This summer will mark another exciting moment in SigEp’s history when we meet in Orlando for our 55th Grand Chapter Conclave. We have accomplished much since the 2015 Nashville Conclave, and we can all be proud of how far our brotherhood has come in the last two years. After passing legislation uniting all chapters under the Balanced Man Program, the real work began. Our chapters, local volunteers and university staff began new Balanced Man Programs from scratch, restarted old ones that had fallen by the wayside, and injected new enthusiasm and creativity into high-functioning programs.

Last Conclave, our undergraduates also adopted legislation asking that we build a mobile application to support the BMP — an accomplishment that many companies struggle to achieve and few fraternities even dream about. The BMP App’s launch this spring fulfills that mandate from our undergraduate brothers. But more importantly, it marks a new era for SigEp. We can now better support a consistent, relevant fraternity experience at all of our chapters, helping our brothers build skills and friendships they’ll need for a fulfilling life.

As we celebrate our progress, we must also consider the threats that still exist. Alcohol abuse and hazing call the very existence of fraternities into question. Our partners in higher education have questioned our value, while a chorus of people — from our neighbors to the national media to parents — has called for the extinction of all fraternities. But they don’t see what we see. We know that SigEp has the courage to be different. That is why we have set our goal, not just to be the best fraternity, but to be the best student organization on each of our campuses.

In order to reach our potential, we must take action. We must remain committed to bringing out the best in our brothers through the BMP. We must provide a safe and healthy environment for those brothers, an environment rooted in success, where they are able to discuss and apply their academic learning through conversations with their brothers and faculty. In other words, we must fully integrate the Balanced Man Program with the Residential Learning Community for all of our brothers.

We’ve accomplished much together, but if we are to reach our potential then we will need heroes of every age, passion, and ability to lead us there. Because what we do for each other matters … because what we do for each other changes lives forever.

Fraternally,

Rick Bennet