Serious meditation on Brotherhood

I am sitting in Starbucks, looking out at the rain, and the dreary overcast skies. This type of weather always makes me go introspective and think about my life. Today I have dedicated a large amount of time thinking about what it all really means. What does it really mean to be a brother? Does witnessing the same ritual make a brother with everyone else? Or is it something else? I have witnessed the same ritual as everyone else in my chapter, but I would not consider many of those men my brothers, some of them I consider friends, but most of them are no more then roommates, fellow travelers on the road of life. So what makes people actually brothers?

Blogger is not making friends

I would like to apologize for the random formating that has been happening on this blog. For some reason Blogger has decided all my new posts should be all underlined on the front page. If you click the continue reading link the article will revert to normal. I am sorry about this inconvenience I am trying very hard to make it stop. 

It's all about the little things!

Source

Phase 3: Excellence: Here is where as Social Chair you need to shine. By this point in the game you have build up quite an impressive notebook of different events, contact, contracts and social ideas, make sure you do not lose this. On top of putting the finishing touches on this notebook, it is time to take your social life to the next level time to go decent to to a social life of excellence. The major tasks for this stage are building better connections with sororities and campus administration, hosting the reception of the year, and making your formal something your campus will be talking about for years to come. Also if you decide to, this is where you would announce the Sweetheart of your chapter. 

The first thing you need to do for this stage is set your social calendar, and get it passed by your chapter. Your best friend during this phase is going to be careful planning and organization from the beginning. Your social calendar should be fully set within the first month of the semester, leaving room for last minute social events and such. If you do not have fully formalized socials planned, at least put the tentative dates on the calendar. Also on this calendar you should have the dates and times for major brotherhood events, community service events and other such activities being planned by the members of your committee. This should be of the utmost importance as this stage will have you and your chapter very busy with social lives, so you want to make sure everyone knows what is happening and when.  Once you have this done it is time to start tackling building better connections. 

The easiest way to do this through thoughtful and respectful correspondences. I know this sounds like it is straight from Amy Vanderbilt’s Complete Guide to Etiquette which it might be, but that does not mean it is no less important. There are three major times you need to send a card, handwritten note etc. Those are Founder’s Days, administration birthdays and after an event. There are different sets of rules for the different groups you are sending these cards to as well. You have a lot more leeway when it comes to inter-Greek relations then when sending things to the administration. 

When sending things to other Greeks there are a few things to keep in mind. 

The Second half of phase two of Committed To Social Lives of Excellence

So now you and your brothers have the basics of gentlemanly behavior down, time to start doing some socializing. Socials, these can make or break your reputation on campus. While a traditional social is nice, it’s a little boring for a social life of excellence, not to mention carry a huge risk of bad PR for your chapter. Traditional socials normally are driving by one of two forces, consumption of alcohol and/or the pursuit of sexual relations with a sorority member. These types of socials just have danger written all over them. Look at your basic wet social, how hard would it be for an accidental overdose to happen? How about a sexual assault? Or how about a visit from your local police? Why waste all the hard work you have done to get this far by throwing a social like this? Not to mention isn’t the entire purpose of working on this plan to make yourself stick out on campus? Here is my suggestion for you. Publicly announce you will no longer be hosting wet social events. Why would you ever do something like this? Because it will get you some really good PR. Trust me on this one, once you tell a few people that your chapter is no longer planning wet socials, most of Greek life will know quite soon. Okay, so you have announced you are no longer doing wet socials, how do you break that news to your brothers? Bet they are not happy campers at all, well here is the solution. Yes you are only planning dry socials, that does not mean you will not be holding an after party where your of age brothers can consume alcohol with of age members of the sorority in question. This way also reduces your risk of potentially having some really severe MRG violations, like common source and/or slush funds. For more information refer to the original CLE plan. Another great idea for social events is why not invite a sorority to do a community service project with you? With social events you really need to start thinking of non traditional ideas, like community service, or things as simple as bowling or hosting a karaoke night on campus together. 

Here is also the time to start rolling out the new social policies you or your predecessor worked on last phase. Here is an example of what I did while I was social chair for my chapter. 

Intro to phase two of Social Lives of Excellence. A Delt is a Gentleman first and foremost.

