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Students coming from family backgrounds which have no knowledge of honor societies and their value.
Getting financial aid to pay for honor society dues. One of our chapters already does this. Perhaps ACHS could explore how to accomplish this for all honor sociiety students who receive financial aid.
” “ 1. Finding and keeping dedicated chapter advisers 2. Persuading college and university administrators of the value of Alpha Chi 3. Planning for succession in leadership at the national level ” “ Our academic discipline is in the midst of a transition, and many departments have been absorbed or merged with other related departments. Given this trend the number of chapters may eventually see a decline. Our goal is to support those chapters and revive inactive chapters to ensure outstanding students in our discipline are recognized for their accomplishments. ” “ Chapter management - reports IRS filings Locating and retaining chapter advisors Scheduling and chartering new chapters ” “ There appears to be a decreasing interest in honor society activities on the part of collegiate faculty in this discipline. ” “ There are several challenges: 1. Creating more value for members. 2. Maintaining the membership database. ” “ A challenge for Alpha Kappa Delta is identifying and retaining committed and competent chapter representatives (advisors). Another challenge is finding vehicles for investing AKD funds that are relatively safe but have a reasonable return. Also, AKD modified its governance about 15 months ago and now has an Executive Director. The transition is now going very smoothly, but like all major transitions in organizations they present challenges. ” “ Locating and keeping advisors Maintaining campus chapter effectiveness Securing institutional support for campus chapters ” “ advisor turnover and transition predicting fellowship applications membership recruitment campus chapter effectiveness and visibility increased competition among bogus/internet only honor societies which dilute the value of honor societies ” “ Recruiting student members Retaining chapter advisors Chapters submitting Annual and Financial Reports ” “ The challenges we are experiencing have to do with maintaining membership levels and financial security. ” “ Economic downturn has impacted the ASN annual fund. Communication with members as they become more mobile, less tied to land lines, and more interested in internet communications. ” “ Cost containment and making sure BGS stays relevant to a new generation of students. Making alumni members feel a part of the organization. ” “ Beta Kappa Chi Honor Society is faced with several challenges. a. Due to the economy, there is an expectation that memberships such as these will not be a priority to the student population. b. There is a need for our small organization to establish a way to reach new membership on-line. Records must be properly verified and a web system must be designed to receive funds in a timely manner. c. Funds must be acquired to pay for student travel to the annual conferences. This will increase membership and allow active results as outlined in the primary objectives of the organization. d. There must also be an increase in the number of advisors and sponsors on campuses to decrease the lag period created when another sponsors becomes ill or have retired. ” “ Keeping up with members, especially for those who do not remain on the campus from which they graduate. ” “ As is the case with all, our most crucial challenge is maintaining our Society in the face of the current financial situations facing our nation and the world. ” “ Continuing to remain in a dynamic, growth organizational mode; serving more effectively without undue overhead costs; developing leaders for the profession reflective of a multicultural, diverse society; remaining relevant to members beyond graduation. ” “ Declining number of chapters ” “ For the last half of the 20th century this organization centered around one national event - a conference and tournament that was large and while it was organized and conducted for its membership, it was an all-inclusive tournament and invitations for participation went out to all competitive organizations. As we moved into the 21st century, the competitive opportunities nationally had expanded to such an extent that low attendance forced a discontinuation of the tournament in 2008. Membership communication became more difficult to discern as leadership transitions, lost mailing lists and disruption of competitive speech programs left the chapters in flux. Our greatest challenge in this first decade is a reorganization of purpose and impact to this activity. Defining the services we will provide and bringing the chapters and members toward a greater exchange of communication and resources. ” “ Obtaining new members. ” “ New Initiatives being undertaken to move forward in the implementation of the Strategic Plan with a new Board of Directors and a new Executive Director are: 1. Providing direction, leadership, management and support to foster and maintain the SiSTEM Initiative/Project in conjunction with the Sigma Xi Honor Society for Science. Epsilon Pi Tau’s role is to provide the “T” support in STEM for all activities of SiSTEM. 2. Transition a collaborative arrangement with Purdue University for the publication of the Journal of Technology Studies. 