What it means to be MY President (Brother Former National President Darryl Matthews, Alpha Phi Alpha)

 

For those of you who don’t know, I have been a member of my fraternity for the last 30+ years. In that time period, I’ve had the honor and pleasure of interacting actively with only one of our national presidents. And that person was brother Darryl Matthews.

For our 100+ year organization of well over 100,000 members at any given point in time, our president has the distinction of being a leader in the African-American community at the highest level which provides him access to powerful individuals including the president of the United States.

Like the president of the United States, our national president is elected every four years which means that during my lifetime there have been at least eight different presidents whose administrations have governed our organization.

I use this point as a point of discussion because we often hear people who like to make reference to a particular person being their elected official to kind of imply that anyone other than that person is not really the person who they embrace.  In most instances, they embrace the individual because that individual has some type of philosophical or ideological philosophy which is consistent with their own.  They are not necessarily embracing the person because that individual has done something specifically for them.

However, in the case of the brother who was the former national president of my fraternity, Brother Darryl Matthews, I can literally identify specific things he actually did for me.

I’ve often mentioned how he was the first national president that I ever interviewed for my podcast. I often mention how he granted me permission to broadcast it on location for the presidential inauguration as well as a national convention for my fraternity. Well I don’t mention it because my efforts and other activities within the fraternity made it possible for me to be connected to prominent marketing individuals who would assist me in future endeavors.  He also shared with me a litany of different paperwork and documentation when I became an executive in a particular organization to assist me in doing a more effective job of my responsibilities.  He also shared with me his experience as being executive Director of multiple organizations to assist me with my own experiences dealing with non-profits.

It’s important that you have a connection to your organization as well as organization leadership.  And I know how easy it is for leaders to be in a position to provide services as well as provide access to them in their leadership capacity. I’ve always done what I could to support whoever is in charge.

However, I rarely use the phrase ‘my president’ when talking about any specific president of any organization with the exception of one person and it’s amazing how just a few simple instances of access can leave a lasting impression. That’s why when I refer to Brother Darryl Matthews as Brother President, I am speaking to him as my president even though he no longer is the president.