Fraterntiy Standards Board

[MattUMASSD]

My fraternity has not had standards board since its founding in 2002. One of the reasons is that we never had people that did things that were questionable. Although overall my fraternity is a great group of guys, we do have 2or 3 people that arent exactly living up the ideals and "standards" that they pledged to. It this what standards board is for and do any fraternities have these boards?

[Kevin]

Yup -- or your high-up officers need to get some balls and handle the situation. We have setup in our governing documents a kind of standards board called the "Honor Council". It's basically the President, the New Member Educator and then 3 members elected by the body. It can kind of be a catch-all group when it comes to discipline/risk reduction/academic issues.

[Rudey]

I personally think you should all be men at this stage and not a bunch of little sorority girls

Honestly handle it. Be rational. Settle it and finish it and if there's no way to do that...

then the standards committee should be used.

-Rudey
--My point is don't make everything you do just an annoying formality.

[Kevin]

Originally posted by Rudey
I personally think you should all be men at this stage and not a bunch of little sorority girls

Honestly handle it. Be rational. Settle it and finish it and if there's no way to do that...

then the standards committee should be used.

-Rudey
--My point is don't make everything you do just an annoying formality.

Wise words.

There are, however, some items that come up every single year. When you have 3 members who are just generally making asses of themselves, your executive officers should handle it.

If these guys don't care enough to change, your organization might be better off without them.

When I was LC (like 1st VP) of my chapter, we had a serious issue between two members. I was in charge of exec, and we just let the situation simmer. We tried taking them aside, talking to them, etc.. Incidents continued to occur. The next officer group came along and within a month, one of these guys was given the option to change his behavior or leave -- he chose to leave.

My problem was not knowing when to put my foot down (and as an officer and a young person, this is very hard when it is you that is dealing with it). It's probably painfully obvious to your other brothers what needs to be done. Do something about it and do NOT let it get out of control.

If a formal process is what you need, fine, do it. If you just want to get 2-3 guys to talk to 'em and give the option to change or leave, that's another thing. Just do something.

[PhiPsiRuss]

The main issues that my chapter handled was drunken behavior (particularly repairing things that were broken while drunk) and financial issues (not paying bills.)

In my experience, a standards committee works best when it enforces all rules, to all members equally. You don't let a more popular brother off the hook just because. Everyone who walks into standards should be able to expect fair treatment.

Also, this is a good area of fraternity management to include alumni advisement. Alumni should never run a standards committee, but you need to establish the institutional memory of your chapter's judicial component. The desintegration of an effective standards committee is often the first sign of a chapter that is about to go into decline.

Also, make sure that standards is included in the constant revision of your chapter by-laws. While standards must always be required to enforce the by-laws to the letter, when some of your rules are out of step, it will be the standards committee who first recognizes this. They should be proactive in recomending revisions. The recomendation of revisions should be discipined, because you don't want by-law revisions being proposed at every other chapter.

A chapter's standards committee will deal with financial issues. A lot. They may be the ones who strike a payment plan with a brother. If that is the case, then they are also responsible for followup and enforcement.

[Tom Earp]

As ktsnake and PhiPsiRuss so stated, the responsabilty when it falls on Local Chapter Members, it is hard to come down on those that maybe causing problems.

But, when and if, worse case, The Chapter suffers to the point of extinction, then there needs to be a Board. So, set it in place first, that way, the Alum Advisory Board (with some Active Members) can make a judgemental decision if need be before it is handed off to Hdq!

The best thing that can happen, is that the Chapter will continue to grow. Worse case, they will be gone!

[Firehouse]

I've always thought this was interesting, and I don't know if it would be effective today. My dad was a member of Beta Theta Pi at West Virginia, back in the heyday of that chapter.
They had about 75 members, and when a Brother did something to disgrace the house (I got the impression these weren't financial offenses, but behavioral) he was required to stand before the chapter while each member in turn told him in detail exactly why he disapproved of the behavior and how ashamed he was of that member. I got the impression it got real basic, very specific and no-holds-barred. The offender was required to stand there and take it with no response allowed. His alternative was to resign from the house.
Dad said they never seemed to have trouble with the same guy twice.
These days when the trend is to be shy about "being judgemental", it might be nice to see some more abject disapproval. Too often, Brothers turn their heads and look the other way from behavior that can damage the reputation of the house.

[shadokat]

From the silly sorority girl perspective

Do you have a Member At Large, or someone of that nature who works out disputes and such? If you do, have that person address those acting sketchy. If that doesn't work, then standards is the way to go. Ours is a done by application to the Member At Large, who heads the group.

Good luck!