Utopia: My world My Way

I will describe my perfect world from the perspective of the point of life that am currently at. The perfect world to me would be one where people just want to help one another. Every student would not be a genius and would not receive good grades but all fellow students would want to see them do well, so they would offer they're help at any and all times. There would still be people who did not have much money but no one would ever go without food or home because as fellow humans we wouldn't allow that to happen. Everyone would have a helping spirit and would always want to see others succeed. There would still be competition such as sports but it wouldn't not caryy into the functioning of everyday life. A game would be just that and the competition would not consume one's life. Human nature would make it so that we would be able to share rather than battle so that only one side can have something. There would be less crime because with everyone helping each other there would be less motives for people to kill and still. There would be very few criminals who would only be in existence to serve as examples for wat not to be. People would sometimes make mistakes. That will always be apart of their nature but they will always hold themselves accountable and will also hold others accountable as well.

Sororities and Fraternities would play a huge role in this world. Members would have to show a great deal of candor and must display an outstanding desire to serve. Fraternal orgaizations would still maintain their exclusiveness because interests will have to display all of the fraternal values before being initiated into the organization. Joining a fraternal organization would be an ultimate goal of everyone. Having the Greek letters would be a reward for being an honorable person. Every fraternal member would take pride in their organization. These organizations would be encouragement for non-members to live better.

The basis of life in my perfect world would be helping others and diplaying the greatest amount of integrity that one can uphold.

Strengths and Weaknesses of my Chapter, Council and Community

It is always a great idea to take a step back and reflect on your organization and how it is progressing. If there is any improvement to be made you have to first identify what needs to be changed. Here are some strengths and weaknesses of my chapter, council and community.

The eXquisite Xi Gamma Chapter of ZETA PHI BETA SORORITY, INNNNNNNCORPORATED:
Weaknesses-
*As a chapter we do NOT know how to say no. We often over program in one week. We are asked to do collaborations quite often and even if we have something personal going on we always say yes. It is great that people like to work with us but we need to recognize that sometimes it is ok to say NO.
*There are times when I feel that my chapter members over extend themselves rather than delegating tasks and getting help. We all have a SuperWoman mentality (and I am very guilty of this). It is always seems easier to do something yourself and get the task completed but sometimes you need help. *Side Note* We are SuperWomen NOT SuperZetas! Difference is that we had this drive and will to succeed on our own without these letters and though some of us may be mistaken as SuperZetas due to the fact that we do wear these letters we were just as great before crossing.

Strengths-
*We are a very approachable chapter. We always here from Greeks and Non-Greeks alone about how easy it is to talk to us. People feel that they are able to be themselves and still engage in conversation with us. This is one of the main reasons why I joined this organization. We dont give off an elitist vibe.
*Another GREAT thing about my AWSOME chapter is they we are very open and honest with one another. As sisters we find it very important to keep trust in one another. We answer each others questions honestly and we hold one another accountable for our actions. We know that what one of us does reflects all of us and we make sure that we represent each other well and when one doesnt do so we call her out on it and help her make the appropriate changes.
*We find it very important to share things with one another. If one of us come accross a job or internship we send it to those who are interested and those who it applies to.

NPHC:
Weakness-
*As a council we do not get involved and engaged in council or cross council wide events. We focus more on our individual chapters than the council. We as a whole need to put more work into NPHC.
* We as a council need to raise our grades.
*Low member attendance to meetings.
*We need fund raising opportunities other than the Step Show
Strengths-
*Our members would love to see us improve.
*We are working on a scholarship task force.
*Our executive board is strong and has a desire to reach out to other councils
*We have a unified exec board who are working to increase unity amongst member chapters

Community:
Weakness-
*As a community we tend to focus on the negative and never display the good things that take place.
*On that same note we tend to encourage and instigate the negative things.
*We tend to dwell on negative events that have taken place rather than just letting them go and moving on.

Strengths-
*We keep Greek life going. Without membership intake and the constant interest in Greek life we wouldnt have sororities and fraternities.
*The community is the pulse of Greek Life
*School spirit brings us all together

The Fraternal Movement: The Gift and the Curse

Fraternalism is a gift and a curse. Our purpose is for the betterment of individuals and their surrounding communities. We are to serve and live by high standards and encourage others to do so as well. We are to provide opportunities for ourselves and others. Our actions often prohibit our opportunities from being carried out. Though nothing in life is ever truely perfect, there are some things within the fraternal movement that need to be changed so that we may come as close to perfect as possible.
Our Dilemma:

• We are supposed to uplift all people but we often bring them down. This is very evident when membership intake comes into play. People often get turned down for physical reasons when they could be an asset to Greek life. We tend to set these high standards that most of us don't even uphold ourselves.
• We often engage in activities that are not of our values. Becoming Greek did not change the fact that we are human but we must always understand that we chose these letters and with the letters came the responsibility of us being honorable citizens. We cannot expect people to take our letters and values serious if we don't take them serious ourself.
• The general body does not take serious. This goes with the previous point.

