Sunday, August 07, 2005
Council briefly discussed some concerns raised by one of the chapters and related to us by Shawn: "The chapter has some major concerns with poor relations with National. They cite that the only times they hear from National is to 'get hit by a newspaper', or when being punished. The Chapter doesn't get positive communication. They would be happy with National just stopping by and saying 'hi, or going to a movie, a half-day thing. Or at least an occassional phone call to the House. A call from National to a random Brother who picks up the house phone would help National get a generic feel for the Chapter. I have heard from other Oklahoma Brothers before this that they would be happy hearing from National by phone occassionally.
"This chapter has a bad impression of National, and needs to be fixed. They know National is supposed to be there for aid, but they only see the hinderance. They feel as if National is hurting the small Chapters or ignoring them. A specific case, the chapter thought that they would be fined if their Chapter got under the 25 man minimum. I don't know how they reached that conclusion, but I think a Brother said he read it somewhere, and it was taken as fact. I told them the actual process, but they easily believed the rumor. [...]
"Based on my talk, the chapter's concerns are long-running and with every induction of new guys, is getting worse (all the new guys hear are grumblings, without past experiences to draw the real picture from). Opening up communication between National and the chapters will help soothe their concerns."
Council members agreed that communications needed to be improved in order to ensure that appropriate expectations were in place and that lines of communication were available to all parties involved. We hope to increase the number of casual visits to chapters performed by Council members and other National folks in order to reduce the dangers of either group operating in too much of a vacuum.
"This chapter has a bad impression of National, and needs to be fixed. They know National is supposed to be there for aid, but they only see the hinderance. They feel as if National is hurting the small Chapters or ignoring them. A specific case, the chapter thought that they would be fined if their Chapter got under the 25 man minimum. I don't know how they reached that conclusion, but I think a Brother said he read it somewhere, and it was taken as fact. I told them the actual process, but they easily believed the rumor. [...]
"Based on my talk, the chapter's concerns are long-running and with every induction of new guys, is getting worse (all the new guys hear are grumblings, without past experiences to draw the real picture from). Opening up communication between National and the chapters will help soothe their concerns."
Council members agreed that communications needed to be improved in order to ensure that appropriate expectations were in place and that lines of communication were available to all parties involved. We hope to increase the number of casual visits to chapters performed by Council members and other National folks in order to reduce the dangers of either group operating in too much of a vacuum.
# posted by Kevin @ 10:33 PM 
