In this episode, Adam and Christopher interview Josh Causey, Brigade Operations Officer for the United States Army. During the episode, Adam, Christopher, and Josh talk about Josh’s Sigma Nu Story and career in the military. The team also discusses the unique lived experience of service members and veterans and how we can show our support for veterans this Veterans Day.
The Gavel Podcast is the official podcast of Sigma Nu Fraternity, Inc. and is dedicated to keeping you updated on the operations of the Legion of Honor and connecting you to stories from our brotherhood.
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The Gavel Podcast - Ep 23 - Veterans Day and Military Service with Josh Causey (Middle Tennessee State)
[Intro Music]
0:00:42.3 Adam Girtz: Hello and welcome to the latest episode of The Gavel Podcast. I'm Adam.
0:00:46.2 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.
0:00:57.6 Christopher Brenton: To find out more from the fraternity, you can always check out our website at sigmanu.org. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at @sigmanuhq or by searching for Sigma Nu Fraternity.
0:01:08.0 Adam Girtz: Well, hello, Christopher, speaking of stories from our brotherhood, we've got a pretty cool story from our brotherhood today.
0:01:15.9 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, I know, I'm really excited about this episode. I say that every episode, but...
0:01:20.1 Adam Girtz: I'm always excited. This is my favorite part of my job is, especially now that I'm Director of Engagement, and this is actually back under my official duties as a staff member. Love being able to do this. I love spending time with you, Christopher. It's wonderful.
0:01:40.1 Christopher Brenton: Yes, the same, the feeling is mutual. I think that my personal excitement the last two episodes have had a personal tinge to them. And so it gives me, I think, great delight to be able to bring on people that have meant a lot to me over the last couple of years, and especially during my time as a collegiate member of the Beta Tau Chapter. But for this episode, we are releasing this episode in honor of Veterans Day. So this is our Veterans Day episode. And last year we had an opportunity to do a really great interview with an Oklahoma State or Epsilon Epsilon Chapter alumnus Ian Prescott. He was able to talk about his military service, and so we wanted to do something a little bit different, but continue to honor veterans in a unique way. And so from my undergraduate experience, I had the opportunity to connect with an alumnus of our Theta Iota Chapter at Middle Tennessee State University alumnus, Josh Causey. Josh is career military, he is in the army, he is currently a Brigade Operations Officer and a major for the US Army. And so we wanted to have the opportunity to talk to Josh about his experience, but then also to provide context for our listeners about the... I think the various different types of lived experiences that military service members have, active-duty members, and veterans had when they were in service.
0:03:31.1 Christopher Brenton: The Fraternity has a rich connection to the military because they were founding at the Virginia Military Institute, many of our chapters are engaged in work that supports our military through charities. Several chapters have very large populations of members who are involved in ROTC, maybe they go to Officer Candidate School after graduation, and so there's a connection there. But regardless, we want to make sure that we are giving the people who actually have this experience an opportunity to share their story, because I am civilian and so are you Adam. And I don't know your experience, but I don't have any connections to the military personally, both either in my immediate family or the family that I married into as well. And so this is a really great opportunity for me too to learn from Josh and then to share that knowledge and his experience with our listeners.
0:04:34.1 Adam Girtz: Absolutely, yeah. And I think it's going to be a great conversation. So let's dive in, let's dive into our interview with Josh Causey.
[Transition Music]
0:05:07.1 Christopher Brenton: Hello and welcome back. We are excited for this interview. And as we mentioned at the top of the show, we wanted to do a special interview in honor of Veterans Day, and Adam and I were thinking about who we might interview, and I was going back through the Rolodex in my mind of influential individuals that I've had the honor of meeting in my life as a collegiate member and as an alumnus of the Fraternity. And I had a special opportunity to get connected with someone who served as an advisor for my collegiate chapter, has done a lot of work with our Beta Tau Chapter at NC State, even though that was not his affiliated chapter, but Josh Causey, who is on the podcast for today, he is a Brigade Operations Officer for the US Army. And we're excited to have him on. Josh, welcome to The Gavel Podcast.
