Bill, will PM my address. add to the one from Indy to see how many Brothers have aged!:(

Can You post on GC fo all to see the happy band of Brothers?

Bill I hope my hints on Universal helped make your trip more enjoyable.

Dohhhh! I meant EMAIL, not SNAIL MAIL addresses...I've got a lot of catching up to do since I was out of the office for over a week, so I'd like to just forward the digital shot to y'all. I'm going to look into adding it to Flickr, since Walt Mozer's putting the entire library on there...

In ZAX,
BF

Kentucky Zetas, under 40?
 

Wow, looks like a bad GA for the Kentucky Zetas. Louisville, Murray State,
EKU, WKU, and Morehead all disciplined or closed. Looks like Georgetown
and UKy were the only two that escaped unscathed!

What's the deal with "chapters with 40 or fewer members better watch out"
What about campuses where the average fraternity size is less than 40??

LXA @ Georgetown has had more than 40 since the early 90's, but it has
been the largest on campus since then too. The other four average
under 40 though. I think the KA chapter had around 12 actives when
they celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2004. They were the largest
on campus throughout most of the 80's.

I guess we better hope to stay the largest for a long time!
We were under 40 from about 84 to 91....then got GHA Award in 1993.
Hopefully they won't be too hasty with killing the "under 40's" Could be
killing a chapter that would get GHA in 2-3 years :(

The '40' number is an observation by John. The actual number that was quoted many times was 20. As in, beginning next year they will enforce the minimum operating standard of 20 men. It is HQ's belief that a chapter under 20 men is not getting the full Lambda Chi Alpha experience. They will first work with those chapters to get them over 20. After that, they coudl possibly expect to be closed. But I agree with John. 40 is a good safe number.

Also, Texas State was not closed. The initial motion to close was ammended to read Level one probation. That failed. Because that failed it divided the assembly (some wanted probation, others wanted closeure) so the motion failed overall. It was referred back to committee which met AFTER the final banquet because they were running out of time and made several reccomendations to the GHZ. I dont remember all of them, but they included paying for an ELC visit, a probation, and other stipulations. But they are still open.

It was a great conference. Had a blast.

I know I owe you a call earp.

While the 40 or out can be a good arguement, one must remember that a lot must depend on the size of Chapters and the College. Yes and 20 is more realistic as you member for GA 2 years ago.

This to me is wrong to expect any one Chapter to have a minimal number as there is a lot more to consider and is being by the people who are doing it and their/our decissions.

Do We any pictures from GA of GC Brothers yet.:(

Yes lifesaver You do owe Me a call!:) :D

Ah ok, 20 sounds like a reasonable number. I was a member of a zeta
of 13 actives for 3 weeks (until rush), and it was ALOT of work! We were
surprised at the beginning of the year to find out so many brothers had
transferred or dropped out of school all together. All 13 were juniors and
seniors, since at the time frosh weren't allowed to rush, and soph.s
accepted bids about 3 weeks into the fall semester.

MONEY seemed to make a difference for us though. Our chapter had a
large unpaid debt to HQ (not to mention another to the college) that
had been hanging around for about 5 years. My soph. year, when I joined,
we worked hard and paid it off....so HQ was very happy with us!!

It was the next year we reached our "darkest day." To the 13 we added
only 3 in (the last ever) fall soph. rush. In the spring we had the first spring
rush for 2nd-semester frosh and above (policy change that year). On
bid day we got 0. So it looked like we'd come back to begin my senior
year with 7-8 actives (assuming NO transfers/dropouts), with no rush
until beginning of the spring semester.

The anti-greek editor of the college newspaper (he wanted to be a LXA, but
we never gave him a bid...even a small chapter has to have a lower limit!)
contacted HQ and wanted to know if they were going to close our chapter.

The response was that the chapter was on the "improving greatly" list
(because of the payoff of debt, I'm sure)...so the answer was NO.
Fortunately we got 10 AM's a few days later, and things went up from
there....to GHA award 5 years later with over 60 actives.

So I guess each situation has to be evaluated individually....even a chapter
of 13 has the potential to do great things, given a little time.

Why discipline an "Under 20" chapter?
 

A Chapter or Colony in "GOOD STANDING" with the General Fraternity has successfully achieved the following Operating Standard (along with others):

Constitution and Statutory Code. Article IV, Section 3-a.

