alumni weekend? It's the tailgate. It's the formal. It's whatever else the chapter has planned for that. What's the most exciting part of alumni weekend for an alumnus? It's reminiscing. It's seeing old friends. It's kind of recapturing the feeling of being at the chapter house and being an active member and having those guys that were there then there with you now, that's such a powerful experience. But I keep thinking about what Christopher said, it's not a silver bullet. It's the fulcrum. It's the place that we apply our effort to shape everything around.
0:50:30.9 Justin Wenger: Yeah. And it's interesting because as is demonstrated in the ceremony, there's the handing over of these collegiate brothers to the alumni chapter. I know a few groups, a few alumni chapters, who assist the chapter in putting on the ceremony obviously, but when the ceremony is over, they have this pretty cool tradition, or I think it is, in that the alumni chapter then takes these graduating seniors out to dinner, which is great. They can talk to them about, "Here are the various opportunities for being involved here locally and with the chapter now that you're an alumnus. And oh, by the way, here's your assignment, and we need you all to assist us with next year's homecoming event. So I need you on the alumni planning committee, and we need your help in running the senior program for next year, because you know those guys and so you can help them understand why it's important," and things like that.
0:51:51.4 Justin Wenger: So, it's very interesting in that there's opportunity for the individual, just for the importance of the ceremony, but there's also opportunity for the individual in, "I can get started in remaining to be plugged in right away." And that's an amazing thing, not only for the chapters, but for the fraternity as a whole, because it allows us to avoid that drop-off, that connection and engagement drop-off that occurs both for fraternities as well as universities in that two, three, four years after graduation period. Plug them in right away and they're going to tend to stay connected. There will be times where there's fluctuation throughout, but more likely to stay connected and more willing to stay connected.
0:52:52.7 Adam Girtz: Yeah. When you think about it like charging a battery, right? If your passion for the fraternity as an alumnus is a battery, you're not going to... You don't want your graduating seniors to leave with half a charge, you want to charge that all the way up before they head out in the world and really start it on a high note.
0:53:18.0 Christopher Brenton: So, as you bring this conversation to a close, gentlemen, any final resources that you would plug that could be advantageous for chapters that are not only trying to do work around improving or implementing the Affirmation of Knighthood ceremony for their chapter, or just alumni engagement in general. Justin, I'll start with you.
0:53:44.3 Justin Wenger: Yeah, sure. So in relation to the Affirmation of Knighthood ceremony, obviously it is in the ritual and so I would encourage go and review the ceremony. Make sure you have a good understanding of it and how the transitions between chapter officers and worthy officers occur. The required items that you'll need to effectively do the ceremony, there are some candles and some things like that, that are important. But there's also a webinar and slide deck on the alumni best practices library that's available that speaks to this topic as well. So I think those are some Affirmation of Knighthood resources that are out there. And really, I think conversations with the alumni chapter, if you have one. If you don't have an alumni chapter, you need at least two alumni to do the ceremony, and it is, I think very reasonable for a chapter to do it, even if they don't have an alumni chapter. There's still no reason not to do it, or that's not a reason not to do it. In terms of other...
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0:55:06.3 Adam Girtz: We just had the most recent seniors that had graduated that were working in town that were able to come in and do that, so they're right there.
0:55:16.8 Justin Wenger: Yeah. In terms of some other resources and things to be aware of related to things going on with engagement, so we've had a big project going on through this whole year, The Oral History Project. So this has been started back in the fall, in August, and up through January collecting the personal stories and experiences of alumni. We have completed the collection process and we're now into the editing and proofing process for the hard-bound publication that we are anticipating will begin being shipped out to those who made that purchase. I'm anticipating that those will begin shipping probably in August, so following Grand Chapter, towards the end of July or getting into August, I'm anticipating that people will start seeing those hitting their mail boxes for those who made that purchase.
0:56:24.7 Justin Wenger: I can't wait to see that come out. It is an amazing collection of stories and experiences from alumni that are individuals who reconnected to the fraternity initially for the purpose of this project. Some amazing stories and experiences in there that can be beneficial to all of us, I think. Some other things, we have been in the process of redeveloping Sigma Nu's mentor network, and I am anticipating that this summer going into fall of 2023, we will complete that development. And so, we've got information on the website about the new mentor network and how it's going to work and function, I'm really excited about it in terms of some of the benefits that I think it can provide to our collegiate members, specifically in relation to some of their professional development as they move towards graduation.
0:57:36.5 Justin Wenger: Our alumni chapters are continuing to do great work, are continuing to expand those ranks. There's a reminder for our alumni chapters. Those annual reports are going to be due in May, so we look forward to getting those in. Yeah, there's just, there's a lot going on. We've got some additional projects going on right now that I don't want to tease out because where they are in the development phase, but a lot of things happening in the fraternity related to engagement that are really exciting, and there's a lot to do as an alumnus in this organization. There is no reason that any alumnus couldn't be doing something Sigma Nu related every day. It's pretty cool when you really think about it. So, exciting times.
