March 14 2016

2015-2016 Chapter Year in Review Survey Sent

The link for the 2015-2016 Chapter Year in Review Survey has been emailed to each Chapter Advisor. Read more about the Chapter Year in Review Survey in the February 29 edition of Chapter Notes.

As a reminder, completion of a Chapter Year in Review Survey is required for recognition in the Collegiate Chapter Honor Roll program. 

Including Alumni in Your Recognition Ceremonies

Global HQ recommends that all chapters include BGS alumni in recognition ceremonies. All contact information for our formal Alumni Chapters and informal Alumni Networks is available on the BGS website. If you can’t find an alumni group in your area, simply invite alumni from your individual chapter.

Alumni members, whether or not they’re associated with an Alumni Chapter or Network, are a great resource for Collegiate Chapters. These members may be willing to participate in your chapter activities, become mentors, or even serve as keynote speakers. Involving an Alumni Chapter or Alumni Network whenever possible encourages your collegiate members to stay engaged with Beta Gamma Sigma following graduation, which increases the lifetime value of their membership. And don’t forget, BGS members are welcome to get involved with Alumni Chapter and Network activities while still in school!

Tips to Make Your BGS Invitations Special

Tapping ceremonies make the invitation process extra special for new invitees. In this tradition, BGS faculty or student members, as well as a dean in many cases, will visit business classes to formally present BGS invitations during class time. Faculty members may wear regalia for this ceremony, while other chapters make it a less formal occasion. Either way, tapping conveys a sense of prestige and distinction for students as they receive their BGS invitation while among peers.

The tapping ceremony is also a great way to involve Student Officers. Have these members exchange contact information with the invitees so they can follow up, answer questions, and provide any additional information. The tapping ceremony is a great start for Student Officers to help increase member engagement. If your chapter participates in the tapping ceremony, please share your photos of the occasion! You’ll also receive 10 Collegiate Chapter Honor Roll points for hosting a tapping ceremony.

Another way to personally invite your eligible students is to send your own formal letter prior to our automated CMS invitation email. Your letter could explain what BGS is, why the student is eligible for membership, and the benefits of joining. In addition to society information, your personal letter is a great way to advertise the details of your recognition ceremony. 

CMS Video Tutorials

Have you forgotten how to use a tab on the Chapter Management System? Check out the CMS Video Tutorials. Please note, some of these tutorials are currently going through a revamp and will be up again soon. In the meantime, if you have questions about the functionality of any part of the CMS, your Chapter Manager will gladly help.

Save the Date for the 2016 Global Leadership Summit!

Chapters are already registering their participants for the 2016 Global Leadership Summit. We hope your chapter is also making plans to send students in November!

What: The Global Leadership Summit 2016

When: November 3-6, 2016

Where: Dallas, TX

At the Global Leadership Summit, students join hundreds of fellow BGS members from around the world for an interactive learning experience. The Summit starts with a Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment for each student. These results guide the rest of the event, helping attendees understand and develop their personal leadership styles. The weekend is also full of intensive exercises designed to showcase participants’ talents and challenge them to grow. And the Summit culminates in a business case competition, in which teams solve real-world business issues for the chance to present in front of the entire GLS assembly.

More information will be coming soon for this exciting event. If you have questions regarding the GLS, please contact Heather Sweeney, Manager of Programs & Events at hsweeney@betagammasigma.org  

Interested in hearing what past participants thought of the Summit? Check out the 2015 recap video.

BGS Financial Assistance Fund

Did you know BGS offers a Financial Assistance Fund? Formerly known as the Emergency Membership Fund, this account was established to help students who have been invited to membership in Beta Gamma Sigma but cannot afford to pay their membership fee. 

While we hope your business school or chapter is able to offer the student some assistance in these cases, if this isn’t possible, you may draw money from the BGS Financial Assistance Fund. The maximum withdrawal amount is $67 USD per student, which covers our standard membership fee. The Fund will not pay for any additional chapter fees. This program is operated on a first-come-first-served basis, and funds are limited to two students per chapter, per academic year. 

