THE BMS IS THE SECRET TO SUSTAINED RECRUITMENT SUCCESS

By Rick Stepanovic, Michigan ’12

Over the last decade, the Balanced Man Scholarship has propelled the Michigan chapter from a small colony at the turn of the century to a recruitment powerhouse with over 100 men. The single best recruiting tool on campus consistently launches Michigan Alpha ahead of their competition. Through the BMS, the chapter has recruited multiple chapter presidents, a two-term vice president of recruitment, countless officers, a Michigan varsity football player, and a Tragos Quest to Greece Scholar.

The chapter has a recruitment goal of 35 new members this semester. Once they are permitted to start giving bids on September 17, almost half of that total should be recruited through the BMS.

BMS preparations begin early. The previous BMS Chairman Josh Palka, ’11, expertly trained his successor, Nathan Hamet, ’13. Palka created a comprehensive BMS implementation plan, including a timeline, checklist, and improvements needed. The carefully planned BMS banquet is one of the premier events on campus in the fall, particularly through the acquisition of high-profile speakers. Past speakers include head basketball coach John Beilein, former head football coach Lloyd Carr, and long-standing football equipment manager and best-selling author Jon Falk.

Michigan Alpha has established relationships with high school counselors, ensuring that the BMS application gets hand-delivered to each high school’s most outstanding Michigan-bound men. “Academics alone doesn’t take us to the next level, we already have that,” said Hamet. “Character, leadership, and experience will take you anywhere—that’s what we look for in a BMS finalist.”

After an extensive semi-finalist interview process, the 15-25 finalists are top candidates in the chapter’s recruitment effort. They are welcomed to campus by a group of brothers waiting at their dorm to move them in. The chapter stays in close contact with them throughout the scholarship and recruitment process, ensuring that they are a resource during the finalists’ transition to college.

For the culminating event, the BMS banquet, the chapter assures that an extremely polished, formal event sets SigEp apart from the rest of the campus in the eyes of the finalists and their families. Each year the event is professionally catered at a university banquet hall. The 2011 banquet hosted a crowd of over 150, including the 17 finalists, their families, brothers, brothers’ parents, alumni, and university faculty and staff.

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