Problem
 

Disregard

Ask your national for help. They shouldn't blow in, pick the colonizers and not do anything. They obviously either picked some bad apples or didn't school you guys enough about how not to do so.

agree with 33girl. you should be getting MAJOR support from your national org. and ideally should have local alumni support at all your events and meetings.

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Dude, erase your identifying information. Everyone can figure out who your fraternity is, and airing dirty laundry is a no-no.

Done, shouldn't have done that I realized afterwards it was easy to identify, my bad.

You guys really need to get your nationals to step back in. They may seem unresponsive, but it's up to you to make sure that they do step in. It's your colony, and you will play a major role in its success or failure.

Few general tips though:

- You need to change your attitude. Based on what you posted, you're viewing it through the lens that your colony is failing and that you're pretty much ready to give up. Change the lens and start figuring out how to be successful. That way, you'll be coming up with actual ideas that propel you towards success instead of just slowing down an "inevitable" failure.

- Figure out what everybody wants and diplomatically work towards achieving all those goals. This is difficult -- I suggest at least a 48hr retreat for this. A change of environment can open up real ideas and allow people to focus on the task at hand. The length of time is there to ensure that people are relaxed enough to be effective in a discussion-based retreat.

- Build goals, set deadlines, assign them to individuals (for accountability), and achieve them. For example, you mentioned that one of your issues was lack of traditions and rituals. To resolve that, you generate traditions and rituals. Maybe have everyone try to do something fun/interesting by the end of the semester and make whatever worked well into a tradition.

I'm actually a founding father of a fraternity on my campus, and throughout the two years, we've had our ups and downs. By following those things described, my fraternity was able to dig itself out of rough spots and