Florida now 3 sections!
 

Well, at the last Section 74 Conference this past weekend, the actives elected the section chairs for the 3 sections now replacing Section 74.

Section 71 is the southern part of the state, includes FIT, FAU, Nova, and FAU-Jupiter extension effort. New Section Chair is Jennifer Oster, an alumni of UCF.

Section 73 is the center part of the state, basically the I-4 corridor from Tampa to Daytona Beach, including USF, UT, UCF, ERAU. New Section Chair is Ken Tinkler who has been involved with the Tampa chapters for some time.

Section 75, which was the southern Georgia section, is the northern part of the state and a small portion of Southern Georgia. It includes Valdosta State, UF, FSU, FAMU. New Section chair is Mike Nathan.

For atleast the next 3 years, the 3 sections will hold a joint conference. Next Tri-sectionals will be held at FSU.

Section Splits
 

Hooray for new sections! I know it's always tough to make a split, but sections really grow and thrive when they're a smaller unit. Look at Section 51 in the Chicago area...before the split in 2003, they were 4 chapters and one PG, now they're 7 chapters and 1 Interest Group.

It was, however, very tought getting the changes approved by the students. Too many looked at the sectional boundaries as walls, thinking they would somehow be 'cut off' from the other chapters. We had to spent quite a bit of time explaining that the new sections mean better support from a SC & staff that is closer, and the proposed sections were based on what would make it easier for a SC & staff to support chapters. We also got the chapters to agree to do a single florida conference for the next 3 years. I hope they extend this.

This effort was part of a larger effort to redraw sectional boundaries in Region IV.

What was the sectional boundary move that failed, I heard there were something like six that passed and one that failed...

BTW, this as far as I can tell is the first time that a section number has been retired since Con-con and then brought back. Section 71 *was* Mississippi...

Randy

Congrats to Florida for a successful split. Wish VA/MD/DC luck as we undertake the same task later this month!

The one that failed was an attempt to move (i believe it was) Epsilon Eta, State University of West Georgia into Section 69. Reason for that proposal was to help the chapters in section 69 in going co-ed, creating kind of a 'triangle' of chapters. We, again, ran into the 'section boundaries are walls' attitude with the chapter taking that view that if they were in another section, that they would somehow be 'barred' from interacting with the chapters in the Atlanta area, plus that they needed help with membership issues. Despite repeated statements that the boundaries are not walls and that other chapters will help them (even from a delegate of Kappa Delta in Florida!), that move failed.

The issue 'boundaries are walls' and 'we don't want to travel far for Section Conference' was a repeated issue from the students. We had to repeated say the boundaries are not wall, and ask why 4-5 hour travel is a major burden. In Florida, some chapters travel 6-8 hours for conference! And some LIKE to get as many people to conference as possible, so travel time is NOT an issue.

I just don't know how I feel about the process of redrawing section boundaries and moving chapters around.

Can someone please explain how it works?

Chapters aren't 'moved around'. They remain at their schools. :)

The important thing that needs to be kept in mind is what is the purpose of sections. They are there to provide assistance to the chapters thru the elected section chairs and staff.

Chapters need to keep in mind that section boundaries are NOT walls. They do not prevent chapters from visiting and working with other chapters. Nor should new sections necessarily mean that each section must do their own conference. (many sections have been doing bi/tri/quad section conferences for years).

As a section grows in the number of chapters, this can be difficult for a section chair to support them. Ideally, a section chair should be visiting each chapter in their section about once a semester (fall and spring), and more often as needed. (obviously, a chapter with issues will need to be visited more often, while a chapter doing well won't be visited much). If there are more and more chapters, this can be a larger burden on the section chair for their time. If the section is large in terms of size, that just adds to it.

Florida is a large section, geographically. It takes about 6-8 hour to travel between the farthest 2 chapters. This is a problem for those wanting to be section chair, because if they aren't from the middle part of the state, too often they won't get elected section chair. And as we've been growing, that just adds to it. Past section chairs have had to put people on staff just to ensure coverage over certain areas. In the 10 years I've been involved with APO, we've had few visits from our section chair, just because of the travel distance. Our last chair didn't visit us at all this past year, and I'm uncertain if they did so the previous year.

Thus the need for split up and sometimes re-orging sections. Its for the benefit of the chapters, as well as potential chapters.

As to how it works. In our case the Region staff looked long and hard at possible re-orgs. We solicited feedback from the chapters. We tried to explain the reasons for the proposals. Then we put this before the delegates at the Region Conference for discussion and vote. What was frustrating was the repeated misunderstanding of things. Too, too many activies couldn't get over the concept that section boundaries don't prevent chapters from getting together.

Administratively, where does the decision to re-draw boundaries originate and how is it codified? Is this spoken to in the national bylaws?

(Thanks so far, by the way)

That's all in our National Bylaws. Article X-Sections.

The RD, with the approval of the chapters, sets the sectional boundaries.
The article goes into the details of this.

Some things that are of importance in this article. Sections should have the equivalent number of chapters, if possible. Also, the purpose is to facilitate chapter administration, inter-chapter conferences, leadership training, the formation of new chapters, and utilize the NO and national staff.

The issue of some sections in RIV have way more chapters then others was a factor, along with the efficiency of providing support to the chapters thru section chairs/staff.

That was helpful -- thanks!

Sections as identity
 

From dealing with some splits in my area, I feel that one of the characteristics that should kept in mind is the concept of a section as an identity. For this meaning, I think that *one* of the things that should be considered in making a section is a short description/easy concept of the section. In this regard, all other things being equal, I'd rather see South Dakota as a section rather than "Southwest South Dakota, Eastern Wyoming, Western Nebraska and Northwest Kansas". Even those both of those two may have the same number of chapters, the same population to draw staff from and same city distribution, the first is superior in identity to the second.

As best as I can tell, there was an effort to move *one* chapter from Georgia into the section previously equal to Alabama and *one* chapter from Georgia into the section previously equal to South Carolina. (among other changes)

Having said that, there are some cases where moving chapters into adjoining sections due to being part of a Metropolitan area seems to make sense to me. Southern Illinois University chapters into Section 49 with St. Louis and perhaps George Mason into Section 85 with the rest of the DC area. I could also see Section 97 picking up some of Northern New Jersey...

randy

^^^ I agree with this and feel that this made the Section 84 split a pretty good one.

The only thing about it that annoys me is the joint sectional conferences. I am (as an alum strictly, not section staff) much more likely to attend a sectional conference that I can spend a day at without traveling on the highway and/or spending a night.

Section 84's split wasn't inevitable, but wasn't too bad. Section 84 has two population centers for staff which quite reasonably could anchor separate sections. And once you put Frostburg and Western Maryland in the Baltimore section to get as close as possible to an even split, giving the Eastern Shore to the DC based section made sense. While there were a few counties that could have been shifted, once a couple of assumptions were made, most people's maps looked the same.

Well at this point, a section 85 only conference would be accessible by Metrorail/Metrobus for you and I just don't think most brothers nationwide expect that. (I don't expect Salisbury to put in a bid for the 2009 sectionals).

Randy

ROTFLMAO *chortle, snort* Sorry!! *wiping tears from eyes*

Yeah, good luck with that one!! Last Fall, they voted to do just that and then RE-VOTED this semester to NOT move!:eek:

I give up on knowing what they want, and I think Dawn is feeling the effects of it, too. Their rationale behind this was NOT wanting to be on the Metro-lines...because that takes away the fun of the road trip to conferences! This coming from a group that sent ZERO brothers to Regionals in NC last semester!!!:rolleyes:


But that being said, will I be seeing you this weekend at Theta?? :D