Ex-Exec Board Overstepping Boundaries
 

Hi, guys.

I'm on the executive board for my sorority this year. I'm really excited and I think we have a great board.

However, even though the semester hasn't started yet, we're already having a few problems. A few members of last year's exec board are already starting to "overstep" their boundaries. They're making decisions that cannot be made with out Executive Board Approval, ignoring protocol, trying to spend lots of money without approval of exec board, etc.

I don't want to completely discourage them because they're doing excellent work already in their respective officer positions. I am really excited for several of their ideas.

Have any of you dealt with this before? How do you kindly remind someone they have to follow protocol without it blowing up?

hey there,

Although I have experienced this personally, I'm afraid I might this year also. My advisor gave some good advice though. Mostly one girl who was a VP last year is now just a member of that same VP team, so it's kind of like she got demoted.

I would think that because it is summer this thing is more bound to happen because there aren't regular meetings. Once the semester starts though, our advisor said to make sure everyone knew that everyone is invited to leadership team meetings and their opinion is always welcomed especially if they have experience with the event that is being planned. Our sorority is designed so that we don't have to start from scratch every time a position is changed and so we can benefit from all the experience of the past, so we don't want ex-vps so simply stand aside . But she also said to make sure that although we will listen to everyone's opinion some thing are the LT's decision, only the LT can vote at LT meetings and the meetings can be closed at any time. (Your chapter might not be run exactly like that, but maybe you can taylor it to the way it is run)

People are probably just afraid of giving up power and things might go wrong if they aren't there to make decisions. If people really care about the sorority they of course want it to be successful and want to have a hand in that success. One of the things everyone in my chapter needs to work on it trusting the sister they elected to make the decisions of their position. If you think that is the reason these girls are behaving this way (which is what I suspect of the ex-VP in my chapter) then hopefully the advice above will help. If they simply are just control freaks, then that is probably a problem with them in everything they do and maybe just need to back away from the situation for a while.

Check the rules, esp. with your Finance Advisor.

If the items aren't approved in the appropriate way, the buyers may be liable for what they purchased.

I hope so!

Ditto! Your national organization should have an established "chain of command" to follow with regards to purchasing. For example, ours will only allow certain members to sign a contract. If you are a local organization, I'd suggest that you place some type of safeguard into your bylaws so that only president, treasurer or adviser can sign contracts.