New 2001 Board Members

Barbara McFall, Vice Chair/Program - Roanoke, Virginia; 
Sue Byrd, University of Tennessee-Martin.

2001 Conclave/Undergraduate Research Conference

August 2-5, 2000

Grosvenor Resort, Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando, Florida

Theme: Reflective Human Action—Integrating Academic & Co-Curricular Goals

The Conclave is a biennial meeting of the Assembly of Delegates, the governing body of Kappa Omicron Nu, and a leadership development opportunity. The theme of the 2001 Kappa Omicron Nu Conclave, “Reflective Human Action: Integrating Academic and Co-Curricular Goals,” will be implemented through the workshops and the banquet address. Practical sessions on the application of Reflective Human Action to organizational and personal issues are planned for students and professionals. During the Assembly of Delegates Meeting, voting delegates will elect Student Board Members, consider business of Kappa Omicron Nu, and participate in a forum to determine priorities for the “ends” (to achieve the mission) of Kappa Omicron Nu.

The theme will be implemented through the workshops and presentations. Track I will focus on chapter and personal leadership issues and offers opportunities to plan for leadership in local chapters. Track II is for advisers, faculty, and administrators to focus on integrating academic and co-curricular goals and promoting undergraduate research. Track III is for undergraduate researchers to enhance their skills and to organize the Undergraduate Research Journal Editorial Committee. Undergraduate research Presenters will have the opportunity to be nominated for leadership for the Editorial Committee.

Collaborative Initiatives

Undergraduate Research Community (URC) for the Human Sciences

Collaborating with Michigan State University, Kansas State University, and the University of Maryland—Eastern Shore, the Kappa Omicron Nu  Leadership Academy sponsored the URC in partnership with the Board on Human Sciences, the Council of administrators of Family and Consumer Sciences, the Higher Education Unit of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, and the 1890 Council of Administrators. Twenty-two institutions joined as Participating Institutions.

The URC Planning Conference was held in Chicago, Illinois, January 15-16, 2001. Outcomes of planning are available from www.kon.org/urc_pc.html. Workshops for developing Institutional Plans for Undergraduate Research and for faculty development are in the planning stages.

Other human sciences units are invited to affiliate as Participating Institutions. To affiliate with the URC, each unit shall submit by August 1, a one- to-two-page letter of commitment to the Kappa Omicron Nu National Office.  

FCS~ALC

Kappa Omicron Nu contracted to supply support services for the Family and Consumer Sciences ~ Administrative Leadership Council. This collaboration was undertaken because Kappa Omicron Nu shares the objectives of this group. The FCS~ALC announces “Leading by Design: Family and Consumer Sciences Emerging Administrators Workshop,” July 22-27, 2001 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education, University of Georgia, Athens, GA. “Leading By Design” is planned to enhance the future viability of family and consumer sciences by preparing leaders for positions in Higher education administration for the next decade and beyond. Focusing on emerging administrators, this workshop will address competencies needed for assessing one’s attributes and skills for successfully administering higher education family and consumer sciences programs.

New Initiatives

Enhanced Web Site

The KON Web site offers six classifications of information: Membership, Leadership, Conclave, Publications, News & Events, and Summit. The Site Map will aid visitors in finding information quickly.

Distance Learning

The second on-line course available on the KON Web site is Reflective Human Action. There are several options for using the course: (a) Knowledge - Read the text to learn about leadership, especially reflective human action; (b) Experiential Knowledge - Read the text and select several exercises that increase your competence in selected areas; (c) Self-Managed Life Change - Read the text and complete the whole series of exercises in order to make a major difference in your life; and (d) Life Change Facilitated by Telementoring or E-mail Mentoring - Enhance the process with a mentor selected by you, or contact Kappa Omicron Nu to supply a mentor (there may be a cost).

The focus of this leadership course is to lay the groundwork for the process of reflective human action. This process is an active, mind-engaging method of meaning-making in a community of practice.

