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Many student governments pay their officers for the time they spend running their organizations. I learned at lunch today that many of the larger fraternity and sorority chapters at big state schools are paying their recruitment chairs to run summer recruitment programs. Some chapters with large houses pay their housing managers.
Which leads to a question I've been asking for several years. Why don't national fraternities pay their chapter presidents?
In many ways, being the leader of a large, successful fraternity or sorority chapter is a full-time job. It's not unusual for a chapter president to spend 30-40 hours a week (or more) doing chapter work. In essence, these presidents are running businesses – franchises of their national organizations – with significant budgets, paperwork requirements, and mandatory meetings.
It would be incredibly interesting if some national group experimented with this for one year. Pick the top 10 chapters in a particular national organization and see what happens when chapter presidents are given a monthly stipend or a scholarship. Would it increase accountability? Would risk management violations decrease? Would membership numbers climb? Would some chronic problems get solved?
Some national fraternity could do this experiment for less than what they pay for one staff member. Seriously... 10 chapters, each chapter president getting a $1,000 scholarship per semester he or she is president.
$20,000 to pilot a brand new idea in fraternity and sorority leadership. Take some of that money that is spent on leadership conference training, manuals, and staff positions, and spend it instead on those working the front lines. When your staff members visit the chapters, they do an evaluation of the president's performance. Certainly, a chapter president is more likely to be accountable to requirements if there is a stipend payment attached to his or her compliance.
Maybe these paid presidents would be top candidates for staff positions with the national organization after graduation.
Would paying a chapter president result in more dynamic leaders running for a chapter's top office? Would students who depend on the income provided by a part-time job be more likely to run for president if they could count on some cash to compensate for their inability to work?
Hell, maybe the university should try it. You want chapter presidents to be more accountable to university policy? You want your chapter officers motivated to solve problems? Then let's put our money where our mouths are and give it a shot.
Just one year. C'mon. Who's game to try?
