The importance of raising dues, calmly and consistently

The cost of doing business continues to inch up. How does your student group plan for that reality?

Many organizations only raise their dues when they are suffering – when the bills suddenly can't get paid – but that's not a smart strategy.

Prices don't stay the same. They don't. Your members need to be trained to expect small dues increases each year to keep pace with inflation and to keep your organization growing in a positive direction. Even my mother's social security payment goes up a few percentage points each year. Members who expect dues to stay the same year after year after year are living in a fantasy world.

Your organization needs to implement a strategy of consistent, manageable dues increases that members can understand and plan for.

In the money game, you have two choices. You can ask your members to pay the price to do the things you want to do, or you can cut back what your group does. You can not continue trying to do a full slate of activities and services if your members are unwilling to fund the ever-increasing cost of doing business.

You should be raising dues a small amount each year rather than surprising everyone with something more dramatic when you start having short falls. Hitting members with a 4% increase in dues each year is reasonable. Waiting, waiting, waiting, and then suddenly asking everyone to pony up a 45% increase in order to pay the bills is just dumb.

When you are planning a dues increase, it's important to make your case in a clear, understandable way. Give them examples of increasing costs. Show them that you have trimmed wasteful spending. Help them understand that the organization cannot grow and serve its members without adequate resources. This is where having a grip on your budget is critical.

If you honestly look at your budget and don't see the need for a dues increase, then consider creating a "rainy day" fund. Increase your dues slightly, and then put 5-percent of your annual budget aside into a protected fund for an emergency.

Barnes warns two really big changes possible for nation's Greeks

Rick Barnes and I are featured in an upcoming issue of Campus Activities Magazine sharing our ideas about "the biggest issue impacting the future of Greek Life." Rick is one of our most successful and experienced speakers, and he chose "risk management."

Little surprise there, but I thought it was very interesting when he suggested two really big changes which might be imposed on fraternities and sororities in the next five years if significant risk management progress isn't made.

Specifically, he says it's quite possible that between insurance companies and university/college presidents, Greeks might be required to make ALL events dry and eliminate all new member programs.

Rick is not some outsider looking in. He's on the board of the North American Interfraternity Conference and a former president of the Association of Fraternity Advisors. Oh, and he speaks to thousands of Greeks and organizational conventions each year.

Here's the short article. Decide for yourself. Do you think it's possible?

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RICK BARNES
Risk Management is still the big issue

Risk management – reducing the potential and incidences of damage, injuries and death – continues to be the dominant issue in Fraternity and Sorority Life, said Rick Barnes. Barnes has been speaking about risk management, values, hazing elimination, and leadership to Greek audiences for more than a decade.

“It’s hard to believe that risk management is still the big issue, but it is,” Barnes said. “Many university administrators equate Greek Life with alcohol abuse, sexual assault, hazing and all the negative fallout from those problems,” he said. “We have not done a good enough job turning that around.”

Right now, Barnes says, fraternities and sororities are on a collision course with administrators and their own insurance companies. Unless significant risk management advances are made quickly, Barnes believes that all Greek events will be mandated dry and that new member education programs will be banned within five years. Either or both would be enormous game changers for fraternity and sorority communities.

What should Greeks be doing RIGHT NOW to get things moving in the right direction?

Barnes believes the vast majority of Greek student leaders understand the gap between their organization’s values and some members’ behavior. Most are trying to make things better. But, Barnes said, most of these leaders have yet to learn the skills needed to effect massive, fundamental cultural change in their groups.

“And, it’s not just about the students,” Barnes said. “If we could figure out a way to get all four groups – student leaders, administrators, national organizations and volunteers – marching in the same direction and making some critical changes in our organizations, we could steer ourselves away from these mandates.”

In his campus keynotes, Barnes is trying to help student leaders understand how critical their leadership is during this time in their organizations’ history.

“The answer, of course, is to reshape our organizations to our original purpose,” Barnes said. “Our future will be about changing the perception of Greek Life by changing our reality.”

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Watch for the full article in the February issue of Campus Activities.

How to Facebook Friends With Your Advisor and Not Get In Trouble

My friend, Blake Bradley from Illinois Wesleyan, wrote this incredibly helpful note. I'm reprinting it here. Read it -- good stuff. Thanks, Blake.


