Standards of Excellence


The purpose of Standards of Excellence (SOE) is to accomplish three (3) fundamental objectives:

  • To compile and present everything your organization has done over the past calendar year,
  • To ensure your chapter is meeting and exceeding expectations,
  • And to measure the impact of the fraternity/sorority community.

These objectives help to assess the progress that your chapter has accomplished this year and identify areas where your chapter can improve in the future.

Each chapter is given a star rating (1 through 5 Stars) as a score. SOE scores are given to chapters in January and are included in the community scorecard that comes out each spring (posted on the Chapter Statuses page)

 

Components of Standards of Excellence

There are two portions of the Standards of Excellence: 1) the six submission forms and 2) the presentation. By completing these two requirements, you will have completed the Standards of Excellence, as well as applied for some of the chapter-based awards given annually at the FSL Awards Ceremony (Greek Gala). These awards include Highest GPA 2021, Chapter of Excellence (Per Council) 2021, and Chapter of the Year 2021.

Chapter Submissions:
  • Six (6) online forms Due November 1, 2021 by 5:00 p.m. EST
  • The chapter submissions give the judges an overview of what the chapter has or has not done throughout the calendar year in that particular category. It provides context for areas of focus and improvement, as well as celebrates the accomplishments, of each chapter.
  • Links to the forms can be found on the FSL Webcourses page under Assignments. Please complete all 6 submission forms in full.
  • It is advised that the chapter divide and conquer the submissions, as there are six (6) of them. You may utilize the Question Bank found here to help you plan out your responses.
Presentations:
  • Date: November 8, 9, 10, and 12
  • Three members of the chapter (One Executive Board member, One General Body member, One Newly Initiated member) will present in front of an audience of your peers (members of your council) and a panel of FSL staff, FSL volunteers, campus partners, and headquarters staff members. The presentation should include a visual aid and consist of highlights from the calendar year and areas for improvement. The 3 chapter members will be given up to ten (10) minutes to creatively present their chapter. This will be followed by questions from the audience.

 

Content Areas of Standards of Excellence

Each of the following six (6) areas corresponds to one of the chapter submission forms:

  • Academic Excellence: The Academic Excellence section serves to assess how your chapter has performed academically over the calendar year. Academics refer to a chapter’s academic programming, scholastic accountability, degree progression, career readiness, and GPA. Additionally, it serves to identify the resources that chapters are using to promote academic excellence in the chapter and determine their impact on overall academic progress.
  • Social and Cultural Impact: The Social and Cultural Impact section serves to assess the chapter’s effort, education, awareness, and fundraising towards their philanthropic cause. It also measures the chapter’s community service accomplishments over the past year including but not limited to hands-on experience, activism towards society, and global citizenship.
  • Leadership Development: The Leadership Development section focuses on evaluating the leadership development programming. Leadership development programming may include identifying values, instances of situational leadership, values-based education, running an effective meeting, public presentation skills, exploring leadership styles, decision making, setting SMART goals, building time management habits and strategies, transitioning leadership, and teambuilding.  
  • Inclusive Siblinghood: Inclusive Siblinghood assess how a chapter fosters inclusion within the chapter. This may include developing emotional intelligence, understanding and appreciating various member identities, how the chapter members support each other (both informally and formally), how the chapter creates a sense of belonging, how members inspire each other, the ability of members to hold each other accountable in a peer-to-peer manner, mentorship between chapter members  
  • Positive Stakeholder Relationships: Positive Stakeholder Relationships refer to a chapter’s engagement with persons and entities outside of their organization. This includes advisors, headquarters or regional leadership, alumni or graduate chapters, UCF administration, other councils, other university offices, relationships between FSL, UCF, and the local community. 
  • Health and Safety:  The Health and Safety section serves to challenge chapters to evaluate the importance that was given to risk reduction initiatives, as evidenced by programming done throughout the year and how risk reduction is addressed to both active and new members. Additionally, chapters are given the opportunity to show how their chapter is proactive, as opposed to reactive.
Supplemental SOE Reports

This document should be downloaded, completed, and uploaded to your chapter’s final Standards of Excellence online submissions. They can also be downloaded in the FSL Webcourses class. Where they get uploaded is noted in the Question Bank, as well as explained below.

  • Programming Report -Programming Report should be used to report all related programs throughout Standards of Excellence. This is to be used for structured, internal/external, and/or co-hosted programs.
Downloadable Resources
Other Resources