The first half of this course focuses on the natural law of systems.  Systems exhibit the same principles regardless of what type of system is present.  So understanding how natural law creates self-organization of the system will give a leader a tremendous advantage in being confident that a chaotic situation does not require control, but rather acceptance of the chaos.  The system will naturally move to sharing information, developing relationships and embracing a vision.  This concept is found in Margaret Wheatley’s work entitled, Leadership and the New Science (1994).

The second half of the course focuses on the work of Robert Terry (1993).  Authentic Leadership: Courage in Action offers us several tools to examine situations.  First, Terry’s work begins with a foundation that underlies all action.  That foundation includes authenticity, ethical sensibility and spirituality.  Secondly, Terry gives us the Action Wheel, which helps leaders appropriately frame issues, which leads to effective solutions and interventions.  Finally, Terry gives us the 7 C’s of Authenticity, which helps us examine whether we have found our authentic self.  

Finding our authentic selves takes private reflection, noticing who we are in the present moment, and recognizing the influences of the system to which we belong.  Much of this course will require true “inner” work.

Components of the Reflective Human Action Model (below) will be explored throughout the course.

Reflective Human Action Model

Becoming a Learning Community

This initiative is directed toward creating the ideal conditions for meaningful learning in Kappa Omicron Nu. Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline warned that many organizations have learning disabilities. Thus, evaluation of Kappa Omicron Nu as a learning community in collaboration with units will have a high priority in this effort of “becoming.”

Online Publications

   New: Volume 12, Numbers 1 and 2 of Kappa Omicron Nu FORUM: "Leadership: Up Close and Personal" and "Diverse Families: A Dialogue abut Reflective Practice."

    Six short online leadership programs: “Leadership 101: Vital Organizations,” “Leadership 102: Orientation for Chapter Presidents,” Leadership 103: Core Principles of Reflective Human Action," "Leadership 104: Making a Leadership Community," "In search of Excellence: A Chapter Development Activity," "Comprehensive Leadership Competencies."

Award Recipients

Chapter Awards

    Scholar Program – Forty-six grants 

Master’s

   Omicron Nu/Eileen C. Maddex Fellowship

Jason B. Hsieh, University of California-Davis - Public Health   Nutrition, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Doctoral

    Omicron Nu Research Fellowship

Anne L. Hague, University of Maine - Food and Nutrition sciences

Grants

    Conclave Scholarship for Advisers

Nancy A. Morris, Ashland University 

Katrina Rivers Thompson, Berea College 

Sue Ballard de Ruiz, Tennessee State University 

Janelle Walter, Baylor University 

Diana D. Carroll, Carson-Newman College 

Joyce S. Harrison, Middle Tennessee State University 

    Undergraduate  Student Paper Awards

Kimber Abair, Central Michigan

Andrea Beaver, Oklahoma State

Jennifer Brenneman, Arizona

Jessica Byers, Michigan State

Rachel Coolman, Bradley

Evelyn Davila, Florida State

Genevieve Frank, Penn State

Nicole Hanson, College of St. Catherine

Melissa Hochman, Kansas State

Cindy Eivins, Iowa State

Jennifer N. Klaus, Ashland

Andrew Scherbarth, UN-Lincoln

2002-2003 Awards

    Master’s Fellowship

Eileen C. Maddex Fellowship—$2,000 awarded annually from an endowment in the Omicron Nu Fellowship Fund in honor of her contributions as Omicron Nu Executive Director.

    Doctoral Fellowships

Hettie Margaret Anthony Fellowship—$2,000 awarded for doctoral study from the Kappa Omicron Phi Fellowship Fund in honor of her as founder of Kappa Omicron Phi at Northwest Missouri State University.

Omicron Nu Research Fellowship—$2,000 awarded annually for doctoral research from the Omicron Nu Fellowship Fund.

    Research/Project Grants

One or more grants are awarded annually that meet the criteria of the Kappa Omicron Nu research agenda. Cross-specialization and integrative research is the research priority for the honor society. Multi-year proposals will be considered.

