Recently, interest and membership in Omega Chi Epsilon at MSU has been declining. This lack of membership has lead to a decline in the amount of service we are able to provide to the Department of Chemical Engineering. In an effort to create more interest and convince more people to become members of this honor society, I recommend the following three-step plan to increase name-recognition and hopefully increase future membership for the Alpha Zeta Chapter of Omega Chi Epsilon. It is believed that not only will this benefit Omega Chi Epsilon here at MSU by creating more opportunities for activities and service projects, but will also strengthen the already good reputation of MSU's Department of Chemical Engineering. The following is my proposed three-step plan.

1. Sophomore Acknowledgement Letters

In order to increase future membership in Omega Chi Epsilon, I believe you must first increase interest, or name-recognition of the society within the school. Since OXE is an honor society for junior and senior chemical engineering students, most students do not hear about OXE till their third year at MSU. The purpose of the sophomore acknowledgement letters is to both acknowlege the success of sophomore students in chemical engineering and to increase name-recognition of Omega Chi Epsilon at MSU. Sending letters to sophomore chemical engineers with a GPA above 3.50 will give them an opportunity to learn about Omega Chi Epsilon a year before they would be eligible for membership. This gives them time to learn about our society and determine whether or not they would like to become members the following year given the invitation. Sending the letters only to sophomores with a GPA of 3.50 and above also presents an opportunity to acknowledge those students who have done well early in the chemical engineering curriculum. These letters should be either mailed or presented to the applicable students at the end of their sophomore year at MSU.

2. Co-Host Symposium Day at MSU

Symposium Day was originally a project started by Omega Chi Epsilon at Michigan State University. Since then, however, AIChE has taken over hosting responsibilities. I believe that it is time once again for Omega Chi Epsilon to get involved with Syposium Day - by co-hosting the event with AIChE. This is yet another way to increase interest and name-recognition of OXE, which would hopefully lead to more membership within the society. Omega Chi Epsilon already helps out in many ways with Symposium Day, setting up and proctoring the Junior Competitive Exam and giving out the Omega Chi Epsilon award during the event. Co-hosting the event is just a way get more involved within the department and in return, gain more recognition within the college of engineering. I believe that we could create an additional officer position - called SEC/Symposium Day Rep - which will work with AIChE in planning and running Symposium Day. This officer would attend all Symposium Day relevant AIChE e-board meetings and would assist AIChE with the event. This would benefit AIChE as well because it will add an extra person to the planning of this very large event.

3. More Activities...

This third step will be a result of increased membership in Omega Chi Epsilon at MSU - which will hopefully be a result of the first two steps. With increased membership, Omega Chi Epsilon can sponsor more activities and provide more service to the MSU Department of Chemical Engineering. One such idea is an OXE Tutor Night. Omega Chi Epsilon members could volunteer to tutor students in CHE 201 or other classes once a week. This would help out students who may be struggling in some of their classes by giving them free help sessions from the members of the chemical engineering honor society. With more members, this could be done relatively easy by Omega Chi Epsilon, with members only having to volunteer a few times over the semester to help out with this task.

If the above three steps are followed, I believe that future interest and membership in Omega Chi Epsilon at MSU will increase. Omega Chi Epsilon is a very prestigious honor society and all effort should be made to make this society the best it can be in the future for the Department of Chemical Engineering at MSU.

- Frederick C. Millett
2004 Omega Chi Epsilon President