We've lost direction

OpiePiKA · #1 12-04-2008, 05:01 AM

Okay, so maybe we never actually knew we had to pick a direction... But our recently chartered (last 2 years) chapter is suffering. We are at a point in our life as a chapter where we have finally recovered from "the post chartering blues". Something in my opinion we should've never been subjected to, but I digress.

Needless to say we have never really gotten our asses in gear to move in the direction of being a flagship chapter, which I and a few others (including our last decent consultant) want to do for our future brethren.

Our problem is one of motivation that breeds out of ignorance. We have nothing to work from. Which brings me here. We are looking to improve a lot of our Officer Positions; one of which, I think is extremely important, and that is Pledge Education. I am looking for meaningful activities for our pledges to do during Ingress. I've heard some really good ideas from consultants that elicit the kind of values we would like to instill in our pledges, but do not know enough about them to put them into place.

I understand that this might be one of those situations where it is better for our Chapter to begin the traditions that we want to see carried down the line, but I am lacking in creativity for these kinds of things. As shallow as this sounds, I believe the benefits from using another chapters activities far outweigh the benefits of creating our own tradition from scratch and working it out for the next few years. I am just looking for some direction or resources to get the ball rolling. Then again if you want to send me your Ingress schedule..

I would be more than happy to look over it.

In the bonds,

Opie

Firehouse · #2 12-04-2008, 09:48 PM

Opie, you have friends and Brothers here who can offer good advice.
You say you want to be a flagship chapter - that's great!
The truth is there's only one path that leads to that dominant chapter status. It is a combination of external and internal criteria. The internal criteria include your Ingress program and other programs that strengthen the smooth operation of the chapter. But any fraternity can build those internal programs. The external criteria are the things that define your chapter in the eyes of rivals, rushees, sororities,
administrators...everyone on the outside.
The FIRST step toward establishing yourself as a Flagship chapter is to take on the appearance of other Flagship chapters. If you go to the National Convention, you'll see that the Flagship chapters are all dominant in rush, in sports, in campus leadership and power. It's a pretty simply formula; it's not easy to do, but it is simple.
The big advantage to focusing your chapter on these goals is that WINNING is the best an fastest way to focus the attention of the Brothers and bind them in a spirit of fraternalism. Remember: good chapters run on momentum and morale. Truth is, you can have a great "Ingress" program in a dorky chapter as well as a Flagship chapter.
Winning tends to solve all problems. It encourages the chapter members to behave and not be drunken louts and to treat the new pledges as valuable assets. A chapter that acquires prominence, power and prestige can still fall apart from poor management, but so can a dorky chapter. Only the Flagship chapters emphasize winning.

Now...there is a formula, a pathway for you to follow but it will be specific to the campus. I don't know where you go to school. The strength of the fraternity system is important. The specific campus culture is important.

If you want to share more information, there's help for you here.

OpiePiKA · #3 12-05-2008, 04:31 PM

Thank you Firehouse for your concern and warm welcome.

I would hope that aspiring to be a flagship chapter is a goal of all chapters of Pi Kappa Alpha. Believe me its one of mine for ours. I believe it is more of an ultimate goal for me in the future and I would like to start to lay the foundation now so that after I graduate I can support my chapter. I do not think we can be a flagship chapter in the next three semesters (my remaining time) and maintain any kind of sustainability (I could be wrong, my experience in a fraternity is limited to this chapter.) Although it deserves to be mentioned that I do believe that, with a firm kick in the ass, we can win a few nationally recognized awards.

So my immediate goal is to get all the wheels in our chapter running smoothly and in sync. The only chair that consistently has something to mention in chapter is the social. Our chapter is quick; the past couple of months after fall rush was over I can estimate chapter runs about 25 - 35 minutes on average. I believe this is something that shouldn't happen to a fully functional chapter with upward momentum. I believe we should be spending three times that amount of time planning on how we are going to grow and developing a plan of attack so that the pikes that come after us do not have to do as much work and can devote their time to growing other aspects of the fraternity.

The reason I brought up Ingress in my first post is because I believe that Pledge (New Member, whatever) Education is one of the most important aspects of a fraternity. I feel it should, in addition to growing the pledge mentally and scholastically, set a precedent for what to expect as a Pike. Our pledge education as of right now doesn't consist of a lot, we make them do the basic bitch work (clean after parties) because we all had to do it. We also make them attend study tables 2 hours a night during the week, we developed a scavenger hunt that has them looking all over campus for stuff together, a pledge project (usually ends up being a beer pong table, go figure). What I am looking for is program material to flush out pledgeship. I want everything they do in pledgeship to be pushing them further towards fulfilling our mantra of S.L.A.G. I believe that our fraternity will be better off in the long-run for it.

Pledge Ed is just the tip of the proverbial iceburg. I know it won't be a cure all. It's not going to solve all of our problems, but its a start; and it's a good place to start with the new members having their first impression being huge involvement and commitment. But by doing this I feel that once they get initiated they will be so excited to have earned the right to be brothers that they will pick up a position and own it, they will make it theirs.

I know this is extremely optimistic, but thats all I am running on nowadays. Our chapter is performing not like a Pike chapter on a campus like ours should be. We are very content paying dues for parties and an occasional semiformal. We are stagnant.

Opie

PostScript: I may be wrong. This might actually be a fraternity. My only experience is this; and, no sir, I don't like it.