UNCC Legacy

I had the special opportunity to travel to UNC-Charlotte to speak for their Diversified Greek Council (DGC) banquet. Sad that my good friend Michelle Guobadia was gone at AFA, also a little sad to be missing AFA myself… but blessed at this well timed opportunity to speak about something I care a lot about, the future of Greek Life.

I say well timed because a lot has been going on in Greek Life in not just the past year, but the past couple months. The suspension of all Greeks at UVA to be the most recent, but articles lately in major publications about Greek Life have garnered a lot of attention. Also many national issues like Ferguson and the NFL Domestic Violence discussion are all things Greeks should be involved with… but largely for the most part aren’t…

My presentation called “Your Greek Legacy” is aimed at asking the question… what are the major societal issues facing us, and how as Greeks are we responding? Have we, as fraternity and sorority members become so insular that we only care about our immediate issues? Are we only worried about our chapters? Our yard?

Like most campuses they call to bring me to campus they ask for something developmental, maybe leadership, maybe motivational… but then it comes out what they really want is something about recruitment, something to help them grow.

Sadly while I can help with strategies for marketing our orgs, my news to them is, the best marketing is to start being the best US. Our founders did great things, our orgs weren’t founded to recruit people, we were founded in response to a cause or issue. The founders got respect and interest because of the good work they did, because of how they were helping make the world a better place. The work they did was so critical and important, that people took notice and those who also believed in that cause joined…

Before going to campus I did my research… these chapters were pretty good. Good campus hazing policies, no crazy risk management issues, and the chapters have a good reputation. So I figured, when I got to campus I would ask some students about why they aren’t Greek…

I interviewed 19 students… and asked things about their perception of cost, amount of time, etc. Without breaking down the results… the major thing that I learned, and that is common everywhere is that overwhelmingly the students had no negative perception, and said if someone asked them they would go to an informational… but only 3 of the 19 were ever asked. WOW. So the campus is full of people interested…

Greeks must realize that recruitment can’t be a gimmick, yeah there are gimmicks that work, but those will all be temporary. The way to sustain our chapters is to be what we were designed to be… change agents in the lives of our members, our chapters and the world. Then we can learn how to tell people about the good work we do, and ask them to help us do it.

Yeah the ask is the important part… but you have to be inviting them to something they care about if you want them to join.

#BeBold #WhatsYourLegacy