[10027] in APO-L
Awards
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James C. Porter)
Sat Nov 5 11:06:36 1994
Date: Sat, 5 Nov 1994 11:06:10 -0500
Reply-To: JPor466@AOL.COM
From: "James C. Porter" <JPor466@AOL.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L%PURCCVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Mary Alfson of Alpha Gamma Lambda asked about awards.
The board has a policies which describes how DSK's of all levels are to be
given out. Many chapter have thier own ideas that I think may be too
restrictive, and a couple I have seen have been too liberal on DSK's.
I can tell you how chapters I have dealt with handle this issues.
Basis awards: A chapter can give out awards, such as outstanding active,
outstanding pledge, Most service hours, just about anything. Also chapters
tend to give out gag awards (pledges to actives, anybody to anybody) so that
at an awards banquet, nobody feels left out.
Chapter certificate of appreciation is awarded tp "individuals or groups
deserving special chapter recognition" . I take that to mean that it is a
very large thank you, and given that we are a service organization, this
should be given out freely.
Chapter DSK's:
This whole thing is a quote:
"...awarded to persons who have distinguished themselves through outstanding
service to thier chapter. Selection is made by an established or special
chapter committee.
Criteria:
Distinguished service on a chapter level, that is, making an outstanding and
unique contributin to the chapter as a whole.
Exemplifying and furthering, in demonstrable ways, the principles of
leadership, friendship and service.
Making a sustained contribution in a leadership role over a period of time.
The average life of an active member at a four year college is about 18
months so I think that "over a period of time" could be as short as two
active semesters. You know who your good people are.
On the other hand it diminishes the significance of the award if you give a
DSK out too freely. A chapter should look every semester to look and see if
someone deserves it. I have seen it in the past where about the only person
who got it is the chapter president. I think that is wrong for two reasons:
There are other deserving people in a chapter who fit the criteria usually,
and the President may not deserve one.
Make sure that if you give a DSK, that the service applies to the area that
the person deserves, i.e. chapter, section, region, alumni, or national.
After all if you got a person in your chapter spending his spare time
running around starting chapters, then the award should probably be a
sectional DSK. I think that it would be defined a a leadership position. It
would not fit the definition of chapter service.
In my opinion there is nothing bad that can come out of recognizing deserving
individuals for the work that they have done in the fraternity. On the other
hand, there are definitely bad things that can happend if you don't. People
who feel that they are not appreciated tend to go where they do feel that
way. So awards will definitely help retention.
I give sectional certificates away on a reqular basis, to whomever helps me
during a semester.
Jim Porter
Section 33 Chair