"Membership, Active and associate must be equal in number to the campus average for fraternities, or 40, whichever is smaller, but in no event fewer than 20."

So, at General Assembly, chapters and colonies with a membership of below 20 men are not in "Good Standing." This means they are subject to discipline. That's the answer for all of the "Accept the answer if it's on paper" folks out there.

Now, for my internal reasoning.

I agree with LifeSaver's quote, "It is HQ's belief that a chapter under 20 men is not getting the full Lambda Chi Alpha experience." If your membership is 20, then over half the men are officers, and carrying a workload greater than that of a smooth operating chapter. This means that either the membership will probably be working too hard or too little to keep Lambda Chi afloat on their campus. Don't you think that negatively affects grades/social life/recruitment? As a former ELC that conducted approximately 120 chapter/colony visits over the past 2 years, about 35 of those visits were with chapters with a membership at or under 20 men. HQ has been making a big push to improve the quality of those chapters by providing extra support (individual one-on-one meetings with recruitment coordinators at conferences, extra ELC visits, assistance with monetary/reference campaigns from alumni, campus support for the Greek community, improved communication to encourage year-round recruitment, etc.). Chapters that still have trouble/lack of desire to improve their manpower sometimes need the extra push of "required growth." This can come in the form of Chartering Standards for a colony or probationary terms for a chapter. When these standards/terms aren't met by the chapter/colony it can show an unwillingness to improve in the necessary manner, or perhaps a compromised environment for a Lambda Chi chapter. After appropriate pro-active support has been given to the group by the General Fraternity, it might just be time to force a chapter to improve its condition or be declared inactive.

I've heard a lot of members defend their chapter's low numbers because of many different reasons. The most common are (1) lack of motivation in the membership to recruit, (2) bad campus environment, or (3) a lot of members dropping out.

1) If the membership is lacking motivation to recruit, then they won't recruit with the necessary enthusiasm it takes to motivate a non-member into Associate Membership. Men don't show up at events, the Delta does all the work, and not enough planning goes into the recruitment process. This usually means the chapter hasn't even thought of a year-round recruitment model, and can result in few or no Associates. Through GF discipline, a chapter can be motivated into improving their recruitment model by attending mandatory Recruitment workshops, submitting their yearly recruitment calendar to HQ, sending in Event Planning Forms for all recruitment events, or even submitting monthly reports of their efforts. It could be hard to meet these terms, and a chapter might become upset with mandates, but in the end, the men now understand how to create event calendars, have recruitment skills, Associate more new members, and are motivated to recruit in the future.

2) If a member says, "Our chapter has a hard time getting guys to join, because our campus just isn't good for recruiting," then it's very easy to begin to wonder, then why is Lambda Chi on that campus? Brothers might say, "The college administration hates Greeks," "We have a bad reputation on campus," "IFC doesn't do a thing to help out with rush," or "We've always sucked at recruitment." If that is the case, shouldn't we re-think the effectiveness of having a chapter on that campus? It might be better to use the General Fraternity's efforts at campus environments with positive relationships with Greeks. If a chapter member considers it impossible to stay afloat due to campus environment, he might be right. If there's truly nothing Lambda Chi can do about it, then maybe it's time to close the Zeta and save the men the trouble of dealing with that campus. If, however, a member is solely using environment as an excuse, then ELC evaluations, IFC aid, Greek Advisor meetings, and Recruitment conferences might be able to point the chapter in the right direction. It's better to evaluate the chapter's true purpose on that campus (see the Mission of the Fraternity), rather than solely trying to be "the best fraternity at XYZ University."

3) If membership numbers are low due to many members joining and then becoming inactive before they reach alumni status (i.e. expulsions, transfers, resignations, etc.) then the chapter members need to consider why they are in the fraternity. Most likely the chapter morale is low (which makes it harder to attract someone to the chapter), and the officer core is oftentimes switched around. This makes it difficult to plan an effective recruitment model. So, the chapter can re-think it's effectiveness as a Zeta. If it seems that the membership just isn't having fun, and things aren't organized enough to be enjoyable, then Chapter Management needs to be improved. Setting up brotherhood events can do wonders to improve internal chapter relations. House-cleanups, retreats, all-chapter philanthropies, and Pre-Initiation week all have the opportunity for members to remember that feeling they got on Bid-Day when they received Lambda Chi Alpha. Sometimes, the chapter just needs a little kick in the butt to remember how to act as a brotherly Zeta. After ELC's share ideas, and members discuss proposed events, and "maybe-event-ideas" are tossed around, and nothing is ever done...it makes members bored. Instead, have a happy chapter, and members are less likely to resign or cause disciplinary problems warranting expulsion. The General Fraternity knows this, and sometimes will require a chapter to conduct brotherhood events to improve morale or maybe a membership review to ensure all members are "on-board" with the direction the chapter needs to head. Another way a chapter can be disciplined into improvement.

