[Nhfulmer]

I was a sorority chapter advisor for many years and I can tell you I kept a short rein on them; however, I know sororities are more used to that.

My husband has been the only advisor that one chapter of his fraternity has ever had (for over 15 years) and they are consistently an award winning chapter. He attends most of their chapter meetings and their rituals - as well as officer training workshops, rush parties, etc.

From the cumulative experience that both of us have had, we firmly believe that good and involved advisors are what make the difference. The members do not view us as the "bad guys" -- actually we are viewed as combination substitue parents, big brothers/sisters and friends. We have both handled just about everything that you can imagine from personal problems to chapter problems. Since this thread is about a fraternity, I will address that. This is not the chapter where he was initiated and he became their advisor while they were a colony -- at their request, he has always been extremely involved in their chapter operations. At this point. chapter alumni are now becoming advisors to other chapters around the country as well as minor national officers and their national headquarters feels comfortable with them because of their chapter background.

Again, from both of our perspectives, if an advisor is very involved, the members feel so comfortable with him/her that they will come to him/her with problems within the chapter before they grow out of proportion. I began with the chapter I advised when they were a colony also. In both his and my cases, we never allowed these chapters to get out of hand. It would be much more difficult to have an advisor move into a chapter that was already out of control.

My husband is a national officer in his fraternity and one of the Executive Board's major goals is to see that each chapter has an involved advisor. His GLO also does not hesitate to close a chapter when they refuse to adhere to major national policies. In less difficult chapters, they also do not hesitate to send in a board of national people who interview each member and remove the trouble makers, put some on probation but allow them to stay active and help those who have the best interest of the fraternity to "clean up" the chapter.

I'm sure other fraternities do the same thing but in his case, I have seen it in action.

I hope this answered some questions as to whether or not an advisor makes the difference. Most definitely yes! Traveling consultants can help but it is the constant presence that does the trick!