Despite some loose bricks, we're a pretty solid foundation

This week's blog sort of goes along with the goals we outlined for ourselves last week in class. I'm going to g oin a reverse order and begin with strengths and ways to improve the community because I feel as though being on PHA exec. our main priority is improving the community versus our individual chapter.

Strengths of our Greek community: I think that as a whole we have a lot of unity when it comes to non-Greeks/outside personelle trying to put us down. Everyone knows we get a bunch of craps for specific stereotypes but that typically is only a select few and a good number of us like to show that we are more than just partying/hazing/yada yada yada. Also, another strength is our grades. We as a Greek community have a higher GPA than the rest of OSU undergrad which says a lot and helps to breaking the stereotypes.
Ways we can change: I think a big thing is having more respect from chapter to chapter within the community. Sometimes we get caught up in the "I only want to have socials with the best fraternity/hottest sorority". I know personally we had a tg with a fraternity who thought that my sorority was an academic one, not social, and none of the guys were excited to go. But once everything got going, the guys had a freakin blast and now we do a lot more with them. If we could just kick out those shallow thoughs runing through everyone's head, out community would be freaking awesome and more internally cohesive.

Strengths as a council: Our PHA council rocks. Period. We have an awesome group of girls for exec and for our directors. We have continual communication. We have an on-going brainstorming process of new and improved ideas of how to make everything bigger and better. We are close as a whole, but by the end of our year I can't even imagine what it's going to be like. I honestly feel I'm going to have some of my best friends when this is all said and done. We have much respect for one another and never put each other down.
Ways we can change: We have developed lots of goals and ideas so the best way for us to change is to actually enact them and get them implemented into our council and community!

Strengths of my chapter: My chapter has come a loooooong way in the past few years. I was blind to it going through recruitment, but we wre very disorganized and not a lot of unity was in place. But the past two years in particular we have had a bomb set of officers that have turned this sorority around. Change begins with good leaders and that is exactly what we have. Also, we have one of the more diversified chapters on campus which I love because let's face it, the real world is full of people not like you. Shocking I know, right? Another thing is our grades. We have significantly shifted our focus to the core values of our chapter, and one is grades which we have tremendously improved upon.
Ways our chapter can chage: Although we have come a long way, there's always work that can be done. We are working hard to break out of our little "cliques" that we have and branch out more. It's not that we don't like other people, we just get comfortable with routine and we want to change that up a little. Also, we are working on increasing the size of our already awesome philanthropy and trying to become more active on campus, outside the Greek community.

Welllppppp, there it is. My evaluation of our community, council, and my personal chapter. Improving is a process that can go on forever. However, establishing a solid core of individulas is the first step into enacting all of our possible changes and keeping our strengths in place and I do believe that our group of counicls is just those people to make great things occur over the next 44 weeks....and I'm STOKED about it :)

You say Top Tier, I say nothing

Here's the deal...venting session begin:

I was at a fraternity's date party friday night. All was well, having fun, being dressed up, enjoying everyone's company....until some girl decided to ruin the entire night. This may sound slightly catty but frankly I don't care because it is girls like these that make me react in two ways: I hate being in Greek Life - or - I want so bad to change the way Greeks within the same system perceive each other.

So my boyfriend and I were dancing, chillen, having fun. This girl whos chapter and name will remain anonymous (mind you i've never even met the girl before) decides to come up and try to makeout with him right in front of me. Luckily I have a great guy and he stopped her before anything could happen. Strike One.

Naturally I had to use the restroom, so I went upstairs and what do ya know...the same girl is there. I do my business and leave keeping to myslelf and she decides to start b****ing at me saying that I am ugly and not as good as she is. Strike Two.

Lastly, still keeping my classy composure I do my best to ignore her and brush is off. I walk downstairs back to my friends with this trailing in my ear "Yeah keep walking. You're just mad and jealous you're not top tier!!!" Strike Three.

It took everything in me to keep walking and pretend she just didn't say that. It is people like her that get me so angry because I honestly believed that we have all graduated high school and that kind of behavior and remarks were all in the past. And it is people like her that makes me appreciate the wonderful women in my sorority that do not act so immature and just plain dumb and make me so glad that i didn't make the mistake of joining one that feels like they are above others. I'm not saying that I am better that her, but am saying that she is not better than me. As an observation, I feel like the only ones who use the "tiered" way of thinking are those individuals who post things on greekrank.com, refer to themselves at top tier to make them feel better because as stated in a speech at AFLV, those who make themselves feel better by putting others down have very low self-esteem and confidence, and fraternities who are only concerned with hanging out with a select number of sororities.

