[12968] in APO-L
Term limits and the role of leadership
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lisa Covi)
Sat Oct 14 13:53:03 1995
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 10:50:13 -0700
Reply-To: Lisa Covi <covi@ICS.UCI.EDU>
From: Lisa Covi <covi@ICS.UCI.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
Friends,
We have a lot of discussions about traditions and now even Neal's
account of what previous leaders in APO intended for our programs. In
contrast, we spend a lot of time discussing how this is an
undergraduate fraternity (or more accurately, a fraternity primarily
run by active members in active chapters who may be undergrads, grads
or in some cases, advisors). An ironic point is that the fraternity
didn't always used to be run this way, but now that it supposedly is,
actives have a lot of leeway to recreate the fraternity as a whole as
well as their chapters every 2 years and indeed they/you do.
Leadership is our means to balance the continuity necessary to sustain
our organization with the opportunities for growth and development of
new leaders.
What we don't discuss is what happens between being an active and
holding what Elliot calls a "higher-up" position. I'm not sure that
the board members actually spend much more time (in hours) than some
actives but I'm sure they spend more money because of the lack of
geographical centeredness of their APO activities (unlike the chapter
experience). Also, as people get older, we tend to gain more
responsibilities (though some of our actives have many of the same
responsiblities): taking care of parents, spouses and children,
working on a fulfilling career and pursuing community service
activities (besides APO). Time is a zero sum game and contact with the
actives and other opportunities that make being involved with Alpha
Phi Omega a unique experience motivate the volunteer staff to make the
time for APO. So don't lower your expectations of your staff - help
them set challenging, yet realistic goals.
I think we should expect our pledges, our actives, our alumni, our
advisors -- to commit to Alpha Phi Omega for a lifetime. However, by
commit, I mean remain true to our principles in various ways. I'd
like to think that most of the people who have had contact with APO
are committed already, but we just don't know about it because we are
still improving ways of keeping in touch with all of them, and
reminding them that we change through the years, but we are still
here. If that means that some people will serve on the board, some
people will give money, some people will be our ambassadors through
word of mouth to their children and their friends' children. Our
members are our most valuable resource so we should treat them as
such.
Lisa Covi
Region X Staff
Alumna Kappa '81
