When I pledged to my fraternity, I knew that I wanted to make a permanent positive change to the fraternity. I wanted to help lead and make the important decisions along with my fellow brothers. I was elected to pledge class Vice-President and basically ran (our pledge class president didn’t do much at all) perhaps the most motivated and influential pledge class our chapter had ever seen.
I was initiated my freshman year into a house that was on probation for alcohol-related incidents and we have been on probation ever since. Probation has made our house alcohol free and we’re not allowed to have social events unless they are educational. We are also not allowed to participate with other Greek houses on campus.
I was my fraternity president for two years, and I was NC State’s IFC president for one. However, I lost my first election for fraternity president. That election had a bizarre twist which to this day I am not sure if I handled correctly. Let me explain…
Ten things that every fraternity should do during the summer to make sure his fraternity is ready to prosper in the fall semester.
A fraternity president needs to lead by example. There is going to be a lot of tasks that you are not going to want to do, but have to because you fill that role. There are going to be IFC meetings to attend, alumni letters to write, university officials to meet, not to mention homework, girlfriends and a personal life.
The flip side of empowering a brother to take ownership of his projects is to hold him accountable for the results. While that will work in business, a fraternity is not business and should never be confused as such. If the president takes it on himself to hold a brother accountable for not doing his job, then the president runs the risk of alienating that brother. No one wins in that situation.
The fraternity meeting is dreaded by a lot of chapters. The reason is quite simple. This turns into another commitment that a brother has to do instead of wants to do. To alleviate that, you must be prepared for every meeting. Winging it is never acceptable.
The president has a fiduciary responsibility to the brotherhood. He must serve as the checks and balance on all financial affairs. This is a critically important function that most presidents overlook.
Being the president of a fraternity is a lot of work, but has a lot of perks. One of them is being able to grant the pledges a pardon.
The first role of a president is to be a figurehead for the fraternity. Not only will the brotherhood look at their president as the leader of the group; nationals and the university will as well. This is a very serious role, but is also a lot of fun. The president should enjoy this role, and make it a point to do it well.