0:06:06.8 Joshua Causey: Oh, thank you. It's good to be on. I really appreciate you guys inviting me to talk. I already got a brief introduction just kind of a caveat before I get started that I'm here as an individual and not as a representative of the government. And really just want to share my thoughts and perspectives on what it means to be a Sigma Nu and the meaning of Veteran's Day and how the two might be connected.
0:06:32.7 Christopher Brenton: Yeah.
0:06:34.0 Adam Girtz: Excellent. Well, Josh, we're really glad to have you here.
0:06:36.2 Joshua Causey: Yeah, thanks.
0:06:37.4 Christopher Brenton: So Josh as we mentioned and the listeners who already have heard from the introduction, we wanted to bring you on in honor of Veterans Day, but kind of a conversation I think that's more interesting to our listeners in a broader sense is, what does it mean to be a veteran or be in the military? Many of our undergraduate members, and then also our alumni, of course, are intimately aware of the Fraternity's founding at the Virginia Military Institute. And so that manifests for a lot of our chapters in a lot of interesting ways. Many of our members go into to military service. Many of our chapters support military philanthropic causes. I think the Wounded Warrior Project has been an organization that the national organization has supported largely in the past and many of our chapters continue to support today.
0:07:31.5 Christopher Brenton: But we see a number of various organizations that chapters continue to support either through direct service, card writing or preparing gifts for soldiers on deployment or veterans affairs-related, charitable organizations. I think our Fraternity has a big heart for veterans and active military. And so we wanted to have this conversation because one, I think a lot of our members may have that experience, but then also a lot of our members may not. And so the idea of what is Veterans Day? What does it mean to be a veteran? What does it mean to be an active service member? It may be lost on them. And if I'm being completely honest, that's my experience. I don't have any immediate connections to family members who have served. I didn't marry into any family members who have served. And so the idea of supporting and honoring our veterans has always been something a little bit further removed, even though I've had the honor and privilege of getting to know some really incredible service members and veterans over the years. And so Adam and I were talking about it. We wanted to bring in someone who could give a little bit of their experience and provide some additional context. And so we're really happy to have you on to be peppered with questions about your life experience, everything that in between.
0:09:01.4 Joshua Causey: Yeah, absolutely.
0:09:03.8 Adam Girtz: Well, let's go ahead and start with then your Sigma Nu story. This is something that you would love to be able to do with our guests who are Sigma Nu members. So I guess to start off with, why did you choose to join Sigma Nu?
0:09:19.5 Joshua Causey: Yeah. So, first off, I really appreciate the question. You were talking about military service earlier, and not being connected to anybody. I'm actually a first-generation individual in my family that actually went to college. I didn't have any Greek connections in my family, really didn't even understand what fraternities were other than things you see in movies, which while can be funny are not always really representative of the true Greek experience and even more so what it means to be a Sigma Nu. So I joined in 2004, I went to Middle Tennessee State University and I eventually became a part of Theta Iota Chapter there. And really it was kind of happenstance. I heard a little bit about Greek life and was interested, had some friends that took me along through Greek week, if you will, and went to each of the different fraternities that are out there and immediately had a connection to Sigma Nu.
0:10:32.8 Joshua Causey: I think part of that was there was influential chapter advisor. Chris, you were talking about that. There was a guy named Tony Maribel. Some of our listeners may or may not know him, but he was somebody that really had a really big impact on me. And honestly, the first day, Sigma Nu was the first chapter I went to and I pretty much didn't leave once I met the guy, because he explained to me a little bit about Sigma Nu, a little bit of its history. And I've always been interested in military service and I was attracted to a little bit of the history of Sigma Nu and some of the values that Tony kind of articulated to me. He's definitely a man that I think about often. And I'm appreciative that I made that connection with him which is actually almost 20 years ago now. So it's a little wild to think about that. That's generally my Sigma Nu story and I definitely don't regret it.
