Post 9/15
After arriving at the University of Illinois as a freshman, I decided that I wanted to become involved with the Greek Community on campus. I had heard many positive things by the older kids I knew that had attended the University. I went through the formal sorority recruitment process and found a chapter that was the best fit for me. During this recruitment process, I was completely unaware that I was joining an organization that would greatly impact and enhance my collegiate experience as a whole.
I immediately started getting involved in the different aspects of the chapter. I was a part of philanthropic, recruitment, social, operations, and other committees during my first year involved in Greek life. As a freshman, everything was brand new to me and I just decided to do the duties I was assigned no questions asked. As time passed, my friends and I started to realize that there were some flaws within the organization we were involved in. We found certain areas of the chapter were being led inefficiently and other areas were being overlooked. By the time my sophomore year came around, my friends and I decided we wanted to become leaders within our sorority and make the changes to the things we were frustrated by. I applied for several positions within the chapter and was offered my top choice of Chief Marketing Officer on the executive and risk board of my sorority. Being chosen for this position was an incredible honor, but it also entailed a lot of responsibility. Although I was excited to accept that position, I was also very anxious to start making the changes to the organization. My friends accepted other positions on the executive board, too, so we were able to work together and change many different areas within our chapter.
My position focused on promoting a positive brand of the chapter as well as fundraising for our philanthropy. Our main philanthropy, Theta Grilled Cheese, is a fundraiser that people buy tickets for and once they do, they gain access to unlimited grilled cheese, tater tots, and tomato soup. All of the proceeds go to our main philanthropy, and although this seems easy enough to organize, I decided to revamp the whole system by making it more efficient. Within my position, I created a new leadership position beneath me. This position, Service, and Philanthropy Director ended up being my assistant and partner in crime throughout the whole process. I would delegate tasks of lesser importance to her, and I knew she would accomplish them. With me being able to create a new position, this allowed me to focus on the larger issues and help raise the most money possible.
In addition to creating a new position to help me with my duties, I also made sure to set very high goals and standards for the philanthropy months before it occurred. I distributed these goals to the committees and other people involved in helping make this event happen, and I successfully achieved each of them. With these goals being previously marketed and understood prior to the event, this system helped motivate my team, and in the end, the philanthropy raised $2,500 more than the year before it. In order to raise more money than in the previous years, I also wanted to reach a larger audience. I tried new marketing strategies and reached out to many people in order to spread the word about our delicious grilled cheese. I was persistent, and in the end, we ended up getting a news segment on the local Champaign news channel about our event. This expanded our immediate audience. Overall, the experiences I learned in how to be a leader and push myself to achieve my goals is something that will stay with me forever because these organizational skills are vital to my future and to the careers I am interested in pursuing.
The major transaction cost of me holding this position was mostly social. I had to work with my friends within the organization and we would not always agree on everything. This would cause tension and uneasiness in our friendship outside of the organization. I would delegate things to my friends and they would not always complete the tasks, and therefore letting me down.
I wish you had written more about what you said in the last paragraph, because it is more closely related to what the course is about. Let me try to frame it in a way that I hope helps you to think about matters.
ReplyDeleteNear the beginning of the piece you wrote things about decision that you made in your position as Chief Marketing Officer. So one question, immediately, is how the sorority as a whole embraced those decisions or if it ever actually did. Before ever acting on any of these choices was there conversation with members of the sorority about them? If so, did they enthusiastically embrace them? In other words, if there was some breakdown later, might it been because there really wasn't agreement on the goals up front?
A second issue is about real authority versus titular authority. You obtained your position as a second year student. Would other members of the sorority who were juniors or seniors respect the position or would they feel above it because they had more experience? I can imagine that it can work either way, but at the start it is more likely to be the latter. If after that you have success and your efforts are appreciated by others then it might switch to the former. This is where positions in student organizations may be unlike how they are in the real world. The hiring process there might convey authority to the position up front.
On a lighter note - unlimited grilled cheese, tater tots, and tomato soup - I didn't get why that would be a big seller. Is it somehow different from what folks eat otherwise? More importantly as a lesson for future posts, when you add some detail that is meant to give color to your post, you need to provide a little explanation of how it works and why it works. We'll talk about that general issue in class tomorrow.
Finally, as to title, in the future please choose something more descriptive. When looking back at your posts, that will be helpful.