[20423] in APO-L
Re: Apathy & VP Brotherhood
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Liston Bias)
Tue Apr 6 11:36:56 1999
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 11:26:18 -0400
Reply-To: Liston Bias <bias@POBOX.COM>
From: Liston Bias <bias@POBOX.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Apathy can be very contagious and spread quickly. In contrast, excitement
or passion can also be contagious and spread quickly. The most difficult
(and important) thing one can do to fight apathy is to not be drawn into
it. Every chapter is going to be different, but here a few suggestion I
can think of that you may try:
* Fight the disease one person at time. Start with yourself and create a
level of excitement you hope to find in everyone. Spread that excitement
to someone else by discussing what you envision for the chapter and how
you believe this person can help. I would stray away from trying to get
this person to commit to x hours/project. Start by recommitting to Alpha
Phi Omega. If they are still attending meetings or opening claiming
brotherhood, there must be something there to work on.
* Generate excitement 1 meeting at time. Ice breakers can do wonders for
this. At first (especially with an apathetic crowd) lots of comments and
gestures may be made to discourage this kind of activity. Ive never found
a crowd where I couldnt get them to do an ice-breaker. Ice breakers, even
among people who have known each other ALL of their lives, can generate a
relaxed atmosphere that makes the meeting so much more enjoyable. People
are more willing to contribute later on in the meeting.
* Keep your meetings short. With apathy, you may have a tendency to
prolong the meeting as the solution may be to do more trying to find
something that will excite people. What is considered short will
definitely depend on the chapter. Probably cutting the length in half may
be a good. Long meeting have been the biggest culprit in my experience to
building apathy... we were here x hours and accomplished ???
* Figure out an easy forum to solicit input from all members with
understand everyones input is important. An easy way would be to have
committee or focus-group meetings at your regular meeting if the group is
too large for everyone to contribute in regular meeting. This may include
planning actually events during the meeting making the most of peoples
time. Again, dont be drawn into the marathon meetings by doing this,
however, or it may prove counter-productive.
* The final piece that you are hoping to reach is to build an investment
in the chapter for each person. The ideal transition from above
activities is that each person figures out on their own that they have a
place in the chapter and that place it is important. If that doesnt work,
then you can help each person figure this out individuals. You need to
realize that everyones role may be totally different. Not everyone
aspires to solely organize a service project, be president, or rewrite
part of the bylaws.
Most importantly: Keep it simple, Keep it short.
As for VP of Brotherhood, I have never seen that in action. One thing
that this position could address that I see lacking from time to time is
working with the brotherhood to uphold our history and purpose. I
sometimes get the feeling that their are pledges have a better
understanding of our history than some brothers. Im sure this is so
because there may not be a lot of discussion after one becomes a brother
except at ceremonies.
Good Luck,
Liston
============================================================================
- Liston Bias It is not enough to make progress;
Alumnus of Oklahoma State Univ we must make it in the right direction.
Alumnus of Florida State Univ -- Anonymous
bias@pobox.com
http://www.pobox.com/~bias
============================================================================
