PKT25: Fraternity Offices, Part 2
I laid out half the offices yesterday. Here are the other half, most of which were officially titled "chairs" even though I don't recall any that had a standing committee to support them. Tomorrow, I'll add some summary thoughts.
The Chairs
Rush Chair - We tended to have two types of rush chairs. We had ones who were extremely organized and who planned all the events down to the last detail, and leaned on the brothers to bring rushees to the events. The other type was the incredibly extroverted person who would haul all the rushees to the events themselves, but who may or may not have been great at organizing the events. The detail oriented ones sometimes put together phone lists to call people and bring them along as well. Since our events tended to repeat every few semesters and were mostly not terribly complicated (how hard is it to organize "drive to Sharon PA to eat wings?") both kinds worked pretty well. I was the Rush Chair somewhere along the way. I think it was in the Spring 2000 semester, but it might have been Fall 2000. Or maybe even Spring 2001? I don't recall, honestly, but definitely after I was Vice-President in Fall 1999. I was more the "extremely organized" type, which I know shocks you.
Associate Member Educator - The AME ran all aspects of the Associate Member Education program, about which I've already written five different posts to cover at length. I was the AME in the Spring 2001 semester.
Social Chair - First and foremost, they organized the official parties we had every semester, in which capacity Neal S. as the originator of Blackout was the greatest social chair we had in my all time as an active. Everyone else pretty much followed his lead on parties, but there were other events as well. We had a "screw your brother" mixer once where everybody had to find a date for a brother, at least one mixer with a sorority that I can recall, and I think a few other small non-party things that were also handled by the Social Chair.
House Improvements Chair - If the House Manager kept things running, the House Improvements Chair coordinated the improvements we made to the house, and we made a LOT of improvements to the house while I was there. Sometimes this meant calling contractors (as when we updated the kitchen or when new windows were installed a few years after I graduated), but given the talents of the brothers we had, more often it was "planning the work and lining up the workers" At a bare minimum this usually included a single "Work Day" every semester, where the handy among us would do smaller repairs (ex: replacing a piece of exterior paneling that fell off the second floor, installing a fan in the attic), while the less handy would do seasonal chores like raking leaves or occasional activities like cleaning out the attic or the garage or the basement. I remember one work day where I helped haul out not one but two defunct fridges from the house to the curb, including the part where we knocked the doors off with a sledge hammer. On another work day we borrowed a dump truck from the family business of one of the recent alumni (Darin's family, IIRC) and hauled a ton of crap to the dump from a major clean out. This, by the way, was the one time I got to drive a dump truck!
Beyond Work Day, most House Improvements Chair did some kind of major project that was heavily dependent on both our budget and our skill levels. Bathrooms were improved. The first and second floor hallways were completely repainted. The apartment over the garage was renovated. Stadium seating was installed in the Catacombs. A drop ceiling was installed over the bar. I'm absolutely certain that I'm forgetting a ton of things, because it seemed like there was at least one larger project going on every semester. I, myself, have no skills in that direction, so I never even thought about running for this position, but I did do a lot of "carrying heavy objects" which was in my skill set.
Athletic Chair - We played in a lot of fraternity intramurals. The Athletic Chair organized all of us to make sure we knew when the games were scheduled and that we had enough people on hand to play. He also made sure we had t-shirts to wear for intramurals.
We were incredibly bad at intramurals, by the way, and didn't participate in all of them for that reason. I remember Joe D. throwing a party after we won a softball game his senior year, which was the first such win we'd had his entire time as an active. I think there might have been one floor hockey season where we won multiple games, but I can't name another sport where that was true.
Philanthropy Chair - The Philanthropy Chair coordinated Boo at the Zoo and any other charitable work we had going on.
Computer Chair - As already mentioned, maintained the fraternity website and email lists in the days when you had to do all that stuff yourself because nobody had made free easy ways to do it yourself. CWRU being CWRU, we never had any shortage of qualified applicants for this role.
IFC Rep - Each fraternity was represented by two people at the Interfraternity Congress - the President and the IFC Rep. I'm honestly not sure why IFC felt it needed two attendees. It was probably just to make sure they'd at least get one rep who showed up, and having attended IFC as President, I can say with certainty that some chapters were rarely represented by even one person.
