Drew and Adam connect with recent Beta Beta (DePauw) Commander Michael Aikin and Beta Beta Chapter Advisor Cody Watson to discuss The Ritual, why it's important, and how it can propel a chapter towards excellence. Be sure to listen to the full episode for our trivia contest giveaway!
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The Gavel Podcast - Episode 3 - The Ritual with Beta Beta Chapter (DePauw)
[Intro Music]
0:00:31.6 Drew Logsdon: Alright, welcome back, everyone to another episode of The Gavel Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Drew Logsdon.
0:00:38.1 Adam Girtz: And I'm Adam Girtz, hello.
0:00:40.1 Drew Logsdon: Excellent. How are you doing, Adam?
0:00:41.3 Adam Girtz: Hey, I'm doing great, I'm doing great, Drew. How are you?
0:00:44.7 Drew Logsdon: I'm doing well. I think the weather is playing a huge role in that as many of us, I don't say all of us, because I know some folks are still getting snow and bad weather, but many of us are slowly de-frosting from winter, and spring is just around the corner.
0:01:00.1 Adam Girtz: Oh yes, it's so nice waking up to the sunrise, the sound of birds, the sound of the municipal trucks rattling around across the street from my apartment building, all wonderful spring sounds.
0:01:14.2 Drew Logsdon: Absolutely. Basketball. Basketball TV.
0:01:15.3 Adam Girtz: Basketball.
0:01:17.5 Drew Logsdon: Great spring sound.
0:01:18.2 Adam Girtz: Basketball is on TV.
0:01:18.7 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, March Madness. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, it has been a quick couple of weeks since our last episode, and we do have some more announcements for our listeners here.
0:01:30.4 Adam Girtz: Yes, we do.
0:01:32.3 Drew Logsdon: I think the first one is probably the most routine one, but April 30th, big deadline, right?
0:01:39.4 Adam Girtz: Yes.
0:01:40.3 Drew Logsdon: PEP deadline, Pursuit of Excellence Program.
0:01:43.2 Adam Girtz: Yep. Yep. And our awards, our individual and alumni awards are also due on that day, nominations, and applications. So...
0:01:51.8 Drew Logsdon: Absolutely.
0:01:53.2 Adam Girtz: Yes.
0:01:54.0 Drew Logsdon: Yes, so if you knew or know somebody who... Athlete of the Year, a great award category...
0:02:00.9 Adam Girtz: Love it.
0:02:03.0 Drew Logsdon: We... I don't know, we just don't traditionally get a ton of applications for it.
0:02:05.7 Adam Girtz: They're too busy playing sports.
0:02:06.9 Drew Logsdon: Oh, that's true, that's very true. But there's a lot of athletes. Right? I think I just saw something the other day, a student at our Epsilon Beta chapter at Drury won like a college fishing tournament, like the World Series of college fishing tournaments, and definitely Athlete of the Year material, right?
0:02:28.8 Adam Girtz: Yeah, all you other Athletes of the Year, all of our other Sigma Nu athletes, got your work cut out for you.
0:02:34.8 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, yeah, so PEP deadline submission or the deadline for your PEP submission, as well as your awards submission, make sure you get those in, we're going to have more detail specifically about this because we know it's been a funky year with Pursuit of Excellence given COVID and folks being in-person or online and virtual, and so we'll send more details via email in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that. And then what else we got here? Recruitment has seemingly gone pretty well for our chapters across the country.
0:03:03.3 Adam Girtz: Yeah. Yeah, surprising, anecdotally hearing back from chapters that we're consulting with at recruitment, whether it was virtual, somewhat in-person, socially distanced, hybrid, all of these new words that we get to use to describe recruitment, but it sounds like spring recruitment has gone fairly well. So, congrats to our chapters, and yeah, looking forward to greeting our new candidates, new brothers soon.
0:03:28.0 Drew Logsdon: Absolutely. And on that note, I know our expansion project at the Beta Eta chapter at Indiana University just went off with all gas, no breaks. I think there was a photo on Facebook I think the fraternity shared, showing just like a room full of guys, socially distanced guys, but I mean it was a big turnout, and I think we got a solid group there, so the historic Beta Eta chapter produced three regents, I think. Maybe more, but I know for sure, three.
0:04:02.7 Adam Girtz: Yeah. Beta Eta, that is a Beta series, a lot of history.
0:04:06.0 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, absolutely. We also recently wrapped up the regional round table discussion, Adam, I know you were a part of that, so you... Why don't you touch upon that real quick?