This night made me want to try to figure out a way to abolish stupid things like the one that happened to me from happening to others. It's so unnecessary and just reaffirms that some people are so ignorant and live in a bubble that isn't parallel with reality.

Oath: A Matter of Expectations

To begin this post in kind of a cheesy way....an oath can be defined in a couple different ways which are contrasting:
#1: an oath is a formally affirmed statement or promise accepted as an equivalent of an appeal to a deity or to a revered person or thing;affirmation.
#2: an oath is also considered a swearword or curse

These two opposing definitions I find interesting because every one of us took an oath to their respective chapters, many of which pledge to live by their ideals for the remainder of his/her life. Can an oath be in a way setting your own fate? Destiny? Or not even relevant to either of those two options?

Summarizing a line out of TriDelta history/purpose/statements: ...it does not give you the right to, in any way, make you higher or greater than anyone else, but it does give others the right to expect great things from you.

I feel this encompasses an oath really well because although, like rituals, pledges, purposes, etc..they are more sacred/secret/really only understood by the specific members, but to outsiders they do expect great things from us when we publically acknowledge and allign ourselves with a specific organization.

For example, let's make a list for everything that you take an oath or promise to/in:
-court, spouse, fraternity/sorority, other relevant organization, the President, many officers & leadership postions that transition new members, contracts in general, etc..


By agreeing to the terms and conditions set out that you promise to abide by, others are entitles to think higher of you and expect more things out of you. We expect the President of the US to take care of the nation as a whole. The Greek community expects us council exec's to keep everyhting running smoothly, to expand Greek Life, to make it better. Other TriDelta's expect me to abide by our purpose and everything else that we stand for and want our members to emulate on a daily basis.

We were asked, as a pha council, to blog about our values and ritual for today so here it goes:
As i had already posted a few times ago my top two values. However, today i will focus more on school related values, such as prioritizing and accountability. This week, as fun and exciting it will be with going to St. Louis tomorrow (yippeeeee!) I am freaking out. I have two midterms in core business classes on the tuesday we get back, meaning i am going to have to study while on our trip and on the bus. I have to pack, schedule classes, go to class, do homework, maybe sleep and eat, study study study, go to work....then brave this weather. The only way to live through all of this is to prioritize. Knowing that you can only do one thing at a time, and when youre in class you need to be there, in the moment, to maximize the time spent away from doing other tasks.
Secondly, accountability i very important when working with a group. I know that i have dropped the ball and let some people down over the years but i do the best i can using time management/prioritizing skills to get everything accomplished so if i say that i'm going to do something, I will do it.
I'm finding it difficult to try and thing of core values and emotions when I am so bgged down with many other things, so my mind is a one-laned road running a thousand miles an hour...

I am really looking forward to this trip and hope that as a council we grow closer, not just PHA but ifc, mcgc, and nphs. I think that we all can benefit from from learning from one another in order to expand our respective councils and as a person in general.
See you on the bus!!!!! On to the home os Nelly!!

Secrets? Ritual? Golf Course?

So like many of you who have responded to this blog question, your thoughts concerning ritual is still a mystery..and not mystery in the way of it being a secret and not wanting to share, but mystery in the way that you don't quite know how to put it into words what it means. Well, shockingly enough...I am with ya..

Ever since growing up i've sort of had a preconceived thought about secrets/rituals because every male on my dad's side of the family is a master mason. I've heard stories about how it has evolved over time from only allowing white men, then allowing blacks, and now, even allowing women. I know that in order to become a master mason you have to learn a secret "language" of sorts, there's a secret handshake (like all of us..i think), secret ceremonies and practices and handbooks and gathering places...on and on and on. But, above all else, having dominant men in business, playing golf is just like having a board meeting. Being said, I have grown up playing on York Country Club Golf Course...which is masonically run and operated and only masonic members are allowed to play (and guests). On the hole signs and throughout the club house, masonic designs and symbols can be found. So, in a nut shell...being apart of a secret group = allowed to play York.

Like the masons, rituals for my chapter have evolved over the years and expanded to incorporate more and more women all the while trying to remain faithful. At what point do you say "no" though?? At what point do you want to make sure that your secrets and rituals stay that way...a secret. with each new member, and the development of new technologies comes one more opportunity for someone to take a phone or digital camera into a chapter room/where ever ritual may occur and post it on wikipedia or youtube for all to see.

I think that it is part of our duty as members of secret ritalistic organizations that we should try to expand the publics by acting in a particular manner that emulates our ritual and secrets versus, for example, knowing that you get to play a particular golf course.

Shown below is just an interesting video i found about the Freemason's and how in-depth all of our organizations are/can be/i can't really say because i only know TriDelta...