Tiffany's Perfect World

Describe your perfect world. What role does (or should) sorority/fraternity life play in achieving your perfect world?

i have a picture of the artists who performed in the ORIGINAL "we are the world" video (the new one is terrible). the song was made to raise money for famine relief in africa and they succeeded....raising about 60 million dollars. it sounds cheesy and really cliche but in my perfect world people would come together to help the impoverished people of the world more often, just like this.

last year the world lost the most influential artist we have ever known. michael jackson was a humanitarian as well as an artist. this is one of my favorite michael songs and i remember watching this video when i was young. i can relate to the way michael feels in this song because i feel like i have similar hopes and dreams for the world. people seem surprised when they ask me what my major is and i say environmental policy and management...and they ask why and i say-its my passion! so my perfect world would be green..no one would club baby seals, everyone would be committed to living sustainable life...conservation would be everyone's priority, there would be no famine in africa or any other part of the world and most of all, people would CARE enough about these problems to do something.

so in my perfect world, when people joined fraternities and sororities, they wouldnt be committing to the small scale philanthropies and community service projects that they do now, but they would be committing to a lifetime of service on a grand scale. we would be in the amazon planting trees, in africa providing clean water to remote village or in asia teaching english to poor children. not only would we be doing that but we'd be recruiting and leading others in the movement. in my perfect world people would care about others more than they cared about themselves.

Dilemma and Opportunity

Describe in your own words, the dilemma--and the opportunity--facing the Fraternal Movement?

The Fraternal Movement has great opportunities. Organizations have the opportunity to really evaluate their founding principles, oath, rituals, etc., and change the way they run their chapters. In this class we've been developing skills as Greek leaders. We've been forced to really think about things like ritual and oath, why we do them, what they mean, and why its important. If every organization can begin at the beginning, the whole structure of fraternities and sororities as we know it would change, for the better. And with that would come the opportunity for members to serve the community, promote brotherhood and sisterhood, and uphold standards of academic excellence, as it was intended in the first place.

With that being said, in order for the Fraternal Movement to achieve these goals and move forward, they must have a force of members committed to making a change. The dilemma lies in getting people to move forward with the change. Once fraternities and sororities decide to redefine the way their chapters are run, and stick to their principles, they will attract new members who are committed to the cause. Too often people join fraternal organizations for the wrong reasons-to party, to be popular, to get dates, etc. Once people start joining fraternal organizations for the reasons mentioned above, the organizations can move forward, past their dilemma, and realize all their opportunities.

"Welcome every problem as an opportunity. Each moment is the great challenge, the best thing that ever happened to you . The more difficult the problem, the greater the challenge in working it out."

-Grace Speare

Strengths and Opportunities

It is better to say "opportunities" than "weaknesses" because a weakness suggests a deficiency. An opportunity is good chance for improvement. Here we go.

My Chapter

Strengths

• we have a strong history on campus. established in 1919 and doing big things ever since!
• we have amazing service programs including Christmas Wish where we provided 150 kindergarteners with coats at Cassady Elementary and Thanksgiving Canned Food Drive where we provided 26 families with complete Thanksgiving dinners this year
• we are a close knit group because many of us were friends before we even joined the chapter
• we have worked to improve our relationships that didnt exist or were damaged in the past with other chapters on campus
• we have members who are passionate about service and motivate others to give back
• we run our chapter as if it is a business-because it is!
• our members are very involved on campus, not just in greek life (RAs, Hertiage Festival, MANRRS, E4E, NABA, CBSA)
• we are role models on campus

Opportunities

• sometimes we dont priortize as well as we should
• we can always have even better relationships with other groups on campus
• we're a group of strong minded women....so we dont always see eye to eye on everything
  
  

My Council

Strengths

• we've grown more unified this year
• all Divine 9 organizations have certain things in common that bind us together
• our council has worked towards doing more programs and events as a whole, and for the benefit of the community (i.e. chartiy stroll competition)
• organizations in the council support each other's programs and events
• we are working to improve the quality of members with scholarship standards

Opportunities

• member participation in meetings/events/planning could be improved
• member's academic standing could be improved
• unity with other councils and organizations on campus could be improved
• the amout of community service we do could be improved
• the amount of programs we put on as a council could be improved

My Community

Strengths

• the ohio state greek community is huge!
• who isnt proud to be a buckeye?
• my council and my organization being a part of such a huge commuity gives us better opportunites to reach out to more people
• greeks are role models for non greeks in the community
• we all value education and are here for that one goal

Opportunities

• sometimes there is a misunderstanding of greeks in the community
• there have been greeks who have tarnished the image of organizations among the community in the past
• differences in values can cause schisms

my chapter, council, and community all have many strengths and opportunities. listing them doesnt mean anything. what i need to do is make sure myself and the people around me are constantly working to maintain and increase our list of strengths, and decrease our list of opportunities.