Another Reason to THINK Before You Send an E-mail

[Kevin]

This is why, if you're involved with collegians, you need to sit the whole chapter down for a talk about how to police their stuff on the internet--how to assume that everything you say ends up in the student newspaper, or worse, as an exhibit in a criminal or civil lawsuit.

Hopefully, if you have that discussion on a frequent enough basis, make sure that your standards/whatever committee actually punishes even the smallest transgressions, these sorts of incidents can be kept to a minimum.

[sigmadiva]

Originally Posted by Kevin

This is why, if you're involved with collegians, you need to sit the whole chapter down for a talk about how to police their stuff on the internet--how to assume that everything you say ends up in the student newspaper, or worse, as an exhibit in a criminal or civil lawsuit.

Been there, done that.....

No matter how hard you try to 'put the fear of God' in your undergrad members, there is always that one rogue member who insists on doing it their way.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by sigmadiva

No matter how hard you try to 'put the fear of God' in your undergrad members, there is always that one rogue member who insists on doing it their way.

So far, that hasn't been my experience.

It's not so much "fear of God," and if I said that, that's a poor choice of words. It's more about having members understand how they are part of us and that everything they do reflects on the chapter.

The simple if you do X, then you will be punished, isn't always a successful way to motivate kids to behave. They tend to act more to further their own interests. If they are proud of their letters and proud of what their organization stands for, then hopefully, they won't do anything to sully your organization's honor.

And when they do, the culture of mutual accountability kicks in and slip-ups are handled.

Collegians do need to understand that if certain things, like underage drinking, are brought to their HQs attention, those HQs are bound due to liability reasons to act harshly. I sometimes question whether that's enough on the part of any given HQ due to the immediate response everyone, including greeks has to these sorts of press releases, i.e., "What.. college kids drink? [shock!]"

[sigmadiva]

Originally Posted by Kevin

So far, that hasn't been my experience.

You are very fortunate.

It's not so much "fear of God," and if I said that, that's a poor choice of words.

No, I said that because that is what I tried.

The simple if you do X, then you will be punished, isn't always a successful way to motivate kids to behave. They tend to act more to further their own interests. If they are proud of their letters and proud of what their organization stands for, then hopefully, they won't do anything to sully your organization's honor.

I agree. But, I've also run into the attitude of 'I'm 18 now, you (older adult) can't tell me what to do!!!!!'

Collegians do need to understand that if certain things, like underage drinking, are brought to their HQs attention, those HQs are bound due to liability reasons to act harshly. I sometimes question whether that's enough on the part of any given HQ due to the immediate response everyone, including greeks has to these sorts of press releases, i.e., "What.. college kids drink? [shock!]"

I never had to deal with drinking. The chapter just wanted to do silly stuff that they though would be good sisterhood bonding activities, but I had to tell them that the activity was now considered hazing. They wanted to try to do it anyway.