Academic Chair - All fraternities claim to care about academics, and I think each was required to have a position whose job was to worry about academics. At this far remove, I can't recall what the Academic Chair was really supposed to do. I remember a few "invite a professor to dinner" type situations, and in my sophomore year(?) we had a small dinner party for some professors at restaurant that was in an old firehouse that I think was coordinated by the Academic Chair. We also had the usual "file of old tests" for people to reference if they were so inclined, which I suppose was probably handled by the Academic Chair. This was a lot less useful than you'd think, since most professors either rotated their questions or had such difficult material that knowing a question was coming didn't actually help unless you also knew how to do it.
The best story I can recall about the Academic Chair was when Adam ran it. This story requires a bit of context. Freshman chemistry at CWRU was almost always taught by a professor named Dr. Ocasio, who was beloved for learning the name of every student in this giant lecture class and generally caring more about teaching than research. The university probably would have preferred someone in the opposite vein, but the students loved him to the point where after he died Doc Oc (as he was nicknamed) was memorialized in a statue on the quad. Anyway, Doc Oc would run these study sessions for freshmen Chem in the evening via the CWRU internal television network. You could call in with questions and he'd work through them on a board. Basically, Zoom before Zoom.
Adam decided we should invite Doc Oc and all the freshmen over to the house for a live study session, complete with snacks. And if all these freshmen decided Phi Kappa Theta was a cool place and decided to rush and/or hang out in the future, well that would be a nice bonus. It went off flawlessly. The first floor was full of freshmen, with Doc Oc bopping between rooms and helping out and everybody having a good time. I don't know that it improved rush or our parties, but certainly there was a large group of freshmen who knew about Phi Kappa Theta who hadn't beforehand. It went so well, in fact, that all the other fraternities wanted to hold the same kind of event. As I recall, Doc Oc got so many requests that he basically said "ok, that was fun, but I'm never doing it again." Anyway, props to Adam.
Stereo Chair - The Stereo Chair was in charge of the contents of the Stereo Closet and of putting together the DJ roster for parties. He was also in charge of renting lights for parties until we bought our own somewhere along the way after someone (Patrick, I think) ran the numbers and convinced us that we'd come out ahead pretty quickly.
In later years we also had a fog machine at least once a foam machine, although I think those were built by enthusiastic brothers more than coordinated by the Stereo Chair. Some Stereo Chairs would try to supplement their budget by DJing for other campus events. I distinctly remember one Homecoming where we'd tried to get the DJ gig and been turned down in favor or someone else. The person who was hired had a very amateurish setup that skipped during dancing (e.g., constantly). Ours never had that problem; I've been to not a few clubs that didn't have gear as good as ours.
Historian - We had a paper journal on a podium in the Study Room that any brother could write a message for the future in. Some people wrote in it frequently, recording sports scores, pledge classes and the like. Others wrote a farewell message upon graduation, and not much more. It was fun to flip through the book.
It was the Historians job to make sure we had a new book when the prior one was filled up. I don't remember what else they were supposed to, which is particularly embarrassing because I was the Historian in (I think) Fall 2000. This was the only position I held that I completely and totally botched. I didn't do a single thing for it. Hopefully this series makes up for that!
Photographer - Back before everybody walked around with a camera in their pocket and digital cameras were just barely beginning to catch on, the house had a decent point and shoot camera and a small budget for film. The Photographer was supposed to show up at events and take pictures to be placed in photo albums that were kept in the Red Room and Study Room. I have no idea if any albums from my era still exist there or not.
I would guess that this is no longer an official position and that instead people dump photos from their phone into a shared album on some service, but who knows?
Formal Chair - We had a formal event at an off-site location every spring semester. For that reason, the Formal Chair was a de facto two semester job whose budget was set for both the fall and the spring up front. This let them book a space and make all the arrangements far out. Basically, imagine that the Formal Chair planned a small wedding every year. I'll have to write more about Formal in a future post.
Greek Week Coordinator(s) - Greek Week happened every spring. I'll write more about all the different events that made up Greek Week, but there were athletic events like "Pyramid" and "Rope Pull" and more artistic ones like "Banner" and "Talent Show". We usually had individuals who stepped up to make sure we had a team in place for specific events and sometimes to conduct practices. It strikes my mind that we also had someone who coordinated the whole thing, but maybe I'm imagining that, or maybe it was handled by the Athletic Chair or by another role.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters Fall 1996
Events Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings
Other Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2
Additional Commentary Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout
Addendum: Forgot the Alumni Chair, covered here.
