Question:

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 fraternity had ever seen.

Needless to say, when I ran for the Secretary position on executive board in the late fall, I won. I’ve completely revamped our website and done a great job so far. I want to be President of the fraternity next year as a Sophomore. I feel that I definitely have the Sophomore vote, but how would I go about getting the Junior and Senior vote?

I feel like a command respect from all of the guys that are my age and younger, but I can’t quite gain the respect and notice a president would need from the older guys. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer:

I applaud your ambition. Chapters everywhere need young leaders to step up for the betterment of their fraternity and the Greek Community

I actually wrote an entire chapter of my book on how to win your fraternity election. In 11 pages I detailed a 6 step strategy which will get you elected. Here is a short summary of what I wrote:

Step 1 – Have you earned the right to run? – This is a huge step for you. As a sophomore, you will not have the experience as a lot of the older brothers. You must be sure you command the respect of your brothers before you can even consider running for fraternity president.  This chapter will show you how to determine if you have the respect you need to get elected.

Step 2 – Do you understand the needs of the brotherhood? – A leader is determined to serve the needs of his fraternity, not the other way around. If you don’t know what your brothers want, there is no way you will a successful fraternity president.

Step 3 – Develop your platform. – You need a succinct way to describe what you are going to accomplish as president. This is a critical communication step and is especially necessary for a younger brother. I include an example of how I would organize a platform in this chapter.

Step 4 – Discuss your platform with your brotherhood. This is a very time consuming, but necessary step. Your brothers need to understand what you plan on accomplishing, and why these goals are important to you. This will show the older brothers who aren’t as familiar with your ideas why you should be elected fraternity president.

Step 5 – Election Speech – Right or wrong, some brothers are going to be on the fence even if you have done steps 1 through 4. That makes it important to give a solid election speech. Almost as important as what you say is how you say it. The brotherhood is going to be see you in front of them for the first time when you give this speech. They will make up their mind if they can see you there permanently as fraternity president when you are speaking.

Step 6 – Deliver on promises – If you get elected, but don’t deliver on your promises, you will be doing a huge disservice to your fraternity. Your integrity is always being put to the test, and is a critical trait for a fraternity president.

That is a short overview of what you need to do to get elected. I obviously go in much greater detail on how to accomplish each step in my book (which I encourage you to check out), but this should give you the basics.

I also think it is a good idea for you to check out this article on How I Lost My First Election for Fraternity President. It will give you some insight on an experience I had, which sounds very similar to yours.

Good luck on your fraternity election.

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Question:

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.

As you can imagine, this discouraged many of our members and we continually lost members, as well as motivation. We are currently at 6 members with 2 pledges and a pretty good sized names list. I am extremely worried about our house and don’t know what to do to increase our numbers and get us out of this rut. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!

Answer:

This is a tough situation to be in. However, being in this situation actually has a few advantages which I’ll explain in a minute.

Before you can focus on rebuilding your fraternity, you must make sure you have a clear understanding of what your chapter is all about. Why should guys want to be a part of your fraternity? What do the brothers get out of being part of your organization? What are your goals?

Once you get a clear understanding of what your fraternity is all about, then you will be able to sell potential new members on those ideas. Hopefully, you will be recruiting guys with the same mindset.

And when you recruit these guys, explain to them that they will be expected to run the fraternity once they are initiated. You and the other brothers have to be willing to give away control of the fraternity to the newly initiated brothers. This is a huge recruiting advantage you have over the other fraternities on your campus. It will also attract leaders, something desperately needed by a struggling fraternity.

That is the first major advantage. Another one is the guys you get to join will be highly motivated. Older, more established fraternities can lack guys with the drive to innovate. You won’t have that problem. The excitement of the new brothers will be contagious, and your fraternity should be able to rebound fairly quickly.

