2026 Winter Conclave, A Great Event for Resident and Graduate Brothers

Over the cold Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, one-hundred-fifteen resident and Graduate Brothers gathered for the 2026 Winter Conclave. The purpose of the Winter Conclave is to educate the new Chapter or Colony officers on their duties and responsibilities. This year, the Fraternity educated presidents, vice presidents, treasurers, recruitment chairs, and risk management officers in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Conclave provided standardized officer training for all of these positions, gave Brothers the opportunity to learn from each other on multiple topics, and allowed the officers to network with Graduate Brothers.

As part of the Fraternity’s commitment to community service and philanthropy, Brothers were highly encouraged to donate canned goods and non-perishables to the local food pantry. At the conclusion of the event, the staff donated twenty-five pounds of gathered goods.
The educational sessions began on Friday night with National treasurer Timothy Brodeur (Phi Lambda, 2002) instructing Chapter treasurers on the new financial platform, Legacy Financial, and some best practices for Chapter budgeting. Saturday morning, National vice president Dr. Shane McGoey (Pi Chi Phi, 1988) and Educational Foundation Marketing and Communications Manager Nicholas Ramos (Theta Chi Phi, 2019) provided opening remarks. Shane presented a brief overview of the Fraternity’s current state of affairs and discussed the importance of retaining the material taught here and bringing it back to the greater Chapter and community. Nicholas provided information on how Chapters, Colonies and individuals can benefit from the Educational Foundation through scholarships, grants, and loans.

While the standardized officer training was occurring, Graduate Councillor Noah McGovern (Phi Mu Chi, 2020) and Brother Matthew Dapiran (Theta Chi Phi, 2022) led a session with in-person and virtual Graduate Brothers about the future of Graduate Brother support within the Fraternity for Brothers and Chapters. The conversation was long and productive, creating multiple next steps for the National Council and Graduate Chapters to organize and complete. More updates will be coming soon regarding how Graduate Brothers can get involved in the conversation.

National Ritual Officer Brett Morgan (Alpha Phi, 2002) provided the Initiated Chapter presidents and vice presidents a review of the currently pending Ritual revisions that were introduced at the 108th National Convention in 2025.

The afternoon of the Conclave consisted of multiple peer learning sessions with facilitators, National Council members, and Graduate Brothers. Finally, during the closing session, a small panel of National Council members and Brother Nicholas Ramos answered questions from the resident Brothers about their experience in the Fraternity and general topics.

Overall feedback on the Conclave was positive. Many Brothers appreciated the ability to connect with fellow officers and learn from each other. One recruitment chair said in regards to the 1:1 time allotted to plan out the spring recruitment program, “The second [session] was really great because we got to have a deep conversation with Chapters like ours and we were able to bounce ideas off of each other and set benchmarks to Chapters similar to us.” Two Chapter presidents said in relation to their standardized officer training, “[The first session] was the best because hearing from Graduate Brothers who were former Chapter presidents was very helpful because they provided genuine advice and examples to help [us] better [ourselves].”

Finally, to close the Conclave, some resident Brothers attended a networking event with local Graduate Brothers to continue the conversations they had during the day.

Many Brothers enjoyed the curriculum and networking opportunities of the Winter Conclave and left Gettysburg ready to improve their Chapters. The National staff and Council would like to thank Brothers Emanuele DeCicco (Phi Mu Chi, 2022), Matthew Dapiran (Theta Chi Phi, 2022), Steven Lydell (Theta Chi Phi, 2024), Chance Foster (Phi Mu Chi, 2025) and Steven Jacobs (Theta Chi Phi, 2025) for their help in facilitating at the Winter Conclave. The National Council and Educational Foundation Board of Trustees are very thankful to all who attended and their aptitude for learning best practices to take back to their Chapters.