Panhellenic Association officers and members became closer when posed with a difficult hypothetical situation Saturday in Conservation Auditorium.
As the result of a proposal made during the National Panhellenic Conference Summit in the fall, NPC brought Something of Value to MU. This values-based risk management program encouraged attendees to propose solutions to potential problems and ways to incorporate chapter values into decisions.
“It brought an awareness as to why it’s important for chapters to address risky behaviors,” Greek Life Coordinator Dustin Page said in an email.
Eleven members and an adviser from each PHA chapter attended Saturday’s program. In addition to some of the chapter board members, chapters each brought two freshmen and two sophomores, PHA spokeswoman Alyssa Goodman said.
“The reason why it’s so great that we incorporate underclassmen is that these are the women who are going to see so many of these changes,” she said. “They’re going to be the ones who are here for three years from now, and they have the time to make some of these big changes happen.”
After a short presentation, the morning session consisted of all attendees serving on a jury for a mock trial. A president, social chairwoman and the member’s big sister simulated testifying in a case regarding a chapter member who had died from alcohol poisoning. PHA members had to determine who was liable for her death.
Kappa Delta President Natalie Rooney said the trial made her more aware of how a situation like this would affect her.
“It made me realize how liable, as a president in particular, I am for my chapter,” she said. “This is something you always think about. I sign all the paperwork, I’m the one who puts my name on things, but just having that trial and putting myself in their place — thinking if a member of my chapter were to pass away, I would be liable for that — is a big wake-up call.”
Chapter members, their advisers and their international or national representatives continued to discuss the trial’s issues during lunch, Goodman said.
After lunch, participants broke into small groups led by an international or national representative and a member of the PHA executive board. Each group identified problems and proposed plans of action in response to issues pertinent at MU then shared the groups’ plans of action with the others.
Goodman, who helped oversee the social chairwoman group session, said she thought the participants in her small group session bonded.
“I think many of them learned that, regardless of chapter, we are all more alike than different,” Goodman said.
Each chapter president created a plan to help remind members about the chapter’s values. Many chapters decided to make banners or posters, and Kappa Delta will have its members sign the poster, Rooney said.
“It’s kind of nice to have a visual aid so when we’re at our weekly chapter meeting, we can put that sign up every week and remind people, ‘These are our values. You signed to remind yourself of that. When you joined the sorority, these are the values you promised to uphold,'” she said.
The chapter presidents also discussed unifying the community by holding more sisterhood events with other chapters, Rooney said.
“Unity was a big thing that was taken away from that day for all chapters, trying to work to eliminate the competitiveness between sororities and encourage friendships and bonds between different sorority women,” she said.
