Best Practices Winners

Recently, Beta Gamma Sigma challenged its Collegiate Chapters to find new ways to increase membership acceptance rates. Chapters were asked to share their "best practices" for inviting students to the Society. Of the many chapters that responded to the call, three chapters were chosen as having the best new practices.

La Salle University

In an effort to gain additional exposure for Beta Gamma Sigma, the La Salle University Collegiate Chapter has begun tapping in as many different classes as possible during Founders' Week.

Susan Borkowski, who serves as faculty advisor for the La Salle University BGS Collegiate Chapter, explained:

"I might have four seniors who are all in the same accounting course.  Rather than tap all four at the same time and having a class of 24 participate, we will only tap one of the students.  Of the remaining three, one might be tapped in a management class, another in a marketing class, and the third in a finance class.  This exposes BGS to 96 students, rather than 24, and gets four different faculty involved!"

Drexel University

Along similar lines, the BGS Chapter at Drexel University also has developed a strategy for maximizing Society exposure. There, chapter representatives take advantage of the school's mass lecture courses. The classes, which include more than 150 students and are required by the department, provide an excellent opportunity to introduce students to Beta Gamma Sigma. 

Those in attendance are shown a brief PowerPoint presentation, which is followed by a question and answer session with BGS Officers and the passing out of additional BGS materials.

Faculty Advisor Sidney Siegel reported, "this was most effective and we have seen an increase in interest as well as what looks like an increase in overall acceptance."

University of Arkansas

While La Salle and Drexel have both found success by increasing Beta Gamma Sigma's exposure, The University of Arkansas Collegiate Chapter, which has attained 100% membership acceptance in five consecutive years, is taking a much more personal approach to the invitation process.

Faculty Advisor John Norwood personally delivers each of the invitations to students, catching invitees before class. "I do not make the presentation in front of the class, for fear of embarrassing the student," Norwood said. "The personal invitation is key to a high acceptance rate."

Norwood also creates an email list of all the invitees, and communicates with everyone who has been invited, even forwarding them pertinent emails from the Central Office.

Along with the invitation to membership, BGS invitees are given a congratulatory letter from the school's dean.  Invitees are also asked to fill out an information sheet that includes the names and addresses of their parents, who are then invited to the induction ceremony.

"A good number of parents do come to the banquet, which really adds to its success," Norwood said. 

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Beta Gamma Sigma would like to congratulate the Collegiate Chapters of La Salle University, Drexel University, and the University of Arkansas for their selection as "Best Practice" Award Winners. Special thanks also goes to all the chapters who submitted entries into the competition.

If your chapter has a best practice it would like to share with other collegiate chapters, email a description to Donna Binek in the BGS Central Office. A list of additional best practices is available on BetaNet, at http://www.betagammasigma.org/bestpractices.htm