Regional Directors

[Senusret I]

It's going to be very challenging to imagine a paid position becoming a volunteer one. I'm also not certain that you can consider an Assistant Director of Chapter Services position in an NPC to a Region Director position in an NPHC.

What I am discovering is that the NPC (and to an extent, APO) have a "chapter services" model that the NPHC doesn't seem to have. In the case of Alpha, our day-to-day membership services are outsourced to a company which specializes in it. For us, that means receiving our membership card in a timely manner after paying dues, receiving our magazine on time, getting pins, history books, and chapter supplies, and other operational aspects of chapters. There are no representative or governance responsibilities.

In APO, our Director of Chapter Services is more or less the accountant of service capital: maintains membership records, processes paperwork, sends out membership cards. Maintains record of submissions for awards and such. She might field risk management issues but they are always given to the proper volunteers to handle.

In APhiA, if a chapter needs "help"* then they have a volunteer/elected chain of command: chapter advisor, area director, district director, regional vice president (our equivalent of Region Director). None of these people are paid. My area consists of six chapters. My district is all areas (about seven) in DC, Maryland, and Delaware. My region is all states from Maine to Virginia.

I would say that your ADSCs may do the work of area directors and district directors, but the governance of our chapters is in the hands of the regional vice president.

I can't speak for rhoyaltempest, but I am guessing that NPHC have many more alumni volunteers to handle the day-to-day work that our chapters may need, yet that still doesn't negate the near-impossible load which our region directors (or equivalent) must do. They are serving in administrative capacities as well as governance capacities.

ETA: And just because there may be area and district directors in a region, the region director still must have knowledge of all of these issues, particularly risk management issues, because they would be held liable.


*I am defining "help" to include the administration of national programs as well as risk management issues.

[rhoyaltempest]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

It's going to be very challenging to imagine a paid position becoming a volunteer one. I'm also not certain that you can consider an Assistant Director of Chapter Services position in an NPC to a Region Director position in an NPHC.

What I am discovering is that the NPC (and to an extent, APO) have a "chapter services" model that the NPHC doesn't seem to have. In the case of Alpha, our day-to-day membership services are outsourced to a company which specializes in it. For us, that means receiving our membership card in a timely manner after paying dues, receiving our magazine on time, getting pins, history books, and chapter supplies, and other operational aspects of chapters. There are no representative or governance responsibilities.

In APO, our Director of Chapter Services is more or less the accountant of service capital: maintains membership records, processes paperwork, sends out membership cards. Maintains record of submissions for awards and such. She might field risk management issues but they are always given to the proper volunteers to handle.

In APhiA, if a chapter needs "help"* then they have a volunteer/elected chain of command: chapter advisor, area director, district director, regional vice president (our equivalent of Region Director). None of these people are paid. My area consists of six chapters. My district is all areas (about seven) in DC, Maryland, and Delaware. My region is all states from Maine to Virginia.

I would say that your ADSCs may do the work of area directors and district directors, but the governance of our chapters is in the hands of the regional vice president.

I can't speak for rhoyaltempest, but I am guessing that NPHC have many more alumni volunteers to handle the day-to-day work that our chapters may need, yet that still doesn't negate the near-impossible load which our region directors (or equivalent) must do. They are serving in administrative capacities as well as governance capacities.

ETA: And just because there may be area and district directors in a region, the region director still must have knowledge of all of these issues, particularly risk management issues, because they would be held liable.


*I am defining "help" to include the administration of national programs as well as risk management issues.

I would say that this is true. Our Regional Syntakti (regional directors) are basically like regional presidents. All positions in the regions (all volunteers) report up to the Regional Syntakti. For an idea: http://sgrhoneregion.org/executiveboard.htm.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by Gusteau

In Delta Chi we have regents who are volunteers and members of our Board of Regents, which is made up of our nine Regents, retiring "AA", and our International Executive Committee ("AA", "CC", and "DD" - international president, secretary, and treasurer, respectively).

Regents oversee their region's chapters and serve as the point person for all of the chapters and support alumni in the area, they also serve on the Risk Management Committee on a rotating basis. As members of the Board of Regents they also serve as legislative and policy making body of the Fraternity between conventions. They approve the granting and revocation of charters, and the adoption of the annual budget, among other things. They meet before and after each convention and at least once a year during non-convention years.

They are elected by the chapter in their respective region.

Regarding your bonus question, I think that this set-up is good for Delta Chi, but the "ideal" would probably depend a great deal on the nature of the organization in question. Minimally I would be comfortable saying that the ideal job description would include ensuring relevant programming and effective operational standards were maintained in the region. I think that all of the regional directors coming together as a "board of regents" is also a positive thing, but this would really depend on the larger organization of the group, because this could very well be unnecessary with other structures already in place.

Your structure is very similar to the APhiA structure. Good stuff.

Originally Posted by rhoyaltempest

I would say that this is true. Our Regional Syntakti (regional directors) are basically like regional presidents. All positions in the regions (all volunteers) report up to the Regional Syntakti. For an idea: http://sgrhoneregion.org/executiveboard.htm.

That's just about the same for us.

I really do love how we can have higher level conversations here.

And I also know a lot of the issues raised in this thread may be complex, but it's truly helping me (and all of us, and people in the future) understand the nature of board structure and staff structure in our types of organizations. There is very little literature out there regarding the management and governance of 501(c)7 and (c)(10) orgs.

[Gusteau]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Your structure is very similar to the APhiA structure. Good stuff.

Well those Cornell folks are no dummies!

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by Gusteau

Well those Cornell folks are no dummies!

Hells yeah!