PKT25: Fraternity Offices, Part 3
I realized have a few additional comments about the fraternity offices, so we'll wrap them up here in part 3.
- Beyond "be a duly initiated active member of Phi Kappa Theta" there wasn't much in the way of official requirements that needed to be fulfilled to be eligible for a position. In theory, a pledge could have run for President and been elected subject only to their being initiated. Pragmatically, it was very, very rare for someone to run for a position without having relevant experience under their belt.
- The more important a position was, the more likely elections were to be contentious. The politicking for President was often very extensive. Treasurer, surprisingly, was not, probably because there was so much work that had to be done for it and the cost of screwing up was so high. Some of the more minor positions had people self-nominate at the last second and win by acclamation. I'd like to tell you that having more candidates and debate led to people doing the job better, but I'd be lying.
- A few of the most critical positions (basically President and Risk Manager and maybe one or two other) were reported to National. A slightly larger set of positions were reported to Greek Life at CWRU. Other than that, nobody cared but us.
- Greek Life DID have eligibility requirements. In particular, there was a GPA requirement from the prior semester. If you hadn't met the GPA requirement, you weren't allowed to hold that position. That required GPA was very low (think like 2.25 or maybe even 2.0), but almost every semester we had a office holder or two (or five) who failed to meet the requirement. Did we run new elections and pick a candidate who had high enough grades? We did not. Instead, we'd appoint a "shadow officeholder" whose grades were high enough who would be reported to Greek Life in lieu of the office holder we'd elected. Greek Life never checked. I think President was the only office where we refused to do that because the President had situations where they had to show up in a way that "the assistant Athletic Chair" (or whatever) wouldn't be questioned. You might reasonably ask if an organization that was supposed to be concerned about academics should have been condoning bad grades like this...
- It wasn't an elected position, exactly, but for every year's national event we would elect someone to represent us at it during the elections at the end of the spring semester. If I recall correctly, we'd pay for their hotel and their registration fees, but they were on the hook for travel and additional meals. In years when the convention was in driving distance we'd leverage that hotel room for a lot of people. The year the convention was in Chicago I think we had five guys in the room, one of whom was the official delegate. Ditto for the Leadership Conference in Cincinnati.
- I held the following positions:
-- Pledge, Fall 1996
-- (nothing), Spring 1997
-- Secretary, Fall 1997
-- House Manager, Fall 1997 and Spring 1998
-- Risk Manager, Spring 1998
-- President, Spring 1999
-- Vice-President, Fall 1999
-- Rush Chair, Spring 2000? Fall 2000? Spring 2001?
-- Summer House Manager, Summer 2000
-- Historian, Fall 2000?
-- Associate Member Educator, Spring 2001
Aside from the Spring Semester of 1997, I don't think there was a semester (excluding summers) where I didn't hold some kind of position, which argues strongly for me being Rush Chair in Spring 2000 and Historian in Fall 2000, or vice versa. I may have to dig up my old college emails from their backup to see if I can figure it out.
The only one of those that I can say I did very well was House Manager, particularly in my first semester. I think I did an above average job for Summer House Manager, Rush Chair and Associate Member Educator. I was an average Secretary and President, and below average for Vice-President. I didn't do a damn thing for Historian. All in all, it was a pretty mixed bag. I learned a lot, and I don't think I hurt the house too badly when I screwed up.
Over the next many Sundays, we'll explore what happened each semester with those positions. I'll see if I can remember who joined the house in each semester, as well as who left. I'll alternate those semester posts with posts about a variety of other topics, including but not limited to Formal, Greek Week, some popular recurring Rush Events like Whirlyball, alumni relations, Serenading, and of course, Ponding. If enough good comments come in to merit mention, I'll add those too.
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, Fraternity Offices, Part 3
Additional Commentary Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout
- Beyond "be a duly initiated active member of Phi Kappa Theta" there wasn't much in the way of official requirements that needed to be fulfilled to be eligible for a position. In theory, a pledge could have run for President and been elected subject only to their being initiated. Pragmatically, it was very, very rare for someone to run for a position without having relevant experience under their belt.
- The more important a position was, the more likely elections were to be contentious. The politicking for President was often very extensive. Treasurer, surprisingly, was not, probably because there was so much work that had to be done for it and the cost of screwing up was so high. Some of the more minor positions had people self-nominate at the last second and win by acclamation. I'd like to tell you that having more candidates and debate led to people doing the job better, but I'd be lying.
- A few of the most critical positions (basically President and Risk Manager and maybe one or two other) were reported to National. A slightly larger set of positions were reported to Greek Life at CWRU. Other than that, nobody cared but us.
- Greek Life DID have eligibility requirements. In particular, there was a GPA requirement from the prior semester. If you hadn't met the GPA requirement, you weren't allowed to hold that position. That required GPA was very low (think like 2.25 or maybe even 2.0), but almost every semester we had a office holder or two (or five) who failed to meet the requirement. Did we run new elections and pick a candidate who had high enough grades? We did not. Instead, we'd appoint a "shadow officeholder" whose grades were high enough who would be reported to Greek Life in lieu of the office holder we'd elected. Greek Life never checked. I think President was the only office where we refused to do that because the President had situations where they had to show up in a way that "the assistant Athletic Chair" (or whatever) wouldn't be questioned. You might reasonably ask if an organization that was supposed to be concerned about academics should have been condoning bad grades like this...
- It wasn't an elected position, exactly, but for every year's national event we would elect someone to represent us at it during the elections at the end of the spring semester. If I recall correctly, we'd pay for their hotel and their registration fees, but they were on the hook for travel and additional meals. In years when the convention was in driving distance we'd leverage that hotel room for a lot of people. The year the convention was in Chicago I think we had five guys in the room, one of whom was the official delegate. Ditto for the Leadership Conference in Cincinnati.
- I held the following positions:
-- Pledge, Fall 1996
-- (nothing), Spring 1997
-- Secretary, Fall 1997
-- House Manager, Fall 1997 and Spring 1998
-- Risk Manager, Spring 1998
-- President, Spring 1999
-- Vice-President, Fall 1999
-- Rush Chair, Spring 2000? Fall 2000? Spring 2001?
-- Summer House Manager, Summer 2000
-- Historian, Fall 2000?
-- Associate Member Educator, Spring 2001
Aside from the Spring Semester of 1997, I don't think there was a semester (excluding summers) where I didn't hold some kind of position, which argues strongly for me being Rush Chair in Spring 2000 and Historian in Fall 2000, or vice versa. I may have to dig up my old college emails from their backup to see if I can figure it out.
The only one of those that I can say I did very well was House Manager, particularly in my first semester. I think I did an above average job for Summer House Manager, Rush Chair and Associate Member Educator. I was an average Secretary and President, and below average for Vice-President. I didn't do a damn thing for Historian. All in all, it was a pretty mixed bag. I learned a lot, and I don't think I hurt the house too badly when I screwed up.
Over the next many Sundays, we'll explore what happened each semester with those positions. I'll see if I can remember who joined the house in each semester, as well as who left. I'll alternate those semester posts with posts about a variety of other topics, including but not limited to Formal, Greek Week, some popular recurring Rush Events like Whirlyball, alumni relations, Serenading, and of course, Ponding. If enough good comments come in to merit mention, I'll add those too.
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, Fraternity Offices, Part 3
Additional Commentary Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout