2017 Bob Barnett Outstanding Alumni Service Award

Michael Repasky

You graduated from Cambridge High school in 2004. Cambridge is in southeastern Ohio and part of the Applachian region. You were pretty busy as tight end and defensive end on the Varsity football team while also holding a part time job at a local restaurant. Along the way you still had time to be class Vice President, Attorney for Ohio Mock Trial and National Honor Society.

Your high school experience qualified you for a scholarship to college and you chose OSU. Your high school guidance counselor let your know about the Balanced Man Scholarship program Sig Ep offered and you figured you might as well try for a little extra college money, even though you were not really planning to join a fraternity. But the brothers of Sig Ep made a great impression on you with our Balanced Man programming. You did win one of the scholarships and decided to join the chapter.

For a young man not interested in fraternities you jumped immediately into key leadership positions. Most of us know how important the VP of Recruitment is to a chapter and you accepted that position the same year you joined the fraternity. After a very successful recruitment result you became our Chapter President for the next 2 years and it takes a special person to manage and hold that position for more than a year.

You understand accomplishments are a team effort and you, Ryan Dressler and Nathan Weber all held executive positions over the same 2 years. So with an experienced team in place, the results were outstanding. Highest GPA, largest manpower, OSU Chapter of the Year, our 3rd Buchanan Cup, and we exceeded the 100 man chapter size for the first time.

For your efforts on behalf of the chapter and certainly thanks to the strong executive committees, OSU awarded you the IFC Chapter President of the Year in both 2007 and 2008 as well as the Ross-Gainer Greek Man of the Year in 2008. On the National level only one undergrad per chapter is selected each year to attend our highly prestigious Ruck Leadership Institute and you were our chapter participant in 2007.Your campus involvement at OSU included serving as the LeaderShape student On-site coordinator in 2007, a member of the 101st Class of SPINX 2008 and Inaugural Commencement Eve Student Speaker 2008. The undergrad exec team lead by the 2 years terms of Repasky, Dressler and Weber were certainly strong years for our chapter and set the “model” for our future.

After college you accepted a headquarters position as Regional Director for Sig Ep’s Mid – Atlantic States supporting 26 chapters. The following year you were selected as the Director of Chapter Services-East and led a team of 6 regional directors to service over 120 chapters throughout the eastern United States. In 2011, you were selected to be the Director of Chapter Services leading all regional directors who serviced over 225 chapters throughout the country. During your time directing chapter services our total membership grew more than any other year since the early 1990’s while also closing over 15 chapters for values infractions. Closing so many chapters would earn you the affectionate nickname of “ The fraterminator”. But this is the role you accepted and growing membership, while closing the chapters that do not maintain the Sig Ep values, is critical to maintaining the quality that Sig Ep expects.

Always one for teamwork you partnered again with Ryan Dressler, who was also at Headquarters, to create a Recruitment specific programming track for our Carlson Leadership Academy. You also worked closely with Sean Mittelman, our Ohio Gamma chapter President who succeeded you, once he arrived on Headquarters staff in 2009.

After your three years on Headquarters staff you came back to Columbus to join Abercrombie & Fitch to work on their international expansion. As an example of the value of your Sig Ep experience, for every job you have had since graduating college, including your Headquarter’s staff positions, you were hired by Dennis Kaps, a 2003 Ohio Gamma grad and recipient of our Bob Barnett Outstanding Alumni award in 2010. After 5 years with Abercrombie you moved to your present Operations position with American Signature Furniture.

In addition to volunteering with Sig Ep, you are also a donor and volunteer as a counselor with the Flying Horse Farms, a camp that provides sleep-away experiences for children with serious illnesses.

But this Service Award is not really about past or current accomplishments. It’s about the work you do for Sig Ep and that is truly outstanding. When you returned to Columbus in 2011, we older alums immediately grabbed you and practically begged you to become the AVC President. You willingly accepted. Working with the group of mentors you recruited to work with each member of the undergrad executive committee, your team has helped the undergrad chapter grow to new heights, continue to win Chapter of the Year and Buch cups, work through some difficult challenges and, most importantly, maintain our Balanced Man values and principals each year. On the National level you serve as a facilitator for 2 of our key leadership programs, EDGE and Carlson.

We do like tell our younger volunteers who receive this honor that it does not mean you get to retire! We plan to get many more years out of you!

So for your high level of commitment to Ohio Gamma and your strong leadership of our Alumni Volunteer Corporation we are very proud to honor you as the 2017 Bob Barnett Outstanding Alumni Service award winner!