FarmHouse is here to help you and your brothers continue to build men intellectually, spiritually, socially/morally and physically virtually, as you’ve done so on your campus in person. Our Assistant Director team will work with you remotely to adjust strategies and continue to assist with your chapter and membership strategies like year-round recruitment, member development, and even weekly chapter meetings.
As a leader, continuing to drive forward with priorities like recruiting will be critical to your chapter’s long-term health. We don’t know how long the period of uncertainty related to COVID-19 will last, but we do know that your leadership over the next few weeks will determine your chapter’s future when this period of uncertainty is over.
Here are some online/virtual meeting tools that make this easy:
Need to meet one-on-one “in person” – for example, with a potential new member who you want to stay connected with?
Facetime (Apple) or an Android video calling app is great for one-on-one calls.
Want to host a virtual meeting for a group – for example, a recruitment committee meeting, chapter meeting or executive board meeting?
If you have a gmail account, Google offers Hangouts where up to 10 can meet via video. You can meet on demand, or schedule through your Google calendar by “adding conferencing.”
Zoom also offers free video conferencing for up to 100 people. Calls are limited to 40 minutes with the free version.
Need to host a larger group – maybe the whole chapter for a workshop, meeting or program? Or need to record the meeting to share later?
Your Assistant Director can set up a virtual meeting for up to 250 people using our FarmHouse Google G-Suite account. This tool also allows you to record the meeting to share with members who might not be able to attend.
Virtual Brotherhood
We are crowdsourcing ideas for ways to share brotherhood and personal development virtually. Staying connected during this time will help grow a real sense of brotherhood and belonging. This not only will help your chapter stay strong until you’re able to return for campus, but helps our brothers keep a sound mind.
Send your ideas to kahlin@farmhouse.org, and check out the different operations sections below for tips and ideas to keep your chapter connected in this time.
We encourage members to stay aware and informed by reading any information shared by your college/university and monitoring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website for details about the coronavirus, how it spreads and what you can do to help protect yourselves and your brothers.
Virtual Recruitment
Recruitment is the lifeblood of your chapter, seniors are about to graduate, and retention can be challenging over summer months. It will be critical for the health of your chapter to continue recruitment efforts. Here are ways to do that virtually — connecting person-to-person, even while social distancing.
Establish weekly recruitment committee meetings over Google Hangout, Zoom or conference call. Use this as a time to clean up your potential new member list and add more names to the list.
Use Curt Herzog, Director of Growth and Development, as a resource for your chapter! Curt, along with your chapter liaison, are resources that can help you construct a plan for summer/fall recruitment to be successful.
Work your Potential New Member (PNM) list! Continue to interact with PNMs digitally. Conduct member interviews through video chat, play an online video game together to interact, etc. Most importantly, make sure you’re staying in touch with PNMs throughout the time you’re away from campus.
Reach out to legacies. This is a population who likely already has knowledge of what FarmHouse stands for, what he can gain from it and what he can give.
Extend bids via Facetime or video call (*if restrictions aren’t in place). Mail or email a bid card, and follow up to get him registered.
If your chapter has PNMs sign bid cards, this is a free online tool where you can upload a PDF of the bid card and send it to a PNM to sign.
Since there may not be in-person aspects of chapter operations to involve a PNM in right now, set up time virtually for the chapter to connect.
Speaking of retention being challenging … It’s all about helping people stay connected! If they are able to keep strong friendship ties and find value in FarmHouse during this time, they’re far more likely to return to the chapter in the fall.
Excelsior Changes
Continue fall 2020 Excelsior prep/plan execution on bi-weekly Google Hangout/Zoom check-ins. It’s crucial that this work continues, so chapters are still on track for once you’re back on campus. See section below regarding specific changes to Excelsior.
View the updated Excelsior requirements document.
Virtual Learning Series
Our virtual learning series was established to provide personal and professional development in a COVID-19 world. Alumni and friends of FarmHouse facilitate a variety of sessions for you on topics including: managing personal finances, self-motivation, personal branding and leading with your values. Register at the links below. (Links will become active when meetings have been set-up in Zoom.)