Removing a bad president
 

I wasn't able to find anything on point through searching, so forgive me if this has been addressed elsewhere.

My chapter president is running my sorority into the ground. We are small, under 40 members. She was elected in November, and ever since, she has been more detrimental to the well being of our chapter every day. Just a few things:

1) She chose last minute to run for president, and that created a lot of negativity toward her in the first place from the girls who were upset that the other candidate didn't win.
2) She was only in the chapter for a year before she was elected, and she still doesn't really know our rules or bylaws. People ask her questions and she cannot answer them, and it's unacceptable that our own president does not know our rules.
3) She abuses her power constantly...for instance, our recruitment director last semester didn't make grades and she and our vice pres. lied about it until someone leaked the info to our whole chapter. Instead of electing a new recruitment director, she held the position for formal recruitment weekend and we got fined for several mistakes she made.
4) She is not a good role model or someone the rest of us can respect. She has no problem with attending unregistered parties (which you can get in massive trouble for on our campus), she fell off of a bar a few weekends ago and is always outrageously sloppy in public, and she has had to be dragged out of fraternity boys' bedrooms every time we have had a mixer or even Greek Week practice.

I don't know how to deal with her. The only system we have in our chapter is our standards board, but due to the complicated rules about our standards board and the fact that our chapter advisor is totally out of touch with our chapter, I doubt going to our standards board will help.

Should I go to nationals? I tried to talk to her and she said "Don't even start that with me." If she isn't removed as president, things are going to get progressively worse and I don't know how much more our members can take. She lives in the house, and it appears that everyone except her housemates is against her. It's just a sticky situation and we don't know what to do.

Has anyone else been in a similar position? I would appreciate any advice.

I just have one question, why'd people elect her then? Are you sure your opinion is the majority opinion here? IT doesn't make a lot of sense to get mad at someone for running because she won...

OK, since you were nice enough to number, I will too.

1. She ran at the last minute - so what? Apparently more people wanted her to be president than the other girl - who I'm kind of guessing thought she had it in the bag. IMO, good going. Nothing worse than someone who thinks she has a mandate just because no one else wanted to step up.

2. I've heard of people being elected to an office literally a week after they were initiated. If it's true she doesn't know the rules, is anyone trying to help her with that? Or are they just criticizing?

3. I'm not sure if the "she" who made mistakes is the prez or the rush director so I won't comment on how the subsequent fines should have been handled. Either way, no, the prez should have not let someone who didn't make grades have an office, but here was her choice: kick someone out at the last minute (I'm not sure of the timing here) and thrust someone into arguably the most important office in the sorority who had no clue what the eff they were doing, or bend the rules and get through rush. How did you do in rush - did you make quota? Are you at total? Are you happy with the new members from that rush? If so, then quit complaining and move forward.

4. I'm going to be straight up here. You sound like a jealous beeyotch. Has anyone talked to her about her alleged drinking problem? Or is it just an issue because she's drinking her beer out of a can instead of a glass? Do you have anything in your chapter bylaws regarding punishment for attending unregistered events?

I also have to ask...how big is your house? If you have 40, and the house holds 20, I hate to break it to you, but her "housemates" are half the sorority.

The complexion of your chapter sounds as though it's changing. I'm sorry if you have a problem with it, but you can either go with the flow or make yourself miserable and get a reputation as a jerk.

ETA: Be careful what you wish for, or you will surely get it.

With respect to the recruitment director, what would have preferred to see happen? And why is the standards board not an option? And what exactly do you want your HQ to do about it?

It sounds like you are aligned with the wrong clique.

You do come off as being whiny and disappointed that your side didn't win. You need to go ahead and get over that. Scheming and infighting won't help you. I'm about 90% sure that you and your faction need to suck it up and get with the program and do whatever you can to help your house.

There's that 10% of me though which says that very possibly, you aren't accurately conveying the situation and maybe something does need to be done. If you're part of a national organization, surely you have several levels of support before you have to contact your HQ. This is why the good Lord invented chapter advisors. As one of those, were I confronted with this issue, my advice to you would be basically what everyone else here is saying unless you can find some truly legitimate issue. By that, I mean this would have to be something which would threaten the continued existence of the chapter.

Elections have consequences. Trying to subvert leadership and running a faction in the house can just about never be a good thing.

I was somewhat sympathetic until I got here. You are DEAD WRONG for going outside your chapter before giving your standards board a chance.

I have to agree. If standards doesn't do something, you may have to actually accept that maybe you are wrong about the situation. In a sorority, things won't always go your way, and your opinion isn't always the "right" one. Try looking at the situation through "sisterly" glasses instead of being so critical of everything your president does. It's a hard job. Give your Standards officer a call and see where she stands on this issue. Be aware that by ratting out your president about unauthorized parties, you may be opening a can of worms. Just be ready.

This raises a few questions:

- If she's really such a bad president, why did people decide to elect her?
- Why do you think it wouldn't pass the standards board?
- Shouldn't you have something in your bylaws or constitution that details the removal of bad officers?

Ohhhhhhh yep. Not just for her, but for your whole chapter, and the Greek system in general. Do you really want to be the girl who did that?

In addition, if your HQ has pretty much been laid back, not in a negative way but as far as letting you run things on your own as young adults should - calling them will put you on their radar as a problem chapter, and once on it is quite hard to get off.