0:04:14.5 Adam Girtz: Yeah, we were able to host, with our consulting team, regional round tables for officers and alumni based on topics like brotherhood, alumni relations, candidate development. Seven round tables in all, so thank you to all those who participated, particularly in my Prairie region, Indiana, and Illinois here, appreciate you guys. But yeah, that was... Sounds like that was very productive and something that came about this year because of our newly expanded virtual capabilities and, hopefully, something that's going to stick around, so again, thank you all to those who participated in that.
0:04:52.3 Drew Logsdon: Absolutely. And then we also wrapped up Phase Two, or we're in Phase Two, I think right now of the consultant program as far as working with our chapters across the country, so, also very exciting.
0:05:03.9 Adam Girtz: Yeah, getting that summer plan and going, looking ahead.
0:05:07.0 Drew Logsdon: Oh yeah. For sure.
0:05:07.3 Adam Girtz: I think that's the theme of this podcast. Looking ahead. Springtime.
0:05:11.6 Drew Logsdon: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, we got a great episode for our listeners today. Our theme for this month to coincide with just a week ago, National Ritual Celebration Week. Our theme this month is The Ritual. Right? The signifying, unifying concept that binds us all together. It's one of the cool... It's like a time machine. Right? You go through the Ritual, and you've gone back in time to our original founding, so. And we've got some great guests, we've got the folks at Beta Beta, at our DePauw chapter, and they do it real there.
0:05:50.3 Adam Girtz: Yes. Oh, absolutely, yeah. Consulting them was a treat because I got to go to the chapter and sit in on their chapter meeting. Crisp, crisp ritual performance. Very, very fun to participate in that, so yeah, absolutely. Great discussion on kind of fraternal ritual as a concept and how it affects our organization, and more specifically, how Beta Beta chapter, one of our... Another Beta series, our historic chapter at DePauw University, has used the Ritual to inform their chapter culture, to set their sights on goals the chapter would like to accomplish, and provide the fuel and the fire to get there, so... But I don't want to get too deep into it because we'll let them describe it themselves, they do it best.
0:06:39.1 Drew Logsdon: Absolutely. Well, without further ado, we will jump into that. I do have a very special announcement, something that a listener may be able to secure a piece of Sigma Nu paraphernalia, just make sure you stay tuned for our ending, closing segment, and we'll see on the back end and Adam, let's take it away to the interview.
[Transition Music]
0:07:21.4 Drew Logsdon: Excellent. Well, we are joined here today, Adam and I are joined both by Cody Watson and Michael Aikin of the Beta Beta chapter from DePauw University, and so Cody and Michael, why don't you guys take a moment real quick and introduce yourself for our listeners? Cody, yeah, you go ahead and lead us off.
0:07:43.4 Cody Watson: Great. No, it's great to be here. My name, like you said, is Cody Watson. I'm the Chapter Advisor. I've been Chapter Advisor for the Beta Beta chapter for about five years. When I was in the chapter as an undergrad, I served in many Ritual positions, including Commander and Chaplain, and was able to really help evoke a lot of change into how we participate in the Ritual, that it's only grown ever since over the last five years. Michael?
0:08:08.8 Michael Aikin: Hi. I'm Michael. I joined in 2019, I think. I've been a Chaplain, and also, I'm now the former Chapter President, so.
0:08:25.3 Adam Girtz: Well, thank you guys for being here with us, and as we're getting started, congratulations to Beta Beta chapter for Rock Chapter this year.
0:08:33.2 Michael Aikin: Yeah, thank you.
0:08:34.4 Adam Girtz: Excellent.
0:08:35.6 Drew Logsdon: Yeah.
0:08:35.7 Cody Watson: Yeah. It was a long road. We really do appreciate all the hard work that the undergrads put into it.
0:08:41.8 Drew Logsdon: Well, that's a great lead-off for our first question as we begin to talk about the Ritual and how intertwined it is with chapter success. Sigma Nu talks a lot about our history, our heroes, and our traditions, and the Ritual is probably a great encapsulation of all those three things put into one kind of experience, and so... But Beta Beta chapter being recently awarded a Rock Chapter Award, I'm interested, and I think our listeners are also, in what role did Ritual play in that success and in achieving that distinction?
0:09:14.3 Michael Aikin: Yeah. For me, I think the Ritual just really held us to the beliefs that we live by and also gave us a good starting point for a lot of our chapter meetings, keeping us consistent and on track. Yeah, really giving us that solid routine. Yeah.
0:09:37.0 Cody Watson: And building off of that, it's really just... It's the cornerstone of a lot of the decisions we make. We are a smaller chapter, but every chapter discussion, regardless of if it is a minor conflict or a minor discussion, or if it's a "How do we move forward?" it's always consulted with the Ritual first. So, it's one of those things where a lot of chapter members will refer to that during discussions, and that's how we really make sure that we are talking about values and ideas versus problems that may arise between brothers. So, it's really the foundation for setting the tone for how we approach all of our stuff.
