Class Reflection

Inhale. Exhale. Jimmy starts typing...

Growing my pain threshold is not fun. Every word I say is crucial. Every action I take or don't take could be the end. OS. 

Remember the multiple minute-long moments of silence during the first few classes this quarter? Molly or Sharrell asked a question and no one answered. Yep, let's laugh about that. Elyse, thank you for being dependable. As you mentioned in class, you feel so responsible to your chapter and "whenever [you are] at the house, [you] must be working on Pi Phi stuff". Your commitment is honorable. I noticed you went to Panera Bread after our meeting on Sunday--I assumed you needed to get some of your own work done. To be honest, I haven't done school work in two weeks and I am really concerned about my academics. Carole, you admitted discouragement with the lack of identity in your chapter at the beginning of the term, which, coincidently, symptoms of discouragement are bombarding me now. Your ability to listen and collaborate I sense are working, or at least your joy and friendliness outweigh all else. Sean, you are the man--calm and confident. Eric, I hope we both do well on our marketing midterm tomorrow. Thank you for filling me in on the notes from the two classes I missed for legitimate reasons. Ashley, I am the only classmate that filled out your Jahari Window, and I got 4/5 right. I must have cheated, but you are able, caring, happy, and independent. The only one I didn't nail was observant. Megan, I would not want to be on the receiving end of your wrath. I will be keeping tabs on AChiO because my roommate's significant other is your sister, so best of luck in the transition to president. We have great confidence in you. Samantha, you are cheerful, kind, and trustworthy and these traits are some of my favorite. Isabel, half of us identified you as kind, friendly, and confident. Though you skipped class a lot, I am very happy to have known you from BGLI and see that we both became chapter presidents.

We all have visions that require change. Each of you have qualities that encourage me. Please, before you go take some of my energy and idealism with you.

What am I going to write about

The IFC just spent a whole bunch of money renting out the SKY TERRACE at the Columbus Blue Jackets game. I think the goal of this event was to foster fraternal friendship, but it did not happen. First off, there was no place to socialize other than in your seats. No food or drinks were available for purchase on our level, so we needed to go down an elevator to purchase them. Consequently, we did not mingle while eating and casually watching the game because the setting did not allow for it. We sat in our chairs with our individual chapters spread out among three times as many seats as attendees. The single guy that invited and came with two Pi Beta Phi girls made the right decision--even though this was an IFC only promoted event. Sure, the game up to the last fifteen minutes when Detroit went from down one to up three, but I did not get to know any other greek men. I write this so we keep in mind this fun but somewhat failure of an event when planning other “fraternal love” events. How do we get chapters to get to know each other rather than just hang within their own chapters? I propose not having anymore IFC only events at sporting events and instead have multiple councils participate. I hypothesize that if it is a coed outing, then conversation between chapters will occur, and our investment in dues to the IFC will have greater returns. 

Qualifying statement: Now that I think about it, a few of the chapters were seating together. So it was successful for some groups. 

Values Based Selection Process

Before FH decides who to pursue and pass bids to next quarter, we drew up values based selection criteria. "To have the capacity to meet and make friends" is the first requirement for membership stated in our object; therefore friendship is the first of four values. Tangible ways to measure friendship capacity is having 1-on-1 interviews, three or more brothers speak on his behalf, and if he provides at least two other PNMs to add to the master recruiting names list. Second, scholarship--GPA being above the all-IFC average, which means as the community improves so does the requirements of joining FH. Third, character--distinguished by interviews, but definitely by the spiritual chair. Finally, leadership is essential--being involved in 2+ other student organizations, having a job and in another organization, or being an officer in another organization.

One tactic to stimulate conversation about the fraternity at 1-on-1 meetings is for us to show him our values based selection criteria.

For the most part, fraternities have similar values, but it is the ones that hold their members to them that are the best. Hopefully we follow through.

Oh Shoot

It's 11:18PM now and the house is calm. Several of us are sick--someone is coughing up a lung down the hall. But it is calm. Perhaps out of emotional exhaustion or perhaps by the fact that Eddie George's $3 burgers are now settling in our stomachs and the grease is oozing into our brains as our engines are shutting down. We escaped today's bumpy ride. 

6:30PM "Happy Valentines Day guys!" Gina proclaims as we all start yelling out what kind of candy we want her to throw to us from the bag of goodies she purchased. The theme for tonight's brotherhood night is Funny You Tube Videos. Sugar and top rated clips go well together. After the video with talking animals wins the most votes from the chapter, the meeting is called into order...

"I just don't see the purpose." 

"I'm a senior. I don't know anyone."

"I did not want to do this in the first place."

"Everyone [] and sit down and help!"

