Read Online Act Like You Know by Stephanie Perry Moore - Free Book Online Page A

the agenda in the beginning of a meeting anyway. That way, anybody can add or take away an item they feel we don’t need to discuss. The agenda must be approved by a two-thirds vote. And if you don’t even have a quorum present. . .”
    â€œA quorum? What’s that?” Trisha asked.
    Malloy said, “The majority of your members present.”
    â€œI read the bylaws for this chapter, and we need two-thirds of our members present to do business. In other words, if two-thirds of the people are here, we can conduct business, voting, etc. If two-thirds aren’t present, it’s information only, meaning we can never vote on anything, and nothing can move out of this meeting.”
    â€œWow, Soror Cruz. I am really impressed,” Hayden said.
    â€œI just want what’s best for our chapter. When we fuss and argue and do all that stuff, people get all worked up, and we aren’t working toward change. By operating within the confines of Robert’s Rules of Order , I think we’ll give the respect every soror here deserves and is looking for. Let the vote speak for itself. Our organization is based on moral standards, so whatever rules and grounds the National President sets, we have to stick by it, or we are jeopardizing this chapter. We could be suspended indefinitely, and I don’t think anyone in this room would want to be accused of such an awful thing. What we do now affects those coming behind us; it’s a high responsibility, and I know we’ll all do what’s right.”
    They looked at me, stood, and cheered. Wow. Maybe I did have worth.
    Â 
    â€œAct Now. Yeah, that’s right. That’s the title of this workshop,” the sassy state director said to our chapter as we sat in the workshop for problem solving.
    None of us were excited to be at the state round-up event in Bentonville, Arkansas. We all had to be there for many reasons: Malloy’s mom had gotten our rooms comped, and there were no fees because we were suspended, and Grand Chapter had paid for it all because they wanted us to get trained. It was so hard being the only chapter kicked off campus—and we were the Alpha chapter, too. We were supposed to be the premier chapter. Though I was new to it all, I certainly knew everyone had high expectations of us. But we were a joke. Other collegiate chapters were talking about us, and we didn’t like it.
    The state director continued, “When you have problems in your chapter, everybody must take a good look at themselves. You may think your view is right. You might truly believe you got it going on. You might even think you have your chapter members’ and chapter’s best interests at heart, but when there is dissension, again, you have got to look within. That’s my first point, ladies.”
    I looked around the room and saw a lot of my chapter sorors rolling their eyes—particularly Bea and Trisha. I didn’t hang with them much anymore, but when I was new to the chapter, I had done a lot to lead them astray. As the trainer was telling us, I had to look within, too. Yes, it was college, and, yes, we should enjoy ourselves, but I didn’t have to be so disruptive. And if I wanted to stay and make the chapter whole, I needed to get it together and keep it that way.
    â€œLadies, when we look at ourselves and our own weaknesses,” the trainer continued, “when we don’t take the criticisms of others negatively but rather look at how we can build from those criticisms and get better, we can get stronger. For example, if you’re on a train track, and you see a big train coming toward you, do you stay there and get hit, or do you do something different to avoid the collision? Hopefully you get yourself off the train. Many of us think we can take on the thirty-cargo steel machine, and that’s ludicrous. Beta Gamma Pi is bigger than any one person, but collectively it needs all of us to function; one