The Archons’ Academy is our annual leadership academy for chapter presidents and unlike many leadership opportunities afforded to our members, this one is highly tailored to a select audience and is built around conversation and discussion as much as possible for those who have the unique experience to lead our chapters. First held in the 1990s, it allows our chapter presidents to network with one another and share best practices while learning valuable skills to assist them during their time as president.
Over the years it has continued to evolve and change to adjust to the needs of our members as well as to take advantages of new opportunities, and in 2024 we were able to make one of the largest changes to our programming and open a new chapter in our development programming by overlapping the timing with the Psi Upsilon Foundations Social Impact Fellowship.
We moved the Archons’ Academy to Alexandria, VA to help make traveling easier for the majority of our attendees and we had 21 chapters represented.
The academy has evolved and adapted over the years, utilizing the feedback from prior participants we’ve always been able assess what works well and also retire certain parts of the academy that aren’t as relevant. In recent years we’ve introduced The Birkman Method, a personality assessment tool, to a cornerstone of the academy. The Birkman Method reveals four key perspectives of every person: Motivation, Self-Perception, Social Perception, and Mindset. In understanding these perceptions and how they influence each other, individuals can better understand the emotions and actions that drive their life. Every Archon completed the assessment prior to arriving in Atlanta and much of the programming Saturday included facilitated discussions from Doug Opicka, founder and managing partner of Plaid, LLC on the assessment and specific ways attendees should approach conflict resolution given their personality type.
Additional sessions in the academy reviewed Psi Upsilon’s history, values, chapter operations, crisis response, motivating and incentivizing members, reviewed Psi U resources, and gave Archons a chance to share their challenges.
This event is always a highlight of our programming year and, most importantly, helps show the chapter presidents that they are not alone in the challenges they face and that they have resources to assist them. We hope to complement these relationships by continuing our monthly Town Halls and campus visits by staff.
You can view photos of the weekend on our Flickr site and Facebook Page.
