New chapter advisory board becomes the focus for alumni involvement

The Chapter Advisory Board meets bi-weekly on Zoom to focus on our support of the new colony

Every year at Founders’ Day, the event starts with a meeting of the House Corporation board where the handful of alumni officers share the status of the finances, facility, and chapter. Then we all hope they want to be re-elected and spend the rest of the year taking care of everything.

“As we considered the re-chartering process, we knew we had to create more opportunities for alumni involvement to remove the burden from the house corporation and be more effective in supporting the chapter,” said brother Eric Mueller (’93, 1340). “The Phi Psi national organization encouraged us to set up a Chapter Advisory Board whose sole focus is on the chapter. No worries about finances. No facilities issues to handle. Just focus on brotherhood.”

Brothers Mueller and Mike Billings (’87, 1197) volunteered to co-chair a local advisory board consisting of 9-10 members who will lead the re-chartering effort and pull together alumni resources to support the chapter. The board will handle recruitment, scholarship, finance, mentoring and a variety of other responsibilities tied to chapter functions. Each member will seek help from other brothers interested in each area, so the board becomes a focal point for all alumni involvement.

The Chapter Advisory Board will free the House Corporation to focus on its primary responsibilities as a non-profit entity including financial management and providing a competitive facility for student housing. In many ways, the new board becomes the alumni-facing entity while the House Corporation operates in the background.

“One way to look at this is the House Corporation must ensure financial stability and take care of the house at 729 E. 11th, regardless of whether the chapter is active or not,” said Craig Stockbridge, House Corporation Vice President. “By doing that, we ensure our greatest asset is always there for the times when the chapter needs it. But, if we have the misfortune of the chapter being absent for a while, we still have a great income-producing asset that provides the foundation for the next recolonization – not that we would ever want that to happen again!”

The new structure is already paying dividends as the number of alumni involved doubled in a month last summer. “We’re finding it easier to get more alumni involved now because we are all used to Zoom meetings,” said Mike Billings. “Being involved no longer requires trips to Eugene. We can have committee meetings, mentor chapter members, and work together with alumni wherever they are.”

Learn more about the Chapter Advisory Board.