A MESSAGE FROM THE GRAND CONSUL - Week 5

Post date: Sep 09, 2019 9:26:42 PM

Well everyone, sitting in the Admirals Club on my way back from New Orleans with Valerie, so taking time to talk about the Spirit of Philanthropy.

I started out the day reading a post from Past Grand Consul Keith Krach who said "I believe in doing things for the right reasons without any expectation that you might somehow be paid back for your actions in the future". This statement is fundamental to my thoughts and expectations on what our expectations are for our undergraduates and our alumni brothers.

During the 2018-2019 over 244,660 hours of community service hours were donated by our undergrads on behalf of our communities. Brothers, that is 14,679,600 minutes that we know of contributed by our undergrad brothers (that we know of) in one year to make the world a better place. That does not count the hours that our alumni brothers are donating on behalf of church, charitable organizations, etc. which are just too difficult to calculate but must be substantial.

To better our communities we raised over 4.8 million dollars by our undergraduate brothers in the same year (which includes our Huntsman money). Combine that with the millions our alumni brothers are donating and raising on behalf of this Spirit of Philanthropy and we get into the multiple of millions annually coming from this fraternity- Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Our founders charged us with making our university, our chapter and our communities a better place. They charged us, like Brother Krach, with doing it for no other reason than doing it because it is the right thing to do. You have heard me talk about external forces judging us based on a perception that we represent a self-centered interest and do not contribute to the good of community and humanity. Our numbers prove exactly the opposite. They show that we are engaged in meeting the expectation that the world expects more of us and we expect more of each other.

I charge you with continuing these admirable efforts. Do it because it is just and right. Let's do it without any expectation of a pat on the back. I charge you to up our game- donate even more time to community service hours and raise even more dollars to fight cancer, support children's causes, and improve mental health resources across our North American continent. I know we can do it because we have been doing it for 164 years. Let's see what we can do in 2019-2020.

Next Week: What exactly does the term "engagement" mean?

See the Facebook post here: https://www.facebook.com/104175454293680/posts/119341329443759?sfns=mo

IN HOC,

-Steve Schuyler, ARIZONA 1979 - 71^th Grand Consul