The Mission of Sigma Nu Fraternity, Inc.

TO DEVELOP ETHICAL LEADERS INSPIRED BY THE PRINCIPLES OF LOVE, HONOR, AND TRUTH.
TO FOSTER THE PERSONAL GROWTH OF EACH MAN'S MIND, HEART, AND CHARACTER.
TO PERPETUATE LIFELONG FRIENDSHIPS AND
COMMITMENT TO THE FRATERNITY.

Sigma Nu's Vision Statement is:

EXCELLING WITH HONOR. 

Simple, now lets get started. We need a common focus on a common goal to avoid scattering in every direction. To start with the end in mind. One of the seven habits, right. Where better to start.

Several years ago, I'm not sure of the exact year but for argument sake we'll say around 2008. Sigma Nu Fraternity set in motion a Strategic Plan to take us through 2016 and beyond. It started with this Vision and Mission. I'll save the Strategic Plan for another day.

Direction was needed. Many Fraternities were struggling after many years of popular expansion in the 1980's and 1990's. We needed to get focused and back to basics. But that was not enough. A Core target needed to be established, with specific steps to get us there. A detailed plan was laid out and and implemented.

As an Alumni Chapter, we must first look in the mirror and see that we are living the Mission of Sigma Nu in order for us to be able to teach, guide and advise. To do this we must live our lives everyday as a Sigma Nu and remind ourselves of this mission.

TO PERPETUATE LIFELONG FRIENDSHIPS AND COMMITMENT TO THE FRATERNITY.

Starting from the bottom up let's talk about this mission. We all have lifelong friendships from our days as an active. Everyday I am in contact and think about my brothers of Eta Kappa Chapter. Have you all made a commitment to the Fraternity? This question is huge and seems to be at the heart of most of our struggles as an Alumni Chapter. With our Alumni Chapter being dormant for 40 years, after graduation all of us had no solid connection with Sigma Nu to grab onto beyond our close friends and brothers. This has fostered a great void and lack of commitment to Sigma Nu.

This is what makes it so difficult to get things done as an Alumni Chapter. Without a deep rooted passion and committment to Sigma Nu and having a suspended chapter, most of us just don't see a need right now to connect to Sigma Nu. This has been communicated many times, I'm sorry to say. Brothers will make the statement, "I'll join the Alumni Chapter when we have an Active Chapter in place". Well, the Alumni Chapter is the entity charged with bringing the Sigma Nu Chapter back to San Diego State University. So, if you wait for an active chapter to join the Alumni Chapter, you’re basing your decision on a wrong premis. You don’t join your Alumni Chapter for the same reason you joined the Active Chapter.  You join your Alumni Chapter to continue your Brotherhood in a lifelong commitment as a Sigma Nu.  You join your Alumni Chapter, as so many others have across the United States and around the world, to support the goals and Mission of the Chapter.  Right now the highest goal of our Chapter is to re-colonize a strong Eta Kappa Chapter at San Diego State University in 2016.  Once that goal is achieved, the Chapter will continue to advise and oversee the Active Chapter helping it to become one of the best Sigma Nu chapters in the United States.  We need a strong membership to help make that happen.  That’s where each of you make a difference.  The greater our membership, the more perceived support our Chapter demonstrates to National and the University.  Every time one of you says yes, our Chapter becomes stronger.

Sigma Nu is more than Sigma Nu Fraternity. It's a living breathing way to live your life and enrich your future. You can not see Sigma Nu from the narrow work of Eta Kappa Chapter, the now suspended Chapter you became a part of in college and now have moved on to a career, gotten married, had kids, bought a home and on and on. Sigma Nu the way of life makes all this greater and more important. Having moved on from college, started and established my career, married my college sweetheart, raised three children, I find myself looking more at the way I lived and the way I am living my life. How are my children going to see me when I'm in chapter eternal? How do my friends see me now as a person? Do my friends and family count on me to be there for them? When my children have tough life questions, do they ask me for help?

Love, Honor and Truth: It keeps coming back to that. Am I living my life under these ideals and how do I define them? I say I'm a Sigma Nu, so what does this mean to me? Sigma Nu and all the things we talk about and read about defines for me the way I live my life, that all my brothers understand but more, my friends see it in the way I act, the walk I talk and the way I respect everything around me.

This is Sigma Nu to me and why I have made a commitment to the Fraternity.