WANTED: ALUMNI MENTORS

By Luke Taiclet ’82, Advisory Board

At some point in our lives most of us have had a mentor who stepped in and helped guide us.  This may have been an informal mentor, the uncle or aunt who helped us with our college choice. Or, it may have been someone more formally assigned to us as we began our career. For many of us, we had the great honor to have been mentored by ‘Mister D,’ Duane Doty, the long time High Pi at Zeta Zeta.

Later, we may have found ourselves in the role as mentor, guiding a mentee from the next generation in the same way we were guided. (For those of you with children, it is of course a daily endeavor.) Perhaps it was a nephew or a niece or a friend or a young intern experiencing the ‘real world’ for the first time. It may have been formal, it may have been informal.

What is easy to see in retrospect, is that we have all benefited from someone who took the time to help us succeed in meeting our personal or professional goals. And in turn, we have also reached back to help those who could benefit from our experience, stability, guidance, ‘tough love’ or just our willingness to listen.

I mentioned Mr. D above. As I think back on my college days, I am always amazed at the role he assumed as THE chapter advisor, in the singular. There were 10 officers and 30 other members all looking to him as their advisor.  And, he never hesitated in sharing his experience and guidance, providing the stability we often needed and the ‘tough love’ that we more often needed, as well as that ear to bend when we thought we were the first one’s who ever faced, (you can fill in the blank of your particular undergraduate dilemma ). When I think of the role he played the word exhausting comes to mind; also, accessible, knowledgeable, caring, dedicated, resourceful, indefatigable, patient, tough, and Brother.  Mr. D. embraced his sworn obligation as a Brother.

Fast forward to the 21^st century, and we find ourselves in a vastly more complicated environment for fraternities that parallel our society in general. This has led to the need for a more professional approach to chapter management and individual officer accountability. (While we may not agree with the forces that are driving these requirements, they are not going away.)

The undergraduate chapter, reflected through the officers, now has many actionable and reporting requirements that require time, attention and expertise. All of this is greatly benefited by continuity and institutional knowledge.  These are things that are inherently in short supply in an undergraduate chapter, due to the constant churn of students.

The days of depending upon a single chapter advisor to assist all of the undergraduate officers in order to cover all of the bases are gone. While the High Pi is, and will continue to be the Chapters’ Advisor, to successfully maintain the needed continuity and institutional knowledge, we must have additional alumni assist him with the undergraduate chapter. In a word, Mentors. We need alumni who are willing to take on the role of mentor to individual officers.

Fortunately, the mentorship program is not something new and there is a robust system in place to provide alumni a means to participate.  This includes training and access to all of the undergraduate officer information, much of it on line.  We currently have almost a full slate of alumni mentors working with undergraduate officers.  We are however looking forward to the future and want to build a robust pool of alumni volunteers. Simply put, greater involvement benefits the Chapter by bringing new ideas to the table and making sure a small cadre of alumni are not overused and burn out. All of the Mentors are part of a group known as the Alumni Advisory Board (AAB).

If you are interested in being a mentor, here are some specifics.

• We would like Mentors to commit to two years as a mentor to a specific undergraduate officer.
• You do not need to live in State College, (most of our current mentors do not).
• Complete Mentor training offered on line by the General Fraternity (referred to as IHQ, International Headquarters).
• Complete Mentor background check.
• ‘Meet’ with your assigned officer weekly either in person, by phone, by Skype, etc. and discuss current chapter operations, officer activities and required reports, etc.
• During the course of your mentorship provide general professional development advice to you mentee.
• Report activities to the AAB Chair (High Pi).
• Attend two AAB meetings annually, (ideally in person, but other means are also okay).

The current group of alumni are heavily engaged with the Chapter Officers. We look forward to additional Brothers joining us in assisting the undergraduate Brothers of Zeta Zeta. If you are interested in becoming a Mentor or have questions, please contact Alumni Advisory Board Chairman Mike Park at [email protected]