0:11:37.1 Christopher Brenton: Yeah. And for those playing who's that Sigma Nu at home, Tony Maribel is a past vice-regent, so long-term volunteer for the fraternity and absolutely dedicated Sigma Nu. Awesome. Well, so jumping ahead of Adam here.
0:11:58.4 Adam Girtz: Go ahead.
0:11:58.5 Christopher Brenton: So really appreciate you getting to put your Sigma Nu experience in context. Josh, you alluded to this, the values and the mentorship that you received as a member of Theta Iota Chapter. Thinking about your career experience, are there connected values or things that you learned from your undergraduate experience that you feel like stayed with you into your career post-college?
0:12:26.5 Joshua Causey: Yeah. I think the values of Sigma Nu. It's really... One of the neat things about our Fraternity is that the values are so simple. It's love, truth, honor. I still remember the creative Sigma Nu. It's something that I've occasionally said to myself. It sounds a little corny to think of it that way, but the army has army values, and those army values aren't too dissimilar. And I think if you live your life, love, truth, honor, you really can't go wrong. It can guide your decision-making not only as an individual, but as a leader. And that's my capacity, what I do every day. I lead people, I lead teams of people to help the army accomplish its mission. But it's something that it's not lost on me to think about those values and to not only connect them to the things I've learned over my going on 17 years of service, but something that I think about when I interact with people every day. Serve people with dignity and respect and have compassion, those kinds of things.
0:13:45.9 Adam Girtz: So I'm glad you brought up leading a team and everything. This was something I was actually interested to ask you about, and I think it kind of fits in here. Something that I've done a lot of thinking about in meeting with collegiate chapters as well as on staff, we have a staff core covenant that we talk about and in retreats and everything we talk about, why is it important? And one thing that comes through between those things is you having a core set of values that we discuss regularly with each other. It's a way to make sure that the team itself is operating at a high capacity. And if members of the team can trust each other to live up to those values, they can better anticipate each other's actions and better rely on their team members. Is that something that you feel has made your teams more effective? Like when you notice that's going well, or maybe when it slacks, you notice a slippage in your team as well?
0:14:52.5 Joshua Causey: Yeah, so I've had a mentor along the way in my career tell me that leadership is a contact sport and it's an interesting way to think about leadership in general. But it's something that as you go through your collegiate time, you take on some leadership positions and you're dealing with people that are from all walks of life. You're dealing with people that have their own experiences both financially and personally, and you have to work with them and you have to learn to get things done together. And that's something that I think as you go through your time in Sigma Nu and collegiate elites, if you take advantage of the full college experience as a collegiate member, you learn to work with other people, you learn to get things done with different groups of people who have a lot of different opinions about things. You're not always going to agree on how to get things done. And I think it's that teamwork that really builds a strong foundation for those that look to lead other people after college. Because at some point you do graduate and it goes by really fast and suddenly you're in the real world and you're working. And the things that you learned, good and bad, as a collegiate member of your chapter, are the things that are going to help you or hurt you, depending on how you took advantage of the things that Sigma Nu offered.
0:16:27.6 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, absolutely. So Josh, as we mentioned at the top of the interview, we, of course, want to talk to you a little bit about your military service, the experience there, the general experience of veterans as we relate to Veterans Day. And we know that, of course, you don't speak for everybody and your experiences are a little bit maybe unique, but I think you provide a valuable lens here, especially as someone who has had a long military career. So just to kick things off, what initially attracted you to serve and a follow up question of, did you plan when you entered college to go into military service? Was that a decision that was shaped during your time at MTSU?
0:17:13.5 Joshua Causey: Yes. So I always thought about the military. I actually have a lot of people in my family that have served, not necessarily careers, like you had highlighted earlier. A lot of people join the military sometimes to get to college, sometimes just to gain some skills of some sort. And that's okay. I think that probably represents most of the veterans that are out there, frankly. People that weren't necessarily in it for a career, but an experience, whatever that experience was. And I after going through college, not only in my experience as a member of Sigma Nu, but then in general, that desire to serve, I decided to become an officer. And so I did ROTC at MTSU while I was a collegiate member of Sigma Nu and having to balance both, that was a little difficult. Frankly, they couldn't be more different in terms of the types of people that often do those types of paths, whether you're in college and you're going to business school or you're the person that is desiring to serve, but the values remain the same. It's just how you use those values when you get out of college.
