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COVID 19 Resources and Fraternity Summer Events Information

COVID-19 Resource Review and Vetting Commission Recommendation

Date: 07/18/2020

To: Undergraduates, House Corporations, Volunteers, and Officers

From: The Executive Committee

RE: Covid-19 Resource Review and Vetting Commission Recommendation


All guidance is in effect through December 31, 2020, unless further modified by the International Executive Committee.

I: Undergraduate Chapters

a. Operations:

The International Fraternity places the highest priority on the health and safety of its members and the communities in which they operate. Therefore, Chapters and individual members must follow all host institution, government, and health guidance and any chapter or member who willfully disregards this guidance, especially if found to have caused or contributed to COVID-19 infections on their campus or local communities may be referred to the appropriate International Fraternity Committee for potential review and sanction.

To ensure the success of the chapter it is strongly recommended that all chapters implement the following:

  1. Designate a member to their Executive Committee that will be charged with driving the creation of, and adherence to, the chapter's health and safety plan related to COVID-19.  The Consul retains overall responsibility for ensuring the health and safety of the chapter’s members, but other officers or a new position could be designated to assist the Consul in this responsibility. Once designated this individual should be entered into the chapter system as the “COVID-19 Chairman” as they will be the primary recipient of all future guidance and direction from the International Fraternity.
  2. Strictly adhere to host institution health and safety guidelines related to COVID-19 as the Fraternity will have zero-tolerance for conduct issues related to non-compliance.
  3. Lead on campus by following expert and government health and safety guidelines including maintaining social distancing, limiting gathering sizes, and wearing personal protective equipment.
  4. Implement health screening and release of liability waivers for any guests, including members, that enter any recognized chapter facilities or events. If any guest has a fever or indicates they have COVID-19 symptoms, have traveled in high-risk areas, or interacted with individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past 14 days do not permit them to enter facility or event.
  5. Partner with house corporation, if applicable, to implement health and safety measures in chapter facility. If your chapter does not have a house corporation but has residences generally recognized as chapter facilities please review this detailed guidance on ensuring the health and safety of residents.
  6. Ensure that only chapter facility residents are permitted in residential spaces to ensure the safety of the residents and the people they interact with.
  7. Prepare for a reduction in annual budgeting due to reduced new member recruitment and increased health and safety expenses. To assist in reducing expenses the International Fraternity will be reducing fall 2020 leadership fees by 50% and reevaluating for spring 2021 as the situation progresses.
  8. Implement virtual Mission 365 tactics to focus on virtual recruitment and new member intake. If recruitment events must happen in person it is imperative that the health and safety guidelines listed above are followed, especially if they occur in a chapter facility.
  9. When conducting ritual in person is required for initiation and chapter meetings, only do so if the health and safety of the members can be assured and follow the International Fraternity’s ritual modification guidance.
  10. Focus on the mental health and wellness of its brothers through resources like Strong Arms for COVID-19 and the Reach Out mobile app available for free on both Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

b. Events:

Chapters should also be fully aware that they have no liability coverage for COVID-19 related incidents meaning the Chapter, individual members, and officers could be held liable with no protection if an individual becomes infected due to the actions of the chapter or its members. Therefore, chapters must follow all host institution, government, and health safety guidelines and it is strongly recommended that Chapters implement the following:

  1. Refrain from hosting any social events with alcohol in any property recognized as a chapter facility, including unrecognized properties generally known to be Sigma Chi houses.
  2. Only host in-person alcohol-free brotherhood, philanthropy, recruitment, and pledge training.
  3. Utilize 3rd party venues for all in-person events.
  4. Focus on brotherhood events in virtual settings.

II: Volunteer and Officer Guidance

Volunteers and Officers should refer to the COVID-19 Travel and Meeting Guidelines Memorandum issued by the Executive Committee halting all volunteer and officer travel through December 31, 2020. This guidance must be followed to ensure the health and safety of all members, especially since there is no liability protection for any volunteers and officers for COVID-19 related incidents. Any volunteer or Officer who willfully disregards this guidance, especially if found to have caused or added to a COVID-19 infection in the chapters or individual members they oversee and advise, may be referred to the appropriate International Fraternity committee for potential review and sanction.

Volunteers must continue to engage with their chapters and house corporations virtually regularly to ensure they are following health and safety guidelines as outlined throughout this document, have the necessary resources to be successful, and are supported through this challenging time.

III: Housing

Chapter House Corporations should reference the following breaking the chain of infection resource document and the Constantine Housing Initiative COVID-19 webpage for guidance related to every facet of preparing chapter facilities for the Fall. To help support the health and safety of the chapter and facility residents it is strongly recommended that house corporations implement the following outlined in the resources above:

  1. Ensure that only chapter facility residents are permitted in residential spaces to ensure the safety of the residents and the people they interact with.
  2. Create isolation and quarantine plans for residents that are showing symptoms of infection, come in contact with someone infected or infected.
  3. Empower and support chapters to take ownership of implementing proper health and safety measures, health screenings of residents and guests, and implement release of liability waivers.
  4. Strongly recommend against social events with alcohol in chapter facility through December 31, 2020, unless modified by the International Executive Committee. Additionally, encourage and support the chapter in hosting virtual brotherhood events.

IV: Additional Information

For more resources and information please visit the Fraternity’s COVID-19 resource webpage and webinars webpage, the North Interfraternity Council Think Tank webpage, the Center for Disease Control COVID-19 webpage, and the World Health Organization COVID-19 webpage.

