[21206] in APO-L
[APO-L] Quality and Quantity
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lisa M. Covi)
Wed Sep 20 11:37:26 2000
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Message-Id: <Pine.GSO.4.21.0009201133190.13514-100000@scils.rutgers.edu>
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 11:33:51 -0400
Reply-To: "Lisa M. Covi" <covi@SCILS.RUTGERS.EDU>
From: "Lisa M. Covi" <covi@SCILS.RUTGERS.EDU>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Hi everyone.
I believe that Alpha Phi Omega is what you make of it EVERY DAY. When
you get up in the morning, when you're in class, when you're hanging
out in the dorm, when you're hanging out with APO brothers, when
you're doing something you shouldn't be doing and when you're doing
something really challenging. APO is HOW you do things - the spirit
of Leadership Friendship and Service. For people who share our
values, I believe we can involve them in ways that bring both quality
and quantity to our membership programs.
That being said, I think that a lot of recruitment and retention
problems stem from a "credits-for-graduation" approach to APO
involvement: How many service hours do you need to be active, how many
meetings can you miss, how many fields of service do you have to
participation, does this count for that? It's understandable - that's
how a lot of us budget our time and balance the ever increasing number
of things we have to do.
However, ask yourself, how many hours do I watch television, how much
time do I spend talking with my friends, how much time do I "blow off"
instead of doing what I think I should be doing? My point is that
people MAKE time for the things that are important to them. Sure, APO
isn't always top priority - does it always have to be for your
chapters to run its programs? If so, what do the demands for
participation in your programs tell you about the values of your
chapter? This is something you can EVALUATE (like at a Chapter
Program Planning Conference) and CHANGE (remember you create APO every
day).
For example, let's say that in order to get a little, you need to be
"active" which means making all but one meeting each term, paying
dues, doing 15 hours of service in 4 fields, attending all rituals,
pledge reviews and being available for pledge signatures. What does
this say?
1. The chapter assumes that one of the primary motivations for people
to stay active is to get a little.
[This could miss motivating people who think service for the sake of
service should be a primary motivation and people who already have a
little. Consider perks for being active to include attending exciting
events, participating in wonderful traditions and sharing that good
feeling of a service that really means something.]
2. In order to be involved in the chapter, it's important to be
present at a meeting every week.
[This can be difficult for people who have a conflict, a heavy course
load, and in chapters where meetings are not well-run. Consider
different ways to keep people in touch and make the best use of
everyone's time.]
3. What does a requirement such as 15 hours of service in 4 fields
tell you about a chapter? First of all, the chapter needs to require
service. Why not have project chairs and service VPs track service
hours for reporting how much service the chapter does in 4 fields.
Does the chapter think people would tend to skip out of service or
focus all their service in 1 or 2 fields if they didn't have this
requirement? Try theme weeks - take one week each semester to devote
to service activities in each of the four fields. How about something
in conjunction with the pledge program? How about a service fair
where pledges move from station to station where brothers welcome them
to mini-meetings about service projects in each of the four fields?
There are a lot of creative ideas out there - all it takes is to take
the time to evaluate:
1. what your programs say about your chapter
2. what you want your programs to say about your chapter
3. how to change your programs to say what you want to say about your
chapter.
Remember that is far easier and more fun to motivate people with food
than demerits so find ways to minimize the punishment and increase the
fun.
Build a new APO every day!
Lisa Covi
Vice-Chair National Leadership Development Committee