The end justifies the means? In many cases, YES! If a chapter goes through years and years of struggling numbers, it sucks for each individual (whether they admit it or not), the Greek Community, the General Fraternity, and the would-have-been perspective member. But, then, if a chapter receives discipline, is required to improve, and then begins to turn itself around...it makes for a chapter on the rise. Then the brothers (both on campus and up in Indianapolis) can be happy while enjoying better chapter operations, and getting the true Lambda Chi Alpha experience at XYZ University.

I’d rather see a chapter get disciplinary action for a year (which could lead to improvement), than see a chapter continue to struggle because of no fraternity intervention (which could lead to a dormant Zeta). Unfortunately, sometimes the General Fraternity needs to close a chapter when it doesn’t/can’t/won’t meet Operating Standards. Those are my thoughts on why it is sometimes necessary to discipline a chapter, specifically with low membership. What do you think?

Sounds good, but I think you left out one major factor....ALUMNI INVOLVEMENT.

Somehow, when our chapter went thru its hard times, we never received
any of the above from HQ. Chapter consultants dropped by once a year,
did their thing, and left. I think perhaps the chapter was put on
Financial Probation just before I joined...I remember at my first chapter
meeting the Alpha saying "we gotta pay this debt off, or else!!!" He
was probably motivated by sanctions from HQ, and/or from the college
admin. But that wasn't our "darkest hour" anyway, and by the time that
occurred, our debt was cleared up.

What I _DO_ remember is all the help we got from Alumni during those days.
Faculty initiates, honoraries and former actives all pitched in to help, and
it was a GREAT encouragement to the actives. Probably the most
important factor was a new High Pi, who was a faculty member AND
had been an active at our chapter 25 years prior. He was there for
almost everything we did. Five years later we won GHA award, and soon
after that, he was recognized with the Order of Merit. It's safe to say his
involvement was a major factor in the chapter's success.

HQ can only do "so much" from a distance. Even sending an ELC for a
couple of weeks has its limit. Much more helpful are alumni who are there
EVERY WEEK, if not several times each week, for semesters or years.

Sanctions from HQ can definitely be a motivator, and ELC visits can be
helpful with giving ideas and some training. But the success will come
with DAILY efforts.

Of course my experience is with a chapter that only struggled with numbers
for 3-4 years, and at "crisis level" numbers (less than 20) for
about six months. Had we gone with under 20 for a few years, I don't know
how long we would have lasted.....though I'm sure it would have been
HQ that would have decided to close the chapter.

Our KA chapter, that celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004, has been
operating with fewer than 20 members for for at least 5 years, and possibly
as many as 10 years. Of course that's KA and not LXA.

On the other hand, alumni involvement can be a "two-edged sword."
I was also involved with the establishment of new colony. It was the
first new fraternity on that campus in 50 years, on a campus with
major hazing problems. Most of the "founding fathers" of the colony
joined LXA, the only group on campus without a house, because it
was the non-hazing fraternity.

A fairly large group of alumni (from other chapters) were "put in charge"
by HQ. Unfortunately, most of these alumni spent their meeting time
discussing "what the first group of AM's would have to do"....in other
words, what kind of hazing to implement at the new chapter. Nothing
extreme was suggested, but "baby hazing" soon leads to real hazing,
especially on such a campus. The actives would not stand up to the
alumni, who would remind them that "we've been LX's for 10/20 years,
you've only been one for 5 months, and never went through an
AM experience....we know best." (The AM period for the "founding fathers"
lasted anywhere from 1 week to 2 hours, some accepting bids midafternoon
and being fully-initiated that night. Needless to say, many on the alum
board had little respect for their "Lambda Chi experience")

I then saw first-hand how "hazing breeds hazing." The first group of AM's, fortunately a small group, were shepherded in under the alum policies. After
initiation, they couldn't wait until next semester for the new AM's, and had
new ideas of their own for more hazing. The "founding fathers" were worried
about the seed that had been planted and alarmed at the "NIB's" attitudes.

