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Tau Beta Pi Advisor's Book 2007
(last update 12/20/2006)
FOREWORD
Tau Beta Pi has the best advisor corps among all honor societies. This booklet has been prepared in an attempt to answer most of your anticipated questions. It should also serve as a stimulus for closer and more cooperative relations between student and alumnus members of the Advisory Board. It is available with other useful information at the Advisor website: www.tbp.org/Advisors.
For newly elected Advisors, this booklet will be of most benefit through its general description of Tau Beta Pi’s operating scheme, particularly with regard to chapter relations with the national Headquarters and the Advisors’ part in that function. For experienced Advisors who have worked for and with their chapters so long that the practices of their chapters and the policies of the Association are completely familiar to them, much of the information contained herein is not new.
This is the 23rd edition of this manual. The first was written in 1950 by Robert H. Nagel, P.E., who produced the first eight editions. Please pass this booklet along to your successor when he or she is elected. Additional copies are available from the national Headquarters.
GENERAL
RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUTHORITY OF THE ADVISORY BOARD
Alumnus members of an Advisory Board are
officers of the collegiate chapter which they serve. They need not be
members of the faculty, although they customarily are. In first organizing
an Advisory Board of a new chapter, the four alumnus advisors are elected
for terms of one, two, three, and four years, respectively. After a chapter
has been in operation for some years, they serve for staggered terms of
four years each, one new member being elected in the spring of every year
at the same time that other new chapter officers are chosen. Advisors
are elected by the chapter, but the board elects its own chair -- usually
the alumnus member who has seniority of board service.
The full Advisory Board consists of the four alumni and the president,
vice president, and corresponding secretary of the chapter, who are usually
undergraduates. The board serves to guide the chapter in its procedures
and projects, and the alumni are of great importance in the Tau Beta Pi
scheme of operations.
Chapters are independent within the broad limitations imposed by the
national Constitution and Bylaws and acts of the Convention. The Constitution
puts
it this way: "(Convention and Executive Council) shall not interfere
with the internal affairs of any chapter, except in matters of discipline
. . ." where a chapter may have "acted in a manner contrary
to the Constitution or prejudicial to the interests of the Association..."
And again: "Subject to this Constitution and Bylaws of the Association,
each chapter shall have full control of its individual affairs."
The national Association -- as represented by the Convention and the Executive
Council -- bears the same relationship to our chapters as the federal
government bears to the individual states. Conventions and the Executive
Council have only those powers which the chapters have given them through
the Constitution.
Since there is little that the national Association can legitimately do
in controlling the actions of the chapters, except in extreme cases which
may be formally brought to its attention, the burden of responsibility
for chapter guidance must rest on the mature and experienced shoulders
of the alumnus advisors. This responsibility is best lodged at the local
level anyway, where understanding of peculiar conditions is more likely
to produce wise counsel than arbitrary rulings from a remote authority.
Ours is a democratic, grassroots system of judicial control, and it works
well when the alumnus advisors are reasonably familiar with their chapter's
thinking and procedures.
The alumnus members of the Advisory Board have one other major function:
They must provide the necessary thread of continuity in chapter policies
and procedures from year to year. Our undergraduate membership goes through
an almost complete turnover every year. Officers and committee chairs
change at least annually and, in the case of a few cooperative-education
schools, as often as quarterly. In spite of numerous published instructions
from the headquarters office and repeated requests that retiring officers
teach their successors their duties, the routine work of the chapters
is occasionally not all that is hoped for. It certainly is not the responsibility
of the alumnus advisors to supervise the detailed work of the chapters;
that would defeat one of Tau Beta Pi's basic aims. But it does rest with
the advisors to see that policies and practices, especially with regard
to the election and initiation of new members and finances, are uniform
and fair from year to year. These are areas in which the alumnus advisors
perform their most valuable work. Tau Beta Pi must look to them for the
maintenance of continuity.
In general, then, the Advisory Board -- and particularly its alumnus members
-- serves two broad functions of transcending importance in Tau Beta Pi:
1. The Advisory Board is the primary guiding, counseling, and controlling
agency for chapter work and activities.