0:10:14.9 Drew Logsdon: That's a great thing you said there, Cody. I didn't think about that, but the Ritual, utilizing that as a way to level-set the playing field, that, right? Members can have disagreements on all sorts of things and likely do have disagreements on all sorts of things, but the Ritual is the... A universal truth that all initiates agree to and believe in. And as long as we have that, we do have a level playing field that we can... At the very end of the day, regardless of our disagreements, we have one thing we all agree to, right?
0:10:46.3 Cody Watson: Exactly. And that's really where we see it, especially from an advisor standpoint. A chapter's bylaws, or a chapter's best practices over how they run a meeting, or how they run any kind of conversation, those change based off of membership, but the Ritual's the thing that is the consistency that allows us to be like, "Hey, let's make sure we're being nice versus let's just be brothers. Let's make sure we're attacking the ideas versus the brother that's... Let's really go for it and be true values and hold up to the Ritual."
0:11:17.5 Adam Girtz: So, I've actually had the privilege as a leadership consultant for Sigma Nu to sit in on Beta Beta's Ritual and meeting process. Very crisp, I would say. But a question for you guys. Has it always been that way, or is this a last couple of years' development, or what is the history at the chapter there with that?
0:11:42.0 Michael Aikin: Can you speak on that, Cody? I don't really know about the past history that much.
0:11:45.8 Cody Watson: Of course. Of course. That's the role of the alumni, to provide that historical context, aka "back in my day, it was like this." [chuckle] But I think the big thing is, over time, we've always valued the Ritual. We've valued opening our chapter meetings with the Ritual and taking that time to reflect. We've valued on closing it. The time in between is the time that's always variable dependent on the commander. Michael, being the previous commander, has been... Was very... Ran a very tight ship of, "Here's the agenda, let's follow the agenda. Let's do this." Others have been a little bit looser with the agenda. And it's just a matter of what that personal preference is, but the grounding of, "Hey, everybody, let's not worry about what the weekend plans were, it's we did the opening, the scenes, it's time for chapter." So really setting the tone to start us with that Ritual, and then it's up to each individual commander to really put their mark on how the individual meetings are ran.
0:12:43.3 Michael Aikin: Yeah. And Adam, when you come in, and you hear it really crisp, I'm pretty sure I've been like, "Hey, Adam's coming. Let's practice the Ritual a little bit." [laughter] So it sounds better because there were some days when we were definitely a little off, and there have definitely been some ceremonies where we're definitely a little off, but most of the time, it's that we try to shoot for that high quality.
0:13:06.6 Adam Girtz: In your time as commander, did you notice that tracks along with the chapter's productivity at all? Or what's the interplay between Ritual and the chapter's overall morale?
0:13:18.6 Michael Aikin: Yeah, usually we can tell... Our Chaplain is arranging a Ritual study the day before a ceremony, we're like, "Okay, maybe we should figure that out and see why we aren't doing it a week in advance or two weeks in advance," and actually getting that good practice in. But yeah, I think generally, it is a good understanding of where the chapter is at, especially if we're doing the opening and some things are off, we could tell, like, "Oh, well, is it because of the stress of final weeks... Finals week coming up? Or what is it?" Yeah, I think that it's definitely a good way to see where the chapter is at.
0:13:58.2 Cody Watson: And then, just from my side, I'm going to be a little... When I come back and sit in as an alumnus, you can really tell the tone, so as Michael was saying, are they stressed? Are they trying to rush through the Ritual and say the words as quickly as possible? Or are they taking the time to be like... And say them more casually and stuff? It really tells me, what's the mood in the house? Is the house just naturally stressed, and they don't understand it? So, it's a really good indicator, from my perspective of just, what is the chapter feeling? Because it's such a practice that we use every week that's sometimes it's second nature, and they reveal things without realizing it, I guess it's a good point there.
0:14:34.0 Drew Logsdon: That's a really interesting concept that I didn’t consider, another one from Cody and from Michael, from you guys both, but using something that is routine as a litmus test for what's going on, right? If you wake up and you run a mile every single morning, and all of a sudden, one morning, your mile time is like three minutes longer than what it normally is, that's a good indicator something's not right, maybe. So that's a great one there. I'm interested in hearing a little bit and for your experience, for the Sigma experience at Beta Beta, could you guys help describe why is Ritual important to a Sigma Nu collegiate chapter and to Beta Beta chapter?
0:15:20.9 Michael Aikin: I think for me and a lot of the other brothers, really, it gives us something, I don't know, to hold ourselves to, whether that be just like in the work we do for the house or the work we're doing in our classes, but also just for our personal lives. I know, I personally try to hold myself to the ideal of love and believing in the life of love, so I think it comes down to that for a lot of us.
