Sigma Zeta National Science & Mathematics Honor Society

Hello, Sigma Zeta friends! Welcome to the 2021-2022 academic year from the National Office of Sigma Zeta at McKendree University! The goal of this letter is to communicate with you, our many chapters and associate chapters, what’s been happening at the national level since our last communication.

 The Sigma Zeta National Office closed for business of May 15^th, 2021, and again re-opened for business on August 23^rd, 2021. We look forward to working with/serving you. The National Office continues to be operated by myself and Haley Middleton, Sigma Zeta’s part-time administrative assistant. Rest assured that we are working hard to catch up on orders already received, but not shipped. As Haley and I work through the orders, we are contacting each chapter that submitted an order with an update. If your chapter submitted an order that you’ve yet to receive and you have not been updated on its status, please contact the national office. Again, thank you for your continued patience as we work to fulfill all the orders we have received and will receive in the future.

Hopefully, your chapters are beginning to meet and make plans for a productive year.  All of the national officers want to thank the chapter advisors, student officers, and members for the hard work that has been put into making Sigma Zeta a meaningful and successful organization. As many of you know, Sigma Zeta has 9 national officers who help to make decisions and keep the organization running at the national level, with input from all of the chapters and the respective members.  Five of the officers hold “semi-permanent” positions and agree to stay in their positions for multiple years to gain expertise in the position to add stability to the organization – Executive Director, Webmaster, Treasurer, Publicist, and Historian.  The other 4 positions change regularly with a new Student Representative elected each year and with a Presidential three-year term which is newly initiated each year following the election of a President-Elect, who will then transition through the positions of President and Past-President over the consecutive years that follow.

 As you are making preparations to submit materials to the National Office, please be sure that all checks for invoices are mailed to the address at McKendree University. It may also be that your school’s business office will require a W9 form to be filled out prior to issuing checks payable to McKendree University. Remember that we are now accepting credit cards as a form of payment. The authorization form is available on our website. If you choose to pay by credit card, the authorization form will be submitted to our business office. Someone from the business office may need to call the contact person on the form to complete the transaction, so please be sure to list an appropriate phone number on the form. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Here are some highlights from the 2020-2021 academic year:

• As of the end of March, 2021, 216 new membership certificates were printed with 213 of these being new student memberships. 121 pins were disbursed, and 201 medallions were disbursed. This doesn’t reflect a flurry of orders received in April and May, so I am confident our numbers will be very similar to last year. With COVID continuing to impact our everyday lives and activities, it’s having an obvious effect on our current membership. I hope to see these numbers rebound significantly over this next year.
• The annual fall advisors meeting was held on Zoom at the beginning of November, 2020. A major item of business at the meeting was the evaluation of all the Student Research Award applications that were received by the due date. In the end, 17 research proposals (totaling 24 students) received either partial or full funding. Let’s all work to encourage student members of our local chapters to apply for the 2021 awards – deadline to apply is Friday October 22^nd, 2021.  The process is relatively short and painless, as can be seen when looking at the guidelines for applying. With a little help from the faculty research mentor and closely following the guidelines, putting together a good application should not take too much time.  See our website for details and forms for application. Out of the 18 Student Research Award applications received, 17 were funded so the chance to receive funding is very good! Many have submitted progress reports and are planning to present at the 2021 Convention. If student members from your local chapter received funding last year, please encourage them to submit a final report. That form is also available on our web site.
• The 2021 National Convention took place on Zoom. Fifteeen chapters attended with a total of 125 registered attendees. Nine oral and twenty poster presentations were presented. It was a challenge to organize and pull off the convention virtually, however I am happy to report that the convention was a success with only a small number of technical glitches. We were all treated to an excellent keynote speech by Dr. Ellen L. Aho, an alum from the Gamma Gamma chapter at Concordia College. Dr. Aho’s presentation focused on the human microbiome as a source of new antibiotics.

 Please see the attachments to this message for details about the 2021 National Officers / Chapter Advisors Meeting. This meeting will take place virtually on November 6, 2021.  Both an invitation to this meeting and a registration form are attached.  As mentioned earlier, it is at this meeting that national officers, with the assistance of some advisors, will make decisions on student research application funding.  I will be sending out a draft of the agenda for this meeting soon.

Within the electronic mailing of this letter, you will find enclosed and / or attached information regarding: the Student Research Awards; the annual forms for reporting new officers and updating advisor information; the national office supplies’ list; and the instructions, to accompany the spreadsheet form, for reporting new members (all of these are also available in electronic form at the website).  Please be sure to spell out the day of the month (ex. Sixteenth versus 16^th) to improve the appearance of the certificates.  ALSO, PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK THE SPELLING OF THE NAMES OF THE NEW MEMBERS because the certificates are prepared directly from the spread sheet that you submit. 

Please return your new officers list electronically through the website as soon as possible.  This information is needed to keep communications current.  New chapter officers are encouraged to submit their names to the Sigma Zeta email list using the link on the website.  I also encourage all of you who have not yet gone to the website to add yourself to the Sigma Zeta email list to do this now.  It’s quick and easy, and it ensures that you get regular updates and communications from other members.

The Gamma Gamma chapter at Concordia University in Moorhead, Minnesota will serve as the host for the Spring 2022 National Convention. The meeting dates are still to be announced, but will probably happen sometime during the third or fourth week in March. Please plan early to attend. At this time, we are planning to hold this convention face-to-face. However, please keep an eye on any email correspondence or announcements that get posted on our website as the situation with the pandemic continues to be fluid. Either way, I know that we can count on an exciting convention because our hosts are regular attendees at the National Conventions, and they have had several of their students’ present outstanding research over the years. Information regarding the specific details of the meeting will be coming to you from the Gamma Gamma chapter advisors, Dr. Graeme Wyllie (Past President) and Dr. Joe Whittaker (Publicist); from the national office; and via the website and e-mail list as the year progresses.

The National Office, which is located at McKendree University, is anxious to help you have a good year! I can be reached by phone at 618-537-6930 or by e-mail at sigmazetanational@mckendree.edu.  I look forward to working with all of you again this year!!

 Sincerely,

Robb D. VanPutte, Ph.D.
National Executive Director
Sigma Zeta National Office
McKendree University
701 College Road
Lebanon, IL 62254