April 13 2016

Reminder: 2015-2016 Chapter Year in Review Survey is due July 13th

The link for the 2015-2016 Chapter Year in Review Survey has been emailed to each Chapter Advisor, as listed in the Chapter Management System (CMS). Please note: this link can be emailed by the Chapter Advisor to another chapter contact for completion if necessary.

The link will remain accessible until the deadline of July 13, 2016, even if the final submit button is pressed. After the deadline, the link will deactivate and no further responses will be collected. As a reminder, completion of a Chapter Year in Review Survey is required for a chapter to be eligible for recognition via the Collegiate Chapter Honor Roll program.

Collegiate Chapter Honor Roll/Engagement Points

It’s not too late to earn points for your Chapter! Your chapter can still participate in a number of activities and events to help qualify for any of our Collegiate Chapter Honors levels. Below is sampling of some of the activities your chapter can still participate in to receive engagement points toward your Chapter Honor Roll total.

• Induct eligible faculty (5 points)
• Award a Chapter Honoree (5 points)
• Purchase a BGS Bronze Key (5 points each year)
• Induct second semester sophomores (10 points)
• Host an information session (5 points)
• Recognize members at commencement such as in a program listing or providing BGS regalia (5 points)
• Host a Recognition Ceremony (10 points)
• Host an information table (5 points)

Visit our website for a full list of point earning opportunities.

Chapter Management System (CMS): Important Items for Spring

Billing and Shipping Addresses

In preparation for your upcoming recognition ceremony, please remember to double check your billing address, shipping address, and fee settings in the CMS. Invoices are generated and sent to the contact specified in the billing address section and all supply and certificate orders are sent to the address specified as the preferred shipping address in the CMS. To ensure that you receive items in a timely manner, it is very important that these fields are accurate.

Setting Chapter Fees

To avoid overcharging members or receiving an incorrect invoice from BGS Global HQ, it is extremely important to ensure that your fee settings, for each recognition ceremony, are accurate. When you create a new ceremony date within the CMS, you are required to input the membership fee for each induction type. Below are the steps to complete the fee settings:

1.    Under the ‘Manage Recognition Ceremonies’ tab, click the box labeled ‘Add New Ceremony.’
2.    Input the date of your ceremony.
3.    Input the cost of membership for each induction type.
       a.    If you are charging members our standard fee of 67 USD, check the box under the column ‘Use Standard Fee’ for the appropriate induction types.
       b.    If you are charging members additional fees (or subsidizing the cost of membership) uncheck the box under the column ‘Use Standard Fee’. When        unchecked, the box under the ‘Invite Fee column is now white and editable. Insert the TOTAL amount you are charging your members (ex: 75.00 or 20.00.)
4.    When you have specified the fees for each induction type, select a ship to address from the drop down menu. (Note: An address must be specified on the ‘Chapter Settings’ tab in order for the address choices to appear.)
5.    Click ‘Save Ceremony’ when you have completed the above steps.
6.    The new ceremony will appear in the chart at the top of the page. You are now ready to invite your eligible students to membership.

Don’t forget to upload all eligible invitees into the system, not only those who have verbally accepted membership. Invitees are uploaded using the ‘Chapter Members’ tab of the CMS. Using this tab, you can monitor acceptance and send reminder emails. For any further questions, please reach out to your Chapter Manager.

Make Your Reservation for the 2016 Global Leadership Summit!

Save the Date! November 3-6th, 2016 Dallas, TX

The Summit Offer Attendees Access to Corporate Leadership. The 2016 GLS will feature a lineup of outstanding speakers. These top-notch presenters will leverage their passion and expertise to provide participants with an exciting weekend of leadership development through keynote, panel and inquiry experiences.

At the 2016 Summit, attendees will hear directly from executive leaders currently serving with the c-suite of high performing organizations. Such speakers as Dimtri Stockton, Chairman, President and CEO of GE Asset Management; Alfonso Alexander, NASBA, Center for Public Trust; and Bernie Milano, President, KPMG Foundation.

Not only do attendees learn from these corporate leaders during their keynotes but they will have the opportunity to network and connect with our speakers throughout the summit.

Reserve your chapter’s spot today: https://betagammasigma.org/gls-chapter-reservation. Early bird pricing is still available until June 30th!

Election of Student Officers/ Succession Planning

As your spring term comes to a close, you should begin planning for next academic year. One way you can prepare your chapter for the next academic year is to elect/select your Student Officers for 2016-2017. Many chapters use the time after recognition ceremony as an opportunity to either elect/select the new Student Officers or to distribute the Student Officer Guidelines and Nomination form to be turned in before the end of the term so the new Student Officers can be elected/selected before the end of the academic year.  This provides the outgoing Student Officers with a chance to speak with and train the new Student Officers to help prepare them for their new roles. It also provides the new Student Officers with an opportunity to learn more about the role they are going to assume, challenges they may face, and events/programs the chapter facilitated while also having time to ask any questions they may have.

We highly encourage chapters to set up a transition meeting for the outgoing and incoming Student Officers prior to the end of the term. We have created a Student Officer Transitioning Guide to help make the transition as smooth as possible. The guide includes a sample agenda for the transition meeting as well as resources that can be used to prepare for the meeting in advance. Some examples of how other chapters handle Student Officer succession planning and the transition process include the following:

• Have Student Officer elections done or selectins made early enough so incoming officers have time to meet one-on-one with outgoing officers for training.
• Create documentation for each position, their duties, and examples of what they did throughout the academic year. This documentation is a great tool to share with incoming officers to provide them with a framework for their new positions.
• Create a portfolio of activities the current Student Officers have worked on and are currently working on. This portfolio should be shared with the incoming officers so projects can progress as planned.

If you have any other best practices for the Student Officer transition process, please share them with us so we can provide those suggestions to other chapters!

Student Officer Survey Reminder

The link to the online Student Officer Survey was sent directly to Student Officers by Global HQ in late March, with a reminder message going out last week. Please encourage your Student Officers to complete the survey before the Friday, April 22 deadline. Their feedback is important to us as we continue to increase our number of chapters and Student Officers across the globe.

If your Student Officer has not received the survey link, please contact your chapter manager.

Chapter Spotlight: The University of Hartford Chapter

We wish to congratulate The University of Hartford Barney School of Business chapter for their incredible work, giving back, and living the core values of Beta Gamma Sigma. Recently the chapter’s Leadership Council teamed up for their annual “Team Pasta” dinner on February 21st.  The two groups created a 3-course dinner from scratch including homemade pasta while joining together to gain team building experience. The food was served to faculty, staff, potential Beta Gamma Sigma members, and special guests from corporate partner and event sponsor Barnum Financial Group.

In addition to great food, the event offered excellent networking opportunities between students and faculty. The Dean of the Barney School of Business offered opening remarks. After food was served, the Beta Gamma Sigma Chapter Advisor began the annual tapping ceremony for new future Beta Gamma Sigma members. Great job University of Hartford BGS!

Please Note: Updated BGS New Member Guides

As a reminder, BGS Global Headquarters has updated the New Member Guide booklets, which automatically ship with your chapter’s membership certificates. As part of the update, we have created different cover pages, with an image of different member’s faces. Please be aware, you will receive New Member Guides with different pictures on the cover, but rest assured that all of the internal content is identical and these books can be given to your members at random. If you have any additional questions on these booklets, please contact your Chapter Manager.