The Chairs
Rush Chair - We tended to have two types of rush chairs. We had ones who were extremely organized and who planned all the events down to the last detail, and leaned on the brothers to bring rushees to the events. The other type was the incredibly extroverted person who would haul all the rushees to the events themselves, but who may or may not have been great at organizing the events. The detail oriented ones sometimes put together phone lists to call people and bring them along as well. Since our events tended to repeat every few semesters and were mostly not terribly complicated (how hard is it to organize "drive to Sharon PA to eat wings?") both kinds worked pretty well. I was the Rush Chair somewhere along the way. I think it was in the Spring 2000 semester, but it might have been Fall 2000. Or maybe even Spring 2001? I don't recall, honestly, but definitely after I was Vice-President in Fall 1999. I was more the "extremely organized" type, which I know shocks you.
Associate Member Educator - The AME ran all aspects of the Associate Member Education program, about which I've already written five different posts to cover at length. I was the AME in the Spring 2001 semester.
Social Chair - First and foremost, they organized the official parties we had every semester, in which capacity Neal S. as the originator of Blackout was the greatest social chair we had in my all time as an active. Everyone else pretty much followed his lead on parties, but there were other events as well. We had a "screw your brother" mixer once where everybody had to find a date for a brother, at least one mixer with a sorority that I can recall, and I think a few other small non-party things that were also handled by the Social Chair.
House Improvements Chair - If the House Manager kept things running, the House Improvements Chair coordinated the improvements we made to the house, and we made a LOT of improvements to the house while I was there. Sometimes this meant calling contractors (as when we updated the kitchen or when new windows were installed a few years after I graduated), but given the talents of the brothers we had, more often it was "planning the work and lining up the workers" At a bare minimum this usually included a single "Work Day" every semester, where the handy among us would do smaller repairs (ex: replacing a piece of exterior paneling that fell off the second floor, installing a fan in the attic), while the less handy would do seasonal chores like raking leaves or occasional activities like cleaning out the attic or the garage or the basement. I remember one work day where I helped haul out not one but two defunct fridges from the house to the curb, including the part where we knocked the doors off with a sledge hammer. On another work day we borrowed a dump truck from the family business of one of the recent alumni (Darin's family, IIRC) and hauled a ton of crap to the dump from a major clean out. This, by the way, was the one time I got to drive a dump truck!
Beyond Work Day, most House Improvements Chair did some kind of major project that was heavily dependent on both our budget and our skill levels. Bathrooms were improved. The first and second floor hallways were completely repainted. The apartment over the garage was renovated. Stadium seating was installed in the Catacombs. A drop ceiling was installed over the bar. I'm absolutely certain that I'm forgetting a ton of things, because it seemed like there was at least one larger project going on every semester. I, myself, have no skills in that direction, so I never even thought about running for this position, but I did do a lot of "carrying heavy objects" which was in my skill set.
Athletic Chair - We played in a lot of fraternity intramurals. The Athletic Chair organized all of us to make sure we knew when the games were scheduled and that we had enough people on hand to play. He also made sure we had t-shirts to wear for intramurals.
We were incredibly bad at intramurals, by the way, and didn't participate in all of them for that reason. I remember Joe D. throwing a party after we won a softball game his senior year, which was the first such win we'd had his entire time as an active. I think there might have been one floor hockey season where we won multiple games, but I can't name another sport where that was true.
Philanthropy Chair - The Philanthropy Chair coordinated Boo at the Zoo and any other charitable work we had going on.
Computer Chair - As already mentioned, maintained the fraternity website and email lists in the days when you had to do all that stuff yourself because nobody had made free easy ways to do it yourself. CWRU being CWRU, we never had any shortage of qualified applicants for this role.
IFC Rep - Each fraternity was represented by two people at the Interfraternity Congress - the President and the IFC Rep. I'm honestly not sure why IFC felt it needed two attendees. It was probably just to make sure they'd at least get one rep who showed up, and having attended IFC as President, I can say with certainty that some chapters were rarely represented by even one person.
