However, I want to challenge that stereotype by focusing on the professional development and self-improvement opportunity that's presented to Greek life members - especially people who hold leadership positions. Currently, I serve my one-hundred member sorority as chapter president and work with other officers to keep a well-balanced, structured, and involved organization.
Fraternities and sororities must operate as a small business 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 work with specific regions of the chapter
• Must operate on a strict budget, fueled solely from member's dues
• Must market themselves well in order to continue to recruit new members
• Have mission statements and values to keep 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 place for holding events
These are just a couple points that show 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 really a part of. My days are filled up with constantly making decisions and weighing the consequences. I have learned to produce fair decisions that benefit the more good, while remaining unbiased in the process. I also reply to everyone's questions and concerns while problem solving when an unplanned event takes place. For example, we had a tiny crisis with flyers that were made to market 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 use the flyers we had and made a new current email address with the typo included.
An enormous element of managing a successful organization is beneficial and professional communication. Our main forum of communication between officers and the advisory board is emailing. I discovered how exactly to properly send and answer emails in a specialist manner. My communication skills have improved substantially since being fully a leader of my chapter. I discovered to communicate concisely and format information in the most truly effective way. I have found providing information in bullet lists is the better way to have members to see messages fully. All of our officers must hold team meetings and get reports of progress in the various areas on the team. Officers are responsible for organizing their own meetings and taking minutes to record what 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 confident with hard conversations. I work closely with this Director of Standards and Ethics to make sure our members are holding themselves to your high ideals and values. When someone is falling behind, it is our job to own conversations with them about why this is happening and what we are able to do to ensure it generally does not 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 to have these hard conversations while staying in control of myself and the conversation.
Greek life has so much more to offer compared to social part of the business, and can truly prepare adults to become listed on the professional world ειδησεισ σημερα ελλαδα. Through developing members personally, and developing officers professionally, Greek organizations can offer life-changing collegiate experiences that can't be found elsewhere.