Citizenship

I’ve become a more effective citizen because I’ve learned that responsibility is at the heart of citizenship. I used to think citizenship was represented by actions such as voting or doing “one good deed a day.” The mere change of how I define the word is not in itself responsible for the transformation, it’s more about deeper understanding of the concept.

 I believe getting involved with a fraternity has definitely helped me evolve in how I view citizenship. My old way of viewing citizenship was so dry that it left me with very little motivation to get engaged. As a result, service was an obligation, not a responsibility. Helping re-establish a fraternity has not only engaged me in the Greek life community, but also with the Ohio State community. As a result of this engagement, I now feel a sense of satisfaction when I participate in service, whether it’s direct service, philanthropic giving, capacity building, or any of the forms of individual civic engagement.

As a goal for our colony this quarter I would like us to see achieve 175 total service hours. Since we started the quarter with 15 active founders—each required to do ten hours a quarter—we should hit at least 150 hours at a minimum, and I believe the eight new guys will be able to cover the rest. Rather than just throwing this goal out there, I would instead like to alter the way the colony views citizenship similar to the same way I altered my view. I believe this is the change that all of our brothers need to make if we’re serious about helping improve the image of Greek life at Ohio State.

Individual change reflection

During last week’s assigned reading I came across one of those “ah-ha” moments while reading about the notion of individual change. In particular, there is one quote from the chapter that I will personally focus on for the rest of the quarter, “When people who are actually creating a system start to see themselves as the source of their problems, they invariably discover a new capacity to create results they truly desire” (Komives and Wagner 106). This idea has opened my eyes up to the fact that a leader’s failure to impalement group change is sometimes because of his own failure to accept individual change.

It was while reflecting on the progress that the group made over the fall quarter during my winter break that I began to realize that last quarter I focused too heavily on a results-based view towards the other officers. The problem was that this led to only two possible reactions on my part: frustration or satisfaction. The feelings were split pretty even throughout the quarter, only the problem was the frustration would outweigh the satisfaction in my mind, which would only lead to more frustration and stress for everyone.  A further problem was this left no room for positivity because even if officers met their goals I wasn’t immensely excited because this is what they were supposed to be doing anyway.

This quarter I am committed to taking more of an “individual based view” which will allow me to focus on each individual officer personally, and the unique skills that each officer brings to the group because of their diverse perspectives. Hopefully, this will also allow me to bring more positivity to the group, which will lead to individual motivation for each officer.

Social Change Reflection

On February 20^th 2011, I was pinned as an associate member of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity in the basement of the Ohio Union. The experience was anything but conventional to the standards of most Greeks. I was pinned by a member of the Board of Governors, not a brother, I had only known of the existence of the organization for about a month, I knew no one who had ever been in the organization, and my “new member” class had nothing to do with learning about the fraternity, but rather starting one. It marked the beginning of an amazing, albeit unconventional experience of Fraternity life as a “re-founding” father.

 The Gamma chapter, which has been at Ohio State for 100 years now, was kicked off in 2007 for hazing—amongst other moronic policies—had clearly lost sight of what it meant to be a fraternity man. We wanted to reform the image of this fraternity from just another party house on campus back to the young men’s leadership organization it once was.

From the beginning it was very clear that our mission was positive social change. I believe all of the seven C’s were present during the process. More specifically I think our group was high in citizenship, common purpose, congruence, and especially commitment.

We have made we have made great progress towards our goal in the past year. Although I think we are only about half way there, seeing our progress so far has given me one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment I’ve ever experienced.

Reflections from Presidents Academy

This past weekend I was given the opportunity to attend Phi Kappa Tau’s Presidents Academy in Tampa Fl. This experience allowed me to learn leadership lessons from legendary Phi Tau’s and interact with other Phi Tau Presidents from all over the country and from chapters with many different sizes and cultures.

The greatest part of the weekend for me was the ability to make these connections. Although I learned many practical things from the programming at the conference such as how to effectively run meetings, and the power of delegation, nothing was as beneficial as the personal connections to I made with other Presidents. In particular there was one connection that stood out to me. During a dinner conversation another President I was challenged on the subject of how I would measure my success as President.

I am an achiever by heart. Earning the position of President and seeing my name in the same category of other Gamma Chapter Presidents, some of which are truly legendary dudes, is something that makes me proud. But I have to learn to not let myself be content at that. My success will be entirely measured by our achievements as an organization over the next six months.

In order to realize these achievements I must also learn to put a mechanism in place that will allow them to come to fruition. Our Executive Officers are big dreamers, but where we’ve fallen short in the past is the ability to execute. Last quarter I put too much on myself in this respect. As a result people got frustrated, I got overwhelmed, and nothing got done. If we’re going to be successful in the short term we must learn how to organize ourselves better to allow for efficient delegation, and that is my responsibility.