The Grand Chapter, convened each day of Conclave, is comprised of one delegate from each of SigEp’s 200 chapters, National Board members and district governors. Each Conclave, the Grand Chapter is an opportunity for SigEp’s undergraduates to present and discuss legislation. These undergraduate-led pieces of legislation will empower and encourage brothers to support each other and uphold SigEp’s standards.

Here’s a summary of the legislation passed by the Grand Chapter. It does not include ceremonious pieces of legislation.

Resolution 1 – Commission a Ritual Task Force Subcommittee on Ritual Education
This resolution creates a subcommittee on the Ritual task force specifically focused on education and charges this committee to produce a report on the Ritual for the 58th Grand Chapter Conclave.

Resolution 2 – Reconstructing Ritual Practices
The Ritual task force is charged with reconstructing the Ritual based on the report delivered at the 57th Grand Chapter Conclave. The report outlines the challenges with the current iteration of the Ritual — including contradictions between the intended purpose of the Balanced Man Program and the tiered rites of passage. It recommends establishing one rite of passage at the beginning of a member’s experience and sharing Fraternity secrets from day one of membership.

Resolution 3 – Provisional Guidance on Streamlining Ritual Performance
This resolution, submitted by the Ritual task force, makes Grand Chapter Bylaw changes that improve the efficiency of conducting the Ritual. Multiple Ritual teams can exist and perform the Ritual simultaneously; any member of a chapter who has passed through the rite of passage may help officiate that performance; the interpretation may be conducted at a different time and place from the actual rite of passage; and interpretations may be done virtually.

Resolution 4 – Request Guidance on Chapter Reinstatement after Resignation
This resolution requests that the Grand Chapter Bylaws be revised to provide clarity on how to handle a situation where a member resigns and wishes to be reinstated.

Resolution 7 – Charge to Study & Improve AVC Diversity
This resolution tasks the Headquarters staff with researching ways to improve AVC diversity and to make recommendations at the 58th Grand Chapter Conclave.

Resolution 8 – Assault Allegations and Investigations
This resolution requests changes to the Grand Chapter Bylaws to clarify that a sexual or physical assault allegation should be delivered in a “sworn declaration or official notice” and that all investigations must be complete before reinstating the member involved.

Resolution 9 – Protect and Honor our Native Land
This resolution adds a statement in the Grand Chapter Bylaws to help underscore that SigEp was not the first group to occupy the lands we use. This is an acknowledgement that there are people that formerly occupied the land before us and we should respect that.

Resolution 10 – Terms and Leadership Opportunities for Outside Directors to the National Board of Directors
This resolution extends the maximum years of service of an outside director from six to 12 years. This does not change the fact that the National Board of Directors must still appoint these individuals every two years and simply allows outside directors to serve six two-year terms instead of three two-year terms.

Resolution 12 – Creation of Comprehensive Risk Education and Incident Management Guide
This resolution tasks the Headquarters staff or a National Board-created task force with the creation of a comprehensive guidebook on how to address incidents such as natural disasters and other acts of God, criminal activity and legal challenges, and any other foreseeable hazards. The guidebook will be finalized by the next Grand Chapter Conclave. The resolution also changes the name of the chapter risk management chairman to chapter risk reduction chairman.

Resolution 13 – Cultural Competence
This resolution tasks the Fraternity with conducting a “cultural audit” to share at the 2023 Conclave. Further, it states that the Fraternity will produce culturally competent strategic communications in future Fraternity publications (including the Lifetime Responsibility of Brotherhood and SigEp Journal), and suggest/create new content within the Balanced Man Program and BMP App that is more focused on a member’s introspective and interpersonal relationship skills.

Resolution 14 – Updates to the Grand Chapter Executive Committee Structure (VP SLC)
This resolution does two things: 1) creates the vice president of SigEp Learning Community as an executive board position for all chapters; and 2) reorders the order of succession of the executive board to have the VP of SLC as third in command behind the chapter president and vice president of programming. It does not change who is defined as the ritualistic vice president.

Resolution 15 – Electronic Voting
This resolution allows Grand Chapter votes to be submitted electronically during and between Conclaves. The current Grand Chapter Bylaws require that votes between Conclaves are done by paper ballot. This resolution evolves the bylaws to be relevant for the 21st century.

Resolution 16 – Governance During Crisis
This resolution requests Grand Chapter Bylaw revisions that provide greater clarity and guidance for national board elections and governance in the event that an in-person Conclave cannot be held due to extenuating circumstances, similar to what we’ve experienced in the last year with COVID-19.

Resolution 17 – Revise Fall Program and Services Base Fee for Carlson Lodging
This resolution increases the base fee allocated to Carlson Leadership Academies in the Fall Programs and Services Bill from $500 to $800 per chapter. This will cover all related expenses (except travel) for five executive officers per chapter to attend the Carlson Leadership Academy.

Resolution 18 – Chapter Investment Fund
This resolution transfers the balance of all undergraduate chapter investment funds (CIF) to a restricted fund held by the SigEp Educational Foundation. This allows for greater flexibility and use of the funds, as well as reduces complexities around reporting unrelated business income in chapters’ annual 990 tax filings.

Resolution 19 – Recovery of Tax-Exempt Status for Revoked Chapters
This resolution seeks to improve financial practices at chapters by mandating chapters that have lost their tax-exempt status with the IRS use a SigEp preferred vendor (currently Greekbill) to immediately begin the process to be reinstated.

Resolution 23 – Exploring Gender Inclusivity
The resolution tasks the National Board of Directors with assigning the diversity, equity and inclusion committee to evaluate and review all issues of gender throughout the structure of the Fraternity. It also updates the sexual assault and abuse section of the Grand Chapter Bylaws to include gender-neutral language.

You can view all pieces of legislation that were submitted here.