I Take Just Pride

By John Rankin
Format:Paperback

This is a fascinating story of a fraternity's chapter that was suspended from campus for numerous violations, primarily because its members had lost sight of their responsibilities to their own group values. The author makes no excuses, and describes the problems the chapter's members had let themselves perpetuate such as weak leaders, poor teaching of new members, and a callous disregard for fraternity and university rules - obedience to which their existence as a group depended. But it is also the story of how a few undergraduates and alumni saw the true value of their organization, how it could build better leadership among its young members to make them worthy stewards of their community and university. This is an excellent account of how a few young men rediscovered their fraternity's values and reformed a new chapter from the ashes of the old one. It doesn't provide all the answers, no book on fraternity leadership can, but it's a great start. I highly recommend this to any fraternity member; but especially to alumni who serve their fraternities as chapter advisors and house corporation presidents and who truly help carry the torch.

By N. McQuarrie
Format:Paperback

To me, this book was interesting because it provided a window--a very deep, detailed, and real-life window that I hadn't seen before--into the minds of young individuals learning to be leaders.

I don't believe it is uncommon to hear figures of public prominence credit their years in a college fraternity or sorority as time well spent learning what it takes to be a leader of peers. Condoleezza Rice, Rick Wagoner and Katie Couric, to name a few, have each cited their exposure as members of the Greek system--exposure to such tasks as building consensus, negotiating with administration, and managing risks--as a key to their eventual rise to success as leaders.

Conroe's "I Take Just Pride" struck me as a first-hand account of this very journey of challenges and triumphs that a group of budding college leaders, sometimes short on experience, may encounter as they strive for the organization they are founding to be successful. Furthermore, I believe the account offers up some critical evidence that, with enough persistence and introspection among these leaders, a shortness of experience does not have to be an impediment to the organization's eventual success.

The narrative also evolves quite elegantly, I thought, into a discussion of what it means overall to be a member of a Greek organization, and how such an experience has the ability, sincerely, to influence one's life. The real-life characters in Conroe's story learned though their experiences about the importance of laughing off the problems that are less significant, about finding creative ways to demonstrate leadership competence, about self-reflection, and about discovering the eternalness yet frailty of true friendship.

This non-fiction novel is an articulate demonstration of how people at any age can seek experiences to become leaders in a dynamic time.