Collaboration!

"Walk this Way" revolutionized the new hybrid sub-musical genre of "rock and rap", or the molding of rock and hip hop music when it was covered by rappers Run-D.M.C. This collaboration between Run DMC and Aerosmith turned out to be amazing as it made the billboard hot 100 list and was an international hit!

As you can see in the first 20 seconds of the video, there seemed to be some annoyance by both parties about what the other was doing. Run DMC pounded on the wall because they didn't like the rock sound Aerosmith was producing. Same with any collaboration - individuals find it challenging to collaborate with others due to differences in opinion. Leaders are leaders, meaning they most likely want their opinions and ideas to rank higher over others' (well, not good leaders I guess!). The elements of collaboration that are most difficult to engage in are the planning stages and communicating with others, in my opinion.

When one member doesn't want to work collaboratively, it creates tension and conflict for everyone. Each member must come together and understand the importance of and reason for collaboration. Often times, if not all, it leads to successful events (or songs, in my example) and happiness from both parties (if done correctly!). This is the reason why everyone in a group should want to collaborate, not be forced to do so.

Diversity is great for an organization as it represents collaboration at the micro-level. With a more diverse body more opinions, ideas, suggestions, comments and concerns are being voiced. Ultimately the event becomes a collboration between a group of people - the organization - and when it expands between two groups we see the larger, macro-level example of collaboration.

I love collaboration; sure it's hard at first, but with the Greek community it allows us to have more attendance at events, networking opportunities and leadership experiences by working together, gaining interpersonal communication skills and simply having fun!

Citizenship

Citizenship. We are good citizens because we care...not because it's court ordered or required by school/Greek Life!

How am I becoming a more effective citizen in the groups that I am a part of? Well, as for the sorority & fraternity community...I'm becoming a more effective citizen by serving as a chapter president. I keep my chapter (community) aware of what is going on in the larger realm. I also work with others both inside and outside of my sorority to put on multicultural and service events which create awareness and support for some topic or organization. I also participate in civic engagement, whether that be voting, performing active community service, being a part of different organizations, interacting with a diverse group of people, staying aware of what is going on in my community and so much more.

If someone had asked me "what is citizenship?" a few weeks ago I would have probably said..."Citizenship is being an active member of society. Mostly things like voting, doing community service, keeping up with current events..." I know realize that citizenship is so much more than that. If my definition was true, I certainly wouldn't be that great of a citizen. I don't vote, I hate watching the news/reading the paper and I don't do toooo much community service outside of what is required (hey, I'm a busy senior, I would if I could!). Now I know that I *am* a good citizen, just in different ways.



I'm not really sure how my sisters think about citizenship, but I am proud to say we are good citizens of the Columbus, OSU and Greek Life community. Since we are a diverse organization we allow the opportunity for many viewpoints to be heard. We also collaborate on programming with other organizations, which is a huge part of creating and maintaining community. We pride ourselves in doing community service which is essential in citizenship - whether it's active, philanthropic, or spreading awareness! Lastly, we all have socially responsible personal and professional behavior - something I didn't really think about when discussing citizenship.

Change!

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." - President Barack Obama

This is so true. If we want something, some person or some issue to change - we've got to take a stand and start the ball rolling. If everyone always thought "well, someone else will do it," nothing would ever get done! I say be brave and be the change you wish to see in the world. (Okay, so Gandhi totally said that, but whatever!)

An individual can create change in a group in many ways. Let's take a sorority for example. Sally doesn't like one of the bylaws in her chapter's constituion. If she speaks out about it, perhaps she can get a group together to propose an amendment to the bylaw. This could allow the chapter to review their constitution totally. With that, Sally sparked single order change.

Now, let's say we want to know how Sally can contribute to second order change. Again, say she doesn't like a bylaw. "Why only 3 required service hours a quarter?." she asks. Sally really values community service and talks with other sisters. Together they approach the service chair and ask her to encourage sisters to do more community service...say, 5 hours a quarter. Everyone starts doing 5 hours a quarter and really enjoys this change. Sally's values and her desire to encourage more participation in service inspired her entire chapter...creating second order change!

The same things have happened with my chapter. We've done some single order change. Amending rules, creating bylaws, instituting fines. But we've done some second order change too - determining a chapter philanthropy, reaffirming our values and creating programming that fits them.

I think any type of change is important, but now I realize that I'd like to see more second order change than single order change this year. That is one of my goals as chapter prez....spark more positive, 2nd-order change! :]
-b

Social Change Model .... in Real Life!

So this week we're required to blog about how an experience we've had in our sorority or fraternity parallels with that of the social change model (or how we've used it). My sorority has only been around for about two years now..and I've only been President for these first few weeks of fall quarter...but here it goes.



This quarter I wanted to have a Chapter Retreat that would be deemed the "President's Retreat." It would require the president (me!) to do all the planning, workshops and coordination of the event. What for? What to change? Well, I wanted to change everyone's attitudes (whether positive or negative) about the upcoming year and get them excited about this year's events, recruitment, and general sisterhood! Since I had the CPLI letter in mind (that my facilitator sent me...) and the leadership training, I thought "What a great idea! I'll use the LEAP training as a workshop for us and make everyone excited to lead." As for the social change model - you see that I was definitely in tune with my individual values and passions: committment and consciousness of self. I was ready to go power up all my sisters!

As for the group category, I really wanted other sisters to lead some workshops. One recently went to UIFI Ohio State, so I hoped she could bring some wise words to our retreat. I asked another for leadership and team-building activities, and I asked our NME (New Member Educator) to create a workshop for recruitment (how-to, what to say, etc.). I hoped these collaborations (social change model word!) between myself and other officers and chairwoman would foster excitement and unity in the retreat and feelings of inclusion. After all, this was going to be a chapter retreat not a president lecture.

In the end, I never really got much collaboration from others. I planned the retreat myself, including all the workshops. No one was as excited as I was. The "society," or whole chapter in my case, was confused as to what the point of the retreat was. Strictly business? Fun? They asked why was it on a Saturday? "It's a game day!" they replied. "I don't want to wake up early on a Saturday, no offense," a few said. While some were excited / ready for the retreat, others weren't. They were confused about why we were having it and what was going to be talked about. So, my idea of "social change" and plans to change the chapter's attitude fell through because I thought the retreat was a good idea, but the whole chapter wasn't down.

I felt okay; we ended up cancelling the retreat but I wasn't mad. I slept in, watched the game with my boyfriend and did homework instead. I decided that we could use parts of the retreat in different capacities - such as the fun activities at our sleepover, a leadership workshop during a chapter meeting with hardly any new business and our NME would lead a recruitment-reminder workshop right before our upcoming informationals. It all made sense in the end to have it this way.

From this I learned that if I want to have an event, I should probably get all of my sisters' opinions first. Get their ideas, feelings and availability before I start planning! I learned to encourage collaboration and hound people down if they're not responding to you. I learned that in order for things like this to work, everyone's gt to be motivated, not just me.