The Program

Expectations:

Psychologists often say, “People act out what is in their head.” Others claim, “a person lives up to, or down to, their own expectations and/or that of others”. How does this relate to the Scholarship/Leadership Program? Its expectations! The Beta Theta Pi chapter at Kansas University retains top GPA honors nearly every year. It is reasonable to assume their scholarship/leadership achievements are a culture of expecting excellence within their chapter and beyond the college years!

The overriding purpose of this Gamma-Omicron’s Scholarship/Leadership Program, simply stated, is to develop a culture of expecting excellence within our Chapter and reward/ recognize achievements, financially! A Brother’s achievements in this program will condition them for a career of expecting performance excellence and commensurate rewards!

Culture of Excellence Principles:

The culture of excellence principles evident in this scholarship/leadership program is to encourage, recognize and financially reward individual Brothers for their respective excellence achievements. Both the Chapter and individual Brother’s achievements must meet the challenge of expected excellence as outlined below for each semester:

1. Excellence in academic achievement begins with GPA averages:
   • Chapter’s GPA Average, at or above the University’s All Men’s Average.
   • Individual Brother’s GPA Average, at or above the University’s All Fraternity Average.
2. Excellence in Chapter financial management:
   • Chapter must be at or above a financial breakeven for the semester on a cash basis.
   • Individual Brothers with any amount outstanding on his housing contract financial obligations is disqualified from the Program.

The Awards:

1. Awards are based upon achieving expected Chapter excellence first (the Brotherhood pulling together), then expected individual excellence will be recognized.
2. All goals of this program will be defined at its inception with no changes made except by unanimous agreement of the Board(s).
3. The overriding intent of the program is to develop, recognize and reward expected scholarship/leadership excellence, based upon achieving defined goals, organizationally (the Chapter) and individually (each individual Brother).

Endowment Components:

It is the intention of the Gamma-Omicron Chapter to establish and maintain a permanent Endowment sufficient in size to provide a material amount each year to incentivize the Chapter to maintain a culture of expecting excellence. Awards could then be made from Endowment’s earnings. As an example, a payout of $50,000 annually (only from earnings) would be 5% of $1 million or 2.5% of $2 million, and so forth. A material amount and one that necessitates a well defined program with rigid administration guidelines for effective and objective administrative to ensure excellence expectations in perpetuity.

The Funding Participants Are:

1. The Foundation (Kappa Sigma’s Gamma-O Education Foundation): All donated funds to the foundation are tax deductible for income tax purposes to the extent permitted by law
2. The House Corporation (Gamma Omicron, Incorporated): All donated funds are NOT tax deductible, with limitations only as a “not for profit” entity.

The reason the two entities may decide to work in tandem is that not all fund donors benefit from (nor prefer) the income tax deductibility. The House Corporation has fewer IRS compliance requirements. Hereinafter, the endowing fund is mentioned singularly, but may include either or both the Foundation and the House Corporation funds, or only the Foundation, depending upon the decision of the respective Boards. The Boards will decide annually the funds to be made available for the school year.

The Program:

1. The core measurement components of expected excellence are:
   • The chapter must be in good standing with the national fraternity and university.
   • The Chapter must be financially viable at the completion of each semester. This is defined as the Chapter maintaining an occupancy level necessary to achieve at least a financial (cash basis) breakeven. Occupancy level is computed by house bills collected/earned. (It is recognized some pay for the whole school year, but only that portion earned by semester’s end shall qualify). A Brother with any amount outstanding on his housing contract financial obligation at semester’s end is not in good standing and therefore disqualified from participating in the program for the semester then ending.
   • Any and all chapter members to whom awards may be granted must have lived in the chapter house the past two consecutive semesters (the just completed semester and the previous one before that), unless a pledge, then he must have a signed contract for the immediate following semester.
   • Brothers must carry the minimum number of credit hours necessary to qualify as a full time student, as defined by the University of Kansas.
   • The Chapter’s GPA Average must be at or above the All Men’s Average on the Hill.
   • The Brother’s GPA Average must be at or above the University’s All Fraternity Average to qualify for a stipend.
   • Utilizes a Factor necessary to recognize leadership contributions in addition to the GPA of a Brother.

Award Computations:

The award computation will utilize a formula involving all qualifying brothers. The award is based off of GPA with a “multiplier” to recognize the achievement of GPA’s higher than average is increasingly more difficult. A Leadership Factor is also used to give recognition to various leadership responsibilities that take time and may distract from study time. As an example, the GM has a Leadership Factor of 1.0, which would be equivalent to one grade point. The “Factor” is defined in the attached Leadership Factor Schedule. A qualifying Brother may have more than one Factor responsibility. The Factor amount cannot be exceeded, but may be reduced due to poor performance of the Brother. The Executive Committee, voting 5/5 by the 5 Executive Committee members, will judge a Brother’s performance.

When voting on each other, the relevant member leaves the room and the vote is 4/4.

A program Model Spreadsheet will be used to calculate the awards. (The Model Spreadsheet attached is an actual computation for the Chapter for the 2008 spring semester, applying all the criteria described herein as if the program had been in place for that semester with an award pool of $25,000.) An award to any individual resulting in a payout of less than $50 would not be paid.

An example of the award calculation is also shown on the Leadership Factor schedule.

Reporting Format, Timing and Pay Outs:

 

The Active Chapter Officers, in a timely manner at the conclusion of each semester, are to provide the necessary information for presentation to the Boards, with oversight by the AA (or a designated alumnus). Attached thereto will be competent substantiating evidence from the University of said academic achievements including the University GPA Averages, Chapter GPA Averages and the GPA and credit hours of each qualifying Brother living in the chapter house.

The program goals are to be reviewed with the chapter members at the beginning of each semester with acknowledgement by the Grand Master of the active chapter’s understanding and their commitment to them. The Board’s decisions will be final and the approved payouts made in a timely manner.