Chapters
Most Frequent Question Received
Identifying Potential Members
Registration and Induction Guidelines
Chapter Officer and Faculty Advisor Information
Programs & Activities
Chapter Maintenance
Alumni Information
Most Frequent Question Received
Q: Help! All chapter officers left following graduation last year. We don't know where any forms are. How do we start to organize our Psi Chi chapter for this new year?
Psi Chi publishes each year a special summer orientation issue of Eye on Psi Chi to provide chapters with the information needed to get started. Browse through this issue to familiarize yourself with the information included on chapter operations. During September, your chapter will receive the fall chapter packet with additional forms for chapter operations. Be sure there is a Psi Chi mailbox within your department for receiving all information mailed to your chapter from the National Office. Check the Chapter Directory to verify your chapter's address. If you need copies of forms, booklets, etc. immediately, you can always download them from this site.
Identifying Potential Members
Q: How does our chapter get started on identifying new members for this year?
Psi Chi provides a one-page guide for identifying and inducting members, and additional membership guidelines are described on page 3 of the Chapter Handbook. Start now to plan a social event to introduce Psi Chi to new students. Make announcements in psychology classes about the advantages of Psi Chi membership.
Q: How do we identify the upper 35% of the classes which is required for Psi Chi membership?
Ask the registrar for the cutoff GPA for the upper 35% of each class (sophomore, junior, senior). If the registrar cannot provide this information, ask your faculty advisor to obtain a list of the psychology students and let the advisor determine the upper 35% break from this list. This should provide a GPA that would closely correspond to the upper 35% for all students in a class. Be sure that student members do not look at other students' grades. This must be completed by faculty members to protect the privacy of student grades.
Q: Who should be invited to Psi Chi membership?
Any student who has met the guidelines (also found on page 3 of the Chapter Handbook) is eligible for Psi Chi membership. Be sure that the student not only has a 3.0 GPA (both overall and in psychology classes), but also meets the upper 35% requirement listed above. Many chapters forget to include the 35% requirement when inviting new members.
Q: What if our chapter wishes to increase the membership requirements from three completed psychology courses to four?
Chapters may increase the scholastic requirements, including the number of courses or the GPA required, for their chapter; however, chapters are cautioned not to add any service requirements for Psi Chi membership. Write any additional academic requirements into your chapter's set of bylaws (use this sample set of bylaws as a guide).
Registration and Induction Guidelines
Q: What is the process of registering new members?
Registration guidelines are outlined in a one-page guide of inducting members, as well as in the Chapter Handbook. Send the Membership Application form to determine qualified students, then send the Invitation to Membership to those who qualify. Collect fees and have new members complete their registration cards. Send to the National Office one Registration Form listing all new members, the top halves of each new member's Registration Card, and one check covering all the $35 registration fees for all new members.
Q: How much time does it take to get the new members' certificates, cards, and lapel pins?
Please send your chapter material to the National Office at least three weeks before the induction ceremony. This allows one week for mailing to us, one week for processing, and one week for mailing back.
Q: Is there a deadline for sending in member registrations?
No, Psi Chi has no registration deadline. We accept registrations at any time throughout the year. There is also no limit to the number of times registrations may be sent to the National Office (within reason). If you have already had an induction ceremony, and one or more students appear qualified for membership, those students may be informally inducted and registered as new members at that time. You may then wish to include these new members in a later induction ceremony, but in the meantime those new members may enjoy the benefits of Psi Chi membership.
Q: Our chapter has already sent in the Registration Form for the semester. Are we still able to add new members?
Yes, chapters are able to add new members at any time. The faculty advisor or chapter officer who is responsible for registrations will need to follow the same procedure as with the inductees who are already registered.
Q: Can our chapter fax in the member names and send the check by mail?
Unfortunately, the fax machine sometimes distorts letters, causing faxed names to be misspelled on the certificates. The National Office also requires a signature verifying that the submitted new members are qualified for membership. Therefore, faxed names cannot be accepted.
Q: The registration form says that names must be typed, but we do not have a typewriter. How should we submit the names?
Attach a computer printout of the names and information required.
