Congruence, Branding, Ritual - A reflection on this week's readings

After reading the assigned chapters/articles for this week, I’d like to take the opportunity to comment on some of them. I’m probably beating the class discussion to the punch, but maybe I’ll touch on something that we’ll talk about in the first 20 minutes before I get out of my ME lab (which, by the way, I apologize for being late to probably every class this quarter…I’m just glad the university and Josh let me schedule the class despite the time conflict.)

I found this week’s reading assignments very interesting and very pertinent. I’ll start with a bit about the values and actions congruence articles. The standards that FIJI has to meet every year, like mandatory alcohol awareness events, were the clear result of the discussions documented in those two articles. What amazed me about this is that those standards were adopted less than 10 years ago. They already seem like something that we’ve always done. Perhaps this is because by nature, our organizations tend to have a short memory of certain things. Because people are around for a maximum of four or five years, succeeding generations treat what happened when they were first getting involved as how things have always been done. I was particularly struck by how urgent the “A Call for Values Congruence” article was. I’ve always felt that the Greek community of the 90s was pretty….extreme?... but the tone of this article makes me feel good about how far we’ve come. That said, it is extremely important that we keep in mind where we’re coming from, because in organizations with such short memories, the lessons learned the hard way then can be easily forgotten.

Aside: Random thought – Why is V8 fusion so good,  why is it so expensive, and why am I ALWAYS out of it? Also, Ke$ha would like to inform you all that your love is her drug.

The first two articles provided an interesting history to those standards which seek to hold the Greek community to its stated purposes, but I found the second two articles about branding and ritual more interesting. I think the moral of the branding article is that we need to pay close attention to the message we’re sending out to others. Sometimes we like to act fratty, in jest of those chapters who think being fratty is what it's all about. In some situations this is just fine, but in others we must be careful about the image we're showing others. It’s not all bad though, I think we pay respect to the image we are sending out with our rules about not wearing our letters and not drinking in anything that says Fiji. The t-shirts and other clothing we create also do a good job of casting us in a good or neutral light. This is a stark contrast to the way that some other fraternities on campus brand themselves. One fraternity tends to brand themselves as “epic” and better than everyone else, and another seems to want everyone to know that they’re as frat-tastic as can be.

The second article focused on ritual, and as incoming Historian, this is really my neck of the woods so to speak. I think that our chapter, versus the comments made by the author of the article, has a better appreciation for the importance of our ritual than most. We can certainly do better though. The author talked about chapter members seeing the ritual as an annoyance. How many times have you guys heard brothers talk about being annoyed by the ritual? More than you might think. The fact is, the ritual is what defines the Greek community and sets it apart from all other student organizations. The beauty of the ritual is that, for the most part, it doesn’t appeal to a specific faith, but provides us with a guide to life. Living the ritual is our mission. We talked about values this week, and you all know the values of our fraternity. I think we can all benefit by taking time to reflect on the ritual and whether or not we’re living up to those values. If you’re one of those guys who doesn’t really appreciate the ritual, take some time to examine it more carefully, and see how incredible it is. This week’s assignments have already got me thinking about ways to emphasize the ritual to the chapter, and I’d love to hear your comments/concerns/ideas about it.  Each article we read this week highlighted the same idea: If Greek chapters start truly living their rituals, the Greek community will undergo the positive change they must undergo to be relevant in today’s world. This should be a calming thought to all of us because the roadmap is right in front of us. We just need to convince ourselves and each other to follow it.

That’s all I have for today. Here’s a little something for you to watch and say “Ooooooo” “ahhhh”. Enjoy the crazy car control skills of one Kenneth Block.