0:18:33.0 Joshua Causey: And so I commissioned, and then from there I went to my first duty assignment in Germany, where I had to work with people that were probably about the age of those that were first entering Sigma Nu for the first time. And I'm only a few years older than them and I'm having to lead people that are of different backgrounds and different groups. And so generally, that's how I ended up serving. I didn't necessarily served for a career it's, the reason you join is not necessarily the reason you stay in, if that make sense.
0:19:09.0 Adam Girtz: Yeah, that reminds me of Sigma Nu staff.
0:19:15.6 Joshua Causey: Yeah.
0:19:15.8 Adam Girtz: So in my time working with our collegiates definitely ran into a couple of different chapters where there's a very high ROTC affiliation with the chapter. Shout out Beta Upsilon at Rose-Hulman. Hey guys. So I know your ROTC is definitely a big entry point for military service for a lot of young people. What are some of the other ways that people are joining military service that you see and where they coming from?
0:19:50.2 Joshua Causey: Yeah, so in general, you really... You have enlisted and you have officers, right? And so some people, they enlist for a term of service typically four to six years. Sometimes, those people stay in for their full term, or sometimes they go even beyond that. Then you have those that I think we're probably focusing on today, who become officers through ROTC or OCS. So ROTC is really just a program in college that teaches you how to be an officer, but also how to lead in a military. Officer Candidate School is usually a pipeline for those individuals that are usually enlisted, who decide through at some point in their time in service that they want to become an officer. And lead soldiers, and NCOs. Then there's West Point, which often doesn't have fraternities right, but that's the US Army, Military College. And that really is those individuals from the very start of their collegiate experience. They know that they want to be an officer, and they want to go to the Army's Military Academy to do that. And then there's another pipeline, which will connect to some of our listeners, and that is senior military schools. So Virginia Military Institute is one of those institutions, amongst others. And those are similar to West Point in terms of the curriculum. But also, it's really considered a ROTC that has a focus on a comprehensive officer preparation program.
0:21:43.8 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, I think we... So we do a lot of tours at VMI for college or chapters or various chapters, you have the opportunity to come to Lexington for a pilgrimage. And I think they're always a little bit surprised at, I think, enlistment after graduation from VMI. I think it's like under 50% of students who attend VMI go on to military service. But of course, like while they're there, I think they have the option of service to the community. That's a secondary option to ROTC. So it's always interesting to talk to people that just a little bit how unique they are compared to West Point or some of the other military academies.
0:22:33.1 Joshua Causey: Yeah, VMI amongst other Senior Military Colleges is a very unique program and a very unique experience. It's not for everybody. The army and any other military branch's not for everybody. When you commit to go into VMI or another senior military school, and academy for that matter, you're purposely giving some of your freedoms away. So that you can serve and become, hopefully an officer, if that's the route that you choose, and lead soldiers since it is a sacrifice to make though, some individuals are willing to make.
0:23:10.1 Christopher Brenton: Yeah. So Josh, another question we have for you. And this one, I imagine is pretty broad question because it's going to touch on really a number of different experiences for different people depending on what I assume is your different branch or your stage of life in the military. And that is like, could you talk a little bit about what a day in the life of a service member might be? And just hearing your answer to the last question, I'm going to add in that that, again, is probably different based on whether you're enlisted, you're an officer, you're deployed, you're a stateside, your basic training. I know that there's a lot of conditions there. But if you could, give us a little context for what is the average experience for a service member?
0:24:04.0 Joshua Causey: Yeah, the average experience for service members regardless of what your rank is, is often the army is very into physical fitness. It's a part of our job, right? We have to be physically fit. It's a part of how we are able to be successful if we're called to serve in combat. And so the average... Like for me this morning, I got up at 4:30 in the morning, and I got dressed, drank coffee, tried to wake up. And then I went to work, but my work was physical training. So this morning I ran four miles. And did some other calisthenics and some things to prepare my body for the rigors of maybe combat or the rigors of training. And then after that, came in, got dressed, did all the things that normal people do and got ready for work. So, here I am in the office today, and I lead individuals and a lot of soldiers lead individuals, that sometimes that involves things on computer or other times that means going to the field and doing training where you take military vehicles and you take tents, you take equipment, and you set up your unit areas and prepare to do whatever your job is, and that varies. There are hundreds of jobs in the military depending on what your interests are, and how your life ends up, right?
0:25:38.9 Joshua Causey: because I'm a Medical Service Corps officer, and a lot of people don't exactly know what that means, and they think, "Hey, you know, I'm a doctor." Well, I'm not a doctor, I'm an operations officer. So I'm thinking about the daily operations of a unit and I'm thinking about how synchronizing things over both short term, medium term and long term. We have medics people that train to save people's lives. We have doctors that do the same thing. We have infantrymen and we have infantry officers, and that's a whole another skill set where you're training to fight and win wars, in combat directly with the enemy.
0:26:25.5 Joshua Causey: So the experiences really vary. And it's almost like a joke sometimes. Some people will say about the military, the experiences vary. And it just depends on a lot of different things. It depends on when you watch the news every day, right? You watch the news and you'll see that we have soldiers in Europe that are supporting NATO and that are supporting our allies and partners. There's a lot that goes into that, but those individuals are away from their families and are making their own sacrifices so that we can, one, assist the president in protecting our national interests, but also ensuring that tyrants don't reign over Europe. So think that...
0:27:14.5 Adam Girtz: Yeah. Absolutely.
0:27:18.2 Christopher Brenton: No, absolutely.
[laughter]
0:27:20.2 Christopher Brenton: And I think we get the variability of it. We are talking to you as someone representing the army or in the army, we know that, that of course is going to vary wildly as well from branch to branch. Josh, I know you as well you've had the opportunity in your career to go back and get a additional education. I think... Correct me if I'm wrong, I believe you went to Texas A&M for your masters. How, I guess... Well, I guess your decision to remain with the military and career service, what was that decision like to determine like, hey, I really enjoy this work. This is something that I see myself doing long term. And then the decisions along the way of going back and getting additional education that can kind of further you in these types of roles. And then ultimately, you're now a great operations officer. Is this a position that you saw yourself in one day? Is that a position you've been angling for? Or is it more like pachinko, you kind of go, [laughter] you go ultimately where you end up and then you're just trying to do the best job you can in that position?
0:28:48.7 Joshua Causey: Yeah, there's a lot in that question. So I'll...
0:28:50.4 Christopher Brenton: Sorry. A lot of... [laughter] A lot of questions in a question. Sorry.
0:28:55.2 Joshua Causey: Yeah. So I'll start with how I ended up staying in as long as I have so far. And part of that is just military service in general, the Army, people are mission focused and it's kind of... For some people that might be a little difficult to understand, hey, what's that mean? Well, that means that people are willing to go above and beyond to accomplish a common goal. And I think that's one of the benefits of the military and that's why a lot of people do stay in, is because it's bigger than yourself. It's fine that if you work... Say you work at IBM, right? You know you're working for a company's profit line. But I think military service offers an opportunity to sometimes be a part of history, right?
0:29:43.9 Joshua Causey: Time is everything in the military and probably in life in general. But that's generally what attracted me to military service and what's kept me going over the last 14 plus years is being a part of something that's bigger than myself, being a part of a team of individuals that are, they're willing to go above and beyond to accomplish a mission. It's an attitude. It's a way of thinking that I don't think it's common everywhere. I don't think it's common in the civilian world to sacrifice your own personal comforts for the good of the organization. And I think that's something that's very common in the military. It's built into you as you go through whatever your indoctrination is, whether it's basic training or other types of camps as you go through and you prepare and you learn to be whatever it is that you're trying to be in the military.
