Dilema

mullet81 · #1 10-28-2003, 06:46 PM

I'm one of the VPs of my professional fraternity. It's coed and we have a ton of people involved b/c we do business stuff, community service stuff, and of course, lots of social things as well

The problem is - there is a HUGE rift between our members. The fraternity is dominaed by social greeks (like XOs and EXs, etc) and the people who are not social greeks often feel left out. There are tons of cliques. We also do a lot of the social greeks philanthropies, overall we're a very pro greek organization.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do about this? Any games or team building activities we can play to break the ice between members and get everyone to know each other better?

Kevin · #2 10-28-2003, 08:52 PM

Team building excercises are great. I'd recommend ropes courses. They're relatively inexpensive and can be a great help.

If you're really having problems, I'd assume your leadership is probably greek-dominated. While you may not like it, you need to extend the olive-branch and let some non-greeks take over the reigns in leadership positions. This would certainly help to combat the perception that ya'll are pursuing a greek-related agenda.

Good luck!

DeltaBetaBaby · #3 10-28-2003, 09:06 PM

Do a secret sister/brother thing, but put a $5 spending limit on it. The idea is that people should be creative and leave notes, send e-cards, whatever...

Then rig the assignments so that people mostly get others they don't know.

PiKA2001 · #4 10-28-2003, 09:12 PM

cliques are not good at all in a situation like that. Quick question: Does your fraternity have chapter or leadership retreats?

mullet81 · #5 10-28-2003, 10:45 PM

we've already had 1 one this semester - and at the retreat and the 2 weeks after it everything was GREAT!! but now it seems like everyone is retreating to their old clique ways...

twhrider13 · #6 10-29-2003, 03:02 PM

During Homecoming week, my chapter spent almost all our free time working on our float. Prior to Homecoming week, I felt like I hardly knew any of these people that I call my sisters. At the end of the week, I felt a very close kinship with all of them. Of course, I'm not suggesting you build a float, but some sort of challenging activity that involves teamwork and problem-solving would probably help tremendously. I'm a little brain-dead right now, so I can't think of any activities, but maybe someone else can come up with something!

Good luck!