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Scott McMorris (mcmorriss@hsc.edu)
Constitution and By-Laws of Zeta Colony
Responsibilities of the Vice President
The Vice President’s responsibilities cover many important components of the operations within the chapter. Everything happening internally is a direct reflection of the Vice President’s ability to lead, delegate and manage. It is also the Vice President’s responsibility to hold members accountable when their actions step outside the three great principles and seven obligations of Beta Theta Pi. The following elements explain the main responsibilities of a Vice President.
- As stated earlier, the Vice President runs the internal operations of the chapter. Although some chapters require certain committees to only report to the chapter, for the most part, every committee chairman is under the leadership and guidance of the Vice President. The Vice President must find a good balance between assisting with chapter operations and delegating and overseeing them. It is easy to fall into the trap of doing all the work, and likewise, it is easy to sit back and think everything will get done. Most importantly, a Vice President must know how each committee needs to effectively operate. He needs to be the expert and go-to brother for assistance with any committee. If the Vice President is not familiar with the responsibilities of the public relations chairman, how can he offer support and assistance?
- This is perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT part of any chapter. First, brotherhood is the basis for any fraternity, and the measure of that brotherhood comes from our Beta and Pi principles. The Vice President serves as the chairman of the Kai Committee, and he must lead the committee in establishing brotherhood events for the chapter. Secondly, he must lead the committee in holding members accountable when they act outside the principles of the fraternity. Effective accountability is the most challenging part of any chapter because it involves putting down personal friendships for the standards and future of the chapter. This is all the more reason why the Vice President must model the way with his actions (as well as his committee) if he is going to have any credibility when holding members accountable.
- Not only must the Vice President run the internal operations of the chapter, but he must be prepared to assist (and sometimes take the place of) the president at all times. Whether it is working together at executive and chapter meetings or meeting with the University officials, the Vice President and President need to work together. The communication and unified position of the President and Vice President can make or break the year’s success.
- Since the Vice President oversees the Kai Committee and the chapter committees, he must make sure that proper documentation is taking place. Documentation from chairman to chairman is very important. This will set the stage for an effective transition so that the chapter does not need to recreate the wheel each year. General Fraternity and University award applications also call for documentation, and if documentation is regular routine for everyone then the application process will run smoothly.
- Documentation on the Kai Committee is just as important. Every Kai Committee case needs to have documented discussions and sanctions so that previous precedence can be followed where necessary. There will also be no question as to what was sanctioned at each meeting. This fosters the needed consistency of the Kai Committee.
- The President and Vice President need to know the chapter constitution and bylaws inside and out. Credibility is easily lost if these documents or not followed or not understood. Not only do they both need to know the documents, they need to educate the chapter and each pledge class on both documents.
- One of the most important points to remember is that every four years a chapter’s membership is totally new. If the standards set forth in the bylaws and constitution are not passed down to each pledge class, then little things will be lost. For example, if the chapter members and pledge classes are not educated on how to run an effective committee, then over a four-year time span things can drastically change. It is the Vice President’s responsibility to simply educate each pledge class (and sometimes the chapter) on the chapter’s structure. This includes how the committees, Kai Committee, executive council, chapter, etc., all operate and work together in a system of checks and balances.