Download this story as a PDF

Chapter Health Screening Process PDF Download

Assumption of The Risk Form Packet PDF Download

Guidance for Healthful Living Environment PDF Download

NIC COVID-19 RESOURCES

The North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) has created a Fraternal Think Tank comprised of leading industry experts to help provide guidance to the fraternal industry in preparing for the 2020-2021 academic year. We encourage you to review the Fraternal Think Tank resources at https://nicfraternity.org/thinktank/ to find in-depth advice on nearly every facet of the industry affected by Covid-19.

To learn more about how the Fraternity is implementing best practices and providing resources to support our chapters and individual members please join our upcoming webinars or view our past recording at https://sigmachi.org/home/news/sig-webinars/

Sigma Chi Response to COVID-19 Regarding Summer Events Schedule

Summer has traditionally provided an opportunity to facilitate gatherings, celebrations of our brotherhood and to deploy our flagship educational and leadership development programs: the Krach Transformational Leaders Workshop (TLW) and Horizons Huntsman Leadership Summit. As tracking the spread of the global pandemic continues to rightly keep our primary focus on health and safety concerns, causing major disruptions as an extension, Sigma Chi, like other organizations and industries has been forced into the undesirable position of reconsidering what we have enjoyed for so long as our cornerstone traditions.

This past weekend, the Executive Committee (EC) discussed the feasibility of conducting the traditional summer events schedule in light of the disruptions caused by the pandemic. The decisions made by the Executive Committee, listed below, were made after consultation with experts from the fields of epidemiology, higher education, interfraternal and the economy. In addition, the EC received and considered recommendations from the various operating committees who have charge over the planning and execution of our summer educational programs. We are grateful to the leaders and members of those committees — and especially to the board of the Sigma Chi Leadership Institute (SCLI) — for their incredible work.

1. Grand Council in two sessions:

a. A special session on June 27 for the purpose of electing undergraduate representatives to the Executive Committee for 2020 to 2021.

b. Defer the regular Grand Council session to early fall, on a date to be determined.

2. Horizons Huntsman Leadership Summit — Canceled.

3. Krach Transformational Leaders Workshop — Moved to virtual format.

 

GRAND COUNCIL - REGULAR SESSION

The regular meeting of the Grand Council, scheduled for June 27, 2020, is being converted to a special session on that date, with other business to be postponed to the early fall; date TBD. 

The Teams meetings for the undergraduate representatives, Grand Praetors and Grand Trustees scheduled for separate evenings before the June 27 meeting will proceed as announced. Among other things, this will allow the undergraduate representatives to select their two representatives to the EC for 2020 to 2021. 

As Grand Consul, I have interpreted that the Sigma Chi Governing Laws provide the flexibility for this rescheduling. We will be working again within the confines of our Governing Laws to set the timeframe for the rescheduled meeting of the Grand Council. Members of the Grand Council will hear from Executive Director Church as soon as the new date is set by the EC.

GRAND COUNCIL – SPECIAL SESSION

The Governing Laws provide the opportunity to the EC to call a special session of the Grand Council with not less than 30 days’ notice. While the regular meeting has been postponed due to concern for the health and safety of individuals who would be required to travel and gather in person, the EC is calling a special session of the Grand Council to take place virtually on the previously scheduled date of June 27, 2020, at 1 p.m. CT. The primary purpose for this meeting will be to facilitate the process for election of the two undergraduate representatives to the Executive Committee for 2020 to 2021. There will, of course, be a few other important items of business conducted and we will need all members of the Grand Council to plan to be present for this meeting so that we may still reach quorum. An agenda for this special session of Grand Council will be distributed to the members of the Grand Council shortly. Both the special session on June 27 and the full meeting to be held in early fall will be conducted electronically.

HORIZONS HUNTSMAN LEADERSHIP SUMMIT

 

The nature of our Horizons program is so tightly wound with an in-person experiential process of discovery and development that the Horizons Operating Board and SCLI jointly felt that a migration of this program to a digital setting would not be conducive to the high-quality learning experience that we all expect of the program. Therefore, the EC has regrettably decided to cancel all summer 2020 sessions of the Horizons Huntsman Leadership Summit. All members who were accepted into the program this year and who will still be eligible next year will be given first priority to attend one of the 2021 sessions. All members accepted to the program who will not be eligible next year will be exclusively invited to participate in a virtual session on leadership, facilitated by some of our best and brightest facilitators. Those accepted to the program will hear directly from our staff and Horizons leaders on next steps.

KRACH TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERS WORKSHOP

Since its first deployment in 1947, Sigma Chi’s workshop has been a flagship event for the Fraternity. Only once in our history since its initial deployment has the event not taken place due to extraordinary circumstances. After consulting with the experts noted above, the EC has determined that the risk of bringing together up to 2,000 individuals in August is simply too great of a public health risk and has, therefore, determined that, for just the second time ever, an in-person Krach Transformational Leaders Workshop is not possible. However, with sincere gratitude to the leadership of SCLI and Team Krach, we are pleased to announce that the primary learnings associated with workshop will be able to be delivered in a virtual setting over the course of several weeks later this summer. We are affectionately coining the delivery of this one-time-only, virtual deployment of workshop: vKrach TLW. The process for this workshop is an extraordinary effort of adaptation to unfortunate circumstances, but we are confident that the experience will lend itself to an excellent opportunity for the further development of our brotherhood.

Click Here to Download Official Announcement PDF