[20305] in APO-L
New rise in interest... but will it last?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Hobbs, Victoria Lee)
Thu Mar 18 10:57:51 1999
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 11:10:47 -0500
Reply-To: "Hobbs, Victoria Lee" <vhobbs@ROANOKE.EDU>
From: "Hobbs, Victoria Lee" <vhobbs@ROANOKE.EDU>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Greetings. :-)
Earlier this week, many of the student organizations on the Roanoke
College campus, Alpha Phi Omega included, received invitations to an
informational dinner concerning a new freshman co-curricular program. It
would appear that all incoming freshmen, starting next term, will be
required to receive a set number of "co-curricular" hours each semester
(I believe 15 hours) in order to advance. The invitation warned us to
expect a "tidal wave of interest," and for good reason: this program
would potentially flood the service organizations on campus with
interest from freshmen who could then drop or go inactive when they no
longer need the co-curricular credits.
This is a fantastic opportunity, but has the potential to be one massive
strain on our brotherhood. Having mass numbers of people go inactive
all at once is not the best for moral, especially for pledge classes,
most especially for the ones who are genuinely interested in the
fraternity! Is this a common problem among chapters?
Here are a few ideas I think would be good (most are mine, some came
from other members of the ABPsi exec board; we've discussed this before,
briefly) about how to deal with it... whether or not they are good ideas
remain to be seen. :-)
1. Have more open projects. This will allow those who don't want
to pledge but are trying to get hours do so... and possibly raise
genuine interest in pledging among some of the participants, once they
see what it is we do.
2. Make the rush process, esp. the formal/informal events, more
fraternity oriented; be sure to find out just how interested the people
are in the actual fraternity, or whether they're just trying to get
hours. (If we stress the fraternity as a whole instead of service
alone, the people who aren't interested in the former may decide not to
pledge.)
3. I don't like using the word "propaganda" (it sounds too
manipulative) but I can't think of another. For heaven's sake, don't
complain about the fraternity in front of pledges, or even those who may
want to pledge in the future. Stress the positive. Take opportunities
to show them positive reactions to your works. Try to build interest,
even if you aren't sure if the person is really interested. Take every
opportunity to advertise the fraternity, verbally and otherwise.
(We do this otherwise, of course, but it never hurts to improve things.)
As you can see, I'm trying very hard to avoid the concept of bidding on
the prospective pledges; in the long run we stand to gain on this more
than we stand to lose. I just think we should be careful, and not be
too surprised if we do end up with brothers who promptly go inactive and
drop. (As bad as this may sound, I feel that if a brother doesn't want
or care to devote some time and effort to the fraternity, then the
brother is better off out of the fraternity and the fraternity is better
off without the brother. Size may matter, but it isn't everything.)
Has anyone else faced a similar situation; and how was it dealt with?
Feedback is of course appreciated. :-) Thanks...
Yours in Friendship, Leadership and Service,
Vicki
<><><><><><>
Victoria Lee Hobbs
ABPsi Secretary
AIM sleeper375
ICQ#24256379
http://students.roanoke.edu/v/vhobbs/
"That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the
time."
~John Stuart Mill, c. 1860