0:15:50.4 Cody Watson: And then I think from our standpoint, it's become such an ingrained nature part of it, it's not just the weekly meetings that we use it, we're picking up and using it during our new member education, using that as a cornerstone along with Sigma Nu's LEAD program. But using those two things to really shape how we educate our members all along the way. And then, as an alumnus being able to come back and have something that is consistent, provide value from myself and other alumni, to where we can be... It's still the experience we had together, we still have that shared experience, regardless of it is Michael or myself, or some of our alumni who are 50 years older than me, it's really that shaping of that policy there.
0:16:35.0 Drew Logsdon: Michael and Cody, we hear a lot from other officers and alumni, both in Sigma Nu and outside Sigma Nu, about the tone from the top and how much that influences how something is done. I'm sure there's collegiate members and chapters and officers listening, wondering, "How do I set that tone?" Right? It's like the age-old adage, every chapter has the class clown, right? Every chapter has got that guy in the back of the room or what have you. How does an officer, both of you, Michael, as the current Collegiate Officer and Cody as the past Collegiate Officer, how does an officer set that tone from the top on ensuring Ritual has the appropriate reverence it desires, and it's almost warranted? How do you do that? And how do you confront that issue of, "Hey, are the guys not taking it seriously enough?" How do we ensure that we're giving this the appropriate respect it deserves?
0:17:31.3 Michael Aikin: Yeah, I know in my time as a member, we've had previous chaplains, and I, myself, as a commander have gotten on it, where like, if there's a frequent and constant mispronunciation of certain aspects of the Ritual during the opening, just like afterward after the opening, I'll be like, "Hey, let's really work on that. That's not okay, we need to really say it how it is." Just really setting that tone that this isn't just something we say every day, it's a part of our identity as Sigma Nus, and it's something that we should really take care to do correctly.
0:18:09.8 Cody Watson: And then it starts with day one, it starts with being consistent, it's not going to be solved overnight. Setting that tone really is the persistent nature of pushing the right messaging consistently. And when it comes to that messaging being the Ritual, it is doing it every week. Making sure, as Michael was saying, why are we doing this every week? Why are we taking the time to reflect on this? And really setting that tone. When it comes to those occasional brothers who will always push back, it is... Take them aside, talk to them, ask them, why? Ask them... This is what... Is a foundational part of our chapter, so why are we having an issue with it? And talk through them because it's always easy to talk through it, but then just always keep going. Keep bringing it up. The Ritual is a consistent part of our chapter because it's the foundation. And so, making sure that we're following up with them.
0:19:00.0 Adam Girtz: I have a question for both of you. In my time as a leadership consultant working with different chapters. I've worked with Rock chapters, and I've worked with chapters that really struggle. Particularly, I have worked with chapters that struggle to implement Ritual and want to but can't seem to get the buy-in from the chapter to add something that they perceive as unnecessary to an already over-long meeting that they feel is tedious. What would you say to a chapter that was looking to get started in implementing a Ritual, as a chapter that does it consistently?
0:19:44.1 Michael Aikin: I would say, start doing it, or start with your new members. That's really where it all begins, where you need to get that buy-in because if you can get the new class bought into it and continue to get new classes bought into it, it will quickly take over. And then another thing, just looking at the pay-off, it can be kind of fun sometimes, especially during ceremonies, or even if you're just sitting in a room, hanging out with a brother, and you just start reciting the opening from memory and they just immediately start reciting along with you, just kind of... Just for fun. It's a good moment to have, as well.
0:20:25.5 Cody Watson: And bring in alumni, I would say, really trying to figure out ways to get chapters who are starting to try to do it. Bring in some alumni, bring in some individuals, give Michael and I an email, and we'll see if we can help, but bring in somebody who's doing it to help as a resource, to provide that context of why it's important, but then also reshuffle what you're doing. If your meetings are too long, have a meeting where you just do the Ritual. Make that your weekly meeting. Change up your... Make sure you reset the priority, the agenda, and the best practices around that, those are always great, but maybe the agenda needs to be, "How do we re-center the chapter on just the Ritual?" And then slowly add in things, re-prioritize it.
0:21:07.1 Drew Logsdon: That's so accurate. I think frequently of chapters back in my consultant days, back in my day as a consultant, we talked about, "Oh well, the guys have really bummed out, the guys are burned out from meetings." And it's like, "Well, how long are your meetings?" "Oh, they're like two and a half hours." What? That's part of the reason why right? [chuckle] It's a two-and-a-half-hour meeting, right? No one ever left a 59-minute meeting unhappy. That's a great point to make, Cody. I appreciate that.