As for your probation issue – you need to do a few things there. First off, you need to understand why your fraternity got in trouble, and put the safe-guards in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Fortunately, no probation lasts forever. Be sure you are proactive with the Greek Life office, Student Conduct and your National Headquarters during this tough period. Ask them for advice, and let them know the things you are doing to turn your fraternity around. It is on you to reach out to them, not the other way around.

I know you don’t believe it right now, but these folks want to see your fraternity succeed and prosper. Treat them like they are on your team, and your fraternity can come out of this stronger than ever.

If anyone has additional thoughts, please leave a comment below.

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At first, I am sure the older brothers were not convinced I was experienced enough to lead the chapter. I followed the plan I outlined in The Fraternity Leader Series on How to Win Your Fraternity Election, and it nearly worked.

But I ended up narrowly losing that election. I think I lost because the other brother was more experienced. He was a great choice for president, even though I thought I would have been the better choice. Another factor was an alternate plan devised by the brothers. This probably had the most significant impact on the election.

The alternate plan was a large number of brothers had decided to vote for me as a write-in candidate for vice-president. I ended up winning that election. I had no idea that this was being discussed, and when I found out it came as quite a shock.

I did not accept that position though. One of my pledge brothers had his heart set on the vice-president position, and I believed he would do a good job. I did not want to pull the rug out from under him, so I turned the position down and he was elected.

The take-away from this story is to not become discouraged if you don’t win you first fraternity election, especially early in your college career. There will be plenty of elections in the future.

The best thing you can do is to be the model brother, and do everything you can to support the leadership team that was elected. How you handle these little setbacks in life is how you will be remembered. It also says a lot about your character.

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Always define success before you start an endeavor. How will you determine if your term as president was successful? Your goals for the upcoming year should be measurable, and you should be able to fit them on a single sheet of paper. Keep these goals visible during the year so you don’t lose sight of your objective.

2. Get Smarter about Fraternity Operations

You will have a lot of people counting on you during the semester. The summer is the time to become as smart as you can, to assure you are as prepared as you can be. Spend this time tapping into all your resources for great fraternity advice such as The Fraternity Leader Series, the fraternity president who preceded you, older brothers, your chapter advisor, the Greek life staff and any other knowledgeable resource out there.

3. Improve the House

A fraternity house takes a beating during a school year. Take advantage of the time during the summer to spruce the place up a bit. You don’t have to invest a lot of money or time to make a difference. A coat of paint on a room or two and planting a few bushes in front could make a huge difference. The value in this improvement will really be apparent when the brotherhood gets back from the summer off. They will notice the improvements, and that will create a positive energy around the house. This is a great way to start the year.

4. Clear the Air

Part of being a leader is being the bigger man. You may have had a disagreement with a brother in the past. Take this opportunity to bury the hatchet. The last thing you need at the start of an exciting year is to have someone who isn’t 100% behind you and your vision for success. Don’t go into a new year with old grudges.

5. Attend Convention to Learn – Not to Party

Convention is a fantastic time, and every brother should attend at least once during their four years. However, be sure to take advantage of everything convention has to offer.

Meet other brothers from other chapters and learn from them. Learn from the alumni and fraternity staff. Hopefully you can pick up a thing or two from guys like me, who are guest speakers at conventions. The last thing you need to do is spend the few days in a drunken stupor and miss all these great opportunities.

6. Make Sure the Fraternity Finances are in Order

Finances can ruin your fall semester long before it ever starts. I had a semester like that as president of my fraternity. We could not fill the house during the summer, and the treasury was drained by the time everyone came back from summer break.

Meet with your treasurer and be sure to have a solid understanding of the chapter’s financial situation. Use this opportunity to plan fundraisers and discuss budgets. This could be the most valuable few hours you spend all summer.

7. Make sure the Rush Chair has a Plan for the Fall

When everyone gets back from break, you will dive straight into fall rush. Be sure your rush chair has everything planned and ready to go. In addition, stay in close contact with the fraternity to ensure the brothers are maintaining a list of prospective new members.

