[20153] in APO-L
Re: APO and campus perception.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ellen Kranzer)
Wed Feb 10 12:54:52 1999
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 12:54:51 -0500
Reply-To: Ellen Kranzer <ellen_kranzer@HARVARD.EDU>
From: Ellen Kranzer <ellen_kranzer@HARVARD.EDU>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
"Gordon III, Albert F" <afgordon@ROANOKE.EDU> wrote:
>Here is my take on the campus perception of it now. Who cares what the
>campus thinks of the chapter. You are on the campus along with the social
>fraternites. The reason why we get looked at a lot more is because social
>fraternities get more privilages and things like that so they would see this
>as ha ha and we can make fun of you because you have bi's, gays and lesbians
>because we have more power so we can make fun of you.
Campus perception is important because it effects the long term recruitment
prospects and health of the chapter. Any time a chapter gets a wide-spread
reputation campus for being the "X frat" it makes it very hard to recruit
new members who aren't part of group "X".
Several things I think you can look at are:
1) How is the chapter presenting itself. Anytime a brother is wearing
letters or a service pin, people might see that brothers actions as
representative of the fraternity.
2) If you have an office, what is people's first impression when they walk
in? If you've got couples wrapped around each other on the couch, you may be
making your office guests uncomfortable and the message pledge may be
getting is "if you join this organization you are expected to be part of a
chapter couple." This is potential problem whether we're talking homosexual
couples or heterosexual couples. If potential pledges or pledges are not
getting involved because office behavior is making them uncomforatable, you
may never know because they'll just leave without telling you why. If there
is a problem with office decorum, it may need to be dicussed -- either as a
group or by taking aside individual brothers. Another office impression
issue is -- what is in your office anyhow, if people are using to store
flyers & property from other organizations they belong to, it's not
suprising if the organizations get linked in people's minds.
3) Make a concious effort to recruit people who aren't in "X" group to
become pledges.
4) If a large part of the chapter belongs to some other organization, make
sure that the other organizations business doesn't start dominating chapter
time. If all the converations on project degenerate into a discussion of the
business of some other organization, the people who are not part of that
other organzation will be left feeling like they are not part of the group
-- only they'll see the group they are excluded from as being APO.
Y.I.S.
Ellen c.c. Kranzer
AX Advisor
Region I Staff
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Email: ellen_kranzer@harvard.edu or ccrazy@world.std.com
Permanent Email address: ekranzer@alum.mit.edu
U.S. Mail: Ellen Kranzer, 18 Cottage Ave., Arlington, MA 02474
Phone: (w)617 495-0573, (h)781 646-3118 <*>