Fortunately, with a little help from a couple of alums, the colony finally
"stood up" against the HQ-appointed alums. By the time the second AM
group was rushed, the hazing-tendency had been mostly squashed
(still had those 5 NIBs around), and the alum meetings fell from 20-25 in
attendance to about 5. In the end, disaster was averted.

You have pointed up many great and true points.

I know when Josh and Jason came down to My School, they recruited 21 members and the core of Alums were just blown away by the job that they did.:)

But for reasons that none of us controlled, we initiated only 12 who were all excelent new young men and now Brothers.

Price/money became a problem for some and some wanted to deffer until a later date whcih means, they probably are gone forever.

Now, We ahve a great core of Young New Brothers and still the core of Alums who are still working with them.

Many things have been put into place that We never had before. It should help us and If I can pass anything on to anyone let Me know.

My previous response was a quick reaction/response to brother "grits"
posting. While I have great respect for his experience and background,
after further reflection, I believe I have to say that I totally
disagree with the whole concept that a "small chapter is a bad chapter,"
and that one can not have a "full" fraternal experience with only
a few brothers.

Quite the contraray, I think that in most cases, one would have
a BETTER fraternal experience in a chapter of 20 than in a chapter
of 100. Personally, given a choice of joining a chapter of 20 or
one of 100, I would choose the smaller, HANDS DOWN!

This is NOT a novel idea. If one looks at the policies of fraternities
in the 1800's, 20 (or close to that) was an UPPER limit on chapter
size. Many of the early fraternities would open two or even three
chapters on one campus. The first three chapters of Sigma Kappa were
on one campus. Why? If the size of the chapter grew too
large for a "close brotherly bond," usually around 20, another chapter
was needed.

How can one share a "close brotherly bond" with 100, or even 50, other
guys? With the busy schedules of today's undergraduates, this is
impossible. At best, one could say, "Yeah, I know a little about
that guy...he's one of my 75 fraternity 'brothers'."

I believe what this boils down to is the ever-evolving definition
of "What is a fraternity? (chapter)" I think today many speak of
"brotherhood" as some distant ideal, something every fraternity blabbers
about during rush, but not practiced as the PRIMARY PURPOSE
of a fraternity, as it was in the distant past. It seems today many fraternities,
especially Lambda Chi, want to define themselves in terms of the
programs they offer, and their "value added" benefits to the
undergraduate experience. BROTHERHOOD is being relegated to the
back seat. The belief that with high numbers, great programs, intramural
awards, and philanthropic events that make the newspapers, brotherhood will
naturally fall in there somewhere. I also believe that the movement in
this direction is motivated primarily by MONEY...a chapter is a "funds
generating entity." If they don't generate, close 'em down.

This sounds a bit harsh, and maybe impractical from a financial standpoint,
but it is the conclusion to which I've come afer some reflection and 20
years experience working with "struggling" and "successful" chapters.

Here are a few anecdotes.

While working with the colony at Vanderbilt 15 years ago, we were in
a seemingly precarious situation to begin with. Colony size ranged between
30 and 35 on a campus where the largest third of the chapters had
over 100 members. We were the only group on campus without a house,
having instead a "garage"...a small building with one large cinder-block
room, right next door to SAE. The colony suffered from the bad
reputation of the local that HQ absorbed, called Tri-Chi, with LX
often called "Lambda Tri-Chi Alpha" as an insult (XXX consisted of
about 15 "nerds" when accepted by LXA. Had it not been accepted by
LXA, it would have died in less than a year. Once accepted, the
remaining XXX's were "hidden" while LX's from HQ and nearby chapters
rushed a "new chapter")

At the time SAE was the largest and most popular frat on campus. They
had over 120 members, the nicest and oldest house on campus (the
chapter owned the magestic stone house for over 100 years), they
had the biggest parties and the hottest girls. They dominated intramurals,
and had a very good overall GPA. For most rushees, an
SAE bid was the most coveted. By Lambda Chi's current thinking, this
would probably be judged an "excellent" chapter had it been a LXA
zeta.