Phase 2: Social Lives: Other then education, social lives are the second most important part of the college experience, you can argue against this, but it is human nature. Humans are social beings, we crave interactions with other people, why else would you be a part of a fraternity? Just like in the original CLE plan phase two is all about external relations. Your duty in phase two as social chair is simple, plan events people want to attend, and make sure your brotherhood is a brotherhood people want to get to know. While the first event seems simple enough, if you have ever planned events your a chapter you understand how difficult this can be. But before we get to event planning there is something much more important, getting the brotherhood to be someone people want to get to know.

Google and Your Chapter

If there is one book that has changed my life in such a profound way, it would be What Would Google Do? By Jeff Jarvis. I suggest every person read this book, with it’s simple easy to read and straight to the point style, it is a quick read. Jarvis focuses on businesses, but many of the lessons and laws put forth in the text can be easily used for every day life, and more importantly a fraternity. I have taken many of the lessons to heart, and because of this I created this section of Committed To Lives of Excellence. 

Here are some simple things that every chapter should be doing no matter what stage of the CLE you are on. If you are a new chapter, or you are a chapter who has had a Hugh Shields award for the past 50 years, you can all benefit from this. 

Committed to Social Lives of Excellence

The role of the Social chair or Social Engagement Coordinator, or what ever your chapter has decided to call the person in charge of your social life, is in my opinion one of the most important. This person is almost single handedly in charge of keeping your chapter happy, as well as connected to the community you belong to. There are five very important areas that the social chair over sees, or at least should. In my experience this position has been severely limited to planning two different types of events, social activities with a sorority, and planning formal. While these are important they should also be planning activities with other greeks, events involving the surrounding community, and social events for the chapter. Some chapters have broken this role up in to different positions, such as brotherhood and public relations. If this is true, they all should be part of the Activities committee. In the following pages I will break down the role of the Activities Committee into the three phases of Committed to Lives of Excellence, as well as give some new ideas to make this a more important position within your chapter.

Quick Update before Dinner.

Sorry there has not been a post in a couple of days, life got a little crazy. I just spent a very productive two hours in class fleshing out two new posts for tomorrow.

The first is loosely titled "Committed to Lives of Social Excellence: I take a hard look at the role of a Social chair, or vice president of Social Engagement, or what ever else you would like to call it, through the lens of the CLE. Surprisingly it is quite a long one, especially phase one, even though in the original plan, there is no visible use for a social chair, due to the call for social probation.

The second will be Google and your chapter: Lessons on Greek Life from Google and Jeff Jarvis. Here I will roll out the very basic needs for a chapter online. As well as some pretty cool new ideas.

If I have time, I will also be putting up the first part of Alumni Teams as well!

How to make changes if your not in charge.

Here is the early draft of what I would like to call Operation: Rebirth, I can not take credit for this title, as another one of the brothers came up with it, but it fits really well. Keep in mind this is only a first draft, and there are a few key things that need to be changed, in light of recent events.  The most important part of this plan is to not create an Us Versus Them mentality. That is not what this is about. This is more about creating an open forum for people to come and discuss. Think of it as more of a formalized think tank.

Major Ideas presented in Alumni Relations

 Photo Source

One of the most important aspects of the second edition of CLE is a more in depth look at key positions within your chapter. The first postion I go into is the role of Alumni Chair. This in my opinion is one of the most important positions for a chapter. Your Alumni Relations chair is supposed to be the gate keeper between the chapter and the Alumni, and the different alumni groups. In the first phase of Alumni Relations I present a handful of key ideas, and a the start of a foundation that will be later built upon.  The key focus of it is all about how to make an alumni needed and respected. This is the most important thing a chapter can do. In Committed this is accomplished in ways such as communication and a decent homecoming. Do not stretch yourself to thin during this stage, and always plan for the future. This section is not one that can properly be done in one semesters time, nor can it be done adequately by yourself, you need to bring other people into help you. Also a a large part of this phase is dedicated to becoming friends with your local Alumni Association.

Lastly this portion starts to explore the internet and all of the different social networks such as facebook and Google. Utilizing these social platforms will make your life as an Alumni Relations chair that much easier. 

After the Jump is the introduction to the Alumni Committed To Lives of Excellence.  

