Turning Weakness Into Strength

(I recently wrote this for the Iota Phi Alumni blog.)

A recur­ring issue that our chap­ter faces is active reten­tion or mem­ber turnover. We are lucky that our chap­ter is so large and that it is able to accom­mo­date large pledge classes, but we could be much big­ger and bet­ter if we were able to hold on to more brothers.

When I’ve talked to rushees who did not choose to pledge, pledges who chose to DP, or broth­ers who have drifted away from the chap­ter, the most com­mon rea­son for leav­ing is some­thing along the lines of “I don’t feel like I belong.” Some­times older actives are left behind after their friends have grad­u­ated and moved away. Some­times, pledges never quite bond with their pledge broth­ers. Whichever the case, the end result is the same — when you feel like an out­sider among a group of 200+ peo­ple, it can be incred­i­bly intim­i­dat­ing. It’s under­stand­able that you would con­sider leaving.

What I can­not under­stand is how the sit­u­a­tion is able to get to such a low point. Our chap­ter has a lot of safety nets built in to pre­vent any­one from falling through the cracks. You are never alone in Iota Phi. You have pledge broth­ers, spon­sors, spon­sorees, train­ers, pledge group-​mates, big broth­ers, lit­tle broth­ers, ExComm, Plex­Comm, and advis­ers. Every­one in Iota Phi is con­nected and we are all here to help you suc­ceed in Alpha Phi Omega and out­side of it. If you feel as if you are drift­ing away from the chap­ter, I’m sure that if you took a closer look, you’ll real­ize that you have a lot more sup­port than you thought.

And to every­one else in the chap­ter, keep an eye out for those near you who could be start­ing to drift away. If you notice that one of your broth­ers is not com­ing out to events as much, invite him or her to join you at a fel­low­ship or ser­vice project. Don’t be afraid to intro­duce your­self to some­one you don’t usu­ally talk when you’re both at a fel­low­ship. Try part­ner­ing up with some­one new at a ser­vice project. Good mug some­one for some­thing that you don’t think any­one else noticed. You never know… that ran­dom act could make the dif­fer­ence between a future Pres­i­dent leav­ing and com­ing back. Besides help­ing your­self by meet­ing a best friend, you could be help­ing the chap­ter grow stronger.

In short, be a leader, be a friend, and be of service.

Yours in LFS,
Dinh Luong

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