Thursday evening’s Balanced Man Celebration marked the official start of SigEp’s 58th Grand Chapter Conclave. While the much-anticipated reveal of Buchanan Cup-winning chapters (see a full article on them here!) is the pinnacle of the BMC, the rest of the ceremony offered plenty of meaningful moments and recognition of the hard work of so many of SigEp’s chapters and AVCs.

Grand President Billy Maddalon, North Carolina ’90, opened Conclave by sharing SigEp’s accomplishments over the past two years. He laid out a vision for the future of a SigEp chapter experience that meets the needs of undergraduates today by focusing on “four fundamentals: building relationships and belonging, finding purpose and discovering potential, living by our values and ritual, and developing a sound mind and sound body.”

Maddalon spoke of his 76 visits to chapters around the country in the past two years. “As I’ve gotten older, my teachers have gotten younger. For all of you in the room tonight who welcomed me with open arms, who housed me, fed me, shared your thoughts with me, loved me…thank you. You will never know how much I appreciate your kindness and the opportunities to get to know more about this thing we call Sigma Phi Epsilon.”

Standup comedian Steve Hofstetter, Columbia ’01, brought laughter to the stage for the fourth time as host of this year’s BMC. He opened the show with a video filmed Thursday morning featuring SigEp’s faux yellow dinosaur mascot, Smooshie, convincing San Antonians that their city is getting a pro baseball team.

National Director Charlie Amato, Sam Houston State ’70, co-owner of the San Antonio Spurs, introduced Spurs forward Keldon Johnson. Born in Richmond, Va., the place of SigEp’s founding, Johnson welcomed attendees to San Antonio. Johnson averaged over 21 points per game for the Spurs in the 2022-23 NBA season and won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA.

Reinforcing the value of high-quality living-learning environments for our chapters, SigEp National Housing Board Chairman Steve Young, Kansas ’80, along with the SENH Board presented the Cornerstone Award to four Alumni & Volunteer Corporations: South Dakota Alpha at South Dakota State, Iowa Gamma at Iowa, Florida Epsilon at Florida State and Kentucky Delta at Western Kentucky. These Cornerstone Awards recognized AVCs that have made impactful improvements to their chapter facility.

SigEp Learning Communities — accredited environments for chapter members to learn and live together — have grown exponentially over the past two years from 60 to more than 90 accredited chapters. To highlight their importance, SigEp National Housing Director Chris Dillion presented the Illinois Alpha Pay it Forward grant to assist two chapters in improving their SigEp Learning Communities. Through the generosity of Illinois Alpha alumni, the grant was awarded to North Carolina Pi SLC at Western Carolina University and Kansas Delta SLC at Washburn University.

Over the past two years, three new SigEp chapters earned their charters. At the BMC, we honored their hard work and the high level of operations they’ve achieved. Ten Past Grand Presidents of SigEp joined together to present the newly-chartered chapters with their gavels. The recognition commemorated these newly-chartered chapters: California Mu at Cal-Poly Pomona, Colorado Gamma at Colorado State University and Missouri Alpha at the University of Missouri.

The evening concluded with Hofstetter joining Grand President Maddalon on stage to bang the gavel and officially open Conclave.