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| New Fraternity Program Puts Education First |
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 Large Fraternity events have long held an important place in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. While the chapter experience provides the foundation for every collegiate Sinfonian, brothers often describe national events as life-changing experiences they'll never forget. Offering more opportunities to members for large-scale involvement near their campus was a primary driver in creating the Fraternity's new Fireside Conference program.
Mark Lichtenberg, Delta Nu (Bradley) '93, serves as the Fraternity's National Vice-President, and he works as the coordinator of this new program. He remembers his first national involvement fondly.
"My first national event was the 1996 CPR Convocation. To this day, when I see other brothers who attended, it's one of the first things we start to talk about. Just reminiscing about what happened at that event and how much fun we had – it made such a huge impression on me."
He says that doing something regionally had been on his radar screen for a while. "I felt like we have always asked members to come to national events, but we've never make a good effort to take the events to the brothers. Thinking about what members could do with regional events focusing on a more compact group of members, it was clear that that was something we should take advantage of. Through this event, brothers have a chance to come together, meet national leaders and share fraternal experience, all close to home"
Some members may remember regional events of old, but Mark says they're not the same.
"Fireside Conference is regional in scope, but that's where the parallels stop. Whereas the older style regionals were programmed by leaders in the region, this is a different kind of event. We host a nationally based curriculum."
That curriculum, which is focused on practical membership education, was decided on based largely on the desires of the collegiate members.
 "We talked about trying to make it ‘all things to all people,' and scraping the surface of a bunch of different topics, but we decided to go in depth on this one topic. Brothers have expressed a desire for more resources on education for many years now. We're going in depth on how to teach the message of the Ritual to brothers. They want to be able to have these conversations – conversations about the deeper things of our Fraternity – not just at national events, but also on the chapter level. The guys are really hungry for this type of material, and we give them a lot of information that they can take back and put into practice right away."
He says it was an easy sell to the other members of the National Executive Committee (NEC).
"We have a group of leaders on the NEC who are as actively involved with members and events around the country as ever before. When you have leaders who are so closely connected with collegiate and alumni members around the country, talking with them about how the Fraternity can be better, that's a recipe for leaders who have a good picture of what people want to get out of our events."
Reactions from the brothers in attendance have been overwhelmingly positive, Vice President Lichtenberg says. Over 200 brothers have experienced the Fireside Conference to date, and he has seen incredible excitement and engagement from the attendees.
"It's so good to see brothers spending the weekend together, enjoying that brotherhood, engaging in some serious conversations along the way, and leaving with tools that they can implement right away in their local chapters. We're getting to see light bulbs go on as brothers ‘all of a sudden' understand Sinfonia's power to change people's lives. Then, because this is an event taking place during the academic semester, brothers are able to take it back and put these principles in place immediately."
 In the coming academic year, Fireside Conference will visit two more campuses. This fall, Fireside Conference West will take place at the University of Nevada in Reno, November 11-13. Then, in spring 2012, Fireside Conference South will be at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, March 30 - April 1. In the meantime, though the content will remain largely the same, the program is being consistently evaluated and refined to make it better.
Lichtenberg hopes that Fireside Conferences will serve as a momentum builder for other national Fraternity events, and that members who attend will be inspired to branch out and do more.
"Once you go to your first national event, very often you find yourself striving to attend as many as you can. That means more brothers at Leadership Institute and more brothers at Convention."
Asked what's next beyond this triennium, Lichtenberg says that he hopes the Fireside Conference will always focus on the most important issues of the Fraternity.
"It would really gratify me if, 20 or 30 years down the road, there's a Fireside Conference event somewhere near me where they're discussing issues that are important to the Fraternity, and that I can attend that event and learn and get connected."
You can learn more about Fireside Conferences by visiting www.sinfonia.org/fireside.
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