College of Chapters: Teambuilding Day 2, College of Chapters Thursday, June 16, 2005 College of Chapters is Sigma Nu Fraternity's biennial leadership development conference. It is an intensive, interactive program for our undergraduate members that focuses on leadership, teambuilding, and the core principles of Sigma Nu.

In the first few days of College of Chapters an afternoon is dedicated to teambuilding exercises. All 300 participants, in assigned chapter groups, rotate among five teambuilding activities that are intended to provide an active learning environment that will encourage communication, collaboration, problem solving and effective listening skills. The participants engage with each other in discovering and creating solutions to unusual problems that are presented to them.

One example of a "problem" they have to solve is called the "Lizard Egg". Groups are given a bowling ball and 6-foot lengths of rope. Their challenge is to move the ball 15 feet from its current location and drop it into a box using some sort of harness they create with the rope. Sound easy? Then consider that the groups have 10-12 members, many of whom are outspoken chapter leaders, each with the potential for a different idea of how to accomplish the task. They must work together, using the ropes, to come up with a solution in a set period of time .

that will accomplish the task. In addition, they are told to assume the bowling ball really is a lizard egg; therefore the group must perform this task with caution and gentleness. Once they have accomplished the goal, there is a short discussion time to process the experience and identify strengths, weaknesses and unexpected challenges

The teambuilding activities used at College of Chapters are all part of the LEAD curriculum and are activities that students can take back to their chapters to use in class retreats, executive board retreats or chapter retreats.