Brand New Advisor

[kaokite]

One comment that no one here has mentioned: look at the financial health of the chapter. (having done the finance end of advising for many years this is my personal hot button... ) Finance is the one area where there really isn't shades of gray. Either you've paid or you haven't.

Start at the beginning of a quarter/semester and lay down the law. Anyone who doesn't pay is out. Period. Obviously you say it in a nice way "Ladies, this semester we're going to be following through with our financial policies. Those members who don't pay will be subject to disciplinary action per the chapter bylaws. We're doing this as non-payment can significantly impact chapter operations. blah blah blah...If for some reason you are unable to pay, you must come and meet with the financial committee immediately. "

Then enforce your group's rules regarding non-payment, pursuit of debtors, late fees, bounced checks etc. In my experience, the non-paying deadbeats are also the troublemakers and non-participating members. If you get rid of them through the correct formal process, members may be upset at first, but you can point to the rules. And you can also say "I gave everyone fair warning and discussed the consequences. If you had a problem, you should have come to the finance committee and discussed your situation. This is the same thing your credit card company or your landlord would do if you missed a payment. We have bills to pay, and cannot honor the chapters debts if members don't pay."

Over the years, I've seen how a chapter's financial health is directly connected to the overall chapter strength. If a chapter fixes internal financial issues, many other disciplinary & membership issues come along for the ride and are resolved indirectly.

Good luck!

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by kaokite

One comment that no one here has mentioned: look at the financial health of the chapter. (having done the finance end of advising for many years this is my personal hot button... ) Finance is the one area where there really isn't shades of gray. Either you've paid or you haven't.

Start at the beginning of a quarter/semester and lay down the law. Anyone who doesn't pay is out. Period. Obviously you say it in a nice way "Ladies, this semester we're going to be following through with our financial policies. Those members who don't pay will be subject to disciplinary action per the chapter bylaws. We're doing this as non-payment can significantly impact chapter operations. blah blah blah...If for some reason you are unable to pay, you must come and meet with the financial committee immediately. "

Then enforce your group's rules regarding non-payment, pursuit of debtors, late fees, bounced checks etc. In my experience, the non-paying deadbeats are also the troublemakers and non-participating members. If you get rid of them through the correct formal process, members may be upset at first, but you can point to the rules. And you can also say "I gave everyone fair warning and discussed the consequences. If you had a problem, you should have come to the finance committee and discussed your situation. This is the same thing your credit card company or your landlord would do if you missed a payment. We have bills to pay, and cannot honor the chapters debts if members don't pay."

Over the years, I've seen how a chapter's financial health is directly connected to the overall chapter strength. If a chapter fixes internal financial issues, many other disciplinary & membership issues come along for the ride and are resolved indirectly.

Good luck!

I don't know about other sororities, but this is especially important in AOII, because we pay International dues based on chapter role. It doesn't matter is Suzy hasn't paid, we still pay her dues to IHQ. Pretty soon, a list of delinquent sisters can really hurt a chapter when the bill to HQ comes due. It may not seem so important when you don't have their money to do things, but when you are paying out of pocket for the dead weight in your chapter, it becomes imperative to clean house.