Transaction Costs
I do not believe I have ever been in an RSO that merged with another one. I have been in a fraternity however, that has a very rigid structured nature. At the head was the executive board which comprised of the President, Two Vice Presidents (Internal and External), and New Member Leader. They were in charge of major operations within the organization with the President being the leader of those four. The executive board essentially decided the direction the organization was going in and how it ran. Below them are the standard chairs who hold positions such as marketing chair, fundraising, professionalism etc. These chairmen lead their respective areas and have full control of those sectors within the organization. The leaderboard combined gave out tasks and duties to all the remaining members without positions. Then every year, there are elections that take place where all the active members vote for next year’s leadership. I had to attend chapter meetings weekly so that brothers are constantly updated on what’s happening within the fraternity and what needs to happen next. For me to be an active member of my fraternity I have to pay dues every semester or otherwise I will be barred from being part of any events.
This may not be my own experience, but I have seen my father’s own company merge into another. He was a part of a tech consulting firm and it merged into an even bigger firm. This occurred around ten years ago, and a lot of people were laid off including him. The office actually ended up being closed and all the employees that weren’t fired were transferred to the bigger company’s building. Since my father actually owned a percentage of the company (I believe it was around 15%) and the company also had to buy him out in addition to a severance package. So, in a sense this was a transaction cost to the company that they had to incur in order to merge.
Transaction costs have mattered in pretty much all of my relationships. To socialize with friends, other than staying in our apartments all the time, I have to go out with them too. So, I have to pay cover to get into bars, and then pay to drink with one another. Or we might have buy movie tickets if want go to the theater and etc. If I am not willing to pay these transaction costs from time to time, I do not think I would have many friends left but I don’t necessarily mind paying. After all what would be life be like if we just sat around doing nothing just to save a couple bucks here and there? If I want to go on a date with someone, I usually have to go pay to eat at restaurant often times also paying for the date. It is hard to have a relationship with someone, regardless of a friend or girlfriend without spending any money at all. Essentially, I realized that though almost everything we do has transaction costs. In regard to school, when I had to sign my new apartment lease, I also had to submit an application fee. I thought it was rather annoying, but it was mandatory for the leasing agency.
Transaction costs have mattered in pretty much all of my relationships. To socialize with friends, other than staying in our apartments all the time, I have to go out with them too. So, I have to pay cover to get into bars, and then pay to drink with one another. Or we might have buy movie tickets if want go to the theater and etc. If I am not willing to pay these transaction costs from time to time, I do not think I would have many friends left but I don’t necessarily mind paying. After all what would be life be like if we just sat around doing nothing just to save a couple bucks here and there? If I want to go on a date with someone, I usually have to go pay to eat at restaurant often times also paying for the date. It is hard to have a relationship with someone, regardless of a friend or girlfriend without spending any money at all. Essentially, I realized that though almost everything we do has transaction costs. In regard to school, when I had to sign my new apartment lease, I also had to submit an application fee. I thought it was rather annoying, but it was mandatory for the leasing agency.
After critically thinking about it, I realize that I could not avoid transaction costs, whether it be for school, work, or social relationships. I guess it is simply just a fact to be accepted in the world.
In future posts (a) please put a line space between paragraphs and (b) try to work through just one example from beginning to end and get deeper into it.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, since you mentioned a fraternity, I will tell you that several years ago I had a student who was then the president of her sorority. And she managed to write about the sorority for the majority of post she made that semester. Based on her experience I know there are lots of possible stories and issues to consider. Let me ask you just one here.
I can imagine different reasons for joining a fraternity, with the two main ones beings social and academic. Which of those were more important in your case? Might it be that most of the members care more about the social part, but the executive board, which may have some contacts outside the fraternity, would like to see members do more on the academic front. If that is even close to being correct there is an issue of alignment. Trying to achieve alignment would then count as a transaction cost, probably the main one.
In contrast you talked about paying a cover charge for a bar or a purchasing a movie ticket. This price of admission is not a transaction cost, in the way we are using the expression in our class. They are production costs. (Checking IDs at the bar might be considered a transaction cost, but you didn't mention that)
In class tomorrow we will review these ideas because you were not the only one writing a post who doesn't yet have them straight. I hope it makes sense to you tomorrow but, if not, then please ask a clarifying question about it.
The main reasons I joined were academically first, and then socially. I noticed that the fraternity had a high GPA average and had a lot of dedicated students doing tremendous things. I know that a lot of fraternities got a bad reputation from various news stories, like excessive alcohol consumption for one instance.But I found this one to be quite different so I was eager to join. When I joined however, and from what I've noticed over the past few years is a decline in academic performance. I do think trying to achieve alignment was a big issues as lot of times there were clashes between executive board and the social part. Some of the members became less and less involved while the executive board needed everyone to be on board with their plans for the future.
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