Week 8!!! Already? ;-)

First off, I just want to say that this quarter has gone really fast! I can't believe we are a couple of weeks away from spring break! But I guess we say that about every quarter, every month, every season, and every year. Why is that? After one year past we tend to say, "this year went so fast"...lol...just thought that was interesting! But back to the original blog...

What are the strengths of your chapter and in what ways does your chapter need to improve?

Strengths of my chapter:

• we have great leaders who make a difference within our local community, regionally, and nationally.
• we develop successful programs and events for the greater good of our community
• we multitask school, performances, community service, work, etc.
• we have a unique legacy in the history of our national organization's history
• great networking
• performs numerous community service projects

Weaknesses of my chapter:

• putting extracurricular activities before academics

 What are the strenghts of your council and in what ways does your council need to change?

Strengths of my council:

• has a business background
• charising how existance and long lasting legacies
• growing stronger between organizations
• strong history
• encompasses international organizations
• collaboration with organizations within council
• promotes education retention

Weaknesses of my council:

• lack of collaboration with other councils
• lack of involvment with members
• implimenting and regulating scholarship standards

What are the strengths of our community and in what ways does our community need to change?

Strengths of my community:

• promotes the importance of education to students
• encourages change
• overall service
• roll models
• diversity

Weaknesses of my community:

• misunderstanding of existance between organizations
• stereotypes
• collectively living and expressing our dedication towards our rituals, values and oath

These are the first things that I could think of...but if you notice "the good out ways the bad" and this is always a great thing to notice. As leaders @ The Ohio State University, we are obviously doing something right. No, we are not perfect...everything worth having is worth fighting for. We want a better Greek Community, bond, and involvement amongst eachother...and we are taking steps (such as this class) to make our goals --> accomplishments! I am glad to see the CHANGE we have made thus far. I know that the changes we list previously will shift over to the "Strength" side of the list.

What exactly is an OATH?

When trying to define OATH, you can easily find something life this:

Definition: A solemn affirmation or declaration, made with a reverent appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed.


Some examples of an OATH would include:

• The Pledge of Alligance
• Hippocratic Oath
• Oath of Citizenship 

When I think of what an Oath is I automatically visualize saying the Pledge of Alligance in grade school. Look towards the flag, place your right hand over your heart, and say a poem that you just learned but really don't know what your saying , so you start to say incorrect words that just sound right.

 

So, again...What exactly is an OATH?  If all I can think of are a bunch of words that have some sort of meaning that I don't really understand...that's not a true OATH! If I can not act or live through the OATH I make, it means nothing!

So, that reminds me of Mr. Steve Birdine's (AFLV speaker) presentation of Affirmation in Action! His message really stuck with me as he taught us how to be better leaders. The Affirmation/OATH that we make requires ACTION! This is especially applicable with the Oaths we make within our Sororities/and Fraternities.
When we make our oaths, do we know what we are affirming? Does it mean anything to us?
The answer SHOULD be yes. As leaders, I believe that it is important that we have an oath. Our oath lays out the guidelines we need to perform tasks and fulfill commitments. They serve a purpose, but we often forget that they exist. It is important that we live through our oath and recognize its purpose when we go out and serve our community. This way, we fully represent ourselves as leaders and outstanding members of our organizations as well as students at The Ohio State University!

MY SeCrEt thoughts on RiTuAl! OR MY thoughts on SeCrEt RiTuAl!

What are my secret thoughts on ritual, u ask? Well....duh...it’s a secret! LOL, no JK JK!

But honestly I believe I have to think of this question with a different approach...

Do I take this personally? Concerning my own sorority rituals, and my thoughts on them? If so, I can not answer this question to its entirety. Simply because my sorority rituals are sacred, they are something that my sorors and I hold true and dear to our heart. Our rituals have meaning, and they are significant to what we do and who we are. But what I can answer is...what are my thoughts on secret rituals?

Wikipedia explains a ritual to be a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community.

For many people, the main component they would get from this definition or from their own personal opinions would be that ritual is always directly correlated to religion or some type of worshiping. And this is where confusion begins when comparing religious beliefs to the concepts of being a member of a sorority or fraternity.

I believe this "philosophy" is totally incorrect. My involvement in my sorority and performance of rituals has no interruptions in my personal religious values. Those who are opposed to greek life for these reasons can only understand the "real life" of greeks if they experienced it. Consequently, ritual is nothing without the brotherhood/sisterhood, values, and principles. In the development of our organizations, our founders didn't make rituals first, but saw the need of change in their community with a list of goals, values, and a purpose in which the organization stood for, and then came up with a traditional ritual to bind all of these aspects together.

Again I do agree with rituals being secret and I respect those who keep their rituals a secret while living through those devoted ritual and values. Not many will agree and probably don't see the big deal of secrecy, in which I understand that train of thought. Thus, during membership intake and learning about your organization, those questions should all be answered (depending on your true dedication). There are a lot of sororities/fraternities and there are still many in the making. With that said, each and every org. has a different ritual(s) and that in itself is significant. I believe if more people stayed true to their sacred rituals, a lot of the adversities and obstacles we (greeks) come across could be eliminated. So, I charge you, KEEP YOUR RITUALS SECRET!

Our Journey Along 15th Ave

Last class was very interesting and unexpected! (Well the going outside and walking in the cold weather part was) I really like how this class brings a variety of activities together to emphasize a central theme, SOCIAL CHANGE AND LEADERSHIP! And our journey on 15th avenue did just that. Our task was to ask members of a sorority/fraternity a list of questions regarding values and opinions whether it was personally influenced or specifically related to their Greek affiliation. But, it was there answers that made this task even better. It is ironic how most of our organizations are community service based with similar values and goals yet ALL of the answers we received were DIFFERENT! There are many ways this could be interpreted...is it the members personal INTEGRITY? The influence from the individual chapter? Or even the role these members play within their organization.
It was really fun interviewing people! Most were very welcoming and let us into their homes. I do wish that we had more access to MCGC and NPHC members though. Being that these councils do not have any campus property, the only way of contacting a member would be via phone call. I also would have liked a better understanding of the point system that was distributed. It seemed like the points were kind of "unfair" given difficulties contacting people especially when points were deducted for certain actions.

Overall, I enjoyed myself and I was glad that Clark S. was able to join the NPHC team! Not to mention, we got done in enough time to stop at JIMMY JOHNS to grab a bite to eat before heading back to class! YUM YUM! ;-)