No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

The point is... these "metaphorical monkeys" are the individual and isolated aims for one member of a group, rather than the shared purpose and vision of the group at large. In our own groups where do we see the existence of monkeys--- in what context do we work independently of one another rather than having a shared investment of the tasks at hand?


The greatest example of "monkeys" I have personally experienced is within our individual chapters. Each chapter was created to perpetuate certain ideal and principles that are spoken of in our rituals, however, this is not always (or usually the case). There are many chapter women who do not choose to be learn about our Common Purpose---this is the primary problem. Uneducated chapter women leave the membership without clear direction, and therefore, some women may choose to compromise our values for personal gain.
--------------> The next step is the executive board and the committees and chairwomen under them. Once again I have found that these women often work separately, rather than as a united front. Too often do we get tied up in the next big social, or recruitment event, or philanthropy that we forget to incorporate ALL aspects of our chapter (service, sisterhood, philanthropy, education, etc.) into every single event. Each committee and each executive board member will often get caught up in their own tasks and responsibilities, relentlessly trying to prove that their facet needs the most attention and money; and is of the upmost importance...

WE FORGET THAT OUR CHAPTERS ORIGINAL WEB IS ONE THAT WAS WOVEN IN A MUCH LESS LINEAR MANNER... MUCH MORE CYCLICAL IN FACT, WITH OVERLAPPING STRINGS, BUT WITH A SHARED DIRECTION. 

Always on the brain...

CHECK IT:

Degree Winners & Losers

...and the interview process continues.

PHA Info Seshhhhh

Did anyone else find the PHA Info. Sesh super exciting??!!! For the first time I felt like a recruitment guide... I was actually surprisingly nervous. I kept reminding myself not to slip up- making special note of the "lingo" I was using and making sure to give each girl equal attention and to be genuinely interested in learning about them.

The Info Session reinforced a lot of what we have been discussing in our class---especially engaged citizenship and how we represent ourselves to the rest of campus. Seemingly overnight I had become aware of misrepresentations that we are giving ourselves and how there is a need to educate all of our membership on the "do's" and "don'ts" of self-promotion. It's the simple things that we can work towards first like referring to the bid process as "recruitment" rather than "rush" and ourselves as "recruitment guides" rather than "rho gammas." If our own leadership is not educated as to why we should not be using these terms, it is unrealistic to expect our new members to understand the reasoning behind it.

As a business student, I am constantly going into interviews and feeling as though I need to over-promote myself and explain my qualifications due to the fact that the bulk of my leadership experiences in college have stemmed from Sorority and Fraternity Life. How great would it be to not have to explain myself, but rather for the population at large to understand the social, philanthropic, and service-oriented aims of our community? THAT WOULD BE FABULOUSSSS.

"I am a citizen. Not of Athens, Greece, but of the world." -Socrates

Being a productive citizen is not about merely being present, but about taking an active role in one's environment. It's about reaching out: cultivating leadership and perpetuating "Tikkun Olam," the perfection of our world.

I am an active citizen in many regards. I am a citizen of all groups, organizations, communities, ehtnicities, nationalities and regions of which I associate myself with or feel a connection to. On a personal level, I don't feel as though citizenship must be dictated by ownership or proprietorship over some tangible entity or physical region, but rather is more of a choice, a purposeful one at that.

As the book said, there are multiple skills and knowledge that can make one's civic contributions more beneficial to a group at large, but unlike some of the ideas which the book presents, I think that these skills cannot be taught nor learned, but rather must be obtained over time through active engagement within said group.

As a "citizen" of Ohio State's campus I definitely feel empowered (which is probably obvious due to the fact that I have chosen to be a RG in addition to participating in various other organizations on our campus). However, just as the book discussed there are many members of the Ohio State community who feel disenfranchised. I feel as though one of our jobs as RGs is to reach out to these people (in particular freshman women) and show them how they too can become empowered.

Another group of which I consider myself a citizen is the Jewish community. One of the greatest knowledge bases I have and one, which has shaped me into becoming the women I am today is the basic understanding of the issues surrounding our community in the past a present. Oppressed Jewry is still a major concern in our society and as the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor I can better empathize with other groups who are not able to practice their beliefs as freely as I am able to today.

Finally, the third group of which I would like to discuss my citizenship of is that of a business major as part of the Fisher College of Business. The section of the book which referred to coalition building distinctly reminded me of the necessary networking and communication skills that being a business student requires. It is important that all business units support and understand the contributions of one another and that problems are solved through the use of cross-functional teams.