In this day and age, everyone uses Facebook to communicate, many times more than email or even our phones. So, establishing that "friend"ship with your campus fraternity/sorority advisor is a great way to communicate with him/her as well as to get to know him/her on a personal level.

However, many students do not want to put their chapter or themselves at risk because of something that may pop up on a news feed, tagged photo, etc. so they simply miss this opportunity. While I truly believe that the best solution is to simply not put yourself or your chapter in questionable situations or to violate policies, I understand that we are all human and entitled to make our own choices.

First to address a few myths.

1. Campus-based Advisors actively search for policy violations on Facebook. While this may be true for some, the majority of professionals in the field simply don’t have the time to "stalk" our students looking for violations. Frankly, I don't know many professionals that wake up each day hoping to find a risk management violation.

2. Universities can pay to access anyone's FB profile regardless of the privacy settings. If you believe this, you haven't read your FB Privacy Policy. If someone who has a private profile has got in trouble for items posted on Facebook, it wasn't because an administrator paid to access his/her profile. Chances are it was from a student that had access and shared that information with the University. Trust me, it happens. At least twice a semester I have a student stop in reporting something they saw on FB that another group did.

So I offer this simple solution, create a friends list and add those individuals that you do not want to see your questionable items and then edit the settings to limit what they can see. Here is how to do it.

1. Go to the Friends Tab at the top of your FB homepage. Select All Friends. Now create a new friends list. Title it something like "Limited Profile" or "University Officials" or whatever you want to call it.

2. Go to the Settings tab at the top of your FB page. Under the Privacy Section, click on manage. Select the Profile section. Under Photos tagged of you and Videos Tagged of you, click the Edit Custom Settings. Under the Except these people, type in the name of the Friends List that you put those you don’t want to see your stuff. Click on Okay. You can also do this for Status Updates and Wall Posts, but these are a little more obvious to campus professionals who have probably been on FaceBook longer than you have been able to be on FB (remember it started with college student when 90% of today’s college students were still in high school and the high school version wasn’t offered). Unless you typically talk about the party your chapter is hosting that violates University or Inter/national Headquarters policies on your wall or in status updates, you should be ok to leave these accessible to your advisor. It allows him/her to get to know you better.

3. Enjoy increased communication and support from your Fraternity/Sorority Advisor that isn't readily available via email. Plus, you can be rest assured that if you or your chapter does slip up, something posted on Facebook will not result in someone holding you accountable.

As a final tip, if your chapter happens to get in trouble for something on FB, do the responsible thing and own it. Photos don't lie. Placing the blame on everyone beside your own organization or yourself doesn't help you keep from being at risk in the future. Neither does de-friending the campus Advisor. The later just make him/her more aware that your organization plans to not make any changes and continue to break policy. Take responsibility for mistakes and learn from them.

THIS IS BY NO MEANS AN ENDORSEMENT FOR VIOLATING UNIVERSITY OR INTER/NATIONAL HEADQUARTER POLICIES. IT IS SIMPLY AN ALTERNATIVE TO EASE THE MINDS OF STUDENTS THAT ARE UNEASY BEING FACEBOOK "FREINDS" WITH THEIR CAMPUS-BASED ADVISOR.

Student Leadership Widows, Part Two

If you're a Student Leader lucky enough to have a really terrific person who wants to spend time with you, it's important that you find a way to strike a balance between the crushing weight of your responsibilities and the relationship maintenance that keeps that special person feeling valued. As I tried to illustrate humorously in the last posting, you can sometimes be a difficult person to date.

Trust me when I tell you that finding the balance between life at work (your leadership position) and life at home (your friendships, your relationships, your family) is one of the most common challenges young professionals face. Even old guys like me struggle with it on a pretty regular basis. Use this time in your life to force yourself to learn some of these critical skills.

Here are some random bits that might help:

- Your organization will not fall apart if you take a few hours, an evening, or an entire weekend away. You're not running NASA, and it's time for you to acknowledge that. If you have to be on 24/7, then you're running an unhealthy organization and you have an unhealthy, abusive relationship with it! Trust others to handle some stuff while you tend to the other important things in your life. Or, just let it go until Monday. The world won't stop turning.