2. The Advisory Board supplies continuity in chapter policy and practice.
The board draws its responsibility and authority from Constitution Article VI, Section 7(b), which states: “The Advisory Board shall act as an advisory and judiciary committee to determine the advisability of any action taken or proposed by the chapter . . . . The Advisory Board, by a majority vote, may forbid any such action or change, subject to an appeal to the Executive Council of the Association.” The board also draws its responsibility and authority from the kind of organization this is—one whose chapters change personnel and leadership frequently and completely.
TAU BETA PI
ADVISORS - AT A GLANCE
I. Provide Support
• Help student leaders know available resources (chapter, District, national, alumni).
• Provide the continuity for the “traditional” projects.
• Know who the District Directors are and how to contact them (website).
• DDs should help track status of chapter and communicate that info to all advisors.
• Be a liaison between DD and chapter.
• DDs should (definitely) include advisors on all communications to chapter officers.
• Publicize District meetings and encourage participation.
• Advisors should attend District and national meetings and Conventions to know what
is going on.
• Chapter officers should assign advisors to committees and set advisor expectations.
• Assign each advisor an area of the chapter for responsibility (budget, checkbook,
membership, surveys, service projects). Can use the Chapter Growth Cycle to
delegate tasks among advisors.
• Advisors should participate in social events and projects to get to know students.
• Provide leadership of “last resort.” If things are not on track, push to get on track.
• Be involved in ICE groups; sit in and listen to concerns.
• Help establish a requirement for involvement. Advisor should back the President and
be clear up front before initiation of what will be required in the future.
• Should have an advisor from each engineering discipline and/or department.
II. Set the Example (as a Mentor)
• Provide a mentoring relationship for each of the chapter officers.
• Chapter involvement in the advisors’ areas of interests (like projects, fund-raising).
• Should be a supporter of the students and their activities to administration—
represent views of students. Be a liaison between chapter and administration.
• Try to have an advisor who is a graduate-student advisor.
III. Develop Leadership
• Advisor should be a guide to the student officers.
• Have patience in developing leadership among the officers.
• Trust and verify, provide positive & constructive feedback to officers.
• Provide for and make sure that there are quarterly chapter meetings.
• Be actively involved in the Advisory Board process and meetings. Ensure valid
elections, consideration of exemplary character.
• Advisor should be a motivator of the chapter to get members to participate
• Awards recognition
• Feel good about successfully accomplishing goals and objectives.
• Advisor is the voice of experience and reason—the continuity.
• Be aware of what should happen and when relative to your university and within the
confines of the national reporting requirements.
• Help promote TBP programs and projects—local and national— in/out of classroom.
• Be a resource of general information for the chapter.
• Identify and develop future chapter leaders.
• Handle the details of the officer transitions, passing of the torch.
• Chief advisor should motivate other advisors—if needed. Recommend replacement
of non-motivated advisors.
Source: Brainstorming Session, Ideas for the Role of Advisor (Summarized and categorized by Dr. Darrell Donahue), TBP National Convention, Friday, Oct. 8, 2004, Orlando, FL
SUGGESTIONS
There are strong and weak advisory boards in Tau Beta Pi.
"Weak" ones are generally those which have too little interest in
and concern for the chapter's well-being and progress. Occasionally, a "weak"
board takes so much interest in its chapter that it usurps the prerogatives
and responsibilities of the student officers.
"Strong" boards, on the other hand, have found the knack of keeping
informed about the chapter's activities and of maintaining judicious guidance
of its major affairs -- without taking over its control. This is difficult to
accomplish with uniformly smooth and satisfactory results, especially when a
new corps of student officers is elected at least annually. But the advisors
are selected by the collegiate chapter members, and their choice should be a
clear indication of the willingness and ability of the chapter and advisors
to get along well together.
Frequently, one particular faculty member may take a keen and deeply understanding
interest in the group for many years. Some advisors have served their chapters
for decades -- and we sincerely appreciate their devotion. These alumni have
frequently acted, with mutual consent, in the name of the four chapter advisors
because it is known that they are in close touch with the student members. Where
such advisors exist, chapter operations and service projects are usually better
accomplished than where no faculty member keeps his or her finger on the students'
pulse. But there are four alumni on an advisory board -- and each advisor should
make it his or her duty to keep a watchful eye on some phase of chapter operations.
