Multi-Cultural Fraternity
 

Hi
Im part of a local multicultural fraternity that has been around for 20 years.
We only have one chapter and this year I am the new president so I want to turn everything around. Im trying my hardest for us to branch out and go national so I have a few questions to ask.

1. How does a fraternity become INCORPORATED, what is the process.
2.Whats the best way to approach a school of the possibility of starting a colony.
3. How would we be able to start an alumni chapter.
4. Should we try joining maybe the National Multi-cultural Greek Council (NMGC)
5.Are there any other keys I should look into for us to be national?

1) Talk to a lawyer or CPA in your state;
2) Depends on the school. If they have a Greek Life office or student activity office, start there.
3) Get an alum who is interested and have him run with it.
4) Do they accept organizations with only one chapter?
5) Talk to the NMGC and they may be able to steer you in the right direction.

Depending on the state, this would be out of the realm of what CPAs can do.

First, I'd check the website of your state's Secretary of State, which is typically the government office that deals with incorporation. There is probably something there about the process.

Then once you've seen what's involved, talk to a lawyer.

First of all, you keep saying "I", "I," "I."

Does the rest of your fraternity even *want* to expand or is this something *you* want to do? There is probably a reason that your organization has gone twenty years without establishing additional chapters.

The very first thing I would do is secure the support of your active chapter AND your alumni for such an endeavor. Then before you even begin to worry about lawyers, etc., you need to have a group of men who desire to establish a chapter. There has to be interest, first...

Depending on the state, I guess. Technically, practicing transactional law ought to be outside the realm of what CPAs do, but I know they help folks form LLCs and corps all the time. FWIW, if I was setting up an LLC and had some complex demands for the tax allocations section in the operating agreement, an CPA would be my first choice.

As far as setting up corps, it's pretty easy, but if you've been around a few years, you probably have alums who are lawyers. Get one of them to incorporate you, get your 501(c)(10) status approved, etc.

Corps are easy to set up. Getting not-for-profits set up isn't tough, but it is a lot of paperwork.

"I" want to apologize our fraternity feels the same but nobody has ever stepped up to take action rather than talk about it..the group of actives we have now feel we can make it work

Okay, good, but is there a group of men at another campus who are interested enough in your fraternity to establish a chapter? If so, is that campus open to having additional multicultural greeks? Right now, a lot of campuses have put a freeze on MC and Latino greek expansion.

The other thing you need to do is make sure you have developed your process for expansion. How are these men going to be brought in to the organization? Expansion takes a lot of work, so be sure you have a strong committee of actives and alumni who are willing to see it through.

thanks for the info