National Alumni Chapter Grant—$500 awarded annually as a project of the National Alumni Chapter.

New Initiatives Grant—$3,000--awarded annually from the Kappa Omicron Nu New Initiatives Fund.

    National Grants to Chapters

Scholar Program—Variable Grants--awards will be based on the prior year’s total initiates according to the following schedule once each biennium: 1-10, $150; 11-30, $250; 31-50, $350; 51 up, $500. In order to be eligible for this program, each chapter shall file a document describing the criteria for awarding local scholar grants.

Publications in 2000-2001

    Kappa Omicron Nu Dialogue  

Three issues: focus on Kappa Omicron Nu governance, Making an Impact on the Future, Knowledge Management.

    Kappa Omicron Nu FORUM 

Three issues involving the following themes: “Legacies,” "Leadership: Up Close and Personal," and "Diverse Families: A Dialogue abut Reflective Practice." The latter two are online publications.

Call for Papers

    Topic: Personal, Social & Corporate Responsibility in a
      Common World

Drs. Margaret Bubolz and Linda Nelson, Guest Editors

Objective: This theme of FORUM will explore issues and problems from an ecological perspective, taking into account the interface of individuals, families, and communities with the natural and social-cultural environment.

Overview: This issue will serve a dual purpose. It offers members and nonmembers an opportunity to think about the future from the perspective of "Personal, Social, and Corporate Responsibility in a Common World." And selected papers will be published from the Paolucci Symposium and Society of Human Ecology Conference with that same theme. This issue is planned to blend theory with practice, and cutting-edge thinking with real world realities. A range of topics and discussions are welcome to challenge thoughts, practices, and potentials. Broad topics include global change, the “commons”, health, human development, “Green” movements, family and community, technology and ethics, and consumption and production.

Discussion: The challenge of environmental sustainability is joined by related dimensions of worldwide systemic change: the equity and justice challenge, increasing marginalization of people and cultures, and the worldview challenge (Harman, 1998). Perception appears to be the problem, and perceptions can change. Because we are learning that small changes can make big differences, all we need is a significant minority to make positive change. Our scholarship will be needed to be sure that the welfare of future generations is uppermost in thought, word, and deed. The following list offers some suggested topics:

• The Perils and Promises of Human Ecological Models
• The Interface of Sustainable Human and Natural Systems (Consequences, Ambiguities, Benefits, Conflicts)
• Environmental Issues: Corporate and Consumer Responsibility
• Global Ecological Demands and Human Existence
• Transformation of Human and Environmental Resources to Develop Human and Social Capital and Sustain Life
• Facing the Future: Proactive Policies for Human and Natural Systems
• Family Decision Making in the Ecosystem
• Shaping Destiny Through Everyday Life in the Family
• Values Underlying Our Joint Responsibility for the Ecosystem
• Quality of Life Issues Across the Life Cycle
• Designing Human Environments from an Ecological Perspective
• Food Systems: Personal, Social, and Corporate Responsibility
• Human Health: The Interface of Life Styles, Genes, & Environments
• Marketing in the Global Ecosystem
• Institutional and Community Settings for Human Well-being

Information and Deadline: Kappa Omicron Nu FORUM is a refereed publication outlet for both members and nonmembers. Manuscripts are due August 31, 2002. Further information and the “Guidelines for Authors” can be found at www.kon.org/cfp_gfa.html or contact:

Dr. Dorothy I. Mitstifer, Editor
4990 Northwind Drive, Suite 140, East Lansing, MI  48823-5031

Telephone: (517) 351-8335 - Facsimile: (517) 351-8336
e-mail: dmitstifer@kon.orgdmitstifer@kon.org

Harman, W. (1998). Global mind change: The promise of the 21^st century. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

    Legacies for the Future

Continuing theme without specific deadlines.

Guest Editor Sharon Nickols is seeking manuscripts for the fourth volume.

Objectives: Record the accomplishments of leaders in FCS/Human Sciences and all of its specializations, draw implications about the legacy of past leaders, and inspire professionals to make contributions.