Adventures in Pittsburgh Part 1

This entry is co-written by Gretchen and Anita aka your trusty Member Development Staff.

We are in Pittsburgh for the Mideast Regional Leadership Conference in addition to working with our Pitt chapter on creating a Strategic Plan. Our adventure begins on Thursday afternoon in a car in Indy. During our 7 hour drive we laugh, we jam to Rascal Flatts, share stories, and eat DQ Blizzards (we both agree the Cookie Jar ones are really good - so get yourself one). We arrive to our hotel around 11pm exhausted after being lost in Pittsburgh for about 30 minutes. This is not the last time it happens, as we get lost each time we leave the hotel.

Friday we get lost going to Duquesne and after an hour (when it should have been 5 minutes) we arrive. Campus is beautiful. The first day goes well. We have guys from Duquesne, St. Francis, Pitt, and Carnegie Mellon. The troubles begin on Saturday morning. While we were up and going by 6:30 am the brothers were sleeping and continued to do so much longer than they should have. This caused all but 5 people to be late - many were over 20 minutes late. Being on time was one of 2 rules and it was already broken. Morning sessions went well and then we head to the Pirates game for a brotherhood outing. The second rule was that it's a substance free weekend and unfortunately, not everybody decided to uphold that rule either. Word of the day was disappointing and it only got worse when members were sleeping during programs after dinner.

Sunday was a much better day. Pretty much everybody was on time and participation was high for the last few sessions. We finished at 11 and everybody departed home. By noon, Gretchen and I were back at the hotel and googling Olive Garden. We had some time before we had to be at Pitt and wanted a good meal in the suburbs. Bingo! 15 minutes away from one. We hop on the series of highways that google tells us to take. 50 minutes later we're worried that we are about to see signs saying "Welcome to West Virginia" so we turn around. Now it's 2pm and we're hungry and really crabby. Then suddenly, en route back to where we think Pittsburgh might be we see something. What is that? A sign... for a street... that is somewhere in the directions to Olive Garden. Cheers abound in the car and we turn thinking "This can't get any worse." Then we find another street on our directions and turn. Next thing you know we question if it's really an Olive Garden in front of us or just a mirage. We enter, we stuff ourselves, and we return to the car. The best part of this story is that it's right off the highway that runs to the hotel and it took us 10 minutes to get back. We then decide that we hate driving in Pittsburgh. Throughout our time here the roads change direction, change names, signs are less than abundant, and we get... lost a-lot.

Eliminating the Double Standard

As a staff we receive a variety of newsletters, articles, and e-mails with thought provoking articles regarding Greek Life. Here is one below from RISE Partnerships Inc. that I found incredibly relevant right now as many of our chapters are preparing to take on Associate Members. As always, would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Eliminating the Double Standard Building a High-Performing Chapter through New Member Education

Until now, most conversations about hazing have revolved around ethical, legal and safety concerns. We are now beginning to realize hazing's impact on an organization's basic ability to be successful. The methods we use to educate new members connect directly to the chapter's future performance. Thanks to this new perspective, we gain a number of new insights about how to overcome the problem of hazing. There are a few elements within most new member education programs that have a dramatic effect on chapter performance. If these elements are addressed, you can relieve any and all worry about potential hazing practices. The most significant element is the presence of double standards. Think about your program as you read the sections below, and look for ways to strengthen your chapter by bridging the gap between members and new members.

Break Down Barriers: There is often an invisible barrier between initiated members and a new member class. New members tend to have fewer privileges. They might be required to sit in the back of the meeting room and wear specifically prescribed attire. They may have limited access to the house and must walk everywhere as a group. The intent of these activities is to build "pledge class unity," but that separation actually wedges a barrier between members and new members, preventing a sense of unity from forming among the entire brotherhood or sisterhood. This is a natural phenomenon which attempts to preserve group identity, but successful chapters are able to overcome it by bridging the divide rather than exaggerating it.

Here's how they do it: Involve more initiated members in education and team building experiences. Modify activities to create mixed groups where initiated and uninitiated members are working side-by-side during team builders, songs, reciting the creed or coordinating other projects. Rather than leaving new members to lead a project on their own, teach leadership through a job-shadowing system where they work hand-in-hand with officers on a weekly rotation. Add new members to committees and involve them in the work as soon as the process begins. Offer small, optional activities at a regular time each week for both active members and pledges in order to strengthen connections and break down any barriers.

