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2021 Update
At the beginning of this academic year, our Chapter's future seemed uncertain. After a number of difficult organizational and financial challenges during the years leading up to 2020, coupled with the incoming restrictions and uncertainty we faced during the onset of COVID-19, our Chapter wasn't certain we'd be able to weather the storm. We are happy to say that, after the Brothers of the Utah Chapter of Triangle came together to adapt and overcome, we have come out of this pandemic a stronger and more resilient Brotherhood.
Our Chapter didn't see this pandemic as a disaster to survive - it was challenge to rise above. This Brotherhood was willing and able to make dramatic changes to what it meant to be a Chapter - changes we took in stride to protect each other and our community. Our Brothers showed incredible grit in planning their interactions around local restrictions. Brothers organized picnics, hikes, outdoor coffees, and other events designed to keep the community safe. During the winter months where the outdoors wasn't a ready option, they organized digital hangouts, games, and happy hours. Our Chapter hosted our first philanthropy and volunteer events in recent history. The Brothers of our Chapter showed a friendliness and integrity during this time that helped our Chapter inspire quality men to rush.
A singular incident in January caused our Chapter to lose both our venue for future Rituals and 70% of a substantially-sized pledge class just days prior to their Initiation - our most significant hardship of the last year. This incident does not reflect the true character of our Chapter, and we have worked hard since then to ensure nothing of that nature ever happens again. Despite this hardship, we initiated seven men of incredible character to be Brothers of Utah Triangle this year.
Utah Triangle showed through our actions that building strong friendships and keeping our community safe were not mutually exclusive goals. We worked diligently to share our experience in building bonds with others in our community. Our Chapter was among the first to host great and engaging digital programming with other Greek organizations, proving that connections in the Greek community could still be made. We spearheaded the creation of a digital campus platform, designed to be a virtual substitute for a real fraternity house. Through this platform, we provided similar connections to hundreds of our peers at the University of Utah. "Triangle" has become synonymous with strong collegiate connections - Utah Triangle won the 2020/2021 award for Greek Unity and began a movement for reform across Greek Life on our campus.
With a full year to adapt to our conditions, our Brotherhood seized the opportunity to better organize ourselves. Our Chapter wrote and ratified our first official Constitution. We achieved some of the highest average term GPAs in the history of our Chapter. We created a new website for our Chapter to show active and potential members and their families what it means to be a Utah Triangle. We designed better systems to manage our finances and allow a growing alumni base to donate to our Chapter's leading causes. To ensure future generations of leadership have the knowledge they need to create a stable environment for our Chapter, we established a permanent pass-down document and our first alumni advisory board.
The future of our Chapter is still uncertain, but the work of our Brothers in the last year has created a solid foundation on which we can build. Our Brothers, active and alumni alike, are excited to continue our strong brotherhood for future generations of the Utah Chapter.
- Wrote and ratified our first official Chapter Constitution to ensure future generations of our chapter can provide stable and consistent leadership that aligns with local and national Fraternity values
- Established a system executive members to create project teams, utilized to provide flexible and consistent opportunities for members to assist leadership in critical chapter functions
- Established a formal Alumni Advisory Board to ensure chapter members and leadership can receive advice from a diverse and well-defined panel of alumni leaders
- Preserved a Utah Chapter of Triangle through COVID-19 despite entering the pandemic following significant financial and organizational difficulties over the course of the preceding three years
- Created a new chapter website, structured to assist with recruitment and be easily maintainable by future generations
- Established a new set of standards to better adapt to member achievements and encourage participation and retention through positive rather than negative incentives
- Established a structured and well-defined Judicial Board that is adequately able to respond to conflict among chapter members
- Established a curriculum for executive board members in order to account for an absence of leadership pass-down meetings between academic years
- Established a formal and continuous pass-down documentation to ensure there are no further gaps in leadership pass-down
- Formed working relationships with local charities and philanthropic organizations to ensure consistent volunteer opportunities for current and future generations of chapter members
- Digitally hosted our first chapter philanthropy event in 2.5 years, raising hundreds of dollars for FIRST Robotics and local charities
- Recruited our largest pledge class in 2 years
- Initiated 7 new members, a standard amount for our chapter, despite the recruitment challenges caused by COVID-19
- Established a system to provide financial transparency by creating itemized and clearly-defined budgets voted on each term by the Chapter's legislature
- Created structured collection processes for active and alumni dues and contributions
- Determined price adjustments to reflect what was possible from the chapter during local COVID restrictions
- Ran COVID-safe events and activities during local restrictions and lock-downs
- Designed digital systems to emulate having a core physical space during the pandemic
- Established a system for COVID-safe open budget activities to provide event flexibility among our member base, that doubles as an opportunity to collect material for social media posts and marketing opportunities
- Established an Alumni Event Advisor to assist in connecting the active and alumni brothers of our Chapter
- Achieved the best term academic performance metrics our chapter has seen during its' history at the University of Utah
- Established an Academic Council and Alumni Academic Advisor to ensure that the responsibility of academic performance is not on the shoulders of a single member
- Established a formal reward system for members who reach significant academic performance metrics
- Reformed our academic intervention system to ensure members with significant academic struggles can receive proper help from University and Fraternity resources
- Provided a full implementation of our "Just Another Monday Meeting" system, which improves weekly meetings by opening the floor for professional, personal, and academic development workshops
- Created stronger connections between active and alumni members to communicate professional development and employment opportunities
- Created a second version of a Utah Triangle Resume Template, designed for Triangles to make quick and easy iterations of their resume.
- Redesigned our New Member Education program to involve all members by introducing a custom-made and continually developed Leadership Training curriculum
- Designed a system to run COVID-safe events months prior to any guidance provided by the University
- Provided a core COVID-safe image of Greek Life at our University by maintaining a safe and responsible environment for ourselves and other students
- Created a digital platform for Greek Life at the University of Utah to host COVID-safe digital events and meetings
- Won the 2020/2021 Greek Unity Award at the University of Utah
- Created a digital campus experience for hundreds of undergraduate students to assist our University in connecting students, especially underclassmen who did not have the opportunity to do so in-person
- Promoted COVID-safe external organization exchanges by running engaging and effective programming with several Greek organizations
- Proposed and unanimously passed a data-informed system to reform Greek Life on our campus through the creation of a new governing body better-suited to provide positive experiences across the University of Utah campus
- Established a strong working relationship with the Engineering Advisor from our university's Dean of Students office, who provides us with a network of volunteering and professional development opportunities in exchange for our assistance in connecting students across campus
- Developed an additional piece of custom software made to provide University of Utah students the opportunity to better connect with their classmates during COVID-19
- Publicly provided access to certain professional development workshops to all University of Utah students
- Established working relationships with two dozen University of Utah advisors, who assist our chapter in communicating our public development workshops with PNMs
- Took a difficult but necessary stance to completely rethink our purpose and operations despite previous disadvantages compounded by the pandemic.