Re: Re: Hour Requirements Proposal

[RSchmitt]

DITTO!! to what Katie posted. And as I said earlier at the meeting, we need to remind ourselves of how we are viewing service. "How does this serve the Purdue Bands & Orchestras department?" That needs to be our guiding thought.

Also, we need to realize what is currently being expected of all active chapter members:
1. participate in member selection
2. participate in officer election
3. complete 10 hours of service to the department (in addition to stadium clean-ups)
4. attend all but one recruitment event (that's like 4/5 or 5/6...)
5. attend all but two chapter meetings (that means go to 6/8...)
6. maintain a 2.0 GPA.

If for whatever reason those 6 simple things cannot be met, then chapter members can:
1. participate in an ensemble for which they are not usually members
2. complete extra service hours approved by Exec

THAT'S IT. Those are straight from the Active Requirements.

We felt so caught up in minute technicalities that were meant to be used as examples, not as quantifiable rules set in stone. Further discussion needs to happen among all members regarding our definition of service, I believe, but for right now we need to realize we are in a very flexible place regarding what constitutes "service hours". Look at #2 of the make-ups: if something doesn't work out for you, get something service-related approved by Exec to count for your hours! At least that's the way I'm reading that. That is similar to Jessica's idea about voting on acceptable service ideas at meetings.

So many good thoughts on this! Please keep sharing your comments regardless of agree/disagree/indifferent.

[katieboyer]

I think we had a really good conversation tonight on this topic. Musicianship is a value of Kappa Kappa Psi. We all know this, but I think our chapter hasn't been the strongest in this respect. So I definitely think we need to incorporate more musicianship. A lot of musicianship is service, but not everything has to be just service. Leadership, musicianship, service, and brotherhood are our values. A lot of service projects we do incorporate brotherhood and leadership, and so a lot of musicianship aspects can fall under service as well. However, I think some of our musicianship ideas should be done for musicianship's sake. Taking people to concerts to support our bands is great for our musicianship value and that's why we should do it, not just because we want service hours. Going and playing at Westminster is both service and musicianship. There's a difference between the two. Us actually playing and performing for people is service. We're bringing music to the community, we're bringing the department to the community. Us supporting the department by attending concerts is just that - support, but not exactly service.

I agree with what Kyle said regarding us "copping out." Pep bands and concerts are cop outs, in my opinion. Instead of falling back on things that have already existed, I think it's key to come up with new ways to incorporate musicianship, along with the rest of our values. For instance, when I went to NatCon another chapter talked about how one project they did was help local Boy Scouts receive their music merit badge. Or playing with high school bands or inviting them to play with things we do. These are new ideas that can instill leadership, service, musicianship, and brotherhood all in one, and we can brainstorm for more ideas altogether. Another idea was doing a recruitment reading band type of event, and there are so many more ideas that we can come up with.

So, overall, I think we need to start coming up with new ideas to incorporate our values, which will in turn help with having multiple opportunities for service hours for these active requirements. We say this every year, that we need more service projects, but I think this year will be a strong one for us. And if we don't come up with new ideas, then I think that causes for a whole new discussion on our chapter and what it stands for. I talk about NatCon a lot, but that's because after attending I realized how much potential our chapter has for excellence, and I think this year will be really great for us.

So, feel free to reply with whatever comments or questions you have regarding my response.

[DAlexander]

Ditto everyone about the "performance hours".

Also, I think there should be an online form that each of us use to submit our own hours. Then they have to get approved through exec or the leaders of the project. That way each person is more responsible and can keep better track of their own hours. Then exec sending an email to let us know that the hours have been approved and how many we have would be very helpful.

You say you want to increase the number of service hours everyone does? Can we have clarification on what that number is looking to be?

As for what counts as service, I think you need to appoint one person whose job it is to approve these hours, communicate with project heads about hours and decide what different things count for service and what categories they should be put in. They can write a document after a semester of this defining exactly what counts as service. This is my idea behind the "service chair person" that has been mentioned several times.

Finally, I don't see a problem with being very clear on what everyone needs to do for their service. For example, you must do 2 full stage crews (set up and tear down), 1 hour of a major service project and 2 hours of a minor service project/committee responsibility this semester. That is a quick and simple example, but defining it like that would take a lot of the grey area out of this, "what do we count as service?" thing.

Dayle

[ericawolf]

So I pretty much agree with everyone else about he whole performance hours deal, but if people get hours for making flyers and stuff for recruiting events, that pretty much takes away my entire job as Publicity Chair.

[sulli134]

I personally think adding 'performance service hours' is not the way to go. As Chris and Lizzie said, it makes going to concerts seem like a chore. Going to concerts and joining a pep band should be something you want to do, not have to do. I know some people are concerned that we are only doing labor related service, but we can find other ways of service besides attending concerts. We help out with clothing distribution and thats not labor-related. We could give service hours for making fliers for upcoming recruiting events and we can think of other things like that. I don't think we need music related service because everything we do is music related already, since we are doing all our service for the band department.

[hurt1]

About the Performance Hours....

For one, we will be increasing the mandatory hours dedicated to KKPsi if we adopt the Performance Hours requirement.  However, much of this chapter already attends the concerts in question.  On the other hand, other people will feel as they are being forced to attend these performances and will have a very negative attitude.  If we continue to add mandatory hours that people feel forced to do, some of our brothers will begin to go conditional or inactive altogether.  We must evaluate how many people this will affect, and how many of these people should be representatives of our chapter.  Those brothers who go to concerts and perform above and beyond the minimum requirements will not be affected by these new requirements.

About the submission process.....

Being the finance head last semester, I was responsible for submitting hours to exec from the people on my committee.  I did not know how true these hours were or even how useful they were while there.  The people in charge of the projects who saw brothers working there should be the ones responsible for submitting hours.

We need to be careful with this process though.  We don't want this to become a big burden on the project leads, as it may hinder the progress of the project.  We don't want our approval/submission process to become "An Act of Congress."

[NealE]

Here are my thoughts on this proposal.

I'm not a big fan of demanding Performance service hours by attending concerts. Most people in Kappa Kappa Psi already attend concerts simply because they want to go listen to great music and support their friends and brothers.

To me, adding this requirement makes going to concerts another chore to be done, instead of being something I'm going to do because I want to. I'm worried about a select few from chapter who will show up to concerts with a negative attitude saying things such as "KKPsi is forcing me to show up to this. I don't want to be here," which will give our chapter a negative vibe.

I joined Kappa Kappa Psi to do service for the band. Not to be forced to go to band concerts.

Ultimately, this does not impact me in any way since I am already planning on going to concerts. But I want to throw these points out there anyway.

[Admin]

Proposal
This is a revision in response to the change in active requirements. This allows for service to be broader and cover more possible projects, while at the same time establishing a better system for recording service.

Types of Hours
The current proposal is two have two types of hours. They will be called Performance and Project service hours. The reason for this is in line to the idea of what we do for attendance. We do not want everyone to do one form of service, an example would be only going to concerts for service. This gives a guideline to get people to do both types of service. Both types of service are curtail to supporting the band department.

Accountability
The new way to record hours will have an application submission process. This gives confirmation on the hours members have done. Every time an individual does a project individually or as a group, the project leader will have to fill out an application. At the end of every week Exec will review the application and approve the hours.

The purpose of this discussion board will be for us to get a read on which direction chapter wants to take on the matter. Please let us know about your opinions on the direction this proposition is going and discuss issues that you see in it.

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