Aligning Expectations: Even if you break down those barriers, you still have to address the double standard. It happens when members heap impossible expectations on new members and then wait for them to make the slightest mistake. New members get confronted for missing class, forgetting their pin, skipping an event, not knowing the Greek alphabet or making an inappropriate comment. Meanwhile, some of the same initiated members are delinquent in dues, frequently absent, struggling academically and rarely held accountable for their behavior. The intent behind this double standard is that new members prove their worth and learn responsibility. In reality, they learn to work hard until initiation so they can slack off. In other words, we begin teaching "Apathy" during new member education! Healthy chapters reverse this dynamic. They keep a close watch over initiated members, insisting that they fulfill their commitments and lead by example. Meanwhile, new members are given the chance to practice, prepare and make mistakes before they take a knee, raise their right hand and take the oath of membership. Consider some of the following steps to equalize this expectation:Add an "Ideal Member" activity where members and new members spell out the do's, don'ts and other basic expectations.Write down every expectation that you have for members and the same for new members. Now switch the lists!Develop a these expectations into a Code of Conduct or a Membership Contract which covers attendance, dues payment, behavior and involvement.Use (or create) a standards board within your chapter when someone violates one of these expectations. Handle infractions by members and new members through the same process and with the same intensity.

Create New Traditions: Many members resist changes to new member education for fear that they are abandoning tradition, but this fear is irrational. Fraternities and sororities are constantly evolving as we discover new insights about how to educate members, build bonds and cultivate honor and respect. We are not abandoning tradition. Instead we are developing new ways to retain our tradition and remain relevant long into hate future.

If you are interested in learning more about how to build a stronger chapter and move From Hazing to Health, contact RISE about bringing this experience to your community.

Social Media

WOW! This really makes you think about social media and how it affects us, and in turn our organization. This is a great video for those who are hesitant to utilize such avenues. Amazing. What are your thoughts?

Gchat with Staff!

Ever have a really quick question or wish you could snag a quick chat with a Phi Kap staff member without calling or e-mailing? Now you can! The entire staff is on gchat whenever we're in the office. Now you can chat with us whenever you want, instead of e-mailing back and forth or calling. It's just another easy way to communicate with us. How do you do it? Well, if you have a gmail address, under the chat tab there is a box that says "search, add, or invite." Enter our e-mail address and then select "invite to chat" from the menu on the right. It's that easy! We'll accept your request and then we will show up on your chat list.
If you have any questions or feedback, let us know. Keep reading the blog and have a great week! Best of luck to those who have fall recruitment soon!

Motivational Video

A great motivational video. Thanks to Jeremy from Delta Tau Delta for finding this first.

50th Convention Recap

Well all of the staff has recovered from Convention and we are finally settling back into life in the office. Settling in is probably the wrong word though, we are actually kicking into crazy high gear as we prepare for the start of the school year! I did want to take some time to recap our time in Columbus for those who weren't able to attend though. As a staff we kept busy with setting up rooms, registration, selling merchandise, and meetings, but there was a lot that occurred over the weekend to be aware of!

I don't have the time to mention everything over the weekend, but did want to mention a few highlights! The new Fraternity Board members were elected and installed, as well as elections for our new UGAC members.We got to hear some inspiring words from past National Presidents during the anniversary banquet, gathered information at educational sessions, and rolled out the new awards program based on accreditation results where we announced that the MA Lambda chapter at Worcester Polytechnic Institute was the winner of this years Founders Cup amongst many other awards given. The vote to recharter the colony at Saint Francis University also took place and they have become our newest chapter. If you get the chance please take the time to congratulate all those elected to positions, award winners, and the men from Saint Francis. Please also make sure your delegates share any other pertinent information that I haven't shared here with you!

Lastly I'd like to comment on how much I enjoyed attending Convention. Anita and I had talks with various members throughout the weekend about the differences between the Convention meetings of men and women. Both of us really appreciated the fact that Phi Kappa Theta really allows their undergraduate members to have a vote and a say in what goes on in their fraternity. Not all organizations give the same opportunities and I really enjoyed seeing undergraduates stand up during debate to make their voices heard. That is something I hope you don't take for granted!

I couldn't cover everything in this post, so please post your thoughts on Convention to share! If anyone wants to see pictures of the weekend, award winners, and archive room, make sure to add PK Thomas as a friend on facebook!

50th Convention Update

If you're a blog reader, often you are privy to the latest information on PKT and what we're doing. This post is about something that we have not publicly announced yet so feel special to be getting the exclusive information.

This year we have embraced technology for the 50th Convention. You may know that we have a Phi Kappa Theta Twitter page, a YouTube where we post our videos, the Facebook page, and this blog but we have stepped up yet again. The newest rage is Event Tweets on Twitter. Confused? Get on Twitter and search #PKT50th and you'll find people's Twitter updates that are related to our 50th Convention. From now until Convention you'll see staff members updating the Twitter account and including #PKT50th in the update. That's called a hashtag and it's a way to organize posts. It allows multiple people to Tweet about the same topic and keep it in one place. Once Convention begins, any attendee at Convention will have the ability to add #PKT50th in their update if it's Convention related and people who are not attending can see live Twitter updates from Convention in Columbus. Pretty cool, huh!? So if you're going to Convention be sure to start your Convention related Tweets during your travels to Convention and use #PKT50th in or at the end of your tweet. If you're not attending - be sure to search #PKT50th on Twitter to follow status updates straight from the membership in attendance.