Recruiting Has A New Face (book)

We live in a day and age where carrier pigeons (unfortunately) are a thing of the past, compared to text messages, Facebook invites, and Glee episodes.  Every one of us have cellphones, but I for one use mine more for texting, Facebooking, Tweeting, and Foursquare more than I use it for calling people.   So, why not use this advancement in technology as yet another way for name generation for Fraternity recruitment?

As Recruitment Chair for Pike, recruitment is on my mind 24/7/365 (366 on leapyears, and boy, you'd better believe I use that extra day to my advantage), and I'm CONSTANTLY looking for new ways to improve recruitment, whether it be better name generation tactics, better recruitment events, or better ways to show the right guys that Pike is where they need to be.  I don't create Pikes, I find them, and I think Facebook is a good place to look.  It goes without saying that I would never initiate someone who I had strictly met on Facebook and never met in person, that would be stupid. But it is a good way to find names of guys who you can tell hold themselves to a higher standard already, and are "Pike material", and also might have interest in Greek life already.

One of the first principles we learned in this class was that the world is changing, and if we want to make a difference, we're gonna have to change with it.  Obviously, I read this article on Time's website, not out of their magazine.  It's a good article that I found very relateable and brought this issue to light.  I can understand the point of view that "Facebook stalking" is wrong, but it's something everyone does, and does no real harm when done correctly.  It is up to the Facebook user to be smart about what they post, and who they allow to see what on their profile, to make sure they are being secure and that the world isn't seeing everything about them.  Always post as if your boss were watching, is something our President told us in Pike and that stuck with me.  As a last note about something in the article, I really liked the following quote, "It's a way for incoming freshmen to see that the Greek system is not what it's perceived to be, not just a place to party. We do other functions. Our real mission is trying to better ourselves and make lifelong friends rather than party 24/7."  An SAE said this, explaining that they invite a lot of non-members to their philanthropy events to show that Greek life is not what it used to be, and that they really do great things, and this is something I believe as well.


http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1891277,00.html

Please Stand By

Stand By Me.  The title of a film based off a Stephen King novella, and the title of a huge single by Ben E. King.  In Greek life, college life, and life in general, it is encouraged to stand by one another and support one another in times of need.  Notice that I said "stand by" and not "by-stand".  Though the phrases may sound similar, they are quite different.  If you're reading this blog, chances are you know all about the bystander effect already and have your own examples of times you have, and have not been a bystander.  I encourage you to read mine below and see how they compare.

First, we will start off with a recent example of a moment in my life that I am not proud of.  The time: Thursday, May 12th. The person: a friend who happened to be rushing my Fraternity at the time. The place: 15th ave.  That night, several of us were hanging out and decided to go to the Taco Night featured at 15th and High.  While there, I saw the aforementioned friend stumbling around, very clearly drunk, and yet I did nothing about it.  I did not stop him, I did not walk him home, I did nothing.  I just had the invincibility mindset that nothing bad was going to happen to me or anyone I know, and I was wrong.  I lost track of him in the crowd as I socialized and then on the walk back, I noticed him stumbling out of an alley.  "Hey, there he is!" I say to the other friend I was walking with.  We begin to walk towards him when a car zooms into the alley and two undercover police get out and shine flashlights on him.  We back off, not knowing what was going on, and soon afterwards, he got arrested and taken to jail.  Luckily, he has a lot of close friends looking out for him and he is fine now.  He has learned his lesson and I have learned mine.

Next comes an example of a time in which someone I'm proud to call brother did NOT take part in the bystander effect.  Recently, a group of brothers decided to purchase shirts for the chapter and these shirts had a slogan on the back that would've been less than good for PR, and needless to say, did not represent the values we agreed to in our oath.  When brought up in chapter, no one said anything.  The executive board discussed them soon afterwards and it was made clear that no chapter funds would be going towards these shirts.  Part of the way there, but the shirts were still being made.  They were brought up again in chapter as a reminder for those interested to chip in for them, and my twin, Scott, stepped up and said something.  Though he faced much vocal opposition, he had a lot of support from the brothers he needed it from.  He pointed out what a bad idea the shirts were, and while the slogan was funny, it was not something that our letters should go on.  Now, are the shirts still being made? Yes.  Are brothers that are well known Pikes that will be out representing our organization going to be wearing these shirts? Unfortunately yes.  But luckily, our letters will not be on them, and that is important.  If we lived in a perfect world, the shirts would not have ended up being made, but some people are stubborn and their minds will not be changed.

So, don't be a bystander.  Stand up for what you know is right, and for the way you know things should and can be done.  Make a difference in your life, someone else's life, and the world.  Thanks for reading.

