Internal Conflicts

[ASTalumna06]

Hey sister!

Conflicts will inevitably arise in every chapter, but the best thing to do is to get problems out in the open, especially when you feel it’s affecting the chapter and sisterhood as a whole.

Something that my chapter would do is to have a “gavel discussion”. I think we might have done this two or three times while I was active. We would all sit together in a circle, and everyone would give one reason why they chose to join our sorority. Following this, the President would generally give “the rules”: only the person that is holding the gavel can speak, anyone can talk after them after you raise your hand and they pass the gavel to you, no interrupting anyone, etc. Then it goes from there with everyone passing the gavel and saying what they need to say. After everyone feels that they are done, we would go around the room one more time having everyone give a reason why they enjoy being a sister. Anything that is said in the process is never talked about outside of the discussion. Sisters usually admit to those things they’ve done ‘wrong’, they apologize to other sisters, the discussions have always been productive, and they generally end up with everyone happy at the end. Most of the time, they eventually become entertaining, with people admitting to silly, little things that they’ve wanted to say for a long time.

Something else you could do in the long-term, if you don’t already, is to have designated sisterhood days. Plan a day, at least once a month, where you all get together and do something fun.

Also, you could make more positive changes to your everyday routine. From what I hear, my chapter just implemented a “Sister of the Month” program, where everyone will nominate and vote for the sister who has done the most for the chapter and/or for other sisters throughout the month. That sister will receive a reward for their efforts (most likely a “personal day” where they can opt to not attend one event throughout the month).

Create more situations where you can spend quality time together, and bring about more opportunities to recognize and compliment each others’ efforts.