3. Implement the Great Minds Awards Initiative Program as recommended by the Epsilon Pi Tau Advisory Group. ” “ Continued strong growth in a weakened economy. ” “ keeping chapters active, replacing coordinating secretaries as they retire or step down, attendance at conventions ” “ Declining numbers of specialized programs Human Sciences units splitting into specialized programs in other colleges ” “ Locating and keeping chapter advisers remains a major challenge. Although journalism/mass communication enrollments continue to increase, the number of available "traditional jobs" (e.g., newspaper and television reporting) is sharply in decline. The profession is changing and academic programs are revamping curricula and, in many ways, reinventing themselves. One of the ramifications of this for the Society is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine whether a unit applying for a chapter fits our criteria for membership. Simultaneously, these changes tend to attract proportionally fewer students with "traditional" journalism/mass communication motivations ” “ 1) Keeping the chapters active 2) Recruiting new chapter sponsors ” “ How to include graduate students in the honor society. Funding travel to national conventions. ” “ The same challenges seem to be a part of our society each year. We struggle with getting good hands-on advisors. Because advising student organizations is not usually a part of the evaluation process on most campuses, faculty tend to avoid these responsibilities. We don't want advisors who won't meet with our chapters and work with the students. I think the economic challenges in society overall will affect membership this year, although time will tell. Also, we are finding that it is hard to attract qualified males for our society. ” “ Keeping the pool of national leaders deep and broad. Expanding at an appropriate pace. Providing hands-on support for collegiate and alumni chapters. Solidifying connections with university administrators who can provide advice, support, guidance and eligibility verification for collegiate chapters Keeping alumni engaged ” “ * MKT's challenges are mainly administrative in that we rely heavily on faculty members to sign off on student eligibility. They are very busy which results in them not using MKT-approved forms for submitting their nominees to us. By using forms other than what we provide them results in an inefficient turnaround time to get them their membership certificates and pins. * Also, faculty time commitments also result in late (or no) submissions. ” “ Diversifying revenue to offer more scholarship dollars to our members ” “ Our primary challenge is communication with the chapters. Our secondary challenge is enrollments in the society. This trends with the national engineering enrollments. ” “ Operations research is academically studied more at the graduate level than at the undergraduate level, and graduate students are less enthusiastic about honor societies than undergraduate students. It has thus been difficult to establish chapters at some of the best universities where the study of operations research is mainly at the graduate level. At the undergraduate level, the existence of Alpha Pi Mu chapters in a number of industrial engineering programs decreases interest in establishing chapters of Omega Rho. ” “ Maintaining activity of all chapters. ” “ The most significant challenge we currently face is a high turnover in our faculty advisors, which leads to decreased activity at the chapter level and a lack of continuity. ” “ Retention of dedicated chapter advisers ” “ Retaining/identifying Chapter Advisors. Society budget. ” “ Maintaining attentive advisors to promote local chapters. Keeping members after the initial three-year period. ” “ One main challenge is to encourage chapters to remain active. Since chapters are often small (philosophy programs are often small), a committed advisor is essential to keeping the chapter active and operating. Advisors are essential to encouraging students to plan and execute various activities. ” “ Replacing retiring Chapter Advisors Institutional Support from Honor Societies Restructuring of Colleges within Institutions ” “ Making sure that our chapters remain active. ” “ Recruiting members of the National Committee Increasing the number of scholarships we offer. ” “ Chapter sponsor retention Impact of the economy on memberships Reactivating chapters ” “ Losing business education programs at major universities across the country has caused chapters to go inactive and that in turn causes declining membership. ” “ Maintaining student interest and initiations; maintaining eligibility standards at chapter level; keeping advisors engaged and active. ” “ Budgets Scholarship and fundraising ” “ Maintaining closer contact with our members and faculty sponsors. ” “ advising chapters on eligibility of students in satellite and online campus subcategories assessing the quality of university psychology programs in other countries ” “ Dynamic changes in educational environment; particularly on-line schools and accelerated adult programs ” “ Chapter reactivation, attracting and retaining committed chapter advisers, convincing institutions that maintaining an active chapter benefits everyone, informing prospective members of our numerous membership benefits. ” “ No major changes have occured to the society since our last annual report. ” “ membership recruitment locating and keeping advisors long-range or strategic planning ” “ Motivating active chapter advisors, who are rarely rewarded by their institutions Finding more ways to engage alumni with current chapter activities ” “ Chartering new chapters and reaching more members. Maintaining regular communication with our growing and changing membership, including international chapters. ” “ membership retention, involvement of new/younger members ” “ Maintaing Active Chapters - Insuring all chapters have Advisors ” “ Inflation. General societal lack of interest in honor societies. Recession & effects upon our invested trust. Reduced trust earnings plus increased postage costs caused us to discontinue mailing 30,000 newsletters to collegiate members. Multifiling state requirements for TBP Alumnus Giving Program. ” “ recruiting and maintaining effective Board of Directors, particularly in a period of growth. ” “ Improve our financial resources; find a way to enhance the number of UPE membership acceptances by students who qualify for UPE membership. ” |
Association of College Honor Societies, 4990 Northwind Drive,
Suite 140, East Lansing, MI 48823-5031
Telephone: (517) 351-8335 — Facsimile: (517) 351-8336 — E-Mail:
dmitstifer@achsnatl.org
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