The Opportunites of the GREAT FRATERNAL MOVEMENT:

• We have a large population. There is power in numbers and if we all stand on a united front as Greeks alike, we will be able to CONQUER THE WORLD (I know that's a bit extreme but hey, why limit oursleves)
• The BLUEprint of this movement was already set by our founders. All we have to do is carry it out.
• For the most part we seem to have the desire we just need to act on it.

As Greeks I feel that we a lot going for us. There will always be some type of criticism for everything. We have the power to make a change. We shall use the constructive criticism and take all others with a grain of salt.

OATHING Around....

In previous blogs I have mentioned that values are only words until they are put into action and carried out into everyday life. One of the first steps to carrying out these values is stating what the values are and becoming well aware of them and making an OATH or promise to uphold them throughout life. An OATH is not only a formal promise to others, but it is more importantly a promise to YOURSELF. When you dont live what you have committed to live in your OATH you are tarnishing your character. A lot can be said about a person who is able to WALK THE TALK. I believe that integrity is one of the most admirable qualities for a person to have. It is easy for anyone to say that they will live by certain rules and do certain things but it takes a mature adult to actually do so.
I remind my sorors of the concept of an OATH quite often. There were many oaths and promises we made when we became members. Our OATH was a verbal version of us signing our organizations contract. It is part of our OATH to live out our values and to hold each other accountable for doing so.
I have been making OATHs for most of my life. As a chlid I was a member of Girl Scouts. We had what was called the "Girl Scout Promise". It went as so: "On my honor I will try to serve God and my country, to help people at all times and to live by the Girl Scout Law(see clip below)". (AWWWW I still remember it. Ha I sometimes find myself saying it. Man this really brings back many great memories. I think it says a lot that I can still recite that and not only that but that I recite it often.). Though I have not been an active member in Girl Scouts since the end of my junior year in high school, I find it very important to still live by this promise that I have made (and would recite at our weekly meetings that I miss dearly) on my honor.
There are some things that I will always be : Evelyn Ward, a Zeta and a Girl Scout. Every OATH that I have made through these associations should be upheld throughout the remainder of my life.





*Side note: I am now in a state of nostalgia. Girl Scouts was a huge part of my life. It was and will always be what Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. is for me today. I feel that the values that I uphold now were instilled in me early through my membershp in this wonderful organization. I still have friends today that I met through Girl Scouts and memories that will last forever. One of my most favorite parts of Girl Scouts were the songs that we would sing. I will close out with one of my favorite songs "Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold...." (see clip below).....

my SECRET thoughts on ritual...

I would first like to make the disclaimer that if I have any thoughts that I feel are so sacred that I need to keep them SECRET they will remain as so. I have no problem speaking my mind but what ever I feel should be private will stay that way. So with that said I would like to reword the question of this blog to "What are your thoughts on SECRET ritual?" rather than " What are your SECRET thoughts on ritual?"

Now, I will start by expressing what I feel a SECRET ritual is. A SECRET ritual is one that you share only with your organization. Only members of your organization should know and take part in these things. It is a way to bond with one another and it is something that you all know makes your organization different from others. They are practices that you all not only memorize but LIVE, LEARN and UNDERSTAND. These SECRET rituals do become a way of life. You and members of your organization know what they are and should hold you accountable for upholding these rituals.
There are rituals that organizations have that are not SECRET. These things include upholding your personal and organizations values. As a member of the NPHC I feel that we do a great job of educating the public on what our values are. Now whether or not we do a good job of upholding these values is a whole other topic. We should all hold ourselves and each other accountable for upholding these values set up by our founders.

Our SECRET rituals only become a problem when they go against our values and public rituals. I hold my SECRET rituals near and dear to my heart but if they were to ever go against Scholarship, Service, Sisterly Love and Finer Womanhood, they are no longer sacred and just SECRET. It is very important to me to carry out the goals of my founders and to carry out my personal goals while never letting go of my values.

Another problem arises when a non-member tells me or someone else that our SECRET rituals are inteferring or going against our values and all our rituals should be laid out for everyone to see (and yes this has been said to me). I would first like to say that if my SECRET rituals are truly SECRET then a non-member does not know what they truely are and cannot judge whether or not they go against my values or not. I strongly feel that everything about your organization should NOT be laid out for everyone to see. There are always incentives to joining an organization and learning our secrets is one of them.