I befriended a fifth-year senior who was member of SAE. Sometimes he
kidded me with the "Lambda Tri-Chi" bit, though he knew I was actually
a transfer from another school and never knew the XXX's.
Surprisingly, or maybe not, he was very cynical about his chapter
after 4 1/2 years as an SAE. He said while they had over 120 members,
only about 20 of them really cared about the fraternity. The rest
were there for the parties and so they could wear the letters on campus.
He said he actually "envied" us, watching from the heights of their castle,
for our close-knit bunch of about 30 at the time. It is very safe to
say that the fraternal experience of the small group far exceeded that
of the "shining star" next door.

About 2 years later, SAE spent over $100,000 on renovating their house,
followed by $20,000 in damage at the first party in the renovated house.
A year later, their charter was revoked. The pot smoking on their back
basketball court, about 30 feet from the front of the LXA garage, probably
had alot to do with that, not to mention their heavy hazing.

Another, more recent, anecdote follows. I've described in previous posts
the "hard years" for our chapter when I was an active 20 years ago.
Since then, Kappa-Omega Zeta grew to over 80 active members in the
late 90's and has won the GHA award every year possible since 1993,
including 2005. Recently I had a conversation with one of the
elder actives, a brother who had just finished basic training and has
served in Iraq. He asked me about the "hard years," why they happened,
etc. After my story-telling, he commented, "Wow, you guys must have
been tight....wish it were still that way today." What? How could
someone from a "highly successful" LXA chapter think that a chapter
of 13-25 members on the "edge of survival" would have a better fraternal
experience? Maybe he was wrong, but that was his comment.

A final set of anecdotes, from LXA ELCs who visited Kappa-Omega. When
we had only 13-25 members, our parties weren't the greatest, we sucked
at intramurals, and our GPA left much to be desired. But there was
one area where this "faltering chapter" excelled....the RITUAL. It
was the one activity where, though most would say I am biased, I would
claim we had one of the best in the nation. We had a tradition of
training a High Phi for up to a year before he was elected. The position
was almost a monarchial dynasty, rather than an elected position, as
the current Phi would select the next at least a semester before elections.
Unfortunately that tradition doesn't exist today, though they still
do a decent job (I've seen ritual at over a dozen other chapters, to
which I can compare).

However I also have some external support for my boast. After ELC visits,
including one where I was Phi, the ELCs would send "green Phi's" from
nearby chapters to us for training. Why to the dinky 20-member chapter,
instead of the mighty 80-member chapter just 12 miles away (UKy)?
The ELCs must have seen something good there, though at the time
we thought it nothing special...we saw it as our duty to do the best
job possible with ritual.

Again while I was an active in a dinky chapter, another ELC was so
impressed with our brotherhood that he came back to visit at least
twice, on his own time (we're only a 3 hour drive from Indy). He
went to our formal, and went rock climbing with us at least once.

Finally, a letter from about 5 years ago from an ELC. He stated that
he had been an ELC for 2 years, had visited many chapters, and
Kappa-Omega would be his last. He thought he had seen it all, and
expected nothing new. However he was so impressed with what he found
there, he wrote a letter expressing his feelings about our brotherhood.
Though his visit was well after our "great rebound," I know the same
spirit he found in the early 2000's existed during the "dinky chapter
years."

I have to apologize for boasting on my chapter so much, but the point
is that a small chapter CAN have a very meaningful fraternal experience.
There may be no leadership training programs, future international
business connections, or even intra-mural championships or kick-a**
parties.

But for some of us, fraternity is more than racking up good stats and
receiving the praise and recognition of others. It is about a close
brotherly bond between those who are growing and learning together
during the struggles of their college years, and beyond. That's not
to say I think such activities are bad or worthless...just the
opposite, they are great. But when it comes to "judging" a chapter,
I believe BROTHERHOOD should be the most important factor.

So as a democratic organization, Lambda Chi has to decide what it
wants to be. Made up of chapters with the best programs, large
groups of guys (who may not know each other well, but with get great stats),
and recognized excellence, or an organization which places brotherhood
above all, hopefully including all the above as fringe benefits.

Brotherhood is hard to measure....something difficult to make a
flowchart of using Microsoft Excel. But, as is often said with the
more intangible and important things in life...
YOU KNOW IT WHEN YOU SEE IT.