Academic Chair - All fraternities claim to care about academics, and I think each was required to have a position whose job was to worry about academics. At this far remove, I can't recall what the Academic Chair was really supposed to do. I remember a few "invite a professor to dinner" type situations, and in my sophomore year(?) we had a small dinner party for some professors at restaurant that was in an old firehouse that I think was coordinated by the Academic Chair. We also had the usual "file of old tests" for people to reference if they were so inclined, which I suppose was probably handled by the Academic Chair. This was a lot less useful than you'd think, since most professors either rotated their questions or had such difficult material that knowing a question was coming didn't actually help unless you also knew how to do it.
The best story I can recall about the Academic Chair was when Adam ran it. This story requires a bit of context. Freshman chemistry at CWRU was almost always taught by a professor named Dr. Ocasio, who was beloved for learning the name of every student in this giant lecture class and generally caring more about teaching than research. The university probably would have preferred someone in the opposite vein, but the students loved him to the point where after he died Doc Oc (as he was nicknamed) was memorialized in a statue on the quad. Anyway, Doc Oc would run these study sessions for freshmen Chem in the evening via the CWRU internal television network. You could call in with questions and he'd work through them on a board. Basically, Zoom before Zoom.
Adam decided we should invite Doc Oc and all the freshmen over to the house for a live study session, complete with snacks. And if all these freshmen decided Phi Kappa Theta was a cool place and decided to rush and/or hang out in the future, well that would be a nice bonus. It went off flawlessly. The first floor was full of freshmen, with Doc Oc bopping between rooms and helping out and everybody having a good time. I don't know that it improved rush or our parties, but certainly there was a large group of freshmen who knew about Phi Kappa Theta who hadn't beforehand. It went so well, in fact, that all the other fraternities wanted to hold the same kind of event. As I recall, Doc Oc got so many requests that he basically said "ok, that was fun, but I'm never doing it again." Anyway, props to Adam.
Stereo Chair - The Stereo Chair was in charge of the contents of the Stereo Closet and of putting together the DJ roster for parties. He was also in charge of renting lights for parties until we bought our own somewhere along the way after someone (Patrick, I think) ran the numbers and convinced us that we'd come out ahead pretty quickly.
In later years we also had a fog machine at least once a foam machine, although I think those were built by enthusiastic brothers more than coordinated by the Stereo Chair. Some Stereo Chairs would try to supplement their budget by DJing for other campus events. I distinctly remember one Homecoming where we'd tried to get the DJ gig and been turned down in favor or someone else. The person who was hired had a very amateurish setup that skipped during dancing (e.g., constantly). Ours never had that problem; I've been to not a few clubs that didn't have gear as good as ours.
Historian - We had a paper journal on a podium in the Study Room that any brother could write a message for the future in. Some people wrote in it frequently, recording sports scores, pledge classes and the like. Others wrote a farewell message upon graduation, and not much more. It was fun to flip through the book.
It was the Historians job to make sure we had a new book when the prior one was filled up. I don't remember what else they were supposed to, which is particularly embarrassing because I was the Historian in (I think) Fall 2000. This was the only position I held that I completely and totally botched. I didn't do a single thing for it. Hopefully this series makes up for that!
Photographer - Back before everybody walked around with a camera in their pocket and digital cameras were just barely beginning to catch on, the house had a decent point and shoot camera and a small budget for film. The Photographer was supposed to show up at events and take pictures to be placed in photo albums that were kept in the Red Room and Study Room. I have no idea if any albums from my era still exist there or not.
I would guess that this is no longer an official position and that instead people dump photos from their phone into a shared album on some service, but who knows?
Formal Chair - We had a formal event at an off-site location every spring semester. For that reason, the Formal Chair was a de facto two semester job whose budget was set for both the fall and the spring up front. This let them book a space and make all the arrangements far out. Basically, imagine that the Formal Chair planned a small wedding every year. I'll have to write more about Formal in a future post.
Greek Week Coordinator(s) - Greek Week happened every spring. I'll write more about all the different events that made up Greek Week, but there were athletic events like "Pyramid" and "Rope Pull" and more artistic ones like "Banner" and "Talent Show". We usually had individuals who stepped up to make sure we had a team in place for specific events and sometimes to conduct practices. It strikes my mind that we also had someone who coordinated the whole thing, but maybe I'm imagining that, or maybe it was handled by the Athletic Chair or by another role.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters Fall 1996
Events Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings
Other Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2
Additional Commentary Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout
Addendum: Forgot the Alumni Chair, covered here.