Membership in Phi Kappa Tau provides a lifelong network of support, leadership development, and academic accountability that enhances both the experience while in college and post-graduate professional connections and success.
EXTRINSIC VALUE
This represents the tangible benefits, social leverage, and external rewards you gain by being a member of Phi Kappa Tau – all the fraternity provides for the dues you pay.
Event Access
We host diverse events for members, including social gatherings like themed parties and formal dances, brotherhood bonding activities, and campus traditions such as Greek Week and Homecoming.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Talk about some of the events your chapter has planned for the current year and how Associate Members can get involved.
Academic Support
We provide robust academic support through peer tutoring, designated study hours, access to past exam-prep files, and even mentorship programs. There is a national requirement for Associate Members to achieve as a prerequisite to being initiated, and the chapter offers academic help for those who may struggle to meet those standards.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Share what your chapter does for the Associate Member class to help them be prepared academically for initiation, as well as what else your chapter has planned for all members (and where your chapter stands academically overall).
Social Capital on Campus
We provide members with opportunities to access diverse networks across campus (both Greek and non-Greek), and to build strong, supportive peer relationships within the fraternity and across their extended connected networks.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Discuss the different on-campus connections your chapter is often engaged with and how Associate Members can get connected and engaged too. If your chapter has won any campus intramurals or anything special, share that.
Housing Options
Being a member of Phi Kappa Tau may provide an opportunity to live in the chapter house, which functions as immersive, communal living with shared expenses and even more valuable shared experiences. Members of the fraternity also often rent together in other houses and apartments, making it easier to find a place to live if you do not want to be in a dorm.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: The different housing options members of your chapter have and what might be available to Associate Members. If you have a chapter house, how many rooms are in the house and how can the Associate Members live there if they want to?
Skill-Building & Leadership Development
We provide members with hands-on skill-building opportunities in leadership development, networking, academic support, and life-skills through diverse engagements and formal programs.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Share the National and local programs your chapter participates in and how Associate Members can participate. Talk about Zenith Officers Institute, Leadership Academy, and Regional Conferences. Share your own positive experiences and bring other brothers in to share theirs.
Resume Material
Membership in Phi Kappa Tau provides valuable material for building your resume through transferable skills like relationship-building, event planning, fundraising, and leadership. Members and officers alike can highlight concrete achievements, budgets managed, and events coordinated to demonstrate real-world experience to future employers.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Talk about what some of that looks like and even bring a few brothers or alumni in to share what they were able to add to their resumes because they are in Phi Kappa Tau. If you have an alumnus who is a recruiter or in Human Resources, ask him to share the real value with Associate Members.
Network & Career Connections
We provide members with a built-in, lifelong professional network that accelerates career connections, and sometimes placement, through alumni mentorship, company connections, and potential internship pipelines. These connections span generations and industries, offering an "inside track" that could lead to jobs and professional advice.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: This as a real and valuable benefit. Bring in some of your recent graduates if possible, as well as other alumni, who can share real stories of how being a member of Phi Kappa Tau helped them in their career.
Philanthropy Opportunities
We provide opportunities to participate in hands-on volunteer work, organize large-scale campus charity events & fundraisers, and develop skills you can use for a lifetime. We also support our national non-profit Serious Fun Children's Network.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Go over the different philanthropic drives and volunteer days that your chapter does (and which may be coming up), and how Associate Members can participate. Share more about Serious Fun Children's Network and opportunities for members to volunteer at a camp. If your Associate Member class does a “class” philanthropy event, talk about this now.
INTRINSIC VALUE
This refers to the inherent, intangible rewards of membership that will be cherished, rather than just the external benefits. While extrinsic factors like networking or resume-building are external, intrinsic value focuses on things like personal fulfillment, core values, and the bonds Associate Members will build that will last a lifetime.
Instant Community & Sense of Belonging
Phi Kappa Tau provides students – most often new to college and/or campus - with an instant community by offering ready-made connections to peers. Through informal gatherings as well as organized events and sometimes shared housing, members can immediately connect with other students who share similar interests, values, and more. This can help foster a sense of belonging, where Associate Members can be their authentic selves, and can help ease the transition to college.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Talk openly about the diversity of your chapter. Ask Associate Members about their interests and actively work to connect them with active brothers so they can get a true sense of the community and belonging they are joining.
Lifelong Friendships & Shared Identity
Phi Kappa Tau provides an environment where you can begin to build lasting bonds through shared traditions, group participation in campus activities, and the creation of a built-in family that fosters personal growth, accountability, and a deep sense of belonging through shared identity.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Dig into what brotherhood and identity mean. Talk about the shared identity of your chapter on campus and about how brothers value everyone’s uniqueness compared to requiring assimilation.
Emotional Support & Values Alignment
Phi Kappa Tau provides a structured emotional support system through "brotherhood"—a family-like network built on shared values and mutual accountability. This immediate community directly combats the loneliness and isolation often experienced during the transition to college.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Share personal stories, and bring other brothers in to share theirs, to show how deep our support for each other runs. Talk openly and encourage vulnerability, so guys know how genuine we are in being there for one another. This is a time when you can prove how authentic your chapter is in caring for one another.
Personal Growth
Membership in Phi Kappa Tau fosters personal growth by providing an environment for character development, emotional maturity, and social intelligence. Beyond resumes, it challenges students to build empathy, accountability, and the confidence to navigate adulthood.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Probe how Associate Members feel about that. Share your own stories and consider bringing a brother in to share his story of maturity and growth.
Purpose Through Service
Membership in Phi Kappa Tau offers a tangible sense of purpose through philanthropic initiatives and community service projects. This shared commitment to altruism builds organizational skills and deepens identity rooted in civic engagement and personal growth.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Have an open conversation about why philanthropy is important to your chapter and what events you have on the calendar for the school year. Ask Associate Members about what they have done in their lives, and what is important to them. Share how they can get involved.
Feeling of Legacy & Tradition
Membership in Phi Kappa Tau creates a feeling of legacy and tradition by connecting new college students to generations of alumni, preserving historical rituals, and instilling shared core values. These structured elements create a tangible sense of purpose greater than themselves, and they often become something they can pass down in their families for generations.
POINT OF DISCUSSION: Share details and stories about different traditions in your chapter. Talk about the importance of rituals and share some of the local rituals your chapter has, and how long they have been around. Ask if any Associate Members have family members who are in a fraternity, and talk about how special that is.
Phi Kappa Tau's "Value Proposition" is clear. Membership in our fraternity provides so much intrinsic and extrinsic value. Associate Members will learn about this and dicuss it with the Membership Orientation Officer and within their class. It is something they will begin to experience immediately, and which will last a lifetime.