You Go Girl!

This is another one of those blogs where I did not get permission from the person I am writing about. I would guess this person would be very nervous tonight if she knew I was writing another blog about her. But I am writing about her anyway. (She is pictured on the back row to the far right).

Since I spent about 4 years of my life and about 10 years of my dad’s money in Athens, I have a little bit of knowledge about college life and specifically fraternities and sororities. They are social organizations where guys and girls from different parts of the state and country live together and socialize together and build enduring relationships with each other as they work toward getting a college degree.

I did some stupid things when I was in college and an active member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Some of those things I have written about here and if I go into them again by wife may divorce me so I will leave well enough alone. Knowing what I know now, I would definitely do a few things differently. But if I had to do it all over again, I would join the same fraternity. The friendships created and the lessons learned during those years far outweigh the stupid stuff I did.

I have noticed that a large majority of my fraternity brothers turned out to be very successful in life. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was hanging around some fairly outstanding folks. Some were crazy during those years but outstanding nonetheless.

One of my greatest accomplishments was making the starting lineup as a freshman on the fraternity intramural basketball team. When you think about competing with 125 outstanding guys – most of who were great athletes… and make that team – it was no small accomplishment.

But that accomplishment does not compare to the accomplishment of the few guys who were elected officers of that fraternity. (I never was elected an officer by the way). The officers are chosen by their peers to ultimately be in charge of the rest of the group. And it is quite an honor to be chosen.

Running a college fraternity or sorority is much different that being an officer at a high school club where your only duty is to call a meeting to order and have some degree of knowledge about Robert’s Rules of Order. College fraternities and sororities are big business. The President has personal responsibility for what goes on and has personal liability when what goes on is not what is supposed to go on. And there is responsibility for a budget that can be as much as a medium size business. College fraternities and sororities have been the training ground for a number of folks who went on run big companies and do big things in life. If you interviewed a dozen or so folks who served as President of their college fraternity or sorority, I think you will find being elected to that position was one of their great honors in life. And in most cases, that experience was the springboard that launched them into much bigger responsibilities and opportunities.

Which brings me to the subject of this blog.

I found out today that my niece, Courtney Underwood, was elected yesterday as President of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority at the University of Georgia. And I can tell you that is a HUGE honor.

I think her dad is a little nervous about the responsibility that comes with the position but Courtney is no doubt up to the challenge. She will be ultimately responsible for a budget in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and over 200 members. And she will be legally responsible for all the activities of the sorority.

But all that is okay. There is a price you pay for being a leader. Courtney will be the best President ZTA has ever known. And she will graduate and move on to even bigger and better things. She is a born leader and has the looks, personality and smarts to accomplish anything in life.

Congratulations to Courtney! You go girl!

You have made your entire family very proud. And I have a strong feeling this is only the beginning.