The Hard Road to Chartering

 

Every chapter has its story. The story that describes how it started, where it is and all the achievements along the way. One chapter has caught the attention of Delta Sigs nationwide with its quick rise to success in the past two years.

 

The Iota Iota Chapter at Case Western Reserve University’s story started in spring 2013. Shortly after all new members were pinned, the new chapter had to quickly get to work, especially with a campus that has such a rich Greek community.

 

“Case has a pretty big Greek Life presence. About 50 percent of students are Greek and we had, at the time, 14 fraternities; and now we have 16,” Chapter President at the time of chartering Greg Bokar, Case Western ’13, said.

 

As with any new chapter, the group’s initial meeting brought speculation for some of the new members. The new members were asked to join an organization with people they had never met before and asked to establish a brotherhood with them in a matter of months.

 

“I looked around the room at thought to myself, either I’m going to think back at this and think this wasn’t smart, or one day I’m going to think of these guys as my best friends. And that’s exactly what happened,” said Bokar. “It was one of the things that I thought I would never want to do, but I turned it around into something super positive in my life.”

 

The new members quickly began to grow as a cohesive unit, which only benefited them because they would soon face their first true test as brothers: Greek Week. The new chapter had a mere four weeks from pinning to prepare for Greek Week. Instead of looking at this as a disadvantage, the men used this as time to not only prepare for the events to come but also as a way to get to know each other and find out what brought them together.

 

“We had to prepare to compete in rope pull, pyramid, Greek sing and a variety show. It was a good opportunity for everyone to work together as a team and really start the bond as a fraternity,” said Bokar.  

 

They also had to find a way to differentiate Delta Sig from 14 other fraternities all while meeting the high standards set by the campus’ students.

 

“It’s a private institution, so they [students] have high standards for themselves,” Mark Starr, Director of Greek Life at Case Western Reserve University, said. “We expect groups to bring in a new way of doing things on campus.”

 

Iota Iota worked hard to figure out exactly how it was going to meet this challenge, and it all started with recruitment. Members didn’t only go out looking for guys to join. They decided to go into recruitment with a strategy.

 

“It’s interesting because we went into it [recruitment] super strategically. We [Case Western Reserve University] have a fraternity that is literally the entire football team. You have the swimmer fraternity and a fraternity that calls itself the computer science fraternity. We didn’t like that,” Bokar said.

 

The members realized they all came from different groups, and this was their initial reason for not joining a fraternity when they first started at Case Western Reserve. They decided it was much more than finding people who fit into one homogenous stereotype. It was about finding people from different places and different social pools. With this mindset, the new chapter went out with the idea of dynamic recruiting and showed it was a fraternity to be watched on campus.

 

“We had the largest recruiting class out of the 15 fraternities on campus at the time. We had the most diverse group of people,” Bokar said.

 

This mindset continues a year later as the chapter goes through its fourth semester of recruitment. To ensure successful recruitment, the chapter passes down its knowledge and best practices.

 

“The old VP of Recruitment helped me before he took off to do semester abroad. He was very helpful and very supportive as well as other previous recruitment chairmen. There are a lot of people backing me up,” Jacob Kimes, Case Western ’14, Vice President of Recruitment, said.

 

As the new chapter continued to show success by having two strong semesters on campus, there was still one thing the brothers were unsure about. They didn’t know where their status was for chartering.

 

“It’s interesting because our first President, Sid Dey, said during our first executive meeting we were going to charter before he graduated or get approved to charter,” Bokar said. “We didn’t know how that was going to work because we were always told it was a long process, but we were set on getting it done as soon as possible.”

 

It was hard for the new chapter to keep calm after achieving so much even when it was told not to get frustrated. The new chapter had the most new members in its first semester out at Case. It was also preforming highly in academics and exceeding community service hours.  With having these accomplishments, they just couldn’t understand why it was taking so long for chartering approval. 

 

It was in spring 2014 when it received confirmation it would be chartered and be known as the Iota Iota Chapter.  The Iota Iota chapter chartered on Sept. 9, 2014, with seventy members. 

 

“We were extremely resilient. We weren’t just checking all those boxes along the way, but making sure we developed a great chapter as we went on. We just knew we were ready to charter. That’s probably why we are the fastest chartering chapter,” Bokar said.

 

However, this wasn’t the end of the road for the chapter. It knew chartering was only the beginning, and it had to continue to look forward and ensure its longevity. The chapter decided to create a strategic planning committee.

 

The committee consists of four brothers who focus on how the current goals the chapter will be reached, as well as  goals one, five and 10 years down the road. The committee goes through the goals of the executive board and chairmen. From there, it determines how the goals will help the chapter long-term.

 

“I don’t think they want to have a decline. I think the strategic plan came into play because now that they have chartered, what’s their next step,” Chapter Advisor Marc West, Wittenberg University ’84, said. “ I think they took this seriously, and after the chartering we need to have something that we can build on, so I think that was really beneficial.”

 

The chapter also has stressed the importance of having the support of its Chapter Advisor and how he has been a key role to their success.

 

“Marc is one of those brothers who truly cares past the point that most people stop caring. That’s just something you respect,” Kimes said. “He expects everything out of each brother, as he should.”

 

West has put his time to assist the chapter in all aspects. He made it clear when he took the position as Chapter Advisor he was there to look out for the chapter in whatever capacity it may need.

 

“I want them to utilize me as a resource. I am a brother. I have taken the same Ritual, the same oath. I’m not from their chapter, but I am a brother. Anything that goes on, I am going to be involved with,” West said..

 

All these factors have been the keys to Iota Iota’s success. The driven members, having a consistent plan for the future, and the support from a chapter advisor have pushed this chapter to be a powerhouse on campus and within Delta Sigma Phi nationally. The chapter looks forward toward Convention in New Orleans this summer as it hopes to receive the Fraternity’s ultimate form of recognition, The Pyramid of Excellence.

 

“I think we are probably one of the most efficient chapters, and getting a Pyramid of Excellence is definitely a goal, and we will push toward that goal no matter what,” Bokar said.