Many may only see collegiate Greek life as a cultural group who hides their partying behind community service hours and charitable donations. However, I would like to challenge that stereotype by emphasizing the professional development and self-improvement opportunity that is presented to Greek life members - especially those who hold leadership positions. Currently, I serve my one-hundred member sorority as chapter president and use other officers to steadfastly keep up a well-balanced, structured, and involved organization.

Fraternities and sororities must operate as a business first, and a socialite second to be able to be successful. I would really like to indicate some key concepts that report the relation between Greek organizations and businesses.

Greek organizations: 

• Divide officers into teams to work on specific areas of the chapter 
• Must operate on a strict budget, fueled solely from member's dues 
• Must market themselves well in order to continue to recruit new members 
• Have mission statements and values to keep their members to and gear their brand 
• Must follow rules from, and are accountable to, their national headquarters 
• Have insurance to cover their organization and its members, in addition to many policies and procedures in area for holding events

They are just a couple of points that show how Greek organizations are ran as the best business, combining friendship with professionalism and offering members a great opportunity for private development live tv.

As president, I see all sides of owning a Greek organization and must help every officer no real matter what team her position is a part of. My days are filled up with constantly making decisions and weighing the consequences. I have discovered to make fair decisions that benefit the higher good, while remaining unbiased in the process. I also answer to everyone's questions and concerns while problem solving when an unplanned event takes place. For instance, we had a small crisis with flyers that have been made to advertise an event we were having. Once they came in, we noticed the contact email on the flyers was spelled wrong. After some deliberation, we made a decision to utilize the flyers we had and made a new email address with the typo included.

A huge section of running a successful organization is effective and professional communication. Our main forum of communication between officers and the advisory board is emailing. I have discovered just how to properly send and answer emails in a specialist manner. My communication skills have improved substantially since being truly a leader of my chapter. I have discovered to communicate concisely and format information in the very best way. I have discovered providing information in bullet lists is the greatest way to obtain members to learn messages fully. All of our officers must hold team meetings and get reports of progress in the various areas on the team. Officers are in charge of organizing their own meetings and taking minutes to record what was discussed. Greek organizations teach members to effectively and professionally communicate through emailing, holding meetings, and working with others.

One of the most valuable traits that I am still learning through my presidency, is how to get more comfortable with hard conversations. I work closely with your Director of Standards and Ethics to ensure our members are holding themselves to your high ideals and values. If someone is falling behind, it is our job to have conversations using them about why this really is happening and what we can do to be sure it generally does not happen again. These tough conversations become even tougher when remembering that the members of our chapter may also be our friends and sisters. As a leader of a Greek organization, I am learning to have these hard conversations while residing in control of myself and the conversation.

Greek life has so much more to supply than the social facet of the business, and can truly prepare young adults to become listed on the professional world. Through developing members personally, and developing officers professionally, Greek organizations will offer life-changing collegiate experiences that can't be found elsewhere.