Remembering What We're Celebrating

For many of us this Thursday will mark a day of family, food, and football. Hopefully, it also means giving thanks for everything you have. That's what it's all about isn't it?

Just as we sometimes forget what we are really celebrating on days like Thursday (The 4th of July has become more about BBQ's and fireworks than celebrating our independence, hasn't it?), as fraternity men, we sometimes forget what being in a fraternity truly means.

Chances are, somewhere in your fraternity's mission, creed, or membership program, there is a part about service. Chances are, as a part of your fraternity, you participate in quite a bit of the service your creed teaches you about.

So how can you focus on living up to your fraternity's values this Thanksgiving? By giving back.

So here is a few tips for you this Thanksgiving so that you may refocus on your fraternity's values and what the holiday is really about:

1. Raise money for a non-profit that helps the hungry

2. Collect food for the hungry

3. Volunteer at a soup kitchen

4. Send a care package/card to a soldier

5. Deliver Thanksgiving dinner to the housebound/hospital

THANK YOU for reading, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

An Argument for Planning Ahead

First, you need to watch this video.

What did you learn from that short experiment? While the message was rather obvious through the study, it sheds like on how important time is.

If you think about being Greek, it also sheds like on what fraternities (and general college students) do a lot--procrastinate. We wait too long before planning something and we end up doing it all last minute.

Hopefully after you watched this video you now realize that when you procrastinate and do not do long-term planning, you lose the creativity and limit the success of what your event or program could have been.

How many of you feel that planning often time is a chore? You feel pressured to get it done right? Sometimes, I admit, the fun is taken out of our job as Greeks because we don't have the time to "do the work", yet we have to. That is why long-term planning is essential, and procrastination needs to stop.

Begin your work early and the fun comes back. Ideas will begin to flow and before you know it, the event you were planning has transformed into something completely different than when you began. It transformed into something better. How could it have if you waited until the last minute to do it? Now that you have a week before the event, your school work is piling up, you have a formal tonight, a big game tomorrow and ritual on Thursday? If that sounds like your schedule, then why aren't you planning ahead? Wayyyyyy ahead.

The video above ended with this: Creativity is not inspired by the pressure of time, but by the freedom, the playfulness, and the fun. If you plan ahead and begin planning a semester before an event, that opens yourself and your organization to 1) obviously have more time to plan 2) be more creative 3) have fun doing the planning and 4) ensure the event is as successful as it could possibly be.

Give yourself the opportunity to have a little fun.

A Lesson from VH1's Tough Love

Yes, I watch VH1’s Tough Love. Why? Like many Americans, I love watching train wrecks on television. The idea behind the show is that the host is trying to coach a dozen women into realizing why they are still single. Anyone watching the show could probably tell them too, but that is not the point. What it is certain, is that these women are their own worst enemies.

In the second episode of this season, the women are all on dates in a sports bar, when they are caught off guard by the host appearing on all the televisions. After greeting the women, he explains one great truth: After a man meets you, he will go home and check you out on Facebook and Google you. Am I right guys? You know who you are.

Unfortunately for the women, what appeared up on the screens after the host’s introduction were not pretty. In fact, the women were all embarrassed. Why? There were scantily clad photos, captured memories of drunken nights, and less than favorable poses...all taken from their public Facebook pages.

Immediately, the women responded negatively. They were mad, upset, and embarrassed. One woman expressed that it was "messed up" that he would show these. This was definitely not the way they wanted to be represented on their dates.

And guess what? They put that stuff on Facebook themselves...in public...for everyone to see...for anyone to search for.

The parallel to fraternities here is clear. Whether it is your organization's website or Facebook page or your member's personal Facebook pages, you need to be careful what you put out there. Every image, every witty quote, every page you "like" represents who you are...and who you are represents your organization's membership. As I have stated before, you are always wearing your letters.

Does the impression you are giving on Facebook reflect the values you try to represent in your organization? If the answer is no, unfortunately it is not your opinion that matters...but the opinion of the public and potential new members that does.

Be careful what you post.

The Legend of Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a hero of the Trojan War and Homer's Illiad. Legend has it that Achilles' mother, Thetis, dipped young Achilles in the river Styx to make him immortal. Achilles grew up to be a strong warrior, a man of strong will, who then fought the Trojans and killed many enemies. He was praised by the Greeks to be one of the greatest warriors of all time. He was the embodiment of being Greek.

However, when his mother had attempted to make her son immortal as a child, Achilles was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him, his heel. Therefore, an arrow shot through his heel is what killed him in the end.


Fraternities can learn a lot from this story. 

Just as Achilles was the embodiment of what it meant to be Greek, a warrior...a man, you might think your organization is the embodiment of what it means to be Greek too.

Your members may have awesome grades; you may do an outstanding amount of service; you get your paperwork in time; and you recruit in large numbers every semester. You may even win awards from your Greek Life Office, school, and national organization. Sounds like your organization is awesome and I would likely agree.

But then there is this.The drinking.


The Achilles Heal of fraternities.


Sure, you might be the best fraternity on campus. You might be an "all-star" chapter. But one night gone wrong, and bam! Your chapter is forced to close up shop because someone got seriously hurt...or died. Maybe it was just all the jungle juice the RA found. Or the beer pong and use of funnels that they walked in on.




One brother or guest drinks just a little too much and they end up being wheeled to the hospital. The university/or national fraternity decides it is a clear risk management violation and you are facing some trouble.


"But what could I have done?" "He is an adult and can make his own decisions about how much he drinks."


This is where the risk management violation comes is. Yes, once the person was intoxicated you did the right thing and called 911. But why didn't you prevent the situation from happening in the first place? Isn't that where brotherhood comes in? Isn't that accountability? And service?


Once the guy got wheeled onto the stretcher, your fraternity took a hit. If a car was flying down the street towards one of your brothers, would you yell and push him out of the way? Or would you wait for him to get hit and then call 911? In hopes that he's "fine"?


Be proactive and not just reactive.That is brotherhood. That is accountability. That is being Greek.


Alcohol is the Achilles heel of even the best organizations. Don't let one small part of who you are bring you down. Like Achilles, no one is invincible.

Brotherhood through a Camera Lens

It’s recruitment season and people are hustling around looking to scoop up new guys to join their awesome chapter. It’s during the recruitment season when each chapter on campus is looking for that special trick to recruitment. Unfortunately this post doesn’t have that secret special trick to give you the edge. However I am going to offer a tip to help your branding efforts.

Check out your Facebook page or your website and find your photos. Good memories, right? Well that might be the problem if we can’t convey those awesome memories to other people. Let’s put it this way: a picture speaks a thousand words…but only if we understand the language of our conversation.

A lot of times we take the classic picture of a few guys standing and smiling together during an event or service project. It’s a great picture because it brings back memories of that day. We reflect on what we were doing, the brothers we were with, and the emotions that we felt. It’s like a visual bookmark in time. However, that’s not the same message that potential new dudes get when they see that same picture. They see three guys standing and smiling together and think, “These guys must like each other.”

So if the goal of our Facebook and website pictures is to show what our brotherhood does then we need to show more ACTION. Don’t have static pictures of peoples just standing around for the camera. Show dynamic pictures that show action and emotion. Like I said, not a super recruitment secret just some feedback.

Check it out. I posted the same post twice using two different chapters! Can you spot the difference in the quality of the content? Just to fill you in: both of the chapters are AWESOME! Both groups are grounded in values and do great works in their communities. So why do they seem so different?

Next week we’ll discuss the importance of descriptive photo captions…



Brotherhood through a Camera Lens

It’s recruitment season and people are hustling around looking to scoop up new guys to join their awesome chapter. It’s during the recruitment season when each chapter on campus is looking for that special trick to recruitment. Unfortunately this post doesn’t have that secret special trick to give you the edge. However I am going to offer a tip to help your branding efforts.

Check out your Facebook page or your website and find your photos. Good memories, right? Well that might be the problem if we can’t convey those awesome memories to other people. Let’s put it this way: a picture speaks a thousand words…but only if we understand the language of our conversation.

 A lot of times we take the classic picture of a few guys standing and smiling together during an event or service project. It’s a great picture because it brings back memories of that day. We reflect on what we were doing, the brothers we were with, and the emotions that we felt. It’s like a visual bookmark in time. However, that’s not the same message that potential new dudes get when they see that same picture. They see three guys standing and smiling together and think, “These guys must like each other.”

So if the goal of our Facebook and website pictures is to show what our brotherhood does then we need to show more ACTION. Don’t have static pictures of peoples just standing around for the camera. Show dynamic pictures that show action and emotion. Like I said, not a super recruitment secret just some feedback.

Check it out. I posted the same post twice using two different chapters! Can you spot the difference in the quality of the content? Just to fill you in: both of the chapters are AWESOME! Both groups are grounded in values and do great works in their communities. So why do they seem so different?

Next week we’ll discuss the importance of descriptive photo captions…

It's That Time of the Year Again...

 No. Not when I decide to finally post again...I mean Fall Recruitment!

Since school is beginning to be underway and I am preparing for my first year at a new institution, I have had several fraternity members either stop by my office, send an email, or call with one question..."When is Rush Week?"

If anyone knows me well, my typical response is "Never. What's that?"

The reason why I answer that way is simple. I am a firm subscriber to the notion that recruitment should be a 365 day-a-year process. 366 days if you're really ambitious. To me, "rush" is an out-of-date term that describes how fraters of the old would rush freshman residence halls and the trains from which they arrived to campus, throw beanies on freshman guys' heads and tell them to join their frat.

Over time, "rush week" became this time period where fraternities would throw bbqs, parties, put fliers up and hope guys would come check out their house.

That is never how you should recruit. You should seek out men and not just invite anyone who wants a free burger to come over. Nor should you "rush" at them. Freshman are scared enough.

If this is not how you recruit, then why are you still calling it "rush"? It's time to change the language.

So when is "Rush Week"? Never. Recruitment Year. Yes.