Regional Directors

[Senusret I]

This honestly fascinates me.

Thanks to everyone who has PMed me, as well.

[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.

[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!

[preciousjeni]

Our RDs are all volunteers. They are members of the National Board of Directors, which is composed of the National Executive Board and the National Directors.

RDs are like Presidents/Governors of their regions and they handle all administrative functions for members and chapters. The National E-Board handles strategic planning and implementation, and policy setting primarily.

Each RD has a leadership team/cabinet that does much of the hands-on work and direct chapter officer oversight.

For me, as an RD, it's like I have a second full-time job. I'm available to all the members and chapters in the region 24-hours a day. I have no office hours. lol

We do not have any paid staff.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I'm afraid the structure and terminology is so different that I can't figure out what our version of "Regional Directors" would be. Our paid Headquarters staff consists of an Executive Director, accounting personnel, Director of Chapter Services, Chapter Services Coordinators, communications staff to write our Quarterly, maintain the website, etc. They are primarily the business end of things but some assist in chapter issues if required/needed. Not all of them are members.. some are even men. There are between 5-7 traveling consultants who are new grads, usually first year out of college, highly trained in conducting recruitment and officer training. Our "board" equivalent is International Council.. our International President and 5 Vice Presidents. They are elected and volunteer. Reporting to them are Directors and Standing Committee Chairman. Each director and committee chair reports to a particular International Council member. Some of the director positions include recruitment, chapter development, alumnae development, member development, finance, etc. Each of those directors has a team with a "middle management" layer for "Areas" (we have 10 Areas in the US and Canada.. mine consists of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). So for Chapter Development, we have 10 Area Coordinators. Each Area Coordinator has 4 Province Directors who report to her. Province Directors work closely with Chapter Presidents and the Chapter Advisor. We are the ones who get the chapter (alumnae and collegiate) reports, read through them, make suggestions, give kudos for good stuff, monitor for things that just don't sound right, etc. The Province Director is basically the resource person for the chapters. The Area Coordinator is the resource person for the PDs and acts as PD if a position is vacant. However, each Area also has finance specialists, house association specialists, recruitment specialists and alum development specialists. The Area Coordinator and Province Director lead the team that works with the same group of chapters.

All of those, from International Council to Province Directors/specialists are volunteers. Then each chapter has advisors who work directly with them, attend their exec board meetings, etc.

It's a pretty massive volunteer structure. I have no idea which of these people perform the kinds of duties that a Regional Director would Changes were made in processes years ago to reduce the liability for volunteers.

This is pretty much the way Gamma Phi Beta is set up, too. The organization really functions through volunteers.

[mccoyred]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Hi there,

I am specifically trying to start a conversation about whether it is preferable to have regional directors serve as national board members, or if their duties would be best performed as members of the national staff.

While I see the wisdom of having RDs be elected volunteers, I like the idea of them being paid staff which would leave the politics out of membership-related decisions.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by mccoyred

While I see the wisdom of having RDs be elected volunteers, I like the idea of them being paid staff which would leave the politics out of membership-related decisions.

Absolutely.

There are many, many double standards in this field. I'm sure we've all heard of the small chapter with a single intake violation who was suspended until they ceased to exist, as well as the large, "prominent" chapter which could put somebody in the hospital and have a probate the same semester.

Further, I would argue that the elected nature of regional directors could have the adverse effect of politicizing all of the volunteer roles below it, whether it's area and district directors, state/cluster coordinators, or even people who get certified as a chapter advisor as a stepping stone.

This create a false set of qualifications to become a national officer. I, for one, don't care if my national president or treasurer served as a regional director first -- it's a totally different skill set. Regional directors aren't even afforded the time to consider strategic and governance issues in their organizations.