Any fraternity or sorority can fall apart. This can cause a lot of problems for young college students. It’s something that you don’t often hear about prior to joining a fraternity house. Yet, it can be a serious issue that could impact the lives of many members.
Today, we’ll reveal some of the problems that could arise in a fraternity. We’ll show you how to take the initiative to solve them. Check out six steps to take your fraternity from awful to awesome!
What Makes a Fraternity Awful?
Fraternities are organizations led by humans, and it takes a group effort to maintain them. This can cause problems from the get-go. For example, your brothers could go against the executive board or the national organization and disrespect their decisions. If the chapter board is simply not doing its job, you and your brothers could be dissatisfied. Furthermore, it’s common for chapter presidents to become self-centered. They could disregard the needs of the brotherhood for their own gain.
Plus, aside from leadership issues and internal conflicts, there are many other downsides to fraternities:
- Hazing — Even if a frat has zero tolerance for hazing, many brothers could disregard the rules.
- No quiet hours — People rarely respect quiet hours and end up having an endless frat party all day long.
- Frats can encourage alcoholism, misogyny, homophobia, and racism.
- No room for individuality — Greek life leaves little room for expressing yourself, and frat members are often forced to conform.
So what can you do to change some of the core issues of your fraternity?
Understand Your Vision for the Fraternity
The first step to improvement is to see whether you are capable of taking the initiative. Sadly, like many things in life, lots of people can complain. They can constantly talk about how things are falling apart. Yet, most people don’t have the vision to see what needs to improve.
If you can objectively understand what’s wrong with your frat, you’ll be able to isolate the issues. Then, you can envision the ways to solve those problems. Simply put, if you want to see real change, don’t whine about toxic masculinity or disorganization. It’s up to you to find a way to face the problems and eliminate them over a period of time.
Have Private Talks With Current Leadership
Still, even if you find a solution, it could be useless if you act on your own initiative. Even if you think that the executive committee and the national headquarters aren’t paying attention, it would be wise to meet with your leaders in private. This action can help you get a better understanding of the current issues. It will also enable you to see the general attitude of your leaders.
In the ideal scenario, you could be dealing with a communication issue. Here, a private talk could shed some light. In fact, your leaders may be willing to talk to you and discuss how you could eliminate many barriers.
However, you also need to keep your fraternity brothers in the loop. Don’t take action behind their backs!
Take the Initiative to Improve Your Fraternity
What if your leaders aren’t interested in improvement? Well, the only way to move forward is to pave the way to change. Just because you’re not part of the leadership, it doesn’t mean that you can’t lead the way.
Strengthen Your Brotherhood
Greek letter organizations are founded on friendships and the strength of your bond with your brothers. You can try to deepen the friendships and bonds. One way is to share meals, go to the gym, study, or go out together. It’s a group effort, meaning that you shouldn’t exclude any bro, especially those that belong to the executive committee.
Promote Your Frat
Tell others about your brotherhood! Let them know how proud you are of your brothers at social events or through social media. This is a good way to boost your frat’s image. It creates positive energy. It will also motivate your brothers and make them believe that your frat is awesome.
Fresh Blood
If you recruit new members, you’ll meet new and motivated students. Prospective new members will not be aware of the issues in your frat house. So find more people to join during fraternity recruitment events! They will bring positive energy that could stimulate change.
Learn to Lead
There are many books and resources that you can use to find out how to successfully run a fraternity. They could provide you with a blueprint on how you could encourage progress.
Plan Something Epic
Struggling frats need to see something new that inspires and motivates them. You can think creatively and think of something awesome that you can do to bond with your brothers.
Share Your Vision With All Members
As mentioned, you shouldn’t exclude your bros from your conquest to solve problems. Instead, convince them that what you want to do is the right way forward.
So tell them about the things that you want to do to improve. Explain to them that you want to see changes not because you want to take revenge on the executive board but because you want to improve life for everyone. This honesty could bring everyone on board, but you will need to have confidence in your ideas and openly pitch them to your bros.
Don’t Look for Credit
If you manage to change your frat for the better, don’t let it go to your head. That is, even if you know that the improvements are the results of your efforts, you shouldn’t take credit. If you do so, your bros will think less of you. They may even become jealous.
Remember that even if you came up with the idea to improve things, the changes should be credited to a group effort. You should worry about the results and not the praise.
Plan for the Future
If you get the support of your bros and they actually want you to take credit and become someone who leads them, then, by all means, take the initiative to become the leader.
Bear in mind that leadership changes a lot. Elections will come up sooner or later. If that happens, get ready to plan for your frat’s future. If you want to lead or if you believe someone will make a strong candidate for the executive board, you’ll need to get ready beforehand. That means you’ll have to learn more about what will actually happen if you get elected.
Key Takeaways
Our tips will bring results quickly, but only if you take the initiative and actively work towards change. So focus on the future, stay positive, and take action today to improve your fraternity!
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