MEINIG FAMILY CORNELL NATIONAL SCHOLARS
EXCELLENCE IN LEADERSHIP AWARD
Name: Thomas Balcerski Class Year 2005 Email:tjb36@cornell.edu
Ever since joining the Acacia Fraternity as a pledge my freshman year, I have made it my full-time responsibility to better my fraternity’s record. During the pledge process, I took the additional duty of becoming the Pledge Class President (PCP). As PCP, I organized pledge class meetings, kept fellow pledges informed of important events and dates, and generally encouraged unity among the nine other men pledging along side me. A highlight of my experience as PCP was guiding the pledge class along Cornell’s campus to visit each of the then thirteen sororities to deliver Valentine’s Day presents of a stuffed teddy bear and a card. That was the highlight of my time as a leader because I had studied the map of the campus and knew exactly which route to take to maximize efficiency. In addition, I had borrowed my friend’s minivan to drive my pledge brothers from place to place.
During the spring of my freshman year, I was elected to be the Brotherhood Chairman – responsible for organizing non-alcoholic events to improve fraternal spirit. Unfortunately, the fraternity’s Social Chairman was forced to leave school for academic reasons. As a result, I was asked to serve as Social Chairman upon moving in sophomore year. After first serving during fall of his sophomore year as the Social Chairman, where, among other things, I significantly improved our social functions, I ran for a full year as chair. During that year, I organized mixers, parties, and formals, all of which were great successes and fun for all involved. After serving as Social Chairman for one year, I was honored to be elected President for the year 2004.
As President, I raised the bar for fraternity operations. One area of significant improvement was internal organization. Executive board meetings were held before each chapter meeting to better prepare for chapter meetings. Each chapter meeting (held every two weeks) now has a formal opening and closing as prescribed by the fraternity’s ritual. A printed agenda was handed out at every meeting, which greatly aided the speed and efficiency of our meetings. We followed Robert's Rule of Orders, Newly Revised, as a guideline for well-run meetings. I required officers to submit written reports at each meeting. It has greatly aided the organization of the chapter meetings. The length of the meetings has gone down as well, as this was a great complaint by many brothers.
During my time as chapter president, I oversaw a number of important improvements to the chapter house. We repainted our dining room and dedicated it formally as the Pearl Murray Memorial Dining Room, in honor of our cook of 20 years (1965 – 1985). We used money from AFF to wire the house with 100 mbs wiring, as well as to upgrade the Internet service to business grade cable. We built a new walkway ourselves going to our main entrance. We repaired our bathroom stalls, repainted the basement, retiled the basement floor, and improved the safety of the house by adding emergency exit plans in each bedroom. We take great pride in the condition of the house, causing many to express surprise that it is indeed a fraternity house.
I also oversaw the participation of Acacians in various service events. Acacia participated in Spin for Hope, a charity cycling event sponsored by Alpha Omicron Pi to raise money for the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance. Towards the end of the semester, our social chair was auctioned off in a date auction sponsored by Alpha Phi to raise money for the Make-A-Wish foundation. Finally, a brother from our chapter helped organize a Greek blood drive at Cornell, which turned out to be a huge success. Best of all, I helped organized our own service event called “Sit with Santa.” Held at the Cornell Store in December, 2004, we raised nearly $300 for the American Cancer Society by staging photos with a brother dressed as Santa.
An area of improvement in which I had a strong hand in shaping was the athletics program. I helped organize our participation in many intramural sports, including soccer, bowling, basketball, softball, and volleyball. We made the play-offs this year in soccer, bowling, and softball. In the field of volleyball, we won the 2 on 2 beach volleyball tournament, our first such win in a long time. Whereas in the past we were pushovers on the field, we are now a respected force to be dealt with.
