Leadership Development Fund

The Leadership Development Fund is stipulated in the Constitution as part of the structure of Iota Phi chapter, to pay for members going to Nationals or Regionals. But how has it been used?

A short history of the LDF

Prior to Fall 2003, the LDF was used exclusively to pay for the voting delegates' trips to the National Convention - paying for registration, airfare, and hotel lodging. In Fall 2003, it was decided to use a portion of the LDF monies to help assist members going to Regionals in Long Beach, and was used to subsidize gas.

About this time, the idea was floated for using the LDF to help encourage members to go to Nationals. This was done to both enable more members to go, as well as to allow people who had the money to cover themselves to be delegates without preventing a member on a tighter budget from being able to attend. After re-reading the bylaws, it was noticed that while the LDF is supposed to be used for delegates, it goes on to define delegates as any member going to the convention, not just those allowed to vote.

Therefore, via fundraising, the LDF was used to help assist all 31 active and pledge members of the chapter who attended the 2004 National Convention.

In Fall 2008, massive fundraising was undertaken to reimburse all National Convention attendees' base registration fees, two hotel rooms, and plane tickets for two voting delegates. In Fall 2010, the chapter scaled back LDF expenditures by not covering the plane tickets for the voting delegates, and reserving only one hotel room. The chapter spent less during this term to make up for the losses incurred during Iota Phi's 2009 Regional Conference and the Fall 2009 Winter Retreat.