Abstract:
In the early 1990’s, fraternities started introducing membership development programs. The programs were introduced in an attempt to eliminate many of the issues that fraternities have traditionally faced such as, alcohol abuse, hazing, sexual assault, and lack of diversity. Membership development plans provide structured activities for fraternity men to participate either individually or in a group that work on creating a higher sense of self-awareness, greater levels of empathy, higher self-esteem, better leadership skills, diversity, and a better awareness of citizenship after college. These programs also allow for experiential learning, which gives students the opportunity to transform the classroom knowledge into knowledge they are actually using.
The purpose of this creative project was to create a four year, comprehensive membership development plan for a Greek organization, Theta Chi. The goal was to create a facilitators manual that gives instructions to fraternity men how to progress through the membership development program. This project is specific to undergraduate fraternity men who are interested in furthering their fraternity experience. The project responds to the issues that have been facing contemporary fraternities.