Preview of Alumni Section

Gamma Nu Homecoming 2005

         When I sat down to write this section of Committed to Lives of Excellence I had only a sketch of what I wanted to say. That was three days before I sit down again to write now. A lot has happened in those three days that completely changed what I have to say about Alumni. Those three days are the magical time in every fraternity known as Homecoming. A time when your house is overrun with Alumni striving to relive their glory days, a time of brothers sitting and listening to old men tell boring stories of the glory days multiple times, all in hopes that this 75 year old alumni will leave behind a check to fix one thing or another that is broken in the house. But this is only part of what Homecoming is about. When I was an undergraduate I never truly grasped the full idea of Homecoming, I just knew we had to spend three days cleaning the house, just so it can be trashed in the first hour, and be on guard for alumni near the dumpster (Homecoming 2005 at Gamma Nu chapter: Drunken Alumni sets Dumpster on fire). I never grasped the nostalgia and memories that are involved. Now that I am one of the alumni, despite I have yet to leave the house, I am starting to understand a lot more about homecoming. Yea it might be mostly about listening to old guys stories, about jumping out of windows, beer slides, three foot snow drifts on their beds and walking 5 miles to school up hill both ways in a nor’easter( a really bad storm for anyone not from New England). But it’s so much more then that. It is about gaining a new perspective on your life, as well as your chapter. For most of the year, many undergrads don’t look much past how this chapter will fare past their graduation. It’s through this alumni that the undergrads gain a chance to look ahead, and think about how it will be when they return in 5, 10 even 30 years down the row. It is the challenge of any good chapter, and alumni for that matter, to help the undergraduates hold on to this chance for the rest of the year. It is so important to any brother and chapter that they are only temporary, but the memories of this place last a life time. That it is the ideals that stand the test of time. We all come to a chapter for different reasons, but without the fraternity, we would not have a place to come for those reasons. We are so short sighted when we are active, we know that we need to bring new guys in, but we never really truly grasp why. Yea we need new guys to grow our chapter, but it’s really because we need them to keep the idea of a fraternity going, so we have a place to come back to. A home we can come back to and plague the young ones with our boring stories about the time someone lit the dumpster on fire,that time you and all your brothers slept outside to raise money for homeless kids, or how they have it easy now, when you were in school you had to walk 5 miles up hill both ways in a blinding nor’easter. 

Now that that little trip down memory lane is done, time to discuss how Alumni can help your chapters in more ways then you may know. Alumni are truly a dynamic part of a fraternity. One that may be under utilized in your chapter, or even disregarded as a bunch of drunk old men who give you money once a year. In this section I strive to show you that we alumni are so much more then that, that we have a lot more to give to the chapter other then just our checkbooks, if you only know how to ask. 

Web Site is now up!

Committed to Lives of Excellence Online


Check out the new site! I just finished getting the online version of Committed to Lives of Excellence first edition up and functioning. More updates will be added to the site as the week progresses. Still need to add some graphics and complete some more links, and a few more sections.

Electronic CLE Almost done!

I have almost finished making the complete first edition of Committed to Lives of Excellence fully Electronic and interactive! The website is not published yet, but I will put a link up as soon as it is ready and I have all the kinks worked out! Please go check it out and let me know what works, what doesn't work and what I can change to make it better.  Also I should be posting some of the first outlines for Committed To Lives of Excellence 2.0 later today. Be excited.


Jacquith.

First Post is always the worst post.

Hello world! My name is Jacquith(Jake-WITH), I am an alumni of my Gamma Nu Chapter of Delta Tau Delta National Fraternity at the University of Maine, as well as the Live-In Advisor(read Mom) for my chapter. I created a program called the Committed to Lives of Excellence: Three steps to a Hugh Shields Award, in the spring of 2010. In August of 2010 the Director of Membership read my plan and decided to add it to the materials given to the chapter consultants. In October of 2010 an alumni of my chapter, and an advisor of the Delt chapter at George Washington in Washington D.C. read it, and asked me if he could bring it to his new chapter, which I of course agreed to. The CLE started as a simple write up to help my chapter over come some massive issues we were struggling with. It has grown greatly in the last 10 months, and shows no signs of stopping any time soon. I decided to create this blog as a way to share ideas, and get feedback on the new edition. I like to think I am pretty awesome, but there are always new things I never thought of, which could benefit this program. One of the most basic principles of CLE is collaboration, so here I am. I will be adding new topics, and posting parts of the second edition here to collect these new ideas. Please do not hesitate to tell me if you think something could be better, or if you have some cool new idea. Also if you would like a copy of Committed to Lives of Excellence please let me know, and I will be more then willing to send you the first edition. As it stands right now this is a program that is meant for fraternities, not just DTD. I have started the very stages of CLE:Sorority Edition and would love some sorority members to give me some direction. So thanks for stumbling upon my humble little blog, and I hope to hear from you!