0:58:40.3 Adam Girtz: Absolutely. Well, in terms of resources, I would say to our collegiate active members, the chaplains officer resource page has a lot of great resources when it comes to getting started with the ritual. And, chaplains, if you're listening to this, I'm talking to you. If you're feeling overwhelmed by, "Hey, I know this is all well and good, these lofty goals of getting alumni engagement and having this full ritual experience, we're not even doing initiation correctly yet, and how do I do this big lift?" Definitely, chaplains office resource page, talk to your consultant. And this is for your active members or alumni, if you're interested in helping your chapter get started with this, I would love to talk with you. I'd love to get on a phone call with you. So if this episode intrigued you and you'd like to learn more, you please reach out to me. My email will be in the episode notes, but adam.girtz@sigmanu.org, G-I-R-T-Z. Feel free to reach out to me and I would love to email correspond with you if you'd like, but I'd mostly love to just chat with you on the phone and we share our passion for this and help you get started, whether you're an active member looking to have it in his active chapter experience or an alumnus that would like to see it happen at his active chapter, please reach out.
1:00:16.5 Adam Girtz: I was just struck with one thing that I didn't quite get to fit in anywhere that I wanted to share, maybe a resource and motivation towards doing this. With the podcast, I'm able to see through our platform a heat map of where our listeners are, I don't know where your house is, Joe listener, but I can kind of see a heat map of where our alumni and active members are listening from. And that map to me is interesting because it shows me... You can look at it as a representation of the reach that we have it. So the Affirmation of Knighthood ceremony, like we've mentioned, is kind of this launch pad towards your alumni going out into the world and achieving great things with the experiences that they've had, tempered by the values of love, honor, and truth.
1:01:17.3 Adam Girtz: For me, I really think about the Affirmation as like, "Hey, it's not that you're leaving this active chapter, it's that you are now joining this larger reach that we all have," like Justin said, 200,000 living members. And looking at a heat map of where you all are located listening, that to me shows this is the reach that we have. This is the lives that our brothers are able to affect. So really getting out there and keeping in mind the values and things that we've learned through our fraternal experience that has this huge, larger effect on everyone that's in each of our lives, and the way that we can lift them up and help strengthen them. So, you're looking at that heat map, it's just kind of neat because you get to see that that's where our members have influence over the people in their communities. So I don't know, that's my last thought on it.
1:02:24.7 Christopher Brenton: Yeah. Well, I'll close this out. A final resource is your leadership consultant. If you're a collegiate chapter member or an advisor, our leadership consultants are always going to be available to our chapters. If you're thinking like, "Hey, I want to implement the Affirmation of Knighthood ceremony, I don't know where to start," start with your conversation with the leadership consultant. They can even walk your chapter through a practice run while they're on site and kind of make sure that you're dotting your I's and crossing your T's to make that a really special experience. In addition to, there are other services of providing coaching and advice for our chaplains and our other officers who would impact it and touch that ceremony. As we close out, one, want to say thanks to Justin for joining us on this episode. We appreciate the opportunity to bring his wisdom onto the podcast to share with our officers. So Justin, thank you very much for your time.
1:03:32.8 Justin Wenger: Oh! Thank you guys, it's been a pleasure. Enjoyed it immensely, and appreciate you guys bringing a topic like the Affirmation of Knighthood to this platform. It's great, thank you.
1:03:43.5 Christopher Brenton: Absolutely. Well, just a reminder from the top again, please register for Grand Chapter. We want to see you in Fort Lauderdale. You can do that at sigmanu.org/grandchapter. And then also for our collegiate officers, alumni advisors, applications for proceed of excellence and our words applications are due on April 30th. Adam usually concludes our episode with a call to action, so I'm going to steal his thunder and say...
1:04:15.2 Adam Girtz: Do it.
1:04:15.9 Christopher Brenton: Not only should you share this episode, but share it with an advisor intentionally. Reach out and say like, "Hey, I think this is something that we want to do. Here, listen to this and help us get this going." We want to, of course, grow our listenership for the podcast, and so we want you to... Or we encourage you to share this episode and encourage people to listen, but more importantly, we want this to be a resource. And so, hopefully we have now contained and bottled advice that you can share with officers to get a really great practice going in your chapter. Adam, do you want to close this out any further?
1:04:54.5 Adam Girtz: Beautiful call to action, Christopher. That was wonderful. I feel inspired. I'm going to share this with my chapter's advisor, and he's going to promptly delete the email. Looking at you, Bryce. [laughter] All right. Thank you everyone for listening. We really appreciate you. If you like the show, share it with a brother. We'll see you later. Bye, everyone.
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