Having secrets does NOT mean that you are being SECRETIVE. There is a huge difference. SECRETIVE, implies that you are keeping something away from people in a sneaky manner to hide something. I can speak on my chapters behalf by saying Xi Gamma has nothing to hide. There are always the fun a friendly secrets like who may be the newest members of your organization or even if you will be having new members any time soon. This just adds to the thrill and excitement of revealing the new memebers. Its like when you go to get your hair done you dont want anyone to see you until you are fully polished and complete. That is how joining NPHC organizations are. You dont want anyone to know that you are joining an organization and not be able to tell them anything about it. Joining these organizations is a lifelong committment and therefore you should devote the time needed to learn about them because you cannot live out rituals and values that you do not know.

*As another dislaimer I would like to say that I am not making any excuses for Hazing because well Hazing is Hazing and Rituals are Rituals. They are cut from a different cloth and there are different intentions behind them.

So in a nut shell I feel that there is nothing wrong with SECRET rituals. I love mine and I live mine everyday.

It's Gone, Gone...All Gone!!!

Hey! This song was on my heart so I thought I'd share it!!!! Enjoy!

Are You Listening?

A walk in the cold.

During our last class we were instructed to go out into the community and interview members of the Greek community.We were given very strict directions to follow. I felt like I was on the Amazing Race or ANTM (on one of the go see episodes). We were racing against time to get as much of the task done as possible. Our council walked down 15th and knocked on doors, stopped people and even called people over the phone. We even stopped by Jimmy John's on the way back to class and still managed to make it back on time.

This was a great way to bring our council together( see picture on right, NPHC together inside and outside the classroom :D). We were competing against the other councils. We all worked together and came to a concensus on how we would go about completing this task. We decided to split up into two groups since there were only four members of our council present. This activity was also a great way for us to reach out to members of the other councils besides those who are enrolled in this class. Everyone was surprisingly very polite and excited to help us; that is with an exception to some members of our class. When our other group went up to one of the houses there were members of our class from another council who were already there. The people who lived at the house were willing to be interviewed by both groups but the other group told members of my council they couldn't come in and shut the door. Ok so I know that we were competing and we all want our councils to come out on top on the end but that was just plain RUDE. This class is meant to bring us all together as a Greek community and actions like that may cause tension. We forgive the ones who did that BUT we would hope that they would not continue to do such things because actions like that to noto promote unity.

With that said I will continue to elaborate on this experience. I really felt more connected with the other three ladies of the exec board of my council from this experience. This was our first real experience of working together since we have been elected. We worked on the values paper together but this was a greater experience. I enjoyed the experience and the cold did not phase me once I got into it. As a very competitive person I really got a kick out of this experience. When our group met back up before returning to class we were able to eliminate some of our interviews to aviod having to many people from one council. We based our decisions off of the answers the interviewees gave us. For example we had too many interviewees from the NPHC so we eliminated one because he did not state his organization's principles as his values and we knew that if he had done that we would get more points, where as the other NPHC interviewees had all done so.

This brings me to another point. Another reason for this activity was for us to look at what we consider our values compared to what the values of our organizations are. Though when asked what our values are we may not always spit mation or recite our organizations values, it is interesting to see how closely the two paralell. They should come very close to being the same seeing as how we represent our organizations and our organizations represent us as well.

This activity caused me to self reflect on myself and how well I represent the values of Zeta and how Zeta represents me.

Though the weather was freezing this was a great experience and was one that I'd say was much needed.

