It was Skip's vision to build an annual retreat for the undergraduates to focus on building their leadership skills and to continue those lessons throughout the year thru a mentoring program. Skip worked with several Beta Psi alums to build the program based on Brother Bill George's book True North. The program consists of an annual retreat, most recently held at the Winshape Foundation at Berry College, and includes food, accommodations, books and materials, and leadership exercises all for the benefit of the undergraduate chapter. Since the first session in 2011, it has been a tremendous success.

Skip unfortunately passed away soon after the program started. As a testament to the impact Skip made in that first year, the undergraduates asked the Foundation to name the program after Skip and the Foundation quickly agreed. Further, the Foundation worked to establish an endowment, the Skip Beebe Memorial Fund, to help fund the program for the years to come.

The Skip Beebe Leadership for Life is a program developed for the Beta Psi community that is intended to not only instill valuable life lessons to Beta Psi undergraduates, but also to promote continued involvement from Beta Psi alumni in the lives and development of brothers and pledges. The program centers on providing enrichment to both students and alumni alike. It’s overriding premise and the three year curriculum is based on the book True North by Beta Psi alumni Bill George.

The program also includes prescribed activities throughout the year in between the annual retreats. A very important aspect of the year-long activities is that they will involve participation with the students by alumni mentors. These activities will be based on a teaching technique used by Mr. George at classes he teaches at Harvard whereby students are divided up into small groups that meet at prescribed times throughout the course. These small groups, called LDG for Leadership Development Group, have been found to be very powerful in helping students to delve deeply into important topics. The same concept was also used in an MBA class at Georgia Tech that was taught by Brother Bill Gunn.

The Skip Beebe Leadership for Life program has an annual cost of approximately $28,000. In 2017, Brother Bill George and his Foundation committed to a grant of $100,000 to cover the costs of the program for 5 years (2017 – 2021)! He also challenged the Foundation to find a $50,000 match and his foundation would add another $50,000 over the same five years. The match was pledged by the Significant Seven, and we are now in the fourth year of this grant period.