P.S. I hope you all enjoyed the picture above, The Simpsons and puppies have been on my mind this weekend, so why not combine both?

Honey Bunches of Oath

Those of you who have been reading all my blogs thus far know that I am an avid Green Lantern fan, which means that I know a lot about oaths*One thing all of us have in common with every Green Lantern is that we've all taken an oath.  While we didn't pledge to vanquish all evil with our super awesome power rings, we did all pledge to uphold certain values in our every day lives.  These values differ from fraternity to fraternity and sorority to sorority, but they all basically boil down to living lives of integrity and honor.

Living lives of integrity and honor is easier said than done, especially with all the temptation exists in our world.  In terms of alcohol specifically, which I believe is the biggest vice college kids in general deal with, I think that integrity and honor doesn't mean that alcohol shouldn't be drank at all.  I believe that honor and integrity means that when drinking, one should be responsible and drink in moderation, as opposed to getting belligerently drunk five out of seven nights of the week, which a lot of people seem to consider the normal way of life.

Personally, I don't believe that Fraternities and Sororities, or at least what I can vouch for from my own experience, discuss the values that we pledged to enough.  In my own experience, we discuss these values and rituals as a chapter when new members get initiated, and then kind of proceed to forget about them until the end of the quarter.  That's not to say that I don't have a lot of brothers that live our ritual every day.  One brother, by the name of Zac Beals, even won an award for living his Fraternity Values in his every day life.  I just think that as a group, we need to be reminded of these values and what our founding fathers went through to establish these Fraternities and Sororities, a lot more.

*Small reference that most likely none of you will get

(Insert Clever Blog Title Here)

Citizenship.  The act of being an active participant in one's community.  As a person who frequents in community service and philanthropic acts, citizenship is very important to me.  I am an involved citizen of my Greek community, but not as involved as I could/would like to be.  I'm very involved with my chapter, and often participate in various philanthropic efforts of sororities, but I'm a firm believer that this community needs to come together more.

While involvement could improve, I feel that my chapter provides a good example of citizenship in our Greek community.  I can't say that every member of my Fraternity does, but as a group, we are active participants of Greek life.  For example, we attended every single Greek Week event, and attended so in decent numbers.  We have good relations with many sororities, but could work on our connections with other Fraternities. 

Lastly, I don't believe that our Greek community as a whole is a citizen of our greater OSU community, as individual members of the Greek community are.  There are certain members of our community who are involved in multiple organizations across campus, and hold leadership positions in those organizations.  Overall, I'd say that most Greek members are involved in at least one or two other organizations across campus, and are active members of those organizations.  The desire to get involved and make a difference is what brought a lot of people to Greek life in the first place.

WHAT I LEARNED IN BOATING SCHOOL IS!

First off, Happy Star Wars Day, my fellow bloggers.  May the 4th be with you!  Can you believe it's the last day of Greek Week?  Best of luck to all pairing participants reading this.  Anyways, let's move on to what I learned from last week's little experiment.

The biggest thing that these minisurveys reaffirmed to me is that Fraternity life has a fine line to be walked, and that not everyone has the best balance on that tricky tightrope.  One side has responsibility and leadership, and the other side has the glamorous social aspect of college that we've grown to know and love.  I'll be the first to admit that I've fallen off this rope a couple times.  I'm all for having a good time, but college, and Greek Life specifically, needs to be about a lot more than having a good time.

We are the leaders of tomorrow, and we need to start acting like it today.  I actually had an extensive conversation about this yesterday with my assistant hall director.  Now, I'll spare you the inspirational details and summarize the conversation.  Basically, our conversation ranged from the Greek Week speakers, to the Osama/Mirror Lake happenings, to my experience in New Orleans.  What I discovered, is that a lot of profound realizations that people have later on in life, I'm having my freshman year of college, and I couldn't be more excited about that.  During our conversation, I realized how much I've changed and improved as a person since my freshman year of high school even.  When I was in high school, I did a lot to help my small town.  Now that I'm in college, I'm doing a lot to help a larger community, and even my country in some aspects.  I'm accomplishing great things and making a difference now, and I couldn't be more thrilled to think about where I'll be by the end of college and years after.  To think that this one person has so much potential, and that eventually I WILL be helping things on a global scale, is amazing.  Now, don't misconstrue my words, I'm not trying to sound egotistical.  But I strongly believe that if more people had the potential,
ambition, and drive that I have, this world would be a better place.

And as a special present to those of you that have read this blog in full, here's some nostalgia relating to the blog title :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jtVWX1QDCw