Damage Control
 

I wanted to discuss Damage Control within chapters, and see what your policies are...

Situation number 1: Last year at Derby Days, very innocently one of our sisters picked up one of the banners of another sorority. It was lying right next to our stack, so she just assumed that it was ours. It ended up that they didn't have the banner for their skit. I was on the cell phone for the next 3 days apologizing to all of my friends from that chapter.

Situation number 2: In a competition between sororities where all sororities were competing, a member from sorority 1 was computing the points. Sorority 2 ended up getting extra points at the end, but still not enough to beat sorority 1. The member from sorority 1 did not cheat or alter points in any way, but sorority 2 is accusing her of this.

I don't know if any of you have been in similar situations, but I was wondering what different chapters had in terms of Damage Control.

The two events you described were pretty minor.

One was a simple faux pas.

The other was a case of a competitor that can't lose with grace.

Sounds like you handled it fine.

When you say "damage control" I envision the circling of the wagons. If one of your girls somehow became intoxicated at an event and ran someone over on her way home... that would be a call for some real "damage control" :D

If something major like that occurs, don't even try to handle it yourself. Get someone experienced. Get an advisor or call your HQ. Otherwise, that minor BS stuff will be forgotten in a few months anyhow.

agree these two incidents were not a serious problem and I think you did what damage control was needed for this. General damage control I'd say 1) apologize to the party who was offended... 2) let those who need to know what happened know what went down.. but DON"T tell everyone that's how drama happens.
If it's a serious enough offense.. use your standards or judicial board to work things out.. again letting the people who NEED to know what happened happened.

A letter from your president to theirs is always nice as well.

This is my call. Get a nice card, have the president write a note, and send it over.

i agree. these are simple misunderstandings, though they are sometimes taken too seriously by hot tempers.

we had a situation where one sorority's pledge broke the jaw of another sorority's pledge during a FIJI event. it was ugly. now THAT required some serious spin.