What I value

Before I state what my values are I feel that is important for me to say what the term "values" means to me. Values are a way of life. The term describes what you feel is right, important to your life and the laws that you live by. Values are more than just saying "I think something should be this way or should go that way." A statement is only a true value when you live by it. So with that I will begin going into what my values are; what my way of life is.
Honesty is one of my greatest values. I feel that honesty is very important in life. Anyone that truely knows me will tell you that I am one of the most honest people you will ever meet. I do not like to be lied to nor do I like when people try to cover things up so I do not do that to others. I have found that my most successful relationships (of any type) have been based around honesty. Life is just easier when you keep it real. I like to stay in reality so I am honest with myself at all times. I am working on being more optimistic but at the end of the day I feel it is best to think logically rather than irrationally. I truely belive that staying optimistic about a situation always helps you reach a goal easily but in order to keep myself from disappointment I never loose the sense of the other option: not getting what I want. Now dont mistake this at all, I will always work hard to reach my goal, I am just prepared for either turnout.
Loyalty would have to be the next greatest value that I have. This one goes along with honesty. If I am tied to you I will always protect you and defend you whether you are in my presence or not. There are times when I do not get along with my most loyal friend but I will NEVER stop taking up for them. I am what you call a ride or die chick (lol that was the best way I could think to describe it), meaning if Im there for you Im there for you no matter what. This is one of the reasons my line name was ExTREme MeasureZ. I take relationships with people very seriously. This is sometimes a downfall for me. I expect for people to put into me what I put into them. I sometimes end up hurt because of this. My soror Lomax often tells me to "stop putting your faith into man!" I'm still working on that. But hey I guess thats the optimistic side of me hoping that all people will put as much into me as I put in them.
Serving and giving back is another value that I have. I have always been enthsiastic about serving. It is a part of my life and has been for most of it. I feel like whether or not you are wealthy, the fact that you have more than most is a blessing and you should always give back.
All three of these values are interwound with the values of the NPHC. In 1930 the organization stated it's mission as “Unanimity of thought and action as far as possible in the conduct of Greek letter collegiate fraternities and sororities, and to consider problems of mutual interest to its member organizations.” Unanimity is a term that refers to unity. Honesty and loyalty is a part of unity. In order to stick together we must be truthful and allegiant to one another at all times. We can easily act as if we a unified when being watched, but as I said earlier, values are only true values when practiced and put into action. With that said as a council we need to work on being more honest and loyal to one another so that we may have values instead of great thoughts that would be good values. Service is obviously a value of the NPHC. Every organization of the NPHC have values based in serving others and their community.
It is important that you have strong values before joining an organization. It is also important that the organization you are going to join have the same values as you. Our founders didnt set up values for us to go by just because it sounds good. It is up to US as a community, council and individual to carry them out!

Sickness Blues

Ok so this has nothing to do with this class but I just wanted to say that I am feeling very bad right now. My neck is stiff, throat is swollen and head hurts. I dont even have time to be sick.. man oh man.. I think I may need to get my tonsils taken out.... Somebody HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!!!!

What better way to start off a class about fraternal change than to do a service project. Considering Service is a part of a majority of our organization's principles, service should almost be expected as a part of this experience. Helping others is a great way to promote change in our community. This project gave our classmates the opportunity to work together and to get to know each other. That is what service does, it brings people together. It is a unifying act. While making the peanut butter & jelly sandwiches I learned a lot about the members of the other councils. We are more alike than we would have ever imagined. Ben Hubener(sorry for the spelling) was my partner. He is very involved on campus and his fraternity is ot his ownly activity. He is a very hard worker and his mission is just the same as ours (NPHC)... TO SUCCEED!!! Bringing the councils together was a great step towards fraternal change. THE MOVEMENT IS COMING!!!!

Welcome to the World of E-V-E!!!

Hello all!!! My name is Evelyn Denise Ward. I am a 3rd year Biology student with a minor in Forensic Science. I plan on going into education in the future. I am a new member of the eXquisite Xi Gamma chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. here at THE Ohio State University. I serve as treasurer for both my chapter and the council that my organization belongs to, The National Pan-Hellenic Council or what is more commonly called the NPHC. I am also a member of MANRRS or Multicultural Students in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences where I serve as Secretary.
When I first came to this university I saw a lot of hype behind Greek life. I first became interested during the Spring quarter of my freshman year. That is when I saw a lot of Black Greek organizations in the spot light. The hype can easily draw a person in but I saw a deeper meaning behind Greek life. I saw how serious everyone took their letters and how close they were with those who shared them and even with those of other Greek lettered organizations. I also saw how committed these organizations were to bettering our community through service and programs to help the campus. I began to reasearch the three different NPHC sororities that were present on our campus at the time. I seemed to mesh instantly with the ladies who were members of what is now MY organization ( :), feels good to say that... na... IT FEELS GREAT!!!). We all shared the same interests and values and I was able to be myself around them. Since becoming a member, I have become a better person all around. I had already had a strong background in service (from being a member of Girl Scouts as a child and throughout my high school years) but my desire to serve has increased even more. I always thought it was a nice thing to do but I have a greater understanding and appreciation for serving. I realize that the world is so much greater than my personal world and that I could expand my personal world by opening up to others and not only serving them, but understanding their struggle. I have also gained a greater sense of family since I've joined my organization. I never really had a strong family background. When it came to family I was always cold and distant. I have learned to forgive and forget and appreciate the people around me. I have learned the importance of increasing the amount of people in my life and realizing that I make mistakes just as other people do. I have grown so much in every sense be it physically, mentally or spiritually. I love being a part of my organization and I wouldn't have made any other decision.
After reading blogbus in it's entirety I look forward to taking this class and growing even more from my decision to join a Greek Lettered Organization. This is an exciting and different way to do assignments for a class and is just another representation of how Greek Lettered Organizations promote CHANGE!!!