One of the areas most in need of improvement was participation in events on the Cornell campus. Hardly anyone knew who we were simply because we were not getting out into the community. Over the past two years, this has significantly changed. As a rush event, we sponsored free pool nights during the fall 2002 semester. We have run the “Path of Pythagoras” program for 5 consecutive years. This past year, we sent letters and emails to all male freshmen and encouraged them to apply online. We got 100 applicants, four of whom are now members of Acacia. For the past four years, we have run the “Books for Africa” program. We have collected more than 1500 books from Cornell students, which will be sent to Africa by the Millersville chapter. This past year, we began “Seven Days of Service.” We tried to do a different event each day, including helping at a local nursing home and collecting canned food. This event was not as successful as we would have liked in that we did not get participation from people outside the fraternity. However, as with the “Path of Pythagoras” program, we are learning and will make improvements to these events as we go along. Under my term as president, Acacia provided more than 450 hours of community service to the Ithaca community.
I helped in overhauling our chapter’s website last year and is now one of the best websites of any chapter. This website has received compliments from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, Acacia International Headquarters, and our alumni. We update the site, located at www.cornellacacia.org, approximately every two weeks. The site also boasts pictures of our members, electronic copies of our alumni newsletter and rush book, and a place for alumni to donate through PayPal. One our newest members was introduced to Acacia after doing some research on the Internet and coming across our website. He liked what he saw and eventually decided to join. Our site is truly one of the best fraternity websites.
We have come up with innovative ways to promote our name within the Cornell and Greek communities. During the campus-wide Greek Olympics, Acacia sent delegates to the various events, including tug-of-war and a pie-eating contest. In the orientation week before classes, Acacia participated in the campus-wide Casino Night, acting as poker dealers for the freshmen in attendance. This allowed us to meet potential rushees for the spring rush.
Recruitment, once a weak point of the organization, is now it a big strength. We are always thinking about how we can increase our membership. I helped the rush chairman in identifying potential members before rush week, and rushing them during the formal recruitment. Moreover, our fall rush program is a firm part of recruitment. With events like poker nights, pool, go-karts, skiing, paintball, and informational “smokers,” Acacia does a great job recruiting the very best for our fine fraternal organization. With a stronger, more dedicated organization, we approached recent formal rush periods with newfound confidence. With 10 in the spring of 2004, we have now had double digits for the school year for 3 years straight: 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Once we made the improvements to the fraternity, I decided to apply for recognition from the Office and Sorority Affairs. OFSA requires each fraternity to submit a report on how well that organization is meeting the Cornell Strategic Plan, established in 1997. David Rimshnick ’05 was named 2004 was recognized as an Outstanding Chapter Leader. We came very close to winning Outstanding Chapter in 2004. On the national level, I submitted a massive three-inch binder of supporting materials for the summer conclave. At the conclave, Acacia won Outstanding Chapter of the national fraternity, with awards in recruitment, dining, and alumni publication. At that moment, I was more thrilled than ever before. We were also recognized by the Cornell Chronicle in September 2004 an article entitled “Cornell Acacia Chapter wins five national awards.” In order for that article to exist, I organized a dinner at the house and invited members of the OFSA, Cornell administration, and Acacia national fraternity to attend. Linda Grace-Kobas from CU News Service, whom I worked with on an article about presidential visits to Cornell in May 2004, covered the article.
When my term as President of Cornell Acacia ended in the fall of 2004, the fraternity hardly resembled when I joined it two and a half years earlier. The composition of the brothers has changed. We are more social, outgoing, scholarly, and willing to become leaders on campus. We did not have the drive to succeed that we have now. I helped replace worries and excuses with optimism and enthusiasm. I helped my brothers believe that we are a strong organization, and to be excited about making it even stronger. Our newest brothers are happy to call Acacia home, and their friends have become impressed with the quality of our organization. We are now better known on campus. We have maintained a reputation as the “gentlemen’s fraternity” and are known as men who have the right priorities (our GPA places us 8 out of 43, in the top quartile of fraternities.) Our newest brothers are now used to large pledge classes, so they will expect nothing less.
I am proud to have been a leader in Acacia at Cornell. I like to think that everything I have done for my fraternity is appreciated by my brothers and the Cornell community, but in the end, that’s not important. Nor is it why I did everything I mentioned earlier. I did it because it felt right doing, and really, I had a blast the whole time. With a smile on my face the whole way, leadership was not a burden but a privilege. I like to think that my commitment to Acacia will help me in the future ahead, as I travel along life’s pathway.