8. Send Out a Newsletter

Admittedly, most guys will disappear during the summer and lose touch with the fraternity. And here you are, becoming more excited by the second about all the great things you have planned

Don’t wait until the fall to let them know what you are up to! Send out emails, send out a newsletter, do something so that the brotherhood is aware of what has been planned. This will help make sure the fraternity is fired up and anxious to get back to campus.

9. Update your roster

There are going to be brothers who graduate and leave school for whatever reason every summer. Be sure to get with the Greek Life office and your national headquarters to get them taken off your fraternity roll. The last thing you want is to be paying for brothers who are not active in the fraternity.

10. Introduce Yourself to the Director of Greek Life

A lot of fraternity presidents don’t meet their school’s director of Greek Life until they are in trouble. Don’t be that guy. Call and schedule a meeting to introduce yourself. Discuss with him/her your plans for the year and let them know how excited you are.

Believe it or not, these folks are almost as interested in your success as you are. They will be able to give you valuable insight and advice to make your journey a little easier.

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The reason for this is simple; the brotherhood will follow the president’s example. If the president doesn’t think that any one of these events is important enough to show up for, why should the brotherhood?

Finally, it will do a president more harm than good to show up with a bad attitude.

Never forget that a president’s role to lead by example is very tiresome, but critical for a fraternity’s success.

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That is not to say that a president should never try to talk to a brother about his shortcomings. He should do so in a private manner as a friend. Telling a brother that you think that something is not working out like expected, but you are more than willing to help him out in getting in back on track, is always the right approach. Bringing up a brother’s failures in a fraternity meeting is not the time to do it. A president (and really any leader) should always coach in private, and compliment in public.

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All fraternity meetings should be less than one hour and held in a location convenient to the brotherhood. Often, fraternities will conduct their meetings in a room that is too small to accommodate the entire brotherhood. Too many people for too small a space will force people to sit on the floor. Just about everyone will be uncomfortable, which will significantly hurt the productivity of the meeting. Do everyone a favor and reserve a classroom on campus for your meetings if you do not have a suitable location at your fraternity house.

A final critical role of the president is to realize when to stop a discussion. Often, a discussion will inevitably lead to the same points being said over and over by different brothers. The president should notice when this happens, and be quick to cut it off to save everyone’s time.

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He does this by not allowing the fraternity to purchase anything in cash. Cash is too easy to steal. Then, the bank account must be set up to require two signatures. This ensures that the president and the treasurer both have oversight of every dime of fraternity spending. Finally, the president must ensure that that treasurer gives a thorough financial update to the fraternity at each meeting. There is going to be less frivolous spending if the entire fraternity is going to be made aware of every transaction.

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To avoid one of the ‘good fun’ tasks of the semester, the pledges can use a presidential pardon at their discretion. They should only be able to use it once, so they better make it count.

It is up to the president on how they can earn this pardon. Maybe the fraternity president will give the group a task to accomplish to earn the pardon, or maybe he’ll task each pledge individually. Again, this is one of the perks of being a fraternity president.

If the president decides to do this type of program, you want make sure both the president and pledge marshal are on the same page. Then, the marshal needs to explain the program to the fraternity and let them know that the president is the only one with this authority. The last thing a fraternity needs is there to be a vice-presidential pardon and a pledge marshal pardon and a treasurer pardon. That will lead to a revolt against the executive board.

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Nationals and the university will be looking at the president for leadership as well. The president will become the point man for dealing with all issues with those entities. I cannot stress enough how important it is that this task isn’t delegated. The president owes it to the fraternity to make it a point to make sure the chapter is represented well to these organizations. Regular conversations should be held giving updates on the chapter to certain officials. In addition, if the president is smart, he will reach out to these organizations for advice. That is the main purpose for their existence. The people who assume those roles do so because they want to help fraternities succeed. Reach out to them and figure out what help than can offer.

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