I'm on our executive council for my org and I generally am the only one who believes in not fining for certain events. I believe people should definitely be fined for not attending Recruitment, Initiation, Ceremonies, and Philanthropy Events.
As for socials, we have 3 groups (Alpha, Gamma, and Delta) and two groups are required to go to each social (but everyone can go). If you are in the group that has to go, all you have to do is find someone in the other group to go for you. It's never a problem and we always have plenty of people there.
As for chapter, we have 5 excuses a semester (3 study, 2 personal) and aslong as you get them in before chapter, then you're fine. We've only had like 2 people who couldn't follow these rules- and they were generally seniors who were just burnt out. So we would talk to them about it...generally there's a reason WHY they don't attend functions...their feelings are hurt, they are in a bind financially and worked all the time and was too embarrassed to tell anyone, they feel like no one really cares if they are there are not,etc.
What it comes down to is that if someone doesn't attend an event, many orgs slap a fine on them...but they never find out what the reason behind their behavior is. Generally a 15 minute talk about the whole situation will solve a problem that many people choose to ignore by slapping a fine on them instead. I agree that communication will not help every situation, but definitely a good bit of them.
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Whitney
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