Liberal and creative alumni - is there a place at the table?

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Originally Posted by 33girl

NIC and NPC members-to-be, for the most part, choose their fraternity based on the people they interact with at their college's chapter. If you would have known that (random example) KDR was the most tree hugging, socially conscious fraternity out there, but you couldn't stand any of the KDR brothers at your campus, would you really have joined that group? By the same token, would you give up the good friends you did make through your fraternity because of what you believe your nationals think?

Perhaps! I've joined other groups/organizations because of their national/global outlook. If fraternities differentiated themselves by what they offer... and made this known to new members, they really could start attracting the vibe of people that they want. In 1996-1997 when I joined, there was no differentiation between fraternities other than the people who happened to be in the chapter.

But for sure, I would still have joined one of the three fraternities where I felt most comfortable with the people. The thing is, I had no information to differentiate between the three nationals. It could have been my deciding factor, if one had stood out from the others. But at that time, they were all the same, or at least marketing themselves all the same way.

Being in my fraternity didn't preclude me from being close friends with people from other fraternities and non-Greeks. The friendships I have with my fraternity brothers are special because of who they are and the experiences we have had together, but, had I met them in daily life on campus there's a good chance we would have been friends anyway.

Originally Posted by 33girl

I say this and ask...have YOU contributed to your national magazine? Have YOU been a national volunteer? For the most part, the squeaky wheel gets the greasin. People in suits are the ones sending their pictures in, plain and simple. If you allow yourself to be intimidated or made to feel left out, that's a problem you have to work out with your own psyche.

When your national fraternity doesn't seem to welcome written contributions to their magazine, doesn't have op-eds, doesn't have a forum on their website for alumni, doesn't have a letter page in their magazine, doesn't have a "suggestion box"... how many people are really going to feel comfortable contributing? My impression based on all the literature and email interactions that I've received from them in the past 2-3 years since I started paying attention to this, is that they are a top-down organization that doesn't really take much input or have many participative processes. I don't have a problem sending them correspondence, but in an organization that seems to be operated and organized that way, is it really going to do any good? It doesn't feel any more warm and welcoming than the national conglomerate I worked for last summer.