I have been living at a fraternity for quite a while now, but it was only at the end of last semester that I decided to join and become an official member. I soon realized that my days as a boarder were quite ignorant. I was relatively oblivious to the amount of upkeep required to keep the house running, and I never really bothered to question the amount of effort and coordination that it took from each of the members living there.
The key to maintaining the building, as well as the group as a whole, is the system of meetings that the group has each week to discuss important fraternity issues. Our goal in these meetings is to coordinate financial and social activities, as well as give each officer in the house a chance to speak about anything relevant to their position. We often cover topics such as upcoming events, house maintenance, and the current state of food in the house.
During these meetings, we often use a mix of internal and external representations. That is to say, information is represented in members’ minds as well as outside sources. Before a meeting even begins, general ideas for discussion start as internal representations in the president’s mind, and they are transformed into an external representation in the form of a written outline. When we are actively discussing these topics, information is kept in memory, but our decisions are later stored externally on a computer and mailed to a listserve. The meetings themselves are also quite formal, with each member taking their turn to speak and the potential for a voting process. These rules are stored in each member’s mind as an internal representation, allowing for easy access to the information as well as granting order to the meeting.
These meetings are also very tightly coupled, as each meeting brings forth new problems that need to be discussed amongst the group. While certain elements are routine, like having events that are similar to those we have had in the past, each situation is different and requires its own solution. Every issue can be seen as a problem, and the members of the fraternity are the problem-solvers. That is why we have these meetings Ftf – we have to coordinate and find solutions that accomplish the task at hand as well as please everyone in the fraternity.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Very nice description of the representations during meetings! Given your group's goal to "coordinate financial and social activities," I think that the system in this case could also extend beyond the meeting. It may include all the actual organization and preparations until the event itself actually takes place. Your fraternity members hold the organizational plans in their head, but periodically remind themselves what needs to be done next by looking at the listserve emails. This transformation of representation is necessary due to the inaccuracy of internal representation. It is done repeatedly as necessary up to the event date.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that the brothers in your fraternity realize that the tightly coupled items need to be handled in FtF meetings with instant feedback. Too many organizations rely soley on CMC because computers are becoming so popular and it is easier to reply to an e-mail on your own time rather than attend a weekly meeting. I'm sure this lends itself to a well-run house where tasks are accomplished efficiently. It is impressive that a group of boys is responsible enough to have such an intricate transformation of representation where things happen with both internal and external representations before, during, and after each meeting.
ReplyDelete