Chapter Morale
 

My chapter isn't one of the best on campus. (Not the worst either though.) Lately we've been having a huge problem with morale in the chapter. People are constantly bad-mouthing each other. I mean, it's gotten to the point where many people are thinking of this as more of a place to live than a sisterhood. It's depressing and many people want to drop. Activity involvement is also dropping. No one ever wants to go to Chapter or anything like that. Ridiculous excuses are made. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get us to want to be more involved, treat each other better and just improve our chapter overall? It's getting to be just depressing.

Most orgs have something along the lines of a ceremony or ritual that is sort of a way to constructively critisize and get problems out in the air.

Also, you probably know who most problems are stemming from. There is usually just a small group or click that causes them, so get them out. Drop them or tell them to leave or whatever.

Re: Chapter Morale
 

First I need to tell you that on GreekChat they dont like to talk about good/bad.

But in all actuality, be more selective in recruitment, so instead of taking whoever wants a bid, take people who deserve bids. Also, its my opinion that if theres lots of drama in your chapter, then yall need to start taking things less seriously. I know being greek is for life and what you do effects your rep, etc, but i dont think if you were to laugh with the people bad mouthing you and others, instead of getting mad, that might help. As far as chapter involvement, fine them out the ass if they dont show, then take that money, donate some to a charity, and then take some and have a band party. That will usually raise interest, if only for that one night.

one solution
 

disband

lindz, are you a first year member?

It's spring, and this stuff happens.

Wait it out and see how things are after Fall rush. My guess is that they'll be different.

I think the best course of action depends on what the real problems our.

My chapter was in a rough spot when i first joined. We were in the middle of active change and teh sorority was divided between the girls who would go out and drink and had sex(not slutty but just in general) vs the girls who viewed that anyone who did that was irresponsible and could never be an assest.

We had chapter meeting where we all got to talk things out. Things started to change more when certain points, such as some of the biggest partiers in the house had the highest GPAs. There were still some people who refused to pen their eyes and accept everyone but eventually through work and understanding we bonded and learned how to not recruit judgemental people.

Re: Re: Chapter Morale
 

no mensa, we don't like unfounded opinions of who's "best" on campus.

Your answer makes a lot of sense, actually, except if they had a "band party" they'd get their charter yanked.

And Erik...don't be a jerk.

Maybe they should haze each other. That would fix the problems they're having with sisterhood!

Re: Re: Re: Chapter Morale
 

Really? Why?

We never had a band party, but that's because we never had the $$. We couldn't fine sisters for not attending events, so we couldn't use money from that. But, if we had been able to fine, then I imagine we might have been able to afford it. Maybe I'm just out of the loop regarding what's acceptable to purchase with fining funds since that was never an option.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Chapter Morale
 

I don't know if they're thinking about the same thing you are.

Yeah, why would they get yanked for having a band party? a band party is when you hire a good band or a good cover band to come and play at your house. They are standard here at Bama, usually only in the Fall, the night before a football game, and the night after the game is over.

Also, I agree with GrizzlyWG on the fines.....If they aren't comeing to chapter....fine the sh*t out of them.

This may help.
Chapters run on momentum. Gather a couple of your friends together who feel the same way you do, and lay out a plan. If you'll orchestrate a series of small wins for the chapter, it will effect morale dramatically.
A series of small wins might include, for instance: focusing on a competitive sport that the women can play well and enjoy supporting the chapter; choosing one girl and slotting her in a spot for student government elections; identify a fraternity philanthropy competition and win it. The point is to expose the chapter to winning, even small things, on a regular basis. It distracts the members from turning inward and sniping at each other.
"Wins" can come in a lot of different forms. They don't have to be significant at all, but they have to be frequent enough to indicate a trend and to keep the members pre-occupied. Your promotion of these things adds to the "value" of memebrship.
Don't tell anyone what you're doing, outside your close circle of friends who are on board. You'll notice a fairly quick turnaround. My experience has been that the problems you describe begin to develop as soon as a chapter starts to ignore the external world and focus on their own small irritations. You gave it away with your opening line "My chapter isn't one of the best on campus". The mindset inside a chapter where members think that way is often self-destructive. They don't compete and they don't win. Instead of "what am I proud of?" the question is, "What am I unhappy about?"
Give them a series of little wins and they'll come right out of it.

I'm guessing that the band parties usually have alcohol served at them. That's the issue, not the band itself.

For ours at Alabama, they are at our Fraternity House, and you can bring your own cooler, or you can get beer from one of our pledge vendors in the house, which is not open and you must go up and request one. Open beer troughs are illegal. We also have an officer that checks ID's for those bringing coolers.

But if a sorority was to have a band party, or any party for that matter, at a private location with security, whats wrong with serving alcohol?

Most if not all sororities have regulations against purchasing alcohol with sorority funds or soliciting members for money to purchase alcohol. Also, there are NPC regulations about having alcohol at all on sorority property. When you get into 3rd party vendors, things can get complicated.

Yeah, I know, I just meant......what if they had a registered party? How do they have parties with alcohol if they don't use sorority funds?

That's one of the smartest things about many sororities. They don't allow their chapters to sponsor parties with alcohol. So, the fraternities have to have all of the parties, and our liability insurance rates skyrocket while our sister greeks are able to keep their insurance rates nice and low.

When I was a divisional officer, I saw a lot of information on insurance claims, and a substantial part of the insurance claims on fraternity houses are for damage caused by visitors -- many of them sorority women visiting during parties, etc.

That, plus the liability for "serving" alcohol on your property can be staggering.

That's why there is such a move by Nationals to have parties off-site, third party vendors, etc.

Finally, Delt, and I suspect a lot of other fraternity Nationals, has rules against using chapter funds for alcohol. Whether the chapters obey those rules is another matter.

They have them at third party vendors and everyone pays for their own drinks. That way you are paying for rental of the building, not for the alcohol.

It may be smart insurance wise, but IMO it contributes to an unequal balance of power between fraternities and sororities.

Do you mean like having a social account? I don't know of anyone that doesn't have a social account.

I think everyone has a social account, but it can't be used to buy alcohol -- at least on the record.

Delts also can't have "common containers" such as kegs -- which is another reason to use a third party vendor.

The insurance rules can be tough, but woe to the chapter that breaks them and then has a claim denied because it didn't follow the rules.

Insurance is a pain, but you can't live without it.

yeah, we can have kegs and troughs, but we have to have them behind a table or counter and have people hand them out.

here's a fun tid bit of information for you (just heard this at a risk managment presentation and no it was not greek based, but the guy is a lawyer)

If you have a keg (including party balls, keg-erators and the like) at your house (single family and greek), and something happens, insurance will not cover it. if you drank out of a keg, slipped, fell and hurt yourself, your HEALTH insurance will deny the claim (presenter was not sure if that was all states or not). all because you drank out of a keg. Additionally, if you even have a keg at your house (especially those keg-erators that are so common now) and have a problem unrelated to alcohol, the HOME insurance company can and will most likely deny the claim.

he said it doesn't matter who serves from the keg. This applies unless it is a 3rd party vendor, which kinda helps explain why all the HQ's made the rule.

Thanks gpb. I'm going to copy this to Risk Management as well since I think it's good information.