0:30:44.9 Joshua Causey: The military is also interesting because there's a lot of opportunities. It's a meritorious organization, and so as you demonstrate potential and performance, the army and the military can reward you for that. I've been able to get two degrees that were paid for by the Army. I've been able to travel all over the world and to different places, some good, some bad, right? But that's part of the job. And I've really... I've had a lot of opportunities in general. It's not just the benefits, it's just the culture of the organization that I think has kept me going. And I've personally benefited a little bit along the way, but I've also had sacrifices and there's one thing I don't want to forget, and that is families.
0:31:39.1 Joshua Causey: I think sometimes people forget about those. They focus on the service members, but oftentimes those service members have families that make sacrifices and they probably bear more sacrifice than the service member themselves because the service member deploys or they go to a field training exercise, the family is there and they have to keep going. I have a wife, I have a son, and I work long hours all the time. I sometimes have to unexpectedly go places and my wife has to carry on. It takes a certain type of spouse to recognize that at some moment their husband or their wife will not be there for extended periods of time. I hope that answers your question. [chuckle]
0:32:25.4 Adam Girtz: No, I think it does.
0:32:26.5 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, no, it really does.
0:32:27.7 Adam Girtz: Definitely does. Thank you. One thing you said that I want to highlight for our listeners is the parallel that I see in uniting for a common purpose. I think that is one of the great benefits of a fraternity chapter, is the ability to coordinate and you focus your efforts as a group of young men towards a common goal. So I think that's an excellent lesson that our listeners or our active member listeners can take away and alumni as well. Alumni, you bring a lot to the table when it comes to giving time and treasure back to the chapter itself to help support that. But for I guess something that we talk about with our commanders, or our Chapter Presidents at College of Chapters, is really trying to define your why, define your purpose as a chapter and unite the chapter behind that vision, so that they have this common goal to work towards.
0:33:34.0 Adam Girtz: So then for the individual member, you're giving up your time or maybe a Saturday afternoon to go and volunteer or you coordinate a social event or anything else that they're doing while obviously the parallel fall short when it comes to the stakes and everything else, the goals that are being accomplished. I think there's definitely a lesson there, and I think it's... One reason why it is really unique and interesting to be a military-styled social fraternity is we can take a lot of those lessons from that uniting as a group for a common purpose, and that shared sense of honor, to bring back to the fraternity chapter, really a neat parallel.
0:34:23.6 Adam Girtz: Josh, I have one more question for you before we wrap up here. So we are planning on releasing this episode around Veterans Day, and you for that then as Christopher and I have talked about, as civilians, what can we do to help honor our veterans and to help you support our active duty military members that are out there?
0:34:48.9 Joshua Causey: I think, in general, I think a lot of the focus that we have today on supporting our service members has to do with some Scars from Vietnam, and every veteran has had the opportunity to really properly be welcomed home or to have that support of what they do. And I think there was a recognition that whatever you believe about Vietnam in general and whether it was right or it was wrong, that there was a lot of negative energy that was focused on those that serve, and those people generally speaking don't have the option to do that. And there were a lot of people at that time that were drafted into service and served their country and did their obligation, but maybe they didn't actually agree with what they were doing, right? That all being said, we are in a volunteer force today, and so every person that serves from the end of Vietnam to today are volunteers that intentionally raise their right hand and chose to serve this country, regardless of what they think about, what the country or the state of the country, or... Those that leave the country or what we're doing on behalf of our nation's interest.
0:36:08.5 Joshua Causey: And I think that it takes a little bit of recognition to understand that those people were making a sacrifice, both individually and personally, and I think the only thing you really can do is just give your support and recognize that. Recognize that those people are putting aside their own interest to protect the common good. And I think that those... There is civilians out there, those that have never served, just recognize that, give veterans support, give the active duty service members your support, and understand that there are some sacrifices that are being made on a day-to-day basis.
