The Lifetime Experience (Part 2 of a Series)

Last time I wrote I discussed the need for a bold and comprehensive plan to attract volunteers that will help our undergraduates and our fraternity win the battle for relevancy in today's world. We proclaim ourselves as leaders in the fraternal world, but we have already fallen behind peers like Sigma Chi and their "Cornerstone" initiative to recruit and develop volunteers.

We have taken a step in the right direction with the appointment of a "Director of Volunteers", but instead of appointing someone with a few "grey hairs" (someone with a bit of life and grassroots volunteer experience) we took the easy way out by appointing a young RD who is just coming off the road. This is no knock on the brother who has the task of invigorating our moribund volunteer programming. Rather, it is an indictment of the hollow nature of our proclamations on the importance of the volunteer in the Sig Ep experience and the laziness of our organization in developing and filling a position that is so vital to the future of the organization.

And to make things worse, our new "Director of Volunteers" will primarily be tasked with assisting our expansion team. What about the other 260 or so chapters in the fraternity? What about our 25 or so District Governors? They have enough to do managing volunteers in their district (along with families, careers and other volunteer endeavors). They could use some help in coming up with creative ideas that work for chapters on the ground floor. They could use a strategic body (a committee) and a "Director of Volunteers" (full time implementer) to help them recruit, develop and retain sharp successful people who will help us win the battle for relevance in the communities in which we live. We need professionals, parents, and teachers. We need little league coaches, church deacons, temple cantors, Boy and Girl Scout troop leaders, volunteers for special olympics, home builders for Habitat for Humanity and the like. This is nof a mutually exclusive list. Just some examples of some good people who may be interested in helping develop young leaders in a values based organization.

We need people who are going to help push us beyond our Greek peers and into the forefront of respected community leadership.

We need more than lip service.

P.S. I submitted the BBC piece to give our undergraduates, alumni and friends who read the blog some sales points and ideas for attracting volunteers. It is funny how universal some things are in this world. Things like Virtue, Diligence and Brotherly Love. Three simple universal ideas we can all live by.