Next month, Sigma Chi will gather approximately 2,000 of its members at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, to take part in the 2016 Balfour Leadership Training Workshop (LTW). In addition to taking part in alumni volunteer-led leadership development programming, they will have the opportunity to witness and take part in the installation of the Bowling Green chapter, just the second such event that has occurred during a Balfour LTW. The first was the reinstallation of the Missouri-Columbia chapter in 2007.
“Chapter installations are among the most momentous events that our Fraternity hosts, because there is no greater symbol of the lasting nature of our brotherhood than the act of bringing new men into it,” says Michael Church, ILLINOIS 2005, executive director at Sigma Chi International Fraternity Headquarters. “To be able to share that experience with as many brothers as there will be present at Balfour LTW is truly a special occasion.”
Desmond Robinson, TARLETON STATE 2015, expansion team lead at Headquarters, says that facilitating any installation is a project containing all sorts of challenges, much less one that takes place alongside a Balfour LTW.
“During a traditional installation, we are able to plan the ceremonies from start to finish — with initiation being the finishing point — but with Balfour LTW … logistics and planning can be a bit complicated,” he says. “But with the help of undergraduate and alumni volunteers, we’re confident that we’ll stick to a pretty tight schedule.”
Originally founded in 1947 and shuttered in 2004, the Fraternity recolonized at Bowling Green in November 2014. According to Robinson, Headquarters expects to initiate 33 members of the colony into Sigma Chi at the installation, along with five to seven potential new brothers from other chapters. After Balfour LTW's conclusion, the Bowling Green brothers-to-be plan to host an installation banquet at which they will welcome alumni and family, as well as 69th Grand Consul Mike Ursillo, BROWN 1978, and several members of the International Headquarters staff.
For more information about the installation of the Bowling Green chapter at this summer's Balfour LTW, contact Robinson via email or via phone at (847) 869-3655, ext. 223.
