Monday, 30 October 2017
This presentation will discuss the strategies used by a struggling local chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, International to revitalize the chapter. Transformational leadership theory and change agent theory were employed to formulate a new vision and direction for Lambda Lambda. Like many chapters, Lambda Lambda had languished for years due to lack of member involvement and leadership vision. Students wanted to be inducted into the chapter and wear their cords at graduation, but then quickly lost interest. Lambda Lambda is affiliated with Governors State University, a small computer campus in the South Chicago area and was maintained by a very small faculty of about 6 full time members. The inducted students worked full time and cared for families. Participation in campus activities was traditionally low for the member of Lambda Lambda. Most of The chapter offered no other activities outside of the annual induction ceremony. In 2015, Lambda Lambda received the first Chapter Key Award in its 25 year history. The path to this award began 5 years earlier when changes to approaches for attracting and keeping members were envisioned. These new measures included plans for increased chapter membership, charitable and educational activities. The chapter recruited dedicated executive board members with vision as well as active chapter members (Walsh & Moss, 2011). Some of the new activities included book drives, food drives and equipment sales. The chapter increased its visibility among members by modifying the way it communicated with its current and former members (Beliveau, 2015). The chapter instituted Nurses’ week celebrations and sponsored Alumni meet and greet to reacquaint and provide networking opportunities, and changed the way it held membership meetings. The chapter also used resources provided by Sigma Theta Tau, International to recruit and engage new members. As new members and executive board members joined the chapter, the original vision for revitalization expanded, to satisfy the new collective vision of the chapter (Malloch & Mazurek Melnyk, 2013).