0:21:43.2 Adam Girtz: So, one thing I wanted to come back to is, Michael, you mentioned that the chapter sometimes will bring up parts of the Ritual or talk about it in, just casually hanging out. How, in your chapter, does the Ritual impact the daily life of the chapter outside of meetings?
0:22:12.7 Michael Aikin: I mean, I think it's just kind of a part of our houses culturally. I think we're... Well, like with the Ritual is just ingrained in all of us, just by saying it every Sunday when we have our meetings. So, even if it's just in conversation and someone brings up something, and somebody's like, "Oh, that applies to Ritual," and then just a conversation falls out of that.
0:22:41.0 Cody Watson: The piece that Michael's not saying is also, it's how the brothers hold each other accountable. It's the piece of, around campus, if a brother... It's one of those things where everybody takes it for granted until it's not working right. Once a brother is slowly becoming conduct unbecoming of a knight, even in the slightest, they say, "Well, you're not living up to your values, let's talk about this." And that's the first step, and just holding our brotherhood accountable and making sure our brotherhood is different. And it's so different than what we see on our campus among other chapters that it's... Taking it from an alumni's perspective, I have that perspective to see it across all the chapters.
0:23:19.5 Cody Watson: It's something that, when I was in the chapter, and I'm sure Michael can relate, it's something that is just so naturally part of our day that we don't see it. But when taking that step back and looking at it, it's fun having those conversations with members who's like, "Well, I want an honor board" or "I want to have this brother talked about because he's not living up to his values." I'm like, "Let's talk about how to do that from a logistics standpoint," but privately, I'm like, "Yes, he gets it, he gets what being a Sigma Nu means." It's a good thing.
0:23:50.4 Adam Girtz: It almost strikes me, in my experience, both as a collegiate member and as a consultant as well, it almost strikes me that the Ritual or fraternal Ritual, in general, is almost like a toolkit or a road map for successful operation of a group of young men together, like you said, holding each other accountable to our values is not necessarily unique to Sigma Nu, but certainly, our Ritual does it in a unique way.
0:24:20.0 Drew Logsdon: Well, yeah, I'm from our consulting past, how often do we hear chapters say, "Hey, how do I fix accountability?" Like how often... And if you asked every chapter in the country today, "What are your top five problems?" I would bet accountability is in that top five for a majority of chapters. And as Cody and Michael, you guys were saying from your all's testimony, it seems like Ritual may not be the only piece of that solution but is probably the biggest piece of that solution. And again, it's like having a common level set playing field, right? Hey, we can disagree on all sorts of things. But we agree that this is the standard. And we talk about that a lot in Sigma Nu, "What's the standard?" And this is the baseline. And if you fall beneath that, it's something that we all agree is unacceptable because we all took an oath towards it.
0:25:12.1 Cody Watson: Exactly, and I think... Go ahead, Michael. No, go ahead.
0:25:15.4 Michael Aikin: As you say, we're not perfect with accountability, but Ritual certainly does help in that regard.
0:25:22.8 Cody Watson: Yeah, exactly, and that's the thing that really is separating us is, we are seen on campus as having higher values, higher brotherhood, stronger brotherhood; it's all because of the Ritual. And a lot of it is the brothers and their character, but it's also that Ritual playing an impact on how they reveal that character to campus and holding each other accountable to that.
0:25:45.9 Drew Logsdon: I'd tell you, look, I've always viewed the Ritual as like Sigma Nu's own time machine because it's probably one of the few pieces of fraternity that literally takes us back to Alpha Chapter. It takes us back to the very beginning, and it has changed over time, right? There's been updates to it, there's a Ritual committee at Grand Chapter that goes over it, and updates have been made. Updates will continue to be made, and everything else in Signa Nu, but at its core, its DNA, like most of what you're experiencing, is what our founders in our early days as a fraternity were experiencing, so it's really like going back in time. Do you think, Michael, do you think like the guys in the chapter, does that click for them at all, or do you guys sense that at a chapter level?
0:26:36.8 Michael Aikin: I mean, we can certainly feel that in some of the ceremonies or Ritual, but I think when it comes down to just like the chapter opening, I think it's a little more lost, but then if you actually take a look at the wording, you can see like, "Oh, I can see where they're coming from with that." So, in some ways, yes, in other ways, no.
0:27:07.0 Cody Watson: From the alumni perspective, it depends on the alumni. The alumni, I think, spend more time investing in some of that history. Now that we don't have studies to do as much, we will take some of that time to review some of the history and try to share that with the chapter, both what our Beta Beta specific Sigma Nu chapter history is, but also what the Ritual really says, so that is definitely a part of some of our... When we have alumni present for some of those Ritual studies that the undergrads do, we try to provide some of that historical context for the Beta Beta chapter, but also the Beta region of the Midwest, and how we got to the Midwest compared to other areas and really trying to adjust it from there.