I truly hope that as HQ evaluates the "struggling chapters", they
don't close one with a strong brotherhood just because they've averaged
only 20 members for the past few years. I'd rather they closed the
chapter with 120 actives, a top house, the best parties, but with
little or no brotherhood, like the Vandy SAE chapter described
earlier. The cynic in me fears that money will be the deciding
factor, however, and brotherhood the looser.

Ok, I've done a lot of complaining, some might say. One who criticizes
should offer an alternative solution. Since the early 90's, LXA leaders
have been expressing the idea that "the fraternity must change; we
must offer something new compared to what we have been in the past
three decades." Most, including me, would agree. If fraternities remain
"party houses," they are doomed to extinction. As a college professor,
I have seen the evolving student body of today's campuses. No more
do 18-21 year-old white Christians looking-for-a-good-time dominate
the male university-student demographic.

Our direction in the past 15 years seems to have been to become a
"value added" attribute to the undergraduate experience. Here too
I can mostly agree. Leadership training, business-like seminars, etc.
can be very helpful. But this vision has been corrupted by financial
problems. Maintaining training seminars, etc., while beneficial, is
expensive. At some point we'll have to decide what is more important...
the "value added" approach with its expense, or perhaps something
else?

Is there another direction, another path of evolution, that fraternities
can follow? I think so. I'd call it "Back to the Basics: BROTHERHOOD
Over All." Besides the changing racial, age, and religious demographics
of today's college student, there is another growing aspect where I
believe fraternities can fill a need. The need for a close family
relationship.

Many undergraduates come to our universities today from fragile or
broken families. Some may have never experienced a close familial bond.
This is where the fraternity can fill a great need, a need that no
other type of organization can, with the possible exception of religious
groups. Honoraries, professional societies, and community service
organizations can and do offer many of the same "value added" activities
that fraternities are trying to offer. Many of these have leadersip
seminars, ELC visits, etc. With them we must compete, if we stay on
our current course.

But BROTHERHOOD, a close familial bond, is the one thing that a social
fraternity can offer, if it so chooses, that these others simply can
not. Such a change would be revolutionary in many aspects, instead
of evolutionary as our current efforts are. Today we boast of
our "value added" activities while many of our chapters still languish
in the greek culture of the 1980's: we have parties AND leadership
training AND parties AND community service....and oh, did I mention
PARTIES?

There's certainly nothing wrong with parties (at least most of them);
I've attended a few myself! But if we could promote ourselves as
FAMILIES, that just so happen to party, just so happen to have
leadership training and other "value added" attributes, the college
fraternity could rebound while at the same time returning to its
roots and filling an increasingly-dire need on college campuses.


If anyone actually read all of this, well...thanks....but you must
have been really bored! OK, off the soapbox.

I am about to go to bed and havent even read the entire thread. I can barely keep my eyes open. I am not going to get into WHY chapters get small. That's an argument for a time when I have had some coffee and am more awake. Please note that I am only speaking of chapters SMALLER than 20 men. If you are larger than 20 men, then you are upholding our standards, even if it is 21, 22 or 23 guys.

If you are handeling your business as a 22 man chapter, then you should be left be. But unfortunately, Kevin's experience seems to be the exception to the rule. Eight GA's/Leadership Seminars have shown me that RARELY are there chapters under 20 that can fill a house/a high zeta/pay their bills/etc. Obviously there are going to be chapters at 20 that handle their business, and chapters of 140 that dont. But since policy cant be set in shades of gray, we have to set thresholds. I agree that 20 is a good threshold. It has been studied, evaulated and examined by men much smarter than any of us and this is what the data reveals. This is a complex issue that goes way beyond awards and ritual exemplifcations.

I can say definatively, from my perspective that it SUCKS being in a chapter of less than 20 men. I experienced it twice. When I joined at Texas A&M kingsville, we were 18 men. I loved being a Lambda Chi, and what we stood for, but I always felt like I was missing out on something. Like there was a bunch of people on campus I could have been brothers with and met that I wasnt/didn't.

The second time was after I transfered to UT-San Antonio. The first year I was there we were 56 men on average. We had a house cleaning by the alums after a substance abuse problem was revealed and we dropped to 20 men. Of those 20, 8 more walked because it 'wasn't what they signed up for,' so that left us with 12. Again, it absolutely sucked. We barely had enough warm bodies to fill the High Zeta and I agree that I did NOT get a true Lambda Chi Alpha experience in that environment. Eventually, we got back up to the mid 40's, but I always wanted more when we were small. At the time, the largest fraternities on the campus were at 70 or so.

