To begin this next post, I’m going to again apologize for my innate tendency to ramble… but hey, what can i say? i am who i am…

Anyway, last semester i was conflicted between a couple different zeta positions i was interested in versus keeping the office of Rho which i’ve held for a year and have had immense difficulty getting off the ground (if you’re interested you can read in my previous posts about that)… in the end, i let the brothers decide and here i sit, typing this blog in my second year as High Rho…

It’s corny to say, but i honestly felt this year was going to be different the minute i left our zeta retreat earlier in this semester… we have a very strong zeta that has brothers in every office passionate about their respective duties… in all honesty, prior to that day I’d be lying to say that i didn’t have reservations to taking on the role of Rho again (i even went so far as to read the Rho manual cover-to-cover over xmas break for inspiration), but after seeing the zeta that would be surrounding me… well, let’s just say i’m stoked (plus that manual has come in quite handy!)…

First and foremost, we have a Beta who is very adamant about the committee system, something that we haven’t had before… Personally, I’m currently working on establishing no less than 3 committees/organizations directly relating to my office…

(Dammit! That’s so infuriating, I just lost a large chunk of my blog that I’ve already typed for the second time already in this sitting… live and learn: from now on I’m pre-typing these blogs in Word…)

Anyway, about the committees, the first one I’m getting started is the Alumni Affairs Committee, a hand-selected group of undergrad brothers to run alumni programming for the chapter… currently, the AAC has 4 positions, Database Manager, Event Planner, Publications Manager, and Committee Manager… Ideally, the Rho will serve as chairman as well as the principal planner for the Founders Day Alumni Banquet I’m trying to establish this fall and annually hereafter… The other positions are relatively self-explanatory… at our first meeting last week i let the AAC members choose what position they wanted (that way they could tailor it to their own interest and time availability and thus keep more productive)… the next committee I’m trying to establish is an Alumni Advisory Board, a group of up to 12 qualified alumni to each advise one respective zeta officer… The AAB will hopefully lend continuity to offices, making transitions more smooth, and provide a much needed voice of experience… The beauty of the AAB is that since all correspondence need not be done face-to-face, geography is not a concern so interested alumni who want to remain active in their chapter even though they live hundreds of miles away can serve as an advisor and stay up-to-date on the goings on in the house… Finally, I’m trying to get started an Epsilon-Upsilon Alumni Association, basically a self-sustaining, self-programming social organization for alumni who would like to get together on their own accord and don’t want the current undergrads crashing their party! :-) really, though it’ll be a social organization for alumni who want to remain in contact with each other and have loose ties to the house… keeping in mind that the two alumni organization (or three if you include our House Corp) are by no means mutually exclusive… wow… looking back, that’s a long paragraph…

So now for a little bit of introspection… We were just visited by our ELC last week (thanks, Ben!)… and in preparing for my meeting with him, I decided to look through our old records from the Rho 3 previous to myself (the last 2 having unceremoniously left the house and the office of Rho in shambles, respectively…) what I found out amazed me… the last Rho who actually did anything, did A LOT… I mean, I was reading his minutes his notes, etc. and I couldn’t believe it… but I’m fortunate that I did so because it made me realize something; all of my progress with this office could be completely negated until it was as if it didn’t happen in a very short period of time unless I take precautions elsewise… Just to give you a picture, in 2002 and 2003 we averaged over $1000 in alumni donations to the chapter and held a banquet; however, when I joined the house (2004) the current Rho hadn’t followed in his predecessors tracks at all and the office had fallen into such disrepair in less than a year that nobody even much remembered all the progress that had been made…

Which FINALLY touches on the theme of this blog; outlasting myself… I want the progress our chapter makes to extend beyond my tenure as Rho and I want to ensure that no matter how incompetent an officer the Rho is, there will be a committee he has to answer to and an alumni advisor (possibly myself when the time comes) that will kick his @$$ into gear…

Ok well, if you’ve made it this far, hopefully you at least enjoyed my insights a little bit or have taken something away, even if it’s only that I’m a narcissistic control-freak who intends to overthrow my house with my army of loyal alumni… bwahahahaha!

In ZAX,

Jon Wood EY1392 University of Tulsa

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 11:43 pm and is filed under Alumni Relations, Leadership . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.