F1J1

I appropriately titled this blog F1J1, not because "...you know you want to be one...," but because it serves as a reminder (for me at least) that we need to strive to be number one in everything we do. Never settle.

That said, I'll start with a couple things that I personally would like to see FIJI improve upon. They are: social and service.

I know we already discussed the social aspect of our chapter in depth in class, so I'll try my best not to repeat what has already been said. I'll just throw around a few ideas. I brought up the dinner swap becoming a regular thing, and I would like to expound upon that. We all agreed that dry events are generally a better way to meet new people and form lasting relationships, so just consider the idea of having two dinner swaps with different sororities each quarter. A conservative estimate, especially with chapter dinners serving as a great tool for recruitment, it would be a bad idea to have diner swaps too often and take away from recruitment. Nevertheless, two dinner swaps per quarter means six a year, which means six more opportunities to meet people than we currently have. Not to mention, less planning would be involved with these dinner swaps, since they are already a part of each of our schedules. Then, should we have a TG with these girls in the future (which we most likely will), the "facade" many worry about, I believe, would no longer be an issue (or at least not as significant). Not only would we be adding a new element to the social aspect of FIJI (regular dinner swaps), but we would also improve another aspect (TGs). Maybe it's just me, but I see a lot of potential in this, so I'd love to hear each of your thoughts.

Service, one of our five values. Over my almost full year as a FIJI, I think this is the value we most neglect. I don't want to take anything away from select brothers who do do great things in the community, nor sound as if I live and breathe community service. However, I think improving our community service would have an energizing and extensive effect on our chapter. While it is great that brothers do individual community service projects on their own each quarter, I would like to challenge everyone to take that extra step and put just as much effort if not more into completing projects with their brothers. I am going to try and do my best to plan service events for all the brothers, in hope of improving this value of our chapter. Should our involvement in FIJI-specific service events improve, our brotherhood would surely follow suit. Once again, let me know your thoughts.

Now, onto the strengths of our chapter. We as FIJIs create and sustain a great image for ourselves and our chapter everyday. During my time as a potential, pledge, and brother, my interactions and impression of FIJI has been nothing but positive. Going off that, a major reason why we portray such a great image to undergrads and faculty is our strong involvement on campus. This not only serves as a great recruitment tool, but a great instrument for our chapter in general. Experiencing different organizations allows brothers to gain insight that transfers over to our fraternity and what we can do to be successful. Lastly, another thing our chapter does extremely well is it assists and promotes the education of each brother. Everyone is extremely focused and dedicated to their studies, and with that, every brother has always been willing to help anyone struggling or in need of guidance. This goes for non-school related matters, too. We as brothers of FIJI are always acting in each others' best interests. Thus, this and each of the other mentioned strengths are things I see FIJI do extremely well each and every day.



Our Cabinet and committee chairs, for the most part, are doing a great job thus far. Although it's still early on in the game, if we can continue this energy and drive into Spring quarter with Greek Week, Islander, and then into Fall quarter with Rivalry Run and so forth, I can see FIJI doing a lot of great things in the future. However, the only caution I think needs to always be taken into account is one of the first things in my blog: Never settle. I cannot say that enough. This is what separates the good from the great, the respected to the elite. This is our only barrier to success, and we are fortunate enough to have complete control of it. If we continue to push ourselves, each other, and our Cabinet and committee chairs, FIJI will only get better.

Now onto the Greek community as a whole. Eli really hit it home with his last blog regarding "chapter bashing." This really is the greatest barrier to a more embracing, inclusive Greek community. We cannot work as a group with a common goal in conquering the fraternal movement if we are always at each others' throats with our demeaning comments. While we as FIJIs are a strong community ourselves, think about how strong an entire Greek community can be if it is united and supportive of each other. We are strong in that we are all generally very passionate about our individual chapters, their goals and interests, but we can be even stronger if we also act with each others interests in mind and work together rather than tear each other apart.

Now ke$ha is coming on in my shuffled iTunes, and that's an indication to shut up if I've ever seen one. Peace, bros.