THE EXPONENT: Volume 01, Number 4

A real friend is one who helps us to think our best thoughts, do our noblest deeds, and be our finest selves. -- Unknown

A significant part of Triangle is the development of true, life-long friendships. True friends are the kind that help us through the bad times in life and enjoy with us the good times. Real friends are the type that pull their own weight in the relationship. Honest friends are the sort that really care about you - caring enough to help you become the best person you can be.

President Lincoln in his 1861 inaugural address urged a fractious nation to abandon calls for separation. Imploring the nation to unite around common ideals, public service, justice, truth and virtue, Lincoln appealed to what he phrased "the better angels of our nature." In these simple words, Lincoln captured a great truth about human nature and instructed us, by example, to frame our most important appeals to one another based on this truth.

One can certainly see from our ideals how Triangle admonishes us, as Lincoln did, to assert our own 'better angels.' Triangle's purpose speaks to that, too. As members, we each - the worthy ones of us at least - come together to contribute our energies to helping other members become their best selves. In turn, the contributors get to draw out the improved skills and abilities they need to be successful in life. Friendships of the strongest kind develop best in that environment.

Are you the kind of member who's giving and drawing out the most from Triangle - a true friend to your Brothers and yourself?

• Get New Members the Simple Way
• 10 Tips to Succeed in a High-Tech Business
• ABC's of Positive Leadership
• Re-energizing Seniors To Stay Involved

Get New Members the Simple Way

Tim Eiler minn87

1. Get In His Face: Face-to-face encounters with prospects are by far the most powerful learning experiences available to you. There is no substitute for actually talking to prospects at the moment they are deciding whether to buy what you are offering. Not only is 'face time' better for convincing him, it's also an opportunity for you to learn about what makes your prospects interested or not interested in what you offer.

2. Unless your budget is very big, traditional paid media (newspaper ads, for example) will get lost in the clutter. Better to spend your dollars on direct mail, phone calls, guerilla marketing, and direct talk aimed at exposing your name and your message to prospects. The closer you can get to point of the purchase decision, the better, because many times, the last message heard wins.

3. Your product and your message are a lot more important to you than to your prospect. Your prospect probably just started a new phase in life - or at very least has probably just started at a new college. Even if your prospect is someone already established in life at your school, don't forget that you're now asking them to change the inertia of 'not having joined already.' Don't underestimate the difficulty of breaking through your prospect's routine of life to get her attention. Think about ways to help make it easier to 'take the extra step' of joining or to make it okay and easier to break from the inertia of not having joined already.

4. Identify three reasons your prospects should do what you ask them to do. Prioritize those reasons for different segments of your market. Then hone your message by delivering it in-person to prospects. It won't take long before you know what really resonates with them.

5. Ask him to join. Sounds basic, but take a look at how many times ads and pitches fail to do just that to you...

There is no 'easy' way, but there are ways of making Triangle more attractive. It's obvious that the 'build it and they will come' philosophy of recruitment doesn't work very well. It's probably also pretty obvious that trying too hard doesn't work well either - trying too hard often makes your group look impersonal (if you think of recruitment as exactly analogous to product sales, for instance) or desperate. Instead, all you've got to do is think about and find out about why your prospect would be interested in what your chapter offers and then figure out ways to make it easier for him to say yes.

10 Tips to Succeed in a High-Tech Business

Shawn Conly, Manager of Worldwide Interactive Advertising, Intel Corp.

1. Know how to navigate a political jungle where people's skills and capabilities, are distributed across a wide range. Indeed, some are downright inept, and may even be one's manager.

2. Although a college degree gets one in the door, skills and competency still must be proven on the job.

3. Virtual teams that do all their work in a digital world are a complement, not a substitute for face-to-face phone calls and communications that can create trust and friendships. Tacit knowledge disappears in a digital world. In-person conversations allow one to understand the process of how and why decisions are made, in addition to just the "what".

4. Managing cross-functional teams must take into account that people's communications styles, needs, and ideas of what's important vary widely.

5. Resources are always limited, even for great initiatives, even at big companies. Effective people must show creativity in using resources available and in finding other resources.

6. Information can be a distraction and lead to "analysis paralysis." Effective people must be judicious about what information is used, and smart about using it. They must get information summarized and communicated quickly, simply, easily.

7. Constructive confrontation is a process by which team members who disagree do so openly and honestly, yet then commit to whatever decision is made. Even when one disagrees with a decision that has been made, after registering disagreement, one should line up and move on (don't sabotage). Importantly, handling team disagreements through compromise can actually lead to poor decisions (i.e., the "maybe's" vs. tough yes/no choices).

8. In communicating, it's not so much what one says, but how they say it. Effective communicators crystallize powerful ideas to their essence. The power of persuasion is highly valued.

9. Resilience is under-rated: errors, mistakes, and set-backs are to be expected. Effective people must manage such situations, know how to do effective damage control, learn from the situation, and move on. In this context, a "bad" failure means not learning from it. Indeed, the magnitude of error is not the issue; the real issue is how quickly it takes to correct it.

Even the CEO may use the same bathroom. After all, people are people, and one must be prepared to take advantage of opportunities, wherever and whenever they present themselves.

ABC's of Positive Leadership

Merle Newlon lou73 (from the original Triangle Exponent, 1991)

Re-energizing Seniors To Stay Involved

excerpt from NIC Campus Commentary, March 1993

A challenge fraternity chapters across the country face is their lack of senior involvement. It's a shame that the most knowledgeable and respected members oftentimes seem to drop out of sight. If you ask your seniors why, they will usually respond with a number of answers. The common responses are sometimes justified, sometimes not.

I NEED TO STUDY: Chapters with houses that do not nurture an environment that encourages scholarship will keep seniors from staying involved. A loud, disruptive environment will cause members to leave the house and seek quiet shelter in an apartment. To fix this situation, consider establishing quiet hours or study hours for all members! This will make the house competitive with out-of-house living situations.

THE HOUSE IS A PIT: The chapter's abilitiy to maintain a proper living environment directly affects the level of senior involvement. Living among slobs is not a senior's idea of an adult environment. A cooperative living environment with teamwork is essential. If all members are required to clean up, pride may be restroed to the chapter property and members may stay.

IT'S TOO EXPENSIVE: This complaint is commonly heard from seniors who perceive no direct benefit from membership anymore. Dues paid by freshmen and sophomores seem reasonable because the chapter's activities are well-suited for them. Social events are great, but not nearly as important to a senior who is busy with resumes, interviews, and those last two classes.

There are other reasons seniors offer for their lack of chapter involvement. "I have a girlfriend." "I need to graduate and get a job." "I don't have time anymore." Whatever the reason given, the chapter needs to honestly address the concern. Seniors, for the most part, lose interest in the chapter because they perceive many of the so-called traditions to be trite and juvenile.

What type of programming or activities are offered for seniors? How many seniors are in leadership positions? Do seniors receive any materials that cahllenge them to stay involved as seniors and young alumni? Are seniors utilized system-wide to help address campus concerns? Is the IFC offering any programs for seniors? Fill the needs of older members and their involvement will increase.

Hope you enjoyed this issue!!! If you have questions, feel free to email the editor ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Tim Eiler
Exponent Editor

Pursue Excellence Relentlessly

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