For example, it is recommended that each chapter have one particular advisor
who makes it his or her special business to oversee chapter finances. In an
organization so loosely tied together and so ever-changing as a Tau Beta Pi
chapter, it is good policy to maintain a continuous vigilance over all fiscal
matters. Few people will scrutinize the financial records of a chapter, and
laxness in record-keeping might result from this apparent indifference. But
our chapters handle sizable sums of money every year and no control is exercised
by the national headquarters, beyond keeping books on direct chapter-headquarters
financial transactions. Therefore, it is good practice to have a faculty treasurer
for each chapter, who may also be a member of the Advisory Board.
It must be noted that chapter officers -- president, vice president, recording
and corresponding secretaries, treasurer, and cataloger -- are required to be
active members of the chapter in the technical sense of Constitution Article
VI, Section 1.
A few chapters have had faculty corresponding secretaries for many years. This
officer is very important as far as headquarters relations are concerned, and
an experienced person in the position is a tremendous help to the chapter. This
is especially true in connection with our rather complicated new-member election
and initiation procedure, and the essential and detailed reports to headquarters
which go with it. But there may be some question as to whether this important
post ought to be held by an alumnus member who thus deprives a student of what
educational value the job carries and what leadership opportunities it presents.
This matter, like most other Tau Beta Pi affairs, remains within the jurisdiction
of the chapter.
An important job -- but an unofficial one because it is not set up in the Constitution
or Bylaws -- is that of Chief Advisor for the chapter. Occasionally it is necessary
for headquarters to get some information to or from a chapter when school is
closed or the group is temporarily disbanded. At such times the Chief Advisor
is a very helpful person. The most common uses to which he or she is put is
as the recipient of membership certificates for the new initiates of the chapter
either during the winter holidays or after college closes for the summer; and
as the delivery agent for the major chapter instructional material mailed just
as school opens in the fall, before chapter officers have remembered to tell
headquarters of their new addresses. The Chief Advisor may also serve as the
Chair of the Advisory Board.
The Convention has adopted a standard Chapter Officer Installation Procedure
and urges its use by all chapters. While informal, the procedure provides a
convenient and impressive opportunity for the official transfer of duties and
properties from one set of chapter officers to their successors. Both a "retirement"
and "inauguration" ceremony, it includes provision for a change in
advisor, and requires that an Advisory Board member preside during the ceremony.
A copy of the procedure is in the Appendix of this booklet.
Annual judging for the R. C. Matthews Outstanding Chapter and the R. H. Nagel
Most Improved Chapter Awards is done by a Convention committee of student delegates.
Basis for judging includes the reports and projects of the chapters and evaluations
of their performance by their own advisors. Advisor participation in completing
the Annual Chapter Survey and its related project descriptions is important
to the chapter and to the award judges.
Here are other possible duties or activities of the advisors:
Audit the financial records of the chapter at the end of
each year;
Serve on initiation teams to
lend an element of faculty interest at that important ceremony;
Attend routine meetings, possibly on a rotating basis among
the alumni;
Provide space for the chapter files and equipment when
the chapter has no special room;
Provide space for hanging the framed chapter charter --
perhaps in the office of the Chief Advisor, if the charter is not already permanently
and properly displayed in the dean's office;
Provide services to aid in the preparation of chapter records
and reports;
Review the chapter election procedure and the chapter bylaws;and
Attend the national Convention
and/or District meetings.
Chapters have always been encouraged to develop individualism -- within the
limits of our Constitution. To discuss an "average" chapter may appear
to be encouraging uniformity, but that is not intended. When student officers
are confronted with a problem, they are likely to ask your advice. These statistics
from our Annual Chapter Surveys which may prove valuable.
1. Elections. About 60% of the students scholastically eligible
under the national rules are elected to membership in the average school. This
figure tends to be higher for small schools and lower for large schools. A few
chapters set a grade-point-average deadline below which no student will be considered.
This grade-point-average deadline is usually higher for juniors than for seniors
and is normally provided for in the chapter's bylaws. In all cases the minimum
grade-point-average establishes a higher local membership qualification than
that required by the national Constitution. (In general, the Association is
opposed to chapter scholarship requirements above the Constitutional limit because
they make Tau Beta Pi membership mean something different on these campuses.)
2. Projects. Nearly all chapters have one or more projects -- usually service
activities -- which are conducted for the benefit of the college or university.
