Question about Panhellenic
 

We have four chapters on our campus. This year to pick the rho chis they are ahving each chapter put in 3 apps and picking the best 4. This means one chapter could have three one chapter one and the rest none. This doesnt really seem fair. Anyway so I went tot he Panhellenic meeting today and asked if this is something we should vote on .... it is no where in our rush rules ... and they said no. What do you think? I looked for it in the green book and it said it is good to have equal representation while maintaining the quality of the rho chis. Thanks

Re: Question about Panhellenic
 

At the next Panhellenic meeting, take out your Green Book and mention this, and that you would like to take this proposal back to your chapters, so that chapters can vote, and then the Pan Delegates will vote based on their chapter's majority vote. Talk to the Greek Adviser if there is opposition. I don't think you're being unreasonable.

It's good to have one from every group, but you don't have to. I know my senior year our prez disallowed us from trying out for it because we were smaller and she wanted the room to be full.

If a sorority wants to take 3 or 4 sisters out of the rush room, that's their choice - the reason it says that in the green book is more so the onus of having sisters absent from rush is spread among the sororities. My point is they may think they are getting a leg up by doing this but it will really hurt them in the long run.

It is an NPC Unanimous Agreement that all business conducted by a Panhellenic other than "routine matters" (stuff like approval of minutes, perhaps approval of a budget if there's no fee increase involved) is to be conducted by vote of the PH Delegates (the PH President has no vote, BTW, even to break a tie) after they've had an opportunity to meet and confer with their chapters. Almost by definition, changes in recruitment matters are NOT routine. If this is a big change to how RCs have been selected in the past and what their representation is, it should go to a PH vote. If the membership stuff becomes too overwhelming for the delegates, you should have a PH committee composed of all the membership VPs and they can make suggestions to PH, but the vote still needs to be by the PH Delegates. Perhaps you could discuss the matter with your PH advisor and/or President first, and see if that quiet diplomacy works? Good luck!!

The thing is it says nothing aboiut rho chis in our rush rules. So does all of this still apply?

Your rush rules from your university, or the recruitment rules provided by the NPC Green Book?? Green Book supercedes the campus rules.

If you are using RCs in recruitment, you need to have the procedure for selecting them outlined in your recruitment rules. If people are balking at that idea (saying "Well, these are recruitment rules, so this really doesn't belong there) then change the name of your recruitment rules to "Campus Recrutiment Policies and Procedures" Make that document all inclusive about recruitment...how you assign rooms, rotation order, how you decide themes, how bids are distributed, every little detail you can imagine, put it there. Only change the procedures when necessary....and define how and when these will be changed (i.e. No later than 4 months before recruitment, at a regular CPH meeting, by vote, etc.)

Why be so anal retentive about this, you ask? 1. So that when your greek adviser suddenly resigns, somehow makes all the CPH files, info, recruitment rules, etc. disappear and they hire a male who looks at you and says "Green Book? NPC? There's rules in there?" two weeks before formal recruitment, you have all the info you need in one place. AND 2. so he won't try to change the rules two weeks before recruitment "because I said so". AND 3. You're not reinventing the wheel every year, it helps keep things consistent, and it actually decreases the stress of trying to figure out what's going on.

Can you tell I've been there, done that?:cool:

It never hurts to take a vote. If the CPH/Greek Adviser is worried about not having enough time for people to fill out applications, etc. if you take the time to vote on it, go ahead and have interested women fill out the apps. The GA doesn't have to make any decisions until the CPH decides.

Good Luck!
PsychTau

So after getting my hands on the green book I read the whole thing about three times ... I have a lot of time on my hands ... anyway so our panhellenic does a lot of things wrong but I don't want to bring it up because I don't want to cause trouble but some of the stuff really just pisses me off.

Oh yeah I asked in the meeting about taking a vote and they said no. I was like okay whatever ... but I don't know it just seems fishy. ( about how we are doing rho chis)

I can understand about you not wanting to cause trouble, but think of your responsibilities as a Greek woman on your campus. What is the best decision that is in line with your values, AXiD's values, and NPC's values?

You may not be able to fix every little thing, but think about the top one or two things your CPH is doing that is harming the system. Maybe you could change those.

Another option is to discuss it with your Greek adviser. He/she might be able to bring up the violations to your CPH and get them to change.

You can't eat an elephant in one sitting.

PsychTau

Its just hard because a lot of the things are the greek advisors descions. I can't spell anyway .... I want to be a rho chi and dont want to bring up anything bc politics is going to play a big role in getting rho chi (which is probably why I won't get it) and I don't want to stir up anything that might hurt my chances.

I'm sorry but I think this is too big of an issue to just let go! I thought the point of the Green Book was to be like the "Bible" for Panhellenics to follow...everyone has to follow the rules. And, if there aren't standardized rules for the selection of Rho Chis (or Rho Gammas or whatever) there needs to be - you just never know when someone is going to get into the position where they will be tempted to (and will!) take advantage of their power. Rules are there to protect ALL the members of Panhellenic, the good ones as well as the bad ones, and it's supposed to make everything fair. It just makes me angry that these girls don't want to follow the Green Book. :mad:

Anyways, now that I've gotten good and worked up, but there has to be something you can do. When you say a lot of this is because of the greek advisor, do you mean the campus' greek advisor or your chapter advisor? It sounds like this is something that needs to be brought to the attention of your chapter advisor so she can meet with the other chapter advisors as well as the campus' greek advisor so this can be corrected.

Are you the Panhellenic rep for your chapter? Are any members of your chapter on Panhellenic's exec board?

You know, you could suggest reading a part of the Green Book at each CPH meeting. In AST, we do Constitution Readings at each meeting, usually reading a part of the constitution that actives might not know in their day to day activities. It helps to keep things in your head and also reminds you that you can usually find the answer in the constitution.

So, after roll call at each CPH meeting, or some other appropriate time during the agenda read an exerpt from the Green Book. It will educate everyone and may open up the floor to people saying "Wait....we're not doing that right...."

The other option is to talk with members of the other chapters. See if they realize the Green Book isn't being followed. They may be just as scared to speak up as you are. Do a little behind the scenes campaigning. And get the chapter advisers involved as well.

If all else fails, call your NPC rep, have the other chapters call their NPC rep, have the regional NPC rep come visit your campus.

Good Luck with RC!

PsychTau

I am talking about our greek advisor. Our chapter advisor has tried and tried to get things to follor the green book and just hasn't gotten through and is just tired. The green book has nothing about how rho chis should be chosen. I am not the panhellenic rep ... our girl who is is a very meek freshman who doesnt know a lot about the system.

azdtaxi, I pm'ed you.

:D

This is how we do it at UIC and it seems to work out great.

Our panhell executive board: President, Vice President of Recruitment, and Vice President of Finance are elected in rotation. Currently, AST is president, PhiSigs are Recruitment, and DPhiE are Finance.

Each chapter has the member of their sorority that's on NPC E-Board as one of their rho chi's and they also elect another one from their chapter. The chapter who has their member as the NPC President gets to pick another rho chi so that the president, if need be, can remain impartial, or be able to attend to each group and not lead her own.

If you need me to explain this more, please let me know.

Hope this helps!