I understand that some people prefer a more 'intimate' setting of under 20. They state that they can know each other better then. I call BS on that. You can know whoever you chose to know. Its unrealistic to believe you have to be best buds with EVERYONE in your chapter. In the real world, you will be closer to some guys moreso than others. If the best brotherhood was had at only 20 men, there wouldn't be a chapter above that. If you want the super small chapter experience then why did you join LXA? There are literally DOZENS of groups on the small end of the NIC scale that SPECIALIZE in providing a brotherhood to guys who want to be in chapters between 10-20 guys. Yeah, love our ideals, but be prepared to live by our rules and policies if you join (which state that your zeta will be 20+ men). WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TO EXPECT OTHERS TO SUBSIDIZE YOUR MEMBERSHIP EXPERIENCE? If you stay under 20, then you are a financial drain on the org, and some other chapter somewhere has to generate extra revenue to compensate for your laziness and 'we wanna be small so we can be tight' BS attitude. I am DONE with the freeloaders in our org.

Yeah, I am sorry you didn't know all this before you joined, but you know now. There's no free rides here. The MOS (minimum operating standard) of 20+ men has been around since before I was initiated, some 14 years ago. We're just now beginning to enforcing it, and people gotta get all up in arms about it.

WTF is wrong with us when we have to BEG and convince people to live up to their oaths and obligations and standards. Again, my point is that these were the ground rules when you joined. Ignorance of the rules is no defence against a violation of them.

I cite Lambda Chi Zeta as the example of how it can be fixed if people get off their asses and work in conjunction with HQ. LXA isnt even focusing on expansion in the near future, to provide resources to our existing chapters that are struggeling. This is a major departure from the ego-centric years where we were in love with ourselves that went from about 1955 to about 2004. There was time when chapters were regularly alowed to die on the vine, because they 'couldn't help themselves'. LXZ was one of the first test chapters where HQ went in and recruited for a struggeling zeta. Earp had TWO actives and a new house on the way. Staff rolled in and worked with the alums. They ended this spring with 22 guys. If it can be done at a small state school on the plains of Kansas, it can be done ANYWHERE. They went from 2 to 22. Why cant some other school somewhere go from 14 to 20 with the same help? LAZINESS and SELFISHNESS. Again, the days of the FREE RIDE are over. Pull your weight or get the hell out of the org. I am TIRED of begging people to uphold their obligations. I could care less if it left us with 150 chapters. We're better off without them.

I'll close with my challenge for the 2006-2007 year to the undergrads at UIW...

I don't care if you are proud of Lambda Chi Alpha. I only care if Lambda Chi Alpha is proud of you.

The point of my comments above were to state that I think "A very small
(<20) chapter CAN have a meaningful fraternal experience." Obviously it
is not "ideal"...I don't know any chapter that would WANT to stay less
than 20...we certainly did not.

And perhaps I didn't make it clear...we were "less than 20" for only
one fall semester. We doubled in size at the beginning of the spring semester
and grew from there. So my experience would NOT be similar to those who
struggled with less than 20 for several years. While we were less than
20, we struggled and worried, yes. But a good fraternal experience doesn't
have to be a cakewalk....that which is worthwhile is difficult.

ATTITUDE and WORK ETHIC have more to do with the "success" of a very
small chapter than anything else. On a campus like TxA&M I'm sure 18
felt "too small" on a campus with much larger chapters. However on
a campus with an average size of less than 30, 18 wouldn't seem like
a "crisis." If you so desired a "big fraternity" experience, why did
you join LXA at TxA&M? You KNEW they were less than 20! Perhaps you
would have been happier as a Phi Delt?

And I do not expect ANYONE to "subsidize my fraternal experience."
Quite the contrary, as an AM and NIB, I was forced to subsidize the
fraternal experience of OTHERS! In the years before I joined, brothers
simply did not pay dues. At my very first business meeting, we were
told "we have to pay off this debt, or we're toast!" Why should I have
to pay for the cheapskates of five years previous who didn't pay up?
Because HQ said so. So we did. Sometimes we have to make up for the
shortcomings of others, even if it isn't "fair," for the betterment
of the fraternity. (At Homecoming recently, I overhead a brother from
that era remark, "We didn't pay dues, but we had fun!" I wanted to
strangle him and say, "Yeah, I know, I paid your dues!", but I
refrained.)