- When you're with your special someone, don't seek to talk exclusively about your issues, your organization, your drama. Use that time as an escape. Force yourself to talk about other things. If you can't think of anything to talk about, then you need to spend more time with that person and identify some mutual interests. Make him/her feel important by taking a genuine interest in what's going on in their life. The other person might feel that they are the less interesting person in the relationship – show him/her that you don't think so! It might actually be a relief to be quiet and listen for a while.

- Turn off the cell phone. Don't look and respond to texts while you're spending time together. Demonstrate that the other person is a priority by staying away from your computer, too. When you're with someone, truly be WITH them. That says, "Nothing is more important to me than you right now."

- When you do talk about your student leadership life, ask his or her opinion. Don't just complain and vent (that gets really old). Share some funny stories. No one likes to be around someone who's negative all the time. Ask your special someone what he/she might do in a particular situation, and validate the ideas.

- When you're having time with your special someone, don't invite other people to invade that time. If people come up and start talking "business," tell them you'd love to chat another time. Let the person you're with SEE you defending your time together. Also, if your entire relationship revolves around the social events of your organization, it might be time to blow off that party and find something else to do Saturday night.

- When you make a commitment to your special someone, keep it. Some big meeting just cropped up? "Sorry guys. I'm going to a movie with my girl tonight. I'll call you in the morning and you can fill me in." You'll find that people respect your time more when they can't have it at a moment's notice.

- Make sure you and your special someone always have something you're looking forward to. A trip, a movie you're going to share, a concert, a birthday night out. Whatever. Having something you're both looking forward to gives you a "future."

It is (is, is, is, is) possible to maintain a healthy relationship while taking on a big student leadership challenge. You just have to commit yourself to doing the work and drawing the healthy boundaries necessary.

I always say that we make time for the things we really want. If you really enjoy the other person and what he/she brings to your life, then you'll make the time. If not, then you might just be using the other person as a distraction or as some sort of release valve. But when the caring is there, then demonstrate it to that special someone. No one likes to come in second.


Like that image above? Buy it as a poster here.

Student Leadership Widows, Part One

I have some news for you, Student Leader.

Dating you sucks.

Sure, you're cute and all. Sometimes you get good tickets for games. It's sometimes fun to be with you when you're the center of attention.

But, let me tell you... it mostly sucks.

You're always at meetings, and you don't do a very good job of letting me know when you have them. They always go late, and it's impossible to make plans with you. Inevitably, some crisis happens. Sometimes you schedule these impromptu meetings or go to some meeting at the last minute, and I'm left hanging.

You know who I had a meeting with last night? Jay Leno. That was a blast.

When we do spend time together, all you talk about is the organization. So-and-so said this. So-and-so did this. Worry, stress, and other bullshit. I hear that other people dating each other talk about music, movies, the news. Not us.

Why is it that you have a ton of stuff planned for your student leadership position: retreats, parties, meetings, special events – but you and I don't have anything fun to look forward to. How about planning something fun with me?

Last week, we actually went out and had something to eat. It was going great until a bunch of your friends from the organization saw us and invited themselves to sit down. I tried to engage with it and be cool, but after 30 minutes, I felt hijacked. I wish you had told them to get lost.

By the way, who the hell gets six urgent text messages between midnight and 6 a.m.? What are you? The National Security Advisor? Turn the damn phone off if you want to spend the night.

You spend so much time working on leadership stuff that you're never on top of your tests, your papers, your reading for class. Jamming on a paper on my computer until 4 a.m. doesn't count as quality relationship time.

My birthday fell on a meeting night. Hey, I get it. I don't expect you to change the meeting of your organization on my account. But, a phone call would have been nice. A week later when you keep saying, "Sorry we still haven't done anything for your birthday," I just want to punch you.

I hate to complain, but you've given me a lot to complain about lately. I actually had a conversation with someone the other day, and he was really cool. Friendly, paid attention to me. Not involved in anything in a big way. Easy to hang out with. Listened to me. Made me want to change my Facebook status.

You've been warned.