Fiji Strengths and Weaknesses

Hello Everyone,

Since I don't like to end on negative notes I suppose I will start off with Fiji weaknesses.

Service is definitely an area in which Fiji lacks and we lack for a couple of reasons. The first is we don't harp on brothers who don't make their service hours. Seven a quarter is not difficult and the only disincentive that is out there is a weak sentence normally comprising of being a sober monitor at one social event. In my mind ( not saying I do this ) it is almost better to skip the 7 hours of service and get the fine. Why waste seven hours when you get a fine you might not even have to be forced to do ( I have heard several brothers with this mindset for the record ). The second big issue is that we don't reward/congratulate brothers who excel in this area. There is no incentive to become excellent in this value ( in essence we are neglecting two values by treating service like we do.) Most Fiji's just try to comply with the minimum of 7 hours and then pass up other service opportunities because the requirement was fulfilled. Now the last problem I see is that Fiji makes service an individual prerogative. Although there are some huge group events, no brothers actually make an effort to plan service projects with other brothers. As one of my brothers already mentioned in his blog, Fiji could really grow in the area of service if we just attempted to make it more group oriented.

The other obvious area Fiji is lacking in is the social aspect. I'm not saying we don't like to go out and have a good time. Of course not, some of the best times I have ever had have been out with my brothers. What I am talking about is our interactions and "lasting impressions" we leave with sororities. We have talked about this issue in class a lot so I'll just summarize a couple points of where we are lacking. The first is the connections we "fail" at making. Not trying to sound harsh or anything, but Fiji has some trouble making lasting connections. This could be a result of awkward social settings, needing alcohol for "confidence", or our lack of previously known sorority ladies. Either way, only a few brothers are able to make connections in the night and, as another brother mentioned, when we wake up nothing significant has changed since the prior night. I do think that more sober events could really strengthen us in this area. Accompany that with treating a T.G. as a pre game instead of "the game" would also help us make actual connections with sororities.

Both of these weaknesses revolve around our community. However both of these could be great strong suits if we change our deficiencies in both categories.

Onto Fiji strengths.

This will be really lengthy if I go into every area in which we are great so I'll narrow it down to what I think is our greatest area.

I believe it is our diversity that sets us apart from any other chapter. Not in terms of ethnicity, but in terms of ideas and perspectives. Everyone in Fiji is so unique. There are social extroverts, brothers involved in every area of campus, video gamers, musicians, and many more. All of these different perspectives combine into the most unique fraternity on campus. I think this diversity leads not to a downfall, but a true advantage in the Greek community. Becoming stagnant is a true fear in Greek life. I think this is very likely if your chapter has similar perspectives and ideas. This is why Fiji is so great. We always have new ideas and perspectives to contribute to the overall greatness that is the Feej. This causes our values to be continually checked and improved never allowing our chapter to grow contempt in our ways but to always be striving for excellence. I believe this comes primarily from recruitment. Every brother looks for potentials who embody our values. However, every brother has different values they cherish more than others. So this leads to bringing potentials around who all excel in different areas of Fiji. Our diversity is also a strength in our community because we have brothers who can relate to every chapter and person on campus. This is great for recruitment and trying to foster a unified Greek community.

I think that cabinet is really starting to address our weaknesses and they are doing a great job in fostering a unified Fiji front. However, other than recruitment, I feel like our committee chairs are lacking mostly from poor organization skills. I do think that cabinet will help them grow and really utilize our resources to make Fiji the best that it can be.

Signing off.
Coz