If one of your students requires help with the membership fee, please contact your Chapter Manager on the student’s behalf. We ask that you encourage students who receive aid to donate back to the program sometime in the future so we can continue to offer assistance to students in need.

For more information on this program, please visit our Financial Assistance Fund page.

Second Recognition Members

You may wonder what to do when students who were previously inducted as undergraduates qualify for membership again in graduate school. Master and doctoral students who were already inducted into the society at prior degree levels can be recognized a second time through the presentation of a BGS Master’s or Doctoral Second Recognition certificate. This certificate does not award a second membership. Instead, it recognizes the graduate student for meeting the academic requirements of membership at a higher degree level. These students receive new key pins and certificates to indicate they have been honored twice by Beta Gamma Sigma.

Below are a few notes and pointers on the the BGS Second Recognition process:

• When inviting students to membership, consider all your eligible programs, including distance learning, off-campus programs, executive MBA, etc. 
• Search the Member Directory or contact your Chapter Manager to confirm a student’s status as a previously-inducted member.
• If you know a student will receive a second recognition, enter that person’s information into the CMS under the appropriate induction type: Master’s Second Recognition or Doctoral Second Recognition. 
• Encourage students to update their information through the BGS website. (Note: When students lose or forget their login credentials, ask them to contact their Chapter Managers instead of creating new accounts in the database.) 
• If you find invitees who should have been listed as second recognition members after they have already accepted as first-time members, contact your Chapter Manager to get the induction type and fees updated appropriately. 
• The standard fee for a Master’s Second Recognition is $10 USD. This covers cost of printing and shipping new membership items. Doctoral Second Recognition fees are waived by the BGS Board of Governors. 
• Second recognition certificates are shipped with standard certificate orders.

Recap: Student Officer Onboarding Webinars

Below is a quick overview of the Student Officer onboarding webinars, which took place on several dates throughout mid-January. Moving forward, these webinars will occur at the beginning of the academic year in order to assist Student Officers sooner. These onboarding webinars provide tools to help Student Officers in their new leadership roles, and give attendees the chance to talk with their peers at other chapters.

During the webinars, we covered the suggested Student Officer positions, Student Officer Handbook, Student Officer Transition Guide, Student Officer page, eligibility criteria, society programs, sample event and publicity ideas, the Student Officer transition process, and a wrap-up Q&A session. Many students have already expressed how helpful they found the webinar. If your Student Officers were unable to attend the live webinars, they can listen to a recorded version here.

Finally, if you haven’t already, please send us your 2015-2016 Student Officer names so they can be included in Student Officer communications. You’ll earn 10 points towards the Collegiate Chapter Honor Roll for submitting this information!

Chapter Spotlight: Dominican University

We’d like to congratulate the BGS chapter at Dominican University on their corporate and social responsibility initiatives. Members recently worked on a business plan for their school to build a pollinator-friendly garden—a great example of how chapters can impact their campuses and communities. 

If your chapter has held or is planning an interesting event, please forward information and pictures to your Chapter Manager. We’d love to recognize your chapter in an upcoming Chapter Notes edition.

Recap: Collegiate Chapter Training Seminars

BGS staff recently completed the final Collegiate Chapter Training Seminar of the academic year. Trainings were held in several US cities (Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Memphis), as well as Frankfurt, Germany for our chapters outside the United States. Thank you to all who attended and shared insights and suggestions!

As our organization continues to expand and create new initiatives, these trainings are an important way for new officers to become familiar with the society. They also provide a valuable opportunity for tenured officers to come up with ideas on how to make chapters more successful. BGS Global HQ recommends that all chapters send a representative to attend a training seminar once every three years. Because we understand the time and financial commitment it takes to send a representative to these trainings, chapters are rewarded for their participation by receiving five points per year toward the Collegiate Chapter Honor Roll for three consecutive years after attending the seminar.

We’re already working to identify great locations for our 2016-2017 training seminars, and details will be shared as soon as they are finalized.