Have you thought about talking to an advisor? I wouldn't call up your Nationals at all. That is not the proper chain of command. Plus like others have said, in the long run you will end up opening a can of worms. I know you said your Chapter Advisor was out of touch but surely you have more advisors....

Ditto. Even as a new member, this would have been the first thing I looked into.

In all fairness, there's a possibility that the closest physical advisor is a faculty member mandated by the school, who isn't a sister and truly doesn't know what she's doing. In that instance, no, she shouldn't be given any more power than she has. BUT, there should be someone on a regional level they can contact before skipping all the steps and going straight to national council.

Removing a high ranking officer is a tricky proposition, especially a president. I dealt with this as chapter president and it was one of the worst parts of my collegiate experience.

I'm assuming you are a member of an NPC sorority? Or is this a local?

You should have in your chapter and national bylaws and procedures an outline of how to handle a problem. If there is a problem that should go to standards, you need to take it to standards whether you think it will help or not. You need to speak to the adviser, whether you think it will help or not. Not knowing the chain of command in your organization, I would assume next would be some kind of district officer. If you truly think you cannot go through standards and the local adviser first, you can go to the district officer. But you need to be sure you can really explain why you are going out of the established procedures and be ready for the consequences within your chapter. It is also possible that your district officer will listen and tell you to go to standards and the adviser to get the ball rolling, but you will at least know you have the support and backing of someone else.

If your chapter president is breaking rules and procedures, then someone does need to do something. She isn't above the law. Procedures and bylaws are there to protect everyone and the president of all people should be adhering to them.

That said, you may find yourself very unpopular if you try to make a push toward removing her. That isn't to say you shouldn't do so, but be prepared to suffer the consequences of doing the right thing for the present and future of the chapter.

Let us know how it goes.

I thought this was going to be about the last two administrations.

The only procedure or bylaw I see that she broke is not removing the rush chair for grades...something in which the VP was also complicit, and of course the rush chair herself not coming forward and admitting it. The OP isn't calling for the VP to lose her office.

Although reading this again, it seems as though she might be saying the prez took over as rush chair. In a chapter of 40, sometimes that stuff happens - the person who's standing there is the one who sticks her finger in the dike. My question is why there isn't/wasn't an assistant rush chair.

Of course, we are only getting part of the story. I doubt very seriously that the President removed the rush chair for grades without the input of an advisor. Rank and file members don't always know the back story of everything going on in the chapter. As for the President "giving the chapter a bad name" if this is really happening, i really think she should try to handle this very delicately but definitely try to address it.

I'd be surprised if a president could just unilaterally remove another officer. Most chapters have some sort of disciplinary body that would have to meet and handle this. Usually, that includes at least one alumna advisor.

Let your advisers know you aren't happy. Also, call her before standards if she is violating sorority rules, same as you would for any other member.

The chapter voted her into office, so you have to deal with it. Also, I don't see how not making grades led your recruitment VP to violate some recruitment rules. One thing has nothing to do with the other. Also, unless you are on the exec board, you don't really know why she was left in office. It could be a "cover up" or it could well be that they needed someone in that office to run recruitment who had been trained and there wasn't time to train someone else.

So report her bad behavior to the proper channels. The proper channels up are your advisers, not your national HQ.

If you don't like this advice, then drop out. I can promise you that no changes are going to happen overnight or in the next week, so if you are that impatient, then go find something else to do. Greek Life does abide by a set of rules, there is a chain of command, and like it or not, things are very political.

The way I read it is that the recruitment VP should have been removed and wasn't until word leaked out that she hadn't made grades and they were forced to remove her. The president stood in for the recruitment VP during recruitment rather than electing someone else. And because the president didn't know the rules and procedures, the chapter was fined for rush infractions.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. :)

OP has a history of posting questions and running off
From two years ago.

I suggest that the OP can provide more info, or we can stop trying to fix her problems with more effort than she seems to put into fixing them. (On GC at least, but since she posted here that's the metric.)

That's what I thought on second read too, except the main VP (not the rush vp - she is a third person) was also involved in the cover-up. For some reason though, it's OK that the main VP lied to the sorority.

I agree that the VP lying is bad too. But apparently the lying is only one reason why the OP thinks the president needs to be removed.

And maybe she doesn't need to be removed, but just needs guidance. It almost sounds like there isn't a lot of adviser input and that's too bad. I learned so much from my advisers and the national officers I worked with. The leadership training I got through my Tri Delta experience was just as valuable as my college education.

+1


Try internally. If everyone agrees they made a mistake, and if your bylaws somehow don't have procedures for this, you may have to hold elections for all positions again. It's what we did in high school but there you go. If not everyone agrees with you, a term only lasts so long.
Try your governing council if you have one (this is a national sorority right?)
If that doesn't work maybe try your university...but you run the risk of annoying everyone or shutting everything down.

Hmm..well she's definitely the bad apple that's spoiling the bunch. I can understand why you would feel frustrated. I think if you know that everyone is feeling this way then as a unit go and confront her. Not like, 39 v 1 that would be crazy! But let it be known that as your highest official that either she's got to get her act together or step down. Sorry..

About the standards board issue--- if standards is ran like it is in my org, the process is private and confidential. To the OP, they could be handling it, but you may not know (as you shouldn't, if you have a private and confidential standards)