0:27:45.0 Drew Logsdon: You guys mentioned Ritual studies a little bit, so you're saying that the work you guys put in towards Ritual isn't just sort of rote memorization, because there's practice the Ritual in the sense of, "Let's make sure we know the words right. Let's make sure we know when to do X, Y and Z, and stuff like that." There's those pieces of the Ritual. Then there's another piece of sort actually discussing, and I don't want to say being... Critical thinking around it, analyzing the Ritual a little bit. So, you guys are saying, as a chapter, you guys do both of those?
0:28:21.8 Michael Aikin: Yeah, so after all of our ceremonies, we offer our new members like, "Hey, if you want to know what you just read about, talk to our Chaplain afterwards and he'll tell you what we agreed to. He'll go over it with you." And then we also extend that to brothers who were like, sometimes we're just saying it and we really need to like get out of that space and actually take a look at it and see what we're saying and really think about what we're saying and why we're saying it.
0:28:49.5 Cody Watson: And it's also, the Ritual books themselves, along with our Ritual items, they're not hidden from the members, the brothers all know where they're at, the brothers can go and check them out any time and work with the Chaplain. The work here, we have to do the work of memorizing it or really attempting to make sure that we get the pronunciations right, definitely can do that, but the work we get to do with being able to read it and review it and talk about it, I think that's where really we grow by either set ways of doing it, as Michael's saying, before and after our Ritual ceremonies, or before and after that consultant visit, or is it more so taking the time to have the conversation or to bring it up. And I know, again, speaking on behalf of our alumni advisory board, we use that as something to say, "Well, what's the bylaw say? What's the Ritual say? What are some of those best practices? What are some of those things? Go find those resources and how do you interpret it?" is how we can go about solving these problems.
0:29:49.0 Adam Girtz: Excellent. Guys, right now, we have a platform to be able to speak directly to all of our members and all of our chapters, if you could give a piece of advice or a... This is your soapbox moment about the Ritual to all of our chapter members and chapters, what would be something you would say to our chapters?
0:30:15.8 Cody Watson: The Ritual is more important than anything, it's very easy to skip parts of it because it's too long, it's very easy not to do it at every chapter meeting, but you don't realize how much you need it until you need it, you don't realize until that argument or that discussion of just how much a foundation it is, sometimes it is just piggybacking up some of the stuff in the Ritual, it is part of how we can push out outside constraints, outside environmental problems to really highlight, what is the root of the problem? How do we solve some of this stuff using the Ritual that we all have that level playing field for?
0:30:55.8 Cody Watson: I would say, when it comes to the Ritual, sitting back as an alumni, some of the discussions I hear in chapters are completely pointless for me, but it's how they approach the conversation and how they hold each other to the higher standard of our values, but also just not converging into a pack of wild wolves, it's really just how they treat each other as knights and how they really treat each other with civility to go for that discussion, that is the times when I see that all of the mundane repeating it each week has taught them something and they don't even know it. So, I definitely... It's more important than you think. Don't skip it because you are pressed for time, don't skip it because you don't see the value. The value will reveal itself.
0:31:45.5 Michael Aikin: Yeah, and I think my experience with Sigma Nu would have been much different had the Beta Beta chapter not focused on Ritual, and I don't think it would have been better. It is certainly something that has made me change my view on Greek life. Before I joined, I wasn't too keen on being a part of Greek life, but then after those first couple of Rituals, I was like, "Yeah, okay, they're doing this for a reason," and I think that's going to be very clear to your new members. I think it'll just improve their experience because whenever I do something for the fraternity, I'm not just doing it to get new members. I'm not just doing it to raise more money for some charity we're working for. It's more on that level of self-satisfaction of like, I'm doing this because I believe in this, and I think that can really help boost the productivity.
0:32:50.2 Adam Girtz: Before I hand it back off to Drew to wrap us up here, guys, you made me think of when you said new members, any advice for someone who hasn't experienced a Ritual yet or hasn't experienced initiation yet on how to get the most out of it?
0:33:03.8 Michael Aikin: Yeah, I would say just try to... It's going to be a lot, so just try to listen and pick out sentences and phrases and be like, "What does that really mean?" while also still paying attention a little bit, and then afterwards definitely ask like, "Hey, can I look over that again because I want to know exactly what I agreed to and what exactly was said." I think that will definitely help.
0:33:33.6 Cody Watson: Agreed. Do not just say the words and then forget about that you ever had that day. Follow up, either ask our older brothers about it or ask alumni about it or read about it yourself, because it should be the cornerstone of why you're joining Sigma Nu, as that is what we are from the foundations of the Alpha Chapter all the way up to the Beta Beta and into the future.
