Sigma Pi Fraternity International

Sigma Pi has been through many changes over the more than 110 years of its existence.

We have gone from one professional employee in Elizabeth, New Jersey serving just a few chapters to a staff of 15 in Brentwood, Tennessee with responsibility for 130 chapters and colonies, 47 alumni clubs, and 73,000 living initiates.  To bring fraternity operations into the 21st century, and following four days of intensive training, the Grand Council has adopted a new management system between the Executive Office and the Grand Council, called Policy Governance.

This system was not chosen at random.  Many other fraternities, including Alpha Tau Omega,  Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Nu and Tau Kappa Epsilon, have adopted Policy Governance.  The North American Interfraternity Conference also utilizes this system.  A number of their Presidents and Executive Directors were interviewed to determine how Policy Governance was working for their organizations.  Finally, we sought the advice of several of our Past Grand Sages before proceeding with its adoption.

Policy Governance places responsibility for day-to-day planning and operation of Sigma Pi with our paid professionals – Executive Director Mark Briscoe and the Executive Office staff.  The Grand Council will concentrate more on the future and less on the present – in other words, we will try to determine what the fraternity’s goals should be and interfere as little as necessary with how the Executive Director meets those goals.

For the most part, both our undergraduate and alumni brothers will probably notice very little change during this transition.  The obligations of chapters and the services provided to support our groups will remain the same.  The Executive Director and his staff will assume responsibility for many alumni volunteer positions – Province Archons, Chapter Directors, and some Committees.  The role of those positions, as well the volunteers who are appointed to them, may eventually change as Mark and his staff feel necessary.

The Grand Council will spend much more time communicating with undergraduates and alumni and using that information to determine whether Sigma Pi is focused on the ends our members want, making adjustments accordingly.  We will also monitor the efforts made by the Executive Director to attain those ends.  Under Policy Governance, the lines of communication and accountability become much more clearly defined.  More specifically, the Executive Director answers to the Grand Council and the Executive Office staff answers to the Executive Director.  The EO staff will no longer be required to wait for Grand Council approval to implement most programs or actions within its normal responsibilities.

Many brothers may be used to asking a Grand Council member to act on a need for their chapter, just as Grand Council members have often directed EO staff to follow up on certain tasks.  Policy Governance is designed to eliminate such control by the Grand Council of EO staff.  All direction must go from the Grand Council (not individual Grand Council members) to the Executive D

irector, or the staff member he has designated to take responsibility for a particular area of operations.

This does not mean that the Grand Council is abdicating oversight of how the fraternity operates.  The Executive Director is required to report to the Grand Council regularly on various key aspects of Sigma Pi’s operations.  There are limitations imposed on how our goals are met, and we will ensure that the Executive Director is reaching those goals.  Otherwise, though, we will not be telling the Executive Office how to do its job.  Of course, the Executive Director is free to seek advice on any issue from Grand Council members at any time.

Probably the best analogy of the Policy Governance system would be from the National Football League.  The Grand Council is the team owner and the Executive Director is the head coach/general manager.  We have given him the goal of making the playoffs, but we will not be telling him which players to use or what plays to call.  As long as the team stays under the salary cap, abides by the rules, and the team does its best, he is doing the job we expected.

Feel free to contact any member of the Grand Council if you have questions regarding this change.  You can also refer to The Policy Governance Model and the Role of the Board Member, by John Carver and Miriam Mayhew Carver, or go to www.PolicyGovernance.com for a more thorough explanation of the Policy Governance system.

George Hakim,
Grand Sage