0:36:52.1 Adam Girtz: Awesome, well, listeners, take that as your call to action, reach out to a veteran today, reach out to the veteran in your life or the active duty military member in your life, just let them know that you support them and send them some cheer. [chuckle] Well, awesome. Well, Josh, any final thoughts or anything else you'd like to share with us before we wrap up here?
0:37:17.1 Joshua Causey: Yeah, so me and Chris were talking about something before we started today that I just want to highlight. There are a lot of Sigma Nu's out there today that maybe don't necessarily think of themselves as Sigma Nu's now. I think there is a saying that Chris use, "Once a Marine, always a Marine," that is a way of thinking that I think is relevant to those Sigma Nu's that are out there today. You don't stop being a Sigma Nu just because you graduated college. The values that you swore to are the values that your oath continues after college. And so the way that you live every day, the way that you interact with people every day, the things that you do for your family, your city, your country, remain relevant to love, truth and honor. And I just want to remind all of those Sigma Nu's out there to think about that and to hold on to that and to live by those values.
0:38:25.8 Adam Girtz: Excellent, what a great message. “Am not Was,” definitely something that we all try to live up to. I really do think that's the strength of our organization though, is that life-long membership and the dedication of those ideals, and that is where we can truly make a difference out in the world is by living that whether you're wearing your pin every single day or you're not really showing off that affiliation, the way that you live is a representative of that. Very cool. Love that message. Well, Josh, thank you so much for being here. And thank you for serving. Thank you for your service. We really do appreciate it.
0:39:12.3 Christopher Brenton: Absolutely.
0:39:13.7 Joshua Causey: Yeah, thanks guys, I appreciate it.
0:39:15.6 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, Josh, thanks so much for joining us. I want to make sure that we stay in touch. I know this was an opportunity for you and I to reconnect, and we're so glad that we were able to bring you on the podcast.
0:39:21.9 Joshua Causey: Thanks guys.
[Transition Music]
0:40:00.7 Adam Girtz: All right, welcome back, everyone. Excellent interview. Really cool. Something that stands out to me, Christopher, is mentioned it in the interview, but the parallels, your being a military style social fraternity, the parallels between Sigma Nu chapters and Sigma Nu as a whole and the military as an organization, I think is really interesting. And I think that there's synergy there in the meaning then for thinking of our members that are ROTC or plan on enlisting or going into your officer school or anything else as far as serving, that there is a lot in Sigma Nu that does prime you for that style of organization. I think that's really interesting. And I love that Josh talked about working together as a team as well as across the armed forces and how they are mission driven like that. I think that's a good lesson for our listeners. Whether you're an alumnus or an active member of our chapter that we are working together to achieve the goals of the Sigma Nu. So I thought that was a pretty deep parallel.
0:41:30.1 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, absolutely. And too, there are so many active service members and veterans that our listeners are connected to or just in service and past service themselves. I just think it's really great to get to hear from someone who can talk about that experience and give context to it. And I feel like I walked away from the episode learning so much more about how complex everything is. And I'm really thankful for Josh to be able to lay it out so succinctly.
0:42:11.7 Christopher Brenton: But the most importantly, as we talked about at the very end there, we just want to say, thank you for your service to all those who are listening, who are either current or former military, thank you to those who you may be connected with as well. If they are not direct listeners, but you know someone who is, please share love with them and thanks with them on our behalf. Certainly, we just want to make sure that anyone who is listening, whether you are an active service member, veteran, or as Josh mentioned, the family or loved ones of those... Of service members and active duty members or veterans, that we want you to know that you feel supported and loved by the national organization as well. So this episode of this podcast is for you, and we hope that you felt seen, we hope that you felt acknowledged, and we hope that if you're a listener, you feel inspired to go out and share the love for this Veteran's Day.
0:43:23.0 Adam Girtz: Yeah, absolutely. Think about for every active service member, there's dozens of people that are, you're back home and miss them, and you are giving up time with that person. Your valuable time. So sacrifices across the board there, but all for a worthy cause, the furthering of the mission that they're undertaking, and that they chose to undertake. As you mentioned, we are in a volunteer service right now. So I think you made a great point about everyone who is serving in the military right now is choosing to do so and putting themselves out there for that. So I think that's pretty neat.