0:33:56.7 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, that's a great point, guys. I'm thinking back as we're talking here about Ritual and initiation ceremonies, I think it's a cumulative experience. I think I took more away each initiation I attended after my own, right? I'm sure you guys can agree, like my own felt like it flew by. Like it was five seconds, I was at the door, and I was like, "Whoa, man, I don't remember half that experience a little bit," right? because you're so immersed in experience, right, then and there, and so after the fact, you don't pick up on those nuances, but attending an initiation, as an alumnus even now, but even that first one as an initiated member, you just soak up so much more, and this is cumulative. It still happens, like at Grand Chapters, when we're out there working it and we do the Ritual at Grand Chapter or collegiate chapters or something like that, I still pick up things or I'm still reminded, and it's a really awesome thing.
0:34:49.4 Drew Logsdon: Like you were saying, Michael, when you start it off with a certain phrase in the Ritual, right, and then all of sudden, everything clicks, it all comes back to memory, you start reciting it perfectly. That's a really cool unique experience. Well, guys, we really appreciate it, we appreciate your time. Real quick, to wrap up here, how can folks, if someone listened to this and said, "Man, that Cody and Michael, they seem to have a good thumb on this, what this is," so how can they reach out to you guys? Share, if you feel comfortable, obviously, share your email about how they can shoot you an email and ask some questions.
0:35:25.5 Cody Watson: So, yeah, as a chapter we have two emails, one for the alumni and one for the undergrad, SigmaNu@DePauw.edu for the chapter, but also BetaBetaAAB@gmail.com. Either one of those, Michael and I will answer them. We both have access. It's on my phone, I get notifications all the time. So, any time you want to reach out, definitely don't hesitate because we're all in this together. One giant brotherhood.
0:35:49.9 Michael Aikin: Yeah, also, if they do email the SigmaNu@DePauw.edu, make sure they address it to me, that way, I know it's for me. [chuckle]
0:36:00.3 Drew Logsdon: Gotcha.
0:36:00.7 Adam Girtz: We'll try to include the links in the episode description.
0:36:04.1 Drew Logsdon: Yeah, absolutely, we'll make sure to put it in there. Well, guys, thank you all so much for taking again sometime today to speak with us. It's obvious, just from speaking with you guys of the impact the Rituals had on you two as Sigma Nu men and the impact... The hard work speaks for itself, right? Score board don't lie, and it speaks for itself, the impact of Ritual on your chapter and operations and achieving excellence. So, we appreciate it, and you guys have an awesome day. Thanks for joining us.
0:36:31.7 Adam Girtz: Thanks for being here today, guys.
0:36:31.9 Cody Watson: Thank you.
0:36:34.2 Michael Aikin: Thank you.
[Transition Music]
0:36:56.4 Adam Girtz: Hey welcome back, everyone. That was a really great conversation with our Beta Beta brothers and alumni. I loved it. I really...
0:37:07.4 Drew Logsdon: Outstanding, outstanding.
0:37:09.8 Adam Girtz: Absolutely, yeah.
0:37:11.9 Drew Logsdon: You know what, nothing gets me more fired up than interacting with another Sigma Nu who cares about the Ritual, that's just... It's really cool. And we talk in Sigma Nu a lot about stewardship, preserving something, an experience, a shared set of values, a mission, and passing that down to the next generation, and the Ritual is part of that, and it really is. If you don't use it, you will lose it, right?
0:37:44.2 Adam Girtz: Absolutely.
0:37:45.6 Drew Logsdon: If you don't respect it and continue utilizing it the way it's supposed to, then we will forget about it, which isn't good.
0:37:53.6 Adam Girtz: Yeah, yeah. One thing definitely I'm looking forward to, looking ahead to, like I mentioned earlier, looking ahead, spring's got me looking ahead to potentially being able to see the Ritual done in person again, it's been a while.
0:38:07.4 Drew Logsdon: Oh yeah, oh yeah. It has been a while, but big kudos to all the chapters that have been doing virtual initiations and candid installments and induction ceremonies, and that's also... I think we're getting now to the tail end of this pandemic.
0:38:26.5 Adam Girtz: Fingers crossed.
0:38:29.2 Drew Logsdon: This is the fourth quarter of the game we're in.
0:38:32.2 Adam Girtz: The light, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, right?
0:38:35.1 Drew Logsdon: Hopefully, hopefully the right light.
0:38:39.4 Adam Girtz: [chuckle] It's not the train.
0:38:40.4 Drew Logsdon: And so, I think with this, what has been the most inspiring was seeing the way that our collegiate chapters have stepped up, right?
