Cartoons and Greek Life

by Matt Mattson

So, I was watching a cartoon that is targeted toward toddlers today. Yes, I admit that.  In my defense, my 1 year old daughter was watching in my lap, but I found myself fascinated by the topic and thought it applied really well to Greek Life.

Apparently the badger and the bear were starting  a secret club on the playground.  Scandal was bound to ensue.  And sure enough it did.  The turtle (named Franklin) and the snail (named Snail) didn’t get in at first.  Then, the badger (apparently the recruitment chair of the club) said this to the turtle:

“I have something special to ask you, Franklin.  Will you join our secret club?”

I was amazed!  You mean that when they invite someone into a secret organization (with secret handshakes and passwords, and yes… t-shirts), they don’t do it by tossing a “bid card” at them during a party like a frisbee?  You mean they don’t invite someone to be a part of a life changing organization by making them walk across a stage in front of everyone and shout out “I JOIN Alpha Beta Gamma!  YEAH BITCHES!”  You mean they treat an invitation to something that is important to them and life changing for the new member as something… SPECIAL?  Yep.  Cartoons have it right.  It is something special.  Good job, Badger, Bear, Franklin the Turtle and Snail.  Have a meaningful, powerful, transformative conversation when you share an inviation to join your organization for life.  Man to man.  Woman to woman.  Take it seriously… it is very serious, and special.

Then I heard this…

SNAIL: “Secret clubs are dumb.”  

FRANKLIN: “Secret clubs aren’t dumb, Snail.  Just secret clubs with stupid rules are dumb.”

For real?  These cartoons agree with me?  Are these cartoons in my head?  This is awesome!

When it comes to recruitment, Franklin’s right.  Stupid rules do make secret clubs kind of dumb.  When it comes to recruitment, this turtle is on to something.  Someone much smarter than me once suggested  (I think Dave Westol is the inspiration for this) that maybe the only recruitment rules your council needs are something like, “Play nice. Represent the best fraternity/sorority values.  Don’t be dumb.”  Then when they do something that would come even close to an “infraction,” we could just go back to our simple rules.

If you’re going to comment on this post and tell me I need to start watching grown-up shows and maybe I’d have better things to write about.  I already know that.  Thank you.