"[edited out]!"

...and 7 were left. 

It's 11:35PM now and I have spent the last 4.5 hours working on building relationships with my brothers rather than working on compiling a large list of names for recruitment purposes. When I caught up with my brothers at Eddie Georges after many of them stormed out, I was grateful that my big brother had already calmed them down as he was heading into the house as they were leaving. Dinner was conversational and fun despite less enjoyable food. Once home, I sat down with one of my brother's to listen and work things out. Though I did not lose my cool during the meeting earlier, I could have communicated the meaning of what we were and included brothers in conversations about recruitment before throwing a large task of coming up with 50 names each before we left for EGs. 

Over the next week I will need to build relationships if this large undertaking of a recruitment system overhaul is going to work. PhiredUp comes in a week from tomorrow.

*Tired; therefore may be errors in writing. Sorry.

Cigars, Collaboration, and Civility

We are in the beginning stages of renovating our living room. The necessity of this was reinforced when an 82-year-old brother sent us a box of pictures taken over the past half century. While looking through the old photographs on Sunday during our annual "Super Bowl of Wings" party, we noticed that our living room has not been updated in several decades. At our chapter meeting Monday several proposals were presented by an interior designing group. During Q&A time, a chaotic and out-of-order session commenced with nearly everyone sharing his opinion about the proposed ideas. Since I was trying to hold this meeting under an hour, after several minutes I called the meeting back to regular order and moved on to committee reports (We succeeded in holding it under an hour).

Remembering last night, collaboration took place. Fortunately, the chapter widely accepts the general motif of the renovation—a rustic yet collegiate atmosphere where, if cigar smoking was allowed in the house, it would look appropriate in our new living room. One comment stood out that was not about the details of the ideas, but about other projects in the house; he said there were more pressing projects to spend money on than the living room. An older member of our chapter, who sits on the alumni board, realized that this statement could squelch our current state of creative thinking and energy, so he quickly answered the concern by saying the board is dealing with other house projects too. Collaboration was easily achieved for several reasons: we all bought into the vision of renovating our living room; we all come from similar backgrounds and have similar tastes or have learned to appreciate those of their brothers, and professionals did the hard work of putting together pictured proposals of options that increased excitement. Conflict was mitigated because each brother shared his opinion in an atmosphere of civility—even though some ideas received laughter. 

CPLI Recap

This past weekend was fun. Highlights: Thrive Five tape games, wobbling, playing mafia until 3:30am with all the councils represented (Bril, Khris, and Delonzo are hilarious). Building friendships with my fellow CPLC members through all these experiences and others will make Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5:18 more meaningful. The first day of CPLI I lucked out by being chosen to switch from "chapter two" into "chapter five" since Molly and Ashley from class were both in my new group. Andy and I were able to discuss how FH keeps grades up and how his fraternity keeps 100% attendance at all events. FIJI's Adam sure is well spoken and loves his fraternity. My freshman year Adam and I sat down and he showed me the ropes of all there is to offer here at Ohio State. I wrote him a thank you note reminding him of that meeting. In all, the most valuable thing I took away was the new relationships with other chapter presidents. I am already scheduling coffee breaks, lunches, and dinners with them. Since my LEAP goal coming out of CPLI is to reach sixty active members by Fall 2012, I am in need of seeking advice in making first order changes to accommodate the growth. This weekend I decided to sit down with each new exec board member and ask them their goals for the year. Now we can all keep these in mind as motivation throughout our terms.

Week 3: Change

“They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” –Andy Warhol

*I do not know the context of Andy’s quote, but I will use his quote for my purposes.

Time is an overarching abstract concept that was personified in Andy’s statement. As he noted, it cannot “change” anything. An individual’s actions lead to change over time. For example, the President or his advisors made a single order change by deciding to create a website after the stimulus/recovery bill passed to show projects where stimulus money was designated too. This is a single order change because many Americans demanded transparency and all the White House needed to do was make a website (See http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/default.aspx). On a side note and in relation to our reading, part of citizenship is political involvement, and Americans need to stay current and express their opinions when appropriate to their representatives.

At the beginning of the quarter live-out fraternity brothers expressed concern that they were left out of fraternity events in the past because of a lack of communication. Part of this was because roles were not clearly defined among the executive board (which we are going to make clear at our first 100% attended executive board meeting Sunday night), and there was not an open calendar in house where people could read upcoming events. Therefore, one of our guys bought a calendar and posted it on the wall. I filled in the upcoming events and we received positive feedback. In addition to the calendar, every new member was finally added to the email listserve so all brothers can email everyone else quickly without typing in each person’s email address. These were both single order changes and resulted in positive change.