0:38:49.7 Adam Girtz: Absolutely.
0:38:50.7 Drew Logsdon: And not complaining about it, right? Like, hey, you just tell me what the problem is, I'll get the solution and we'll just... We'll roll with the punches, and that's been endearing. As much as people want to take a big old poo-poo on this current generation, they're all on TikToks and they don't care enough, like this experience these past 12 months has been encouraging, right?
0:39:13.7 Adam Girtz: Yes, oh yeah, this generation has seen a lot of trauma and they've overcome a lot, and I think this last year just shows how resilient they are. Yeah, all our collegiate listeners out there, I'm proud of you. From the Gavel Podcast, we are proud of you.
0:39:29.0 Drew Logsdon: We are. Well, I do have a very special... A little announcement here, as I say that, I'm visually holding what I'm about to announce, Adam can see it.
0:39:41.5 Adam Girtz: I can see it, I'm excited about it. You should all be excited about it.
0:39:44.5 Drew Logsdon: It is a limited edition, only 20 of these were ever made. Only 20, and I'm not even sure how many of these actually have been distributed, but there's still some existence because I'm holding one of them here. We will be giving, The Gavel Podcast, giving away one of these limited edition 150th Anniversary stickers, right? It can fit in an envelope, a stamp costs... I don't even know what a stamp cost nowadays, the stamp costs like 40 some cents, 50 some cents, right? Stick it on an envelope, mail it off to you, whatever. But it comes with a price. You have to tell us who all, and I mean all, so not just one or two guys, who all was in the inaugural class of the Sigma Nu Hall of Honor.
0:40:34.4 Adam Girtz: Trivia.
0:40:35.6 Drew Logsdon: There was nine brothers, yeah, in the Hall of Honor; in 1948 when it first started, there was nine brothers originally inducted into it. I'll give you a hint, the first three were pretty obvious. Alphas one, two and three. But the remainder six will be a little difficult. Now, this piece of information will not be easy if you rely solely on Google. I'm not sure, in fact, it's on Google and in the interwebs. But if you are astute enough, it is in a particular publication, you can just...
0:41:10.6 Adam Girtz: Yes, it is.
0:41:10.6 Drew Logsdon: Yeah.
0:41:10.6 Adam Girtz: It's out there.
0:41:12.4 Drew Logsdon: It is.
0:41:13.5 Adam Girtz: The truth is out there, if you can find it.
0:41:14.9 Drew Logsdon: I'm looking at it, I'm looking at it off something that I received, not because I was on staff, I received this, I just received, I researched. So, it is out there. It's totally possible. So, if you could answer that and you can send your answers to us at the podcast at either our Instagram, you can shoot us a DM at Sigma Nu...
0:41:34.1 Adam Girtz: Yeah, Sigma Nu HQ.
0:41:35.1 Drew Logsdon: Sigma Nu HQ. Follow us on Facebook, also Sigma Nu HQ, or you can email us over at headquarters@sigmanu.org.
0:41:44.4 Adam Girtz: Yes, and you want to hit them with that question one more time?
0:41:47.5 Drew Logsdon: Yes, that question is: In 1948, when Sigma Nu had the inaugural inductee class to the Hall of Honor, you would need to name... And I'll be pretty... I'll be somewhat lenient, I don't need middle initials, but you need to name off all nine original inductees. And the help there is that the first three are Alphas one, two and three. There's six more that I won't give any hints on, but they're pretty prominent Sigma Nu historical figures. When you see the list of the first nine, you're like that... If you were going to make a first nine list of Hall of Honor inductees, that would be it. It makes sense when you see it.
0:42:28.4 Adam Girtz: Absolutely. Well, and we'll be selecting one of the correct answers and sending off this limited edition 150th anniversary Sigma Nu sticker to one lucky prize winner.
0:42:40.5 Drew Logsdon: Indeed. Well, we will maybe, I don't know, when we go live and you distribute this episode out, we may tweak this out or put it on our Instagram story, the sticker, so folks can see it and participate...
0:42:52.2 Adam Girtz: Yes.
0:42:52.4 Drew Logsdon: But yeah... So well, another great interview, another great episode, a little contest here at the end of it, which is always fun. I don't have anything else in mind, Adam, so I think we got a motion to close.
0:43:03.8 Adam Girtz: Aye, I second that.
0:43:05.4 Drew Logsdon: Alright, well, then in all in favor, say aye.
0:43:07.4 Adam Girtz: Aye.
0:43:07.8 Drew Logsdon: Aye. Very well. Alright guys, we'll see you next time on The Gavel Podcast. Take it easy, Adam.
0:43:29.5 Adam Girtz: Bye.
[Outro Music]