Greek Life Leaders: Working the Final Company

[MikePaine]

Many may only see collegiate Greek life as a cultural group who hides their partying behind community service hours and charitable donations. However, I want to challenge that stereotype by emphasizing the professional development and self-improvement opportunity that's presented to Greek life members - especially those that hold leadership positions. Currently, I serve my one-hundred member sorority as chapter president and use other officers to keep a well-balanced, structured, and involved organization.

Fraternities and sororities must operate as a company first, and a socialite second to be able to be successful. I would really like to point out some key concepts that report the relation between Greek organizations and businesses.

Greek organizations:
• Divide officers into teams to focus on specific areas of the chapter
• Must operate on a strict budget, fueled solely from member's dues
• Must market themselves well to be able to continue steadily to recruit new members
• Have mission statements and values to put up their members to and gear their brand
• Must follow rules from, and report to, their national headquarters
• Have insurance to cover their organization and its members, as well as many policies and procedures in area for holding events

They are just a couple points that report τηλεοραση how Greek organizations are ran as the best business, combining friendship with professionalism and offering members a great opportunity for private development.

As president, I see all sides of running a Greek organization and must help every officer no real matter what team her position is a part of. My days are filled with constantly making decisions and weighing the consequences. I have learned to make fair decisions that benefit the higher good, while remaining unbiased in the process. I also response to everyone's questions and concerns while problem solving when an unplanned event takes place. For example, we had a tiny crisis with flyers which were made to promote an event we were having. Once they came in, we noticed the contact email on the flyers was spelled wrong. After some deliberation, we made a decision to utilize the flyers we'd and made a brand new email address with the typo included.

A huge element of owning a successful organization works well and professional communication. Our main forum of communication between officers and the advisory board is emailing. I discovered just how to properly send and answer emails in a specialist manner. My communication skills have improved substantially since being a leader of my chapter. I have discovered to communicate concisely and format information in the most effective way. I are finding providing information in bullet lists is the better way to get members to see messages fully. Our officers must hold team meetings and get reports of progress in the different areas on the team. Officers are accountable for organizing their own meetings and taking minutes to record the thing that was discussed. Greek organizations teach members to effectively and professionally communicate through emailing, holding meetings, and working with others.

One of the very valuable traits that I am still learning through my presidency, is how to get comfortable with hard conversations. I work closely with this Director of Standards and Ethics to be sure our members are holding themselves to our high ideals and values. When someone is falling behind, it's our job to have conversations together about why that is happening and what we are able to do to be sure it doesn't happen again. These tough conversations become even tougher when remembering that the members of our chapter are also our friends and sisters. As a leader of a Greek organization, I'm learning how to have these hard conversations while remaining in control of myself and the conversation.

Greek life has a lot more to offer compared to social part of the business, and can truly prepare teenagers to become listed on the professional world. Through developing members personally, and developing officers professionally, Greek organizations can provide life-changing collegiate experiences that can't be found elsewhere.