Experience has shown that such projects are indeed the life-blood of the chapter.
The national headquarters collects information about projects, records it in
a booklet titled Index of Chapter Projects, and distributes updated copies to
the chapters every few years.
3. Initiation Fee. The average total initiation fee of all
chapters is about $65-70, which includes the national fee of $32 and the annual
Convention pro-rated assessment of $5. Initiation fees range from about $40
to $80 and often include a banquet charge. All local activities are sometimes
paid for at one time in a high fee; chapters with low fees customarily levy
dues and charge admission for banquets and other social events in addition to
the initiation fee. Fees should always be charged to alumnus and eminent initiates.
4. Meetings. The average chapter has 19 meetings a year
although some have as many as 30. At these meetings, an average of 43 % of the
members attend. Attendance problems are sometimes solved by levying fines for
missing important meetings without a valid reason.
5. Awards. Many chapters give annual prizes (such as a calculator,
a textbook, or an engineering handbook) to the top-ranking students in the sophomore
or freshman classes. Such prizes are traditionally awarded at the university
honors convocation or at a chapter banquet. Mementos to retiring advisors, chapter
officers, and outstanding chapter members are highly encouraged. Some chapters
award scholarships with the chapter's savings -- where the money is available;
this worthwhile project is also encouraged.
TAU BETA PI'S
SCHEME OF OPERATIONS
The Tau Beta Pi scheme of operations differs
quite basically from that of most other honor societies in that faculty
participation in chapter business affairs (specifically, new-member elections)
is minimal. This stems from the fundamental premise that the Association
shall be controlled by the students and for the students. Aside from a
relatively few areas of alumnus participation -- whether or not the alumni
are active members of the chapter in the technical sense -- the Constitution
prohibits the faculty from having a dictatorial voice in chapter affairs.
(See Const. Art. VI, Sec. 1.)
Any alumnus member of Tau Beta Pi may become an active member of a collegiate
chapter by expressing his or her desire, in writing, to the chapter president
and by being formally accepted by chapter vote. Advisory Board members
may or may not be active members, at their and the chapter's discretion.
Because essential control of business affairs and responsibility for
reporting certain major chapter actions to the national headquarters
are vested
in student members, the headquarters staff is placed at something of
a disadvantage. It is saddled with the never-ending job of trying to
indoctrinate
new officers in their responsibilities. The District Program is designed
in major part to help solve this "educational" problem. District
Directors meet with their chapter officers and advisors and explain policies
and procedures. You are encouraged to attend your District conferences
where incoming and outgoing officers and advisors exchange ideas on chapter
activities.
The national Headquarters is responsible for checking and approving new-member
elections -- Tau Beta Pi's most important function -- and must do so without
detailed and specific knowledge of local and personal circumstances. It
must keep accurate records of chapter membership and activities without
being there to count noses and witness the conduct of initiations. These
things, and many more, it must do as a far-removed, friendly agency.
But to do otherwise would deprive the students of the chance to run their
own show and of most of the broad educational opportunities inherent in
student-controlled activities; it would keep them from trying their skill
at leadership; it would make Tau Beta Pi a faculty-operated organization.
If the faculty were in charge of elections and initiations, it would make
Tau Beta Pi something very different from what it is, and not something
better, we think.
Our scheme of operations is both our weakness and our strength. It causes
trouble and makes for inefficiency and mistakes. But it provides deep
significance to membership in the Association and this, we firmly believe,
far outweighs its disadvantages. In Tau Beta Pi, democracy works! It works
especially well with top-notch young students who have been selected by
their peers on the basis of scholastic attainment and exemplary character.
But this operational scheme involves you, the advisor -- your chapter
needs your guidance, support, and enthusiasm. Basically, your responsibility
is to be concerned with maintenance of the routine operation of your chapter
and with the quality of its program. The worthiness of Tau Beta Pi and
the value of excellence rest in large measure on your shoulders. Thank
you for your willingness to serve your chapter and the Association!
APPENDIX
Included in the Appendix of the printed
manual are several extracts from the chapter President's Book.
The Tau Beta Pi Association
P.O. Box 2697
Knoxville, TN 37901-2697
Telephone: 865/546-4578
FAX: 865/546-4579
E-MAIL: tbp@tbp.org
Office hours: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Eastern
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