0:44:08.1 Christopher Brenton: Yeah.
0:44:08.9 Adam Girtz: Well, Christopher, any other thoughts about the episode before we dive into some plugs here?
0:44:16.2 Christopher Brenton: No, I think we're good to close things out.
0:44:19.5 Adam Girtz: Cool.
0:44:20.9 Christopher Brenton: So I'll jump into our two plugs real quick.
0:44:23.4 Adam Girtz: Yes, I hear there's some registrations that are going live. Tell us about it.
0:44:27.9 Christopher Brenton: Yeah. So we are very quickly approaching the end of the year, which means that we're approaching the beginning of next year, which is where we have two huge signature events that are coming up for the fraternity. Well, three technically, but two that we'll highlight here. So first and foremost, if it hasn't launched by the time this episode releases, it is very soon to launch, which is College of Chapters registration. So every year we host College of Chapters January 3rd through 6th. That is not going to be any different than in 2023. But this is our annual Commander's Academy, if you want to call it that. It is where we bring all of our collegiate chapter commanders to Roanoke, Virginia. They get intensive training on how to be the Executive Officer, the Chief Executive Officer for their chapter. So they're going to receive training on how to create a strategic plan, on how to implement that strategic plan about how to buy or create buy in. They're going to receive instruction on operational areas of the chapter, like how to create a budget, how to execute that budget, how to...
0:45:53.1 Christopher Brenton: Depending on their pursuit of excellence performance, they may be receiving instruction on community service and philanthropy or recruitment. So it's incredibly extensive. We have great faculty and volunteers who help make that an incredible success. But if you're a commander, if you're an advisor who oversees a chapter, make sure that they are registering for a College of Chapters as soon as they are able and get them excited. I think College of Chapters is one of our marquee programs. And I know that our chapter officers who have the opportunity to attend walk away really feeling and reporting because we do survey, the experience, about how tremendous the event is for them and their chapter success. The second event, and this one's a little bit further out, is going to be Grand Chapter. So next year, we are bringing back our in-person National Convention. In 2021, we hosted a postpone virtual Grand Chapter and we were supposed to have our Grand Chapter in Denver... The 69th grand chapter in Denver, Colorado in 2020. Unfortunately, that had to be delayed due to the pandemic and then was ultimately hosted as a virtual event in 2021.
0:47:08.5 Christopher Brenton: But we are back in person once again for our 70th Grand Chapter, and that'll be hosted in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I almost said Miami, which is right next door. But Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the date pattern for that is going to be June 28th through July 2nd, 2023, where we'll be staying at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort and Spa. Registration is not live for that yet, but depending on when you are a listener to this episode, it could be live, so be on a look out for that. But we are wanting to get alumni and collegiate members who may have the opportunity to attend, excited for that. I have heard rumors about things that are planned and just general excitement for the convention. We are really excited to be able to be back in person there hoping for a strong attendance at next year's Grand Chapter. So registration for that will probably go live in early January and we'll of course be plugging that on each episode from here until Grand Chapter takes place just to continue to drive momentum for what is going to be an exciting grand chapter.
0:48:23.2 Adam Girtz: Christopher, I'm going to book us a pedicure and foot bath at the spa at the hotel on July 2nd, [laughter] when everything's done, we're going to spend a lot of time on our feet. And at the end of it, you and I are going to sit together and get some nice foot care. How does that sound?
0:48:42.8 Christopher Brenton: Hey, I'll take you up on that especially if... Well, hopefully, actually, hopefully, I'll just be on the beach [laughter] at the peak of it. That is one of the benefits of being in Fort Lauderdale, but regardless. Adam, that is the end of the things that I wanted to plug. Anything from you before we close her out?
0:49:03.6 Adam Girtz: No. I think that's it for me as well, Christopher. Listeners, thank you all for being here. We will see you again next month. Bye everyone.
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