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Yep...welcome to reality...for whatever reason, the role of the chapter advisor really is unappreciated by many chapters until a crisis erupts - then the value is truly seen.
When I advised, we went through at least one "crisis" every year (I would only consider one of the events a TRUE crisis, but, undergrads can overreact sometimes)...and that would help cement our relationship.
I was very honest with them when I first started - I laid out an agenda for the chapter to combat their perceived "weak" areas - not only from IHQ's perspective, but also from their own perspective....voila - many areas actually overlapped!
I also operated with the following quote from our advisor manual in mind in every single meeting I attended: "Allow mistakes to be made." And I certainly did - only those decisions that were patently against policy would I challenge, and I actually had to overrule one decision, but the rest were simple learning experience for the Exec committee that would not lead to catastrophe, but they realized in retrospect, could have been handled in better ways.
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