New hazing prevention posters unveiled

CAMPUSPEAK has a new series of hazing prevention posters. I think they look fantastic.

All four posters give you the inner thoughts of a young man or woman who has dealt with tough personal issues and is now being hazed. One woman (in the design shown here) is a sexual assault survivor. A young man, who is a student athlete, dealt with childhood abuse. One has dealt with depression, and the fourth has a history of substance abuse. All four posters encourage students to "STOP HAZING NOW: You have no idea what buttons you're pushing." The posters then direct viewers to the site for National Hazing Prevention Week.

Find all four designs here. They are available in packs of 10.

Your link is appreciated

I've been writing this blog for about six months now, and it's a lot of fun. I'm doing my best to make it not only a place to purge a couple of decades worth of leadership lessons, but something that will inspire some thought and action. The ideas keep coming, so I guess I have a lot to purge.

I appreciate those of you who have helped get the word out about the blog. I especially appreciate those of you who have helped get some links out there on websites which are driving more traffic to it. I started the counter at "0" and we're almost to 4,000. That's pretty cool.

This blog can be accessed at either http://apathymyth.blogspot.com or simply at http://tjsullivan.com. Spread the word. Mention this blog in your postings and link to me on your websites. And, as always, feel free to reprint or use any of the postings in any publication or on any site that you think is appropriate. Just give proper attribution and direct the readers back here to this blog as part of the reprint.

I'm off to the Association of Fraternity Advisors meeting in Cincinnati and will return with some postings next week. If something particularly amusing happens, perhaps I'll post something FROM the meeting. Thanks again to all of you who are regular readers.

Our greatest patriotic obligation and honor

Theta Chi's fraternity blog, The National Eagle, has a story this week about one of their members who recently died in a roadside bomb attack in Afganistan. Major Jeffrey Calero, 34, was a member of Theta Chi from Rensselaer Polytechnic where he studied engineering. He was also a Green Beret.

That's Major Calero in the picture. He was promoted to the position of Major posthumously. He had turned down promotions twice because he wanted to stay with his unit. He was born in Puerto Rico and was raised in Queens, NY. He died in a town called Kajaki in Southern Afganistan.

I want to take a moment on this blog and thank Theta Chi for posting this kind of story. It really surprises me how little the average citizen thinks about the men and women serving in hostile territories overseas – especially this time of year as we bounce between Christmas parties and door-buster sales at the mall.

I have a few fraternity brothers currently serving. The two closest to me, Bret and Michael, are serving in non-military capacities as contractors on special assignment. Bret was a student who I advised some 18 years ago, and he is helping the Afgani government set up their public defender system. Michael is one of my favorite people on the planet – the sweetest Marine I know. He is doing something more covert and spy-like, and he's much closer to the dangerous action. I worry about both of them frequently.

We're five years into this military action in Iraq and Afganistan. As of my writing, we have lost 3,876 military personnel. This number does not include contractors like Bret and Michael, or the thousands of citizens of those countries who have died.

Every time I see a story like the one on Theta Chi's blog, or in my local newspaper about a veteran in rehab from injuries sustained in a bomb attack, I realize that the impact on our society is going to be huge for decades. Recent stories about homelessness have indicated that more than 400 veterans from Afganistan and Iraq are already among the homeless in our country, and we face a crisis of homeless and mentally ill veterans in the decades to come. It's important that we all begin the work now of helping the men and women who answered this call – regardless of how we personally feel about the politics that sent them there.

This holiday season, I urge you to do SOMETHING to honor those serving. Make a gift to a local veterans charity. Call your fraternity headquarters and get a list of brothers or sisters serving in Iraq or Afganistan and send them something to let them know you care. Organize a volunteer effort that gets students from your campus interacting with disabled vets getting care at your local V.A. hospital.

Get active on some of the issues facing veterans. If you need a place to start, click here to learn about the biggest issues facing vets.

Is your campus prepared for the veterans who are coming back? Are there mental health services specifically for students who are vets? How accessible are your residence halls for vets with disabilities? Is there a student organization on your campus for students who are vets? Has your student affairs staff ever spent an hour or two discussing how to serve these special students?

Operation Homefront is one of my favorite organizations helping veterans families. Think about making a contribution. I'm also a fan of the National Military Families Association which recently ranked as one of the top four veterans charities by Charity Watch.

It's our moral responsibility to take care of our veterans. Whether it's remembering them, assisting them, or lobbying for them, taking care of them is our greatest patriotic obligation and honor.

Ask some questions before taking over

If you are a new officer rotating on to your organization's leadership team, it is vital that you take the time RIGHT NOW to gather some of the inside information that will help you do your new job effectively. The person who has this information is the person who came before you in the position.

Even if you don't like this person, you owe it to yourself to sit down with him or her and gather some information. It will save you immeasurable time later and will help you make your first weeks in the new position more successful.

Here are a few questions I would ask my predecessor before launching into my term in office:

1. If you could do any part of this past year differently, what would it be?

2. What person outside of the executive council was your best resource? An advisor? A person on campus? Someone in a different organization? Why? Who are the people who can help me do the best job?

3. How did you organize your time to handle the demands of this position?

4. What were some of the mistakes you made early on that I could avoid?

5. What is the single most time consuming or annoying duty that comes with this position? Do you have any suggestions for making it more manageable?

6. What are the "sacred cows?" What things did you try to change or influence that people fought you on?

7. If you had another year in this position, what would you change or improve? How can I build on what you've accomplished?

8. What was the biggest surprise that you encountered in the last year doing this position?

9. What duties exist outside the "job description" that I should be prepared for?

If you are an officer who is transitioning out, answering these questions can really help the person following you. Often, new officers are so excited to jump in that they never take time to learn what came before them. This is a typical mistake. Even if you just take these questions and answer them in an email that you send to the new officer, that might be helpful.