Duties and Suggestions

Meetings with student officers

Advisors guide the student officers in running the chapter. One suggestion is to meet with the newly elected officers to outline your plans early in the academic year or just after elections held in the spring. You may meet with the student officers several times before the academic year begins, or you may correspond with officers during the summer break.

Chapter meetings

Schedule chapter meetings regularly and publicize them well in advance for good attendance. We suggest a short business meeting followed by an interesting program featuring alumni, guests, presenters, etc. Use an easily accessible bulletin board and telephone reminders. Invite faculty members, because their presence gives a real boost to chapter meetings and demonstrates departmental collegiality and cooperation. Allow time for socializing among students and faculty members.

Special programs

Advisors and students together should plan programs, arrange for facilities, and publicize events well in advance. A small program committee, with chapter officers and advisors as members ex officio, can generate ideas and prevent a few members from having to perform all the work. Successful programs include:

• Speakers on general topics
• Panel discussions
• Professors’ explanations of how they became interested in topics and developed them into publications
• Annual lectures open to the university and local communities
• Films (may be presented with formal papers or multimedia shows by students and faculty)
• Field trips to points of historical interest
• Visits to museums and other cultural attractions
• Programs jointly sponsored by local historical societies
• Historical exhibits created with help from local libraries and organizations
• Picnics to attract new members and publicize the chapter
• Visits to area schools
• Annual History Day programs
• Annual chapter banquets

Chapter records

The faculty advisor unobtrusively ensures that routine details receive attention. Make sure that the Personal Record Cards have been properly filled out and filed; the chapter maintains its own files of current and alumni members. Keep minutes of chapter meetings. Maintain chapter archives in a safe place. Create or update the chapter scrapbook, which can be enjoyed by all members and submitted for consideration for a Best Chapter Award.

Liaison with Phi Alpha Theta National Headquarters

Advisors must contact National Headquarters about merchandise and supply orders, policy, and all financial matters.

Phi Alpha Theta publications

Advisors inform students about the Historian and the News Letter. New members receive four issues of the Historian but members must renew subscriptions individually. The chapter may subscribe to the News Letter, and the advisor should strongly encourage students to provide materials for publication in it.

Information about prizes and scholarships

Advisors should inform student members of the many paper prizes, book awards, chapter awards, and scholarships offered through National Headquarters and the procedures for applying. This information is available through flyers and on this Website. Advisors strongly encourage members to submit papers for presentation at regional meetings and ensure that the essays meet academic standards.

Regional meetings

Advisors can distribute Call for Paper forms to students, review the papers for quality of scholarship, urge students to present papers on panels at the regional meetings, volunteer to chair sessions or evaluate presentations, and help the host chapters. We believe that no member should fail to take advantage of the opportunities to meet their colleagues, present papers, exchange ideas, strengthen weaker chapters, and attract new chapters. Approximately forty regional meetings are held each year for the purpose of student paper presentation. Advisors should be especially willing to volunteer their chapter as host chapter for the next year’s regional meeting in turn.

Biennial conventions

Advisors and students should plan to attend to attend the Phi Alpha Theta convention held every other year. About sixty students present papers at this convention. While National Headquarters provides some funds for delegates, a chapter may want to send more than one delegate (e.g., a student and a faculty member or a graduate and an undergraduate student). Plan early!  Budget for the expenses, and obtain approval from your department or administrative officer for potential financial support.

Phi Alpha Theta luncheons at national historical society annual meetings

Advisors should plan to attend the luncheons at the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Southern Historical Association, Southwest Social Science Association, Western History Association, World History Association, Society for Military History, and so on. See the Website for details. Advisors attend the luncheons at no charge. Phi Alpha Theta student panels at these conferences

Initiations

Advisors must supply National Headquarters with a typed list of students’ names and addresses, a single check comprising $40 per student, and the initiation date. Advisors maintain Personal Record Cards at the chapter and no longer send them to National Headquarters. Take initiations seriously. The ceremony, whether in the long or short form, is impressive. Try to have full attendance, especially by the faculty members of the chapter. A banquet is a fitting setting for this memorable occasion.

Membership enrollment

Advisors determine which students are eligible for membership in Phi Alpha Theta. Membership requirements are stated in This Is Phi Alpha Theta and on this Website. Have the appropriate administrative official screen students with acceptable grade point averages, then use your departmental colleagues to identify those with the required number of history courses. Ask other members of your department to scan their class lists for non-History majors who may meet our requirements, or have the Registrar do a computer run with your chapter requirements.

Liaison with other campus organizations

Advisors may sponsor joint programs with honor societies in other disciplines, such as: programs on the history of science, or programs on the history, literature and culture of a period. Such programs have had multimedia presentation or panel discussion formats, among others.

Fund raising

Advisors should help the chapter with fundraising and encourage the student members to come up with ideas. Some suggestions are:

• Annual chapter dues
• Initiation fees slightly larger than the required $40, with the difference going to the chapter
• Income from a college or university convocation or lecture series
• Sales of various kinds of merchandise or services including books, food, etc.
• Contributions by interested local citizens or groups that might cosponsor programs or support your society

Publicity

Advisors are the public relations experts for their chapters! Publicity of various kinds for meetings and programs should appear early, often, and regularly. Use all forms of media available to you, and establish and maintain contacts with campus publications and local media. Many chapters publish regular newsletters containing articles of chapter, regional, and national importance. Send chapter news to National Headquarters for possible publication in the News Letter.

Alumni relations

Advisors should invite alumni of Phi Alpha Theta in the community to maintain contact with the chapter by speaking, mentoring, and teaching your student members about the real relationships between the study of history and many different vocations. Chapter alumni are also an excellent source for contributions.