Unusual Brotherhood Issue
 

My house is at a cross roads,

Brief Context: I'm a member of a house that has gone from under 40 brothers (when I was a pledge) up to almost 90 in just under 4 years. At the time when I was initiated, we had just officially ceased hazing less than a year or two before that (so about 6 years ago now) and were the work hard play harder types who got good grades, had epic parties, had close relationships with each other, but cared little about awards or campus involvement.

Today, we are the largest greek organization on campus, are winning awards and gaining increased positive attention from are nationals, have the highest campus greek men's GPA, are placing in or winning all campus wide competitions, control the student government and have the respect and approval of university administration.

Sounds pretty good, but the issue is...

Lately participation in events across the board has been consistently worsening (>50% attendance at meetings, >25% participation in other events), and worse than that, increased cliqueishness (sp?... or is that even a word?) and out right divisiveness has become apparent.

While the positive organizational accomplishments are undeniably commendable and important, some of the brothers have taken concern with this lack of fellowship (especially those of us who were around for the "good old days") and worry that this seemingly unsustainable growth rate is causing a larger percentage of brothers to become disinterested and, frankly, not give shit about the house, which could lead to a potential implosion.

To put the issue simply (as one of my brothers recently did), an award from nationals looks good on the wall and makes the administration happy, and it is what we are "supposed to do", but that award isn't going to stand next to you at your wedding or show up to the hospital if you are in need.

So...

I would like advice on how to continue being a "successful" organization and still keep our brotherhood strong.

Also, if anyone has suggestions about how to jumpstart brotherhood devoplment for this situation in general, that would be much welcomed.

Sorry for the long intro, thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any advice

-D

I don't think you have to sacrifice the awards to make this happen. You could start by making rush very, very selective and keeping it that way for four years. (I am not implying that you don't pick the best men already, but maybe you need fewer of the best men.)

The bigger you are, the more small factions you're going to have. That is just an established societal fact. It happens in Greek orgs, workplaces, community groups. Also with all the accolades you're receiving, you guys can no longer have the "us against the world" feeling that binds people together.

Start by cutting the dead weight. Terminate the people who consistently blow off meetings and events. If you're having, say, jocks vs. emo boys openly hassling each other, take it to the standards board and put a stop to it. Oh, and make sure that the same people aren't running everything year after year.

Hopefully some of the guys who are on here who are in bigger fraternities can help you out with this. Being large is not inherently bad, but there's a difference btwn being large and being a jacket fraternity.

I agree with everything 33girl said, but especially this. Be sure to engage all of your members in active participation. Chapters of any size seem to have a core group of involved individuals (let's call them the "leaders") and a periphery group of "just members." The problem you have is that you have a significant population of "just members" who won't get anything out of the fraternity experience if they don't contribute to it. Build up your committee system, and don't let brothers double up on committee chairs or serve on more than two (arbitrary number, use what works best for you) committees. By doing this you bridge the gap between "leaders" and "just members" as well as creating more "leaders" and a group of "actively involved members" who will grow into "leaders." You aren't going to eradicate the "just members," but the goal is to minimize them.

In regards to brotherhood events, you can plan as many as you want, but I've always found that the strongest bonds are built while doing work for the improvement of the chapter - so get all of your members actively involved! Good luck!

Not only that, then they graduate and no one else has a clue as to what they're doing. This is one of the things that killed my chapter.

My chapter (well colony, we charter in less than a month) has sort-of the same problem; we've got guys that do everything and truly bust their asses for the fraternity, guys who pull their share and then people who you're lucky to get to show up to chapter. I suppose this is common in every group but here's a few things we've done:

• Remind them of their obligations as a member of your organization. They swore an oath to their brothers and part of upholding that oath is coming to chapter and taking part in chapter activities.
• Sanction non-attendance. "Can't come to chapter? Well then you're obviously too busy to attend the social with XYZ this weekend." People should get the message.
• Address the factionalism in Chapter. Remind your guys that whatever their cliques and tastes, they're brothers of your organization first and foremost. You don't have to agree on everything but you do have to show each other some mutual respect.
• If you're having serious problems with chapter attendance then start fining people. I'm sure most brothers would rather sacrifice two hours of their time than $20.

Once you get people more involved on a basic level I think the problem of the same people running everything will solve itself. Naturally some people are going to see things they want to do differently, and work to try and implement them.

OKC, huh?

I know your chapter and school, but I'll keep that to myself.

When an organization grows like that, a mistake it typically makes is that it fails to address that change structurally and organizationally. The lack of buy-in can be attributed (often) to the feeling a lot of brothers will have that they're not a part of the decision making process and are more-less riding in the back of the bus with your executive officers and a few chairs making all the calls. In a word, disenfranchisement.

Structurally, have y'all changed anything about the way decisions are made, meetings are held and activities are planned since you've grown?

A typical 40-man chapter doesn't really need a well-organized, strictly controlled executive council meeting. It doesn't need a well-utilized committee system. Once you get to around 50, you really need to start to implement larger and more active committees, have more and more diverse activities, start to think strategically about communication, etc.

Start to think about ways to give as many people as possible the opportunity to do important things for your chapter. Utilize larger committees with more narrow foci.

The basic idea is this -- a 90-man chapter operates differently from a 40-man chapter. And if you aren't addressing those operational differences, your organization is going to suffer.

Don't expect what I've suggested to cure you overnight. You've got some major issues to address and you probably will (and will be better off) losing a few members. I wouldn't be concerned about that. You guys always do very well at rush and I don't think that's likely to change in the near term.

Funny I also know the details; but how do you stop it from the front end? (Meaning before it happens) Is it possible to be involved, get award and still have a tight brotherhood?

You've gotten solid advice from these posters. An underlying theme is that this is a complicated issue. No doubt there are elements unique to your chapter and school; you should seek guidance from someone who knows fraternities and who is really familiar with your chapter.

Since I don't know your chapter, here are some basics you might find helpful.

Always keep the demographic in mind. You are dealing with 18-21 year old, boisterous, social young men. What they want isn't necessarily always what the Greek Life types or the National Office wants. The success of your chapter depends on how you feed the needs and wants of your members.

Part of that involves crafting and promoting a specific chapter identity. When you see a fraternity chapter that enjoys the support of generations of loyal alumni, that chapter almost always has a strong identity or personality that remains constant over time.

Your chapter wins things and that's important. "Brotherhood is another word for friendship, and friendship is enhanced when you're on the winning team." But...dorms and non-Greek clubs also compete to win things. There's a whole world of non-Greek intramural teams. But none of those ad hoc organizations have the emotional structure of a fraternity.

The thing that makes a good fraternity different from those groups is the emotional connection to the chapter's identity or symbolic personality. Remember: 18-21 year old males. The point is that while winning a philanthropy is good, it may not be enough to keep membrs involved, especially if they don't buy into an overall chapter theme or image.

Young men want respect. In this demographic, a fraternity that is popular with sororities and competitive in sports is very often more highly regarded by its peers than a fraternity that gets blue ribbons from the Greek Life office.

The other posters have already given you good advice. As a fraternity grows to 90 and more members, it become even more necessary to connect the members to the chapter through a strong, definable group identity.

As far as fining members for missing chapter meetings, that works well for sororities but it's a non-starter for fraternities. In large chapters, as long as things are going well there doesn't seem to be a strong impulse to go to meetings. It's expected that a good executive committee will do the heavy lifting. Individual officers are responsible for motivating the Brothers to supply the manpower for their projects.

Once you grow from 40 to 90, the personality and the theme - the image - of the chapter must change it you are to sustain strength.