Q: What should we do if the chapter does not have enough Registration Cards for each new member to complete?
The Registration Card may be photocopied so your chapter has enough copies to provide to each new member to complete. If your chapter does not have any Registration Cards, you may download a copy from this site.
Q: How can we obtain a new certificate if a name is spelled wrong on the certificate?
If the name was sent in correctly and the certificate was spelled wrong, the National Office will correct the error at no charge. However, if the certificate is incorrect because the name was sent to our office misspelled, there is a $10 replacement fee for a new certificate and a $1.50 replacement charge for the card. For either circumstance, please fill out the Replacement of Certificate form.
Q: I was inducted into Psi Chi, but never received my certificate or card. What do I do?
First, check with your chapter officers to be sure the registration information was sent to the National Office or if the chapter still has your certificate and card in their possession. Then, contact the National Office for us to check our records to determine if your name ever reached our files. If the new names have not been received by the National Office, we can then start checking with the chapter to determine where the membership information went astray.
Chapter Officer and Faculty Advisor Information
Q: As a new chapter officer, how do I learn what my duties are and how to operate the chapter?
Refer to the Chapter Handbook and the Chapter Officer Guidelines. The entire Chapter Officer Guidelines booklet gives invaluable information to new officers.
Q: As the new faculty advisor for the chapter, what are my responsibilities?
Refer to the Chapter Handbook and this page for advisors. Psi Chi thanks all of its industrious advisors for the time they give to making Psi Chi the successful organization that it is. Awards and grants have been implemented to reward our Psi Chi faculty advisors for their dedicated efforts on behalf of the Honor Society.
Programs & Activities
Q: What kinds of programs should our chapter plan for this year?
Refer to the Chapter Handbook, the Chapter Activity Guide, or the Sightings section of Eye on Psi Chi for numerous tips on programs and chapter activities.
Q: Our chapter wants to invite other chapters in the surrounding area to attend our event/speaker program. How can we contact them?
Refer to the Chapter Directory on this site, which lists chapters by name, region, state, and zip code order. Find your chapter by zip code and those surrounding your zip code will be the ones closest to you. Contact information is listed for all chapters.
Q. What can our chapter do to make our inactive members become more active in Psi Chi activities?
Psi Chi reminds all chapters that Psi Chi membership is earned through outstanding GPAs in psychology and a class rank in the upper 35%. While it is not mandatory for new members to be active in the chapter's service projects, all members are reminded that the Psi Chi chapter provides an opportunity to exercise leadership and service skills—attributes that are examined by graduate schools and future employers. So chapters should encourage participation of members by reminding them of the opportunities the Psi Chi chapter provides for members, rather than trying to cajole members to attend chapter meetings just for the sake of attending.
We strongly recommend that all chapters use the Chapter Member Survey at the beginning of each term to determine how to effectively target the activities of the chapter to the needs and interests of the members.
Chapter officers are encouraged to read the online Eye on Psi Chi article "Secrets to Increasing Membership and Active Involvement." This article from the Penn State Chapter tells how membership and involvement in chapter acitvities was increased 400% in just one semester. Another article from Eye on Psi Chi entitled "Keys to Increasing Active Participation" provides helpful tips and proven strategies for member involvement. This article outlines how the SUNY Albany Chapter involved more members in chapter activities. Similar articles about encouraging chapter growth can be found here. Further tips from chapters can be found in the Sightings section of each issue of Eye on Psi Chi and the online Chapter Activity Guide.
Chapter Maintenance
Q. How should our chapter handle transfer students? Since Psi Chi requires that three semesters be completed, do all three semesters have to be completed at the school to which the student transferred? Will Psi Chi count the grades from another school, even though those grades were not transferred by the new school? The new school only accepted the hours completed, not any grades.
Transfer students who are already Psi Chi members:
Students transferring from one Psi Chi Chapter to another Psi Chi Chapter need only complete the Transfer of Psi Chi Membership form and submit it to the Psi Chi National Office so that we can transfer the record from the original Psi Chi chapter to the new Psi Chi chapter. There is no fee to transfer a Psi Chi member from one chapter to another; however, if the Psi Chi member wishes to have a new certificate listing the new school, there is a $10 fee for the certificate. Only Psi Chi members are eligible to transfer from one Psi Chi chapter to another.
Transfer students who are not Psi Chi members:
If the transferring student was not a Psi Chi member at the previous school, then that student must join the Psi Chi chapter at the new school and pay the national $35 membership fee, in addition to any chapter fees involved.
All chapters should complete bylaws stating the transfer requirements for the chapter. Some ask that all membership requirements be completed at the new school, while other chapters ask that only one semester be completed at the new school, as long as all other requirements have been met elsewhere. The Psi Chi National Office requires that a minimum of one semester be completed at the new school, so that the student can establish a GPA showing a rank in the upper 35% of the class. Ranking in the upper 35% of the class is one of Psi Chi's major requirements for membership. A student can not acquire a class rank without completing at least one semester at a school. Chapters must remember that it is not merely a 3.0 GPA that is required, but a GPA that places the student in the upper 35% of the class. The 3.0 GPA requirement applies only when the upper 35% falls below a 3.0, then the student must not only be in the upper 35%, but must also have a 3.0 GPA.
With regard to accepting transfer students' grades, Psi Chi accepts the policy of the respective school. If the school counts both the hours and the grades of the transfer, then Psi Chi at that school does as well. If the school transfers only hours and no grades, then that is the policy of the Psi Chi chapter at that school. Since schools vary so greatly in their policies concerning transfers and GPAs, Psi Chi always accepts the official GPA on record in the registrar's office.
Q. How does our chapter implement good chapter recordkeeping for new members?
Quite often the Psi Chi National Office receives a call from a chapter wanting to have a list of the chapter's members for the past 5 or 10 years. While the National Office does not mind providing this service for the chapters, it is the chapter's responsibility to ensure that all chapter records, including chapter membership materials, are stored in a permanent location or manner so that the chapter can have a record of its membership and history in years to come. Now that we are in the age of computerized records, we would recommend that chapter records be kept on a computer disk for future reference (in addition to hard copies).
The member Registration Cards indicate that the chapter is to keep the bottom half and send the top half to the National Office. The bottom half of these cards should then be filed by the chapter for future reference of chapter members.
In addition, Psi Chi now recommends that each chapter elect an officer to oversee the chapter's membership records. This officer (who might be called Vice-President of Membership, Membership Chair, etc.) should be responsible for maintaining the names, student ID numbers, permanent addresses, and graduation information of all new members, and then turning over this information (hard copies and computer disk) to the new membership officer for future reference and archival purposes. Psi Chi National finds that the membership duties are important enough that one of our four staff members is our Director of Member Services, whose responsibility it is to maintain the membership rolls for all chapters' members.
Q. How does a chapter keep good financial records?
In addition to keeping up with member names, each chapter is reminded of the importance of keeping up with new member payments. Quite often, the National Office receives a call from an individual saying that she had paid her $35 membership fee to the chapter 5 years ago and that she was a member. Unfortunately this fee might not have ever been sent to the National Office with her name, so there is no way for us to confirm her membership here since her fee and name were never received from the chapter.
Psi Chi requires all chapters to submit an Annual Report and a Financial Report each year before June 30. The Annual Report lists all new members and fees received so that we can double-check our records to verify that all new members inducted are listed at the National Office. Be sure to inform your treasurer of the importance of maintaining correct financial records each year to verify membership fees paid and fees forwarded to the National Office. Such financial records should be kept on the same computer disk referred to in the membership records so that if a question arises 5 years from now, Psi Chi can go back to its records to determine where the solution to the question lies.
Alumni Information
Q: How can I continue to stay involved with Psi Chi following graduation?
Tips for alumni membership are provided in the Chapter Handbook. If there is not currently an alumni group associated with your chapter, get your chapter to organize one. Alumni may keep up with current Psi Chi happenings by subscribing to Eye on Psi Chi for $10 per year.
Q: How can our chapter contact our Psi Chi alumni members?
You may first obtain a list of your chapter's past members from the Psi Chi National Office. Then contact your school's alumni office to obtain current addresses or telephone numbers for these chapter alums.
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