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Originally posted by sugar and spice
(1) What do we do about PR? Clearly we need to be concerned about it. Part of what frustrates me about Greek life is that we are held to much higher standards than non-Greeks (check out the punishments for athletic team hazing versus Greek hazing for one example) -- but didn't we sign up for that? Greek life is about upholding high standards, but somehow it's a lot easier to uphold standards that your organization or you yourself are setting than it is to uphold standards that others arbitrarily impose on you. And the fact of the matter is we are human, we can't be perfect, and we are not always going to reach those standards. Some issues obviously are touchier than others.  So how do you achieve the balance?
(2) What can you do about those in your organization who you don't think are upholding those standards? I'm not talking about national execs laying down the law, I'm talking about us, as actives and alums, enforcing the behavior of other actives and alums? Is it okay to tell people that they're embarassing your organization? Is it okay to tell other people how to act or what to say when it reflects on your organization? Or do we need to realize that, even when it makes our beloved Alpha Beta Gamma look bad, not everyone has the same standards for behavior? I haven't struggled with this issue much myself since the number of Tri Delt GCs are low and we tend to agree with each other most of the time  but I know other groups deal with it pretty often and not just on issues like this, so I want to hear about it.
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1) I wouldn't be concerned about PR if every member of your organization is made aware of your standards at the time of recruitment, and then taught those standards through the education process. The problems with the behaviour always seem to center around hazing, alcohol/drugs, GPA/anti-intellectualism. If a chapter's culture counters these pitfalls, and the chapter has a good PR chair, wear your letters often, and wear it with a smile.
2) If you need to address chapter members not upholding standards, I strongly (and I do mean strongly) recomend that a plan of action first be devised with alumni advisors. To be effective, you may need to play "ggod cop, bad cop" and its always better for the alumni to be the bad cop. All chapters should have a standards committee, or a grievance committee in place. Also, chapter by-laws should clearly address such infractions before a member is charged with them. All such by-laws have to be applied to all members equally, and strictly enforced.
If you are not already doing this, the implementation of enforced standards will kill chapter morale for a few weeks, but then it will climb to a point where it is better than ever. You really want alumni to be the "bad cops" in this scenario.
We have an obligation, through a democratically agreed upon method, to tell all of our GLO's members when they are dropping the ball. In cases where they are "under the influence", we may be preventing a tragicly life transforming event.