The financial solution for small chapters is simple: charge more
in dues (as seems to have been enacted this GA) or lower services
from HQ. Neither is pleasant nor ideal. But financial realities are
financial realities. HQ can only offer so much support with its limited
resources.

On the other hand, a good-sized, vibrant chapter doesn't need weeks of
professional help from HQ. Who does need all this attention? The struggling
chapters of course. It only make sense that more is spent on struggling
chapters than vibrant ones. And if it helps, think of it as an
insurance policy: your vibrant chapter may be subsidizing that
struggling chapter right now....but in ten years that other chapter
will be vibrant and subsidizing YOUR struggling chapter. Of course
when I say "struggling", I refer to those that are having problems
but are WORKING to solve those problems....the lazy/depressed/unmotivated
chapters I would simply call "dieing."

And I'm afraid your history is a bit incorrect. LX Zeta was not the
first time HQ sent in a team of professionals to help out a new or
struggling chapter. They've been doing that for years. Maybe they did
something "different" at LX, but you didn't make that clear. A team was
sent to establish the colony at Vandy in 1991, a success. A team was sent
to Sigma-Delta Zeta at North Alabama in 1984, unfortunately with no
success. The team left campus with their charter and never returned.
In both cases, the brothers "got off their asses and worked with HQ"

And I'm sure teams have been sent before the 80's. But
sometimes all the kings horses and all the king's men CAN'T put
humpty-dumpty zeta back together again. If this "new approach" is
as successful as you say it is ("if it can work in Kansas, it can
work anywhere"), we should have over 500 vibrant chapters in just a
couple of years. And of course, they will have well over 20 members!

I just hope that in applying the "less than 20" standard, HQ is not
too HASTY to close a chapter that might be small, but is made up of
brothers who are hard workers, are having a good fraternal experience,
and have HOPE for the future. Obviously in those cases where the group
is "depressed", lazy, and without Hope, closed they must be.

In the meantime, I'd hope they would also look at closing chapters with 100
or more members (or 15 members for that matter) that are nothing more than
mere drinking clubs. (Most of these will be down to less than 20 members
soon anyway...just like SAE at Vandy)

Congratulations, these have to be two of the top posts I have ever read, thank you both.

Remember though, the size of the school also determines chapter sizes.

As lifesaver said and I have said time and time again, it is usually the 10 % who do and the 90 % who just come for the ride. I also agree with some of the internal problems that we as a Fraternity have had in the past and with a new vigorus leadership, things seem to be turning around.
As lifesaver pointed out LX Z was in dire membership straits and we knew it. But by working with IHQ, building a new house, and having a strong Alum core it has been turned around with a lot of help from two very special ELCs and IHQ to beleive in us.

I am not or never was a strong advocate of Huge Chapters, but a lot depends on the school and Greeks there.

Kevin, you have some very strong points and I could not agree with You more. I am sure Andy wqould agree somewhat as He is High Pi at UIW which is not a large school but doing very well.

One especially always comes to mind when there is small membership and that is NC A & T. Andy, Mike Raymond and I were on the committee to decide whether they stayed as a colony or not. We fought for them and they have succeded in the face of outstanding odds. That will never be forgotten by Me and I am sure the other Brothers who were there.

There are many advirisitys that face us and any young man who comes to college. While We know the benefits, it is sometimes hard to try to explain to the new possibles in our economic times. We as Brothers of LXA are living proff of that.

Andy and I have a lot in common besides age, Love of LXA, Love of the Brotherhood and what we can do and get done.

The dogma of LXA is important to our structure, but, it has to be some what flexible to work with in the rules of who is staying and who is not according to membership and some other things that is why we have rules attached to set out guide lines.


Kevin, I really enjoyed your stories of Vandy as have been there along time ago and it is not a big school, but like Sawanee, it is very highly respected in the Academic world!

Gee Tom....who told you Vandy is highly respected for its academics??

Did you see one of the T-shirts in the book store:

Harvard, the
VANDERBILT
of the North!

some say Vandy is the "Harvard of the South"...someone at the bookstore
made up a little something in reply! ;)

OK, trivial pursuit question: If Vandy is the "Harvard of the South", which
school is the "Yale of the South"??