Pulling Back The Curtain That Hides How We Pick Our Leaders (Pt. 2 of 2)

In a few weeks, many of our S & P readers will be off on the yellow brick road to the Emerald City (this year’s model is Nashville) to serve as delegates to the Grand Chapter Conclave, where new legislation will be debated and passed, and perhaps more importantly, our new leaders (student and alumni national board members) will be chosen.

Being a student member of the national board is a great honor, but a student member of the board only has a two-year term, and therefore, a limited voice in the leadership of the fraternity. The 8 alumni directors really run the fraternity, and much like the Wizard of Oz, there is a “secret” Conclave that is held behind the curtain. It is a Conclave that most of you do not see.

This is the Conclave that no one wants you to know about. This is the Conclave where the “Wizards” (Past Staff aka “Freearks”, past Grand Presidents, current and past NBD members, big money donors, etc.) pull all the strings and handpick your alumni leaders for you. We are going to pull up the curtain a bit and reveal this process for what it is, an anti-democratic, ill-conceived, and downright draconian process of secret meetings and sometimes, character assassinations. In short, it is the worst possible way of picking our new leaders.

It started out as a well-intentioned notion to remove open politicking from the process, but it has gone horribly wrong. At the outset of Conclave, the Grand Chapter is informed that campaigning for the National Board of Directors is forbidden. The Student and Alumni Nominating Committees (comprised primarily of delegates from Buc Cup chapters) are forced to give up most of their Conclave experience to meet and deliberate. Their location is a closely guarded secret amongst the Conclave staff (all current HQ Staff members).

Somehow, word of the location and the makeup of these committees always gets to the “Wizards”, who invariably embark on campaigns of their own. These campaigns involve a lot of “leaning” on the undergraduate members of the committees to promote their candidate of choice. And from time to time the “Wizards” actually go before the committee to plead their case. Sometimes they play it straight, other times, if necessary, they engage in personal (and many times unfounded) attacks on the character and fitness of the various candidates for the Board (you would not believe some of the stories people tell - and you also wonder if these people could work up the guts to say these things face to face). For some reason, these “Wizards” always seem to get open and unfettered access to the committees. There are numerous stories passed down over the years involving last minute “changes of heart” in the committee.

Then, in the last moments of the last legislative session, when everyone is dying to get out of the hall and get to dinner, the committee throws their choices up on a big white screen. For the first time, the names are revealed. The floor is then opened up for candidates to run from the floor. There is usually a spirited rush for the undergraduate spots. However, the alumni candidates usually (but not always) run unopposed, as the senior alumni leadership of the fraternity knows that the quickest ticket to ostracism is to buck and insult the wisdom of the “Wizards” by having the audacity to run from the floor. You would be surprised at how petty and personal the senior alumni leadership of the fraternity can be.

The winners of this secret beauty pageant are handed 6-year terms (unless they are filling the term of a Board member who is leaving early, like the Grand President) to run the Fraternity when Conclave is not in session. And the sad part is that most of the Grand Chapter has no idea who these people are until their names are put on the screen. All this process does is ensure that the “Wizards” maintain their power base, and in the end, further alienate the leadership of the fraternity from the masses they are elected to serve.

This also results in the alienation of fine men who could bring a fresh perspective to our often stale organization. We are often told that we are the best fraternity in the country. Who cares if we are the top fly on the dung heap? Fraternities are becoming increasingly irrelevant in today's society. We need leaders who think outside of the proverbial "box" and who view this organization as more than simply a boys club on campus. We need to stop comparing ourselves to the other fraternities and start creating a new standard for others to follow. We need leaders who are going to take our cardinal principles and find creative ways to make them a blueprint for life.

The saddest thing of all is that our Conclave delegates continuously allow this to happen. Flex your muscle to pull back the curtain at Conclave and reveal the “Wizards” for all to see (it won’t be much different than what you saw in the Wizard of Oz). Take back your fraternity by forcing candidates for the National Board of Directors to come forward and inform you of their “vision” for the organization, and to convince you why they should be elected.

Good luck in Nashville. Make us proud. I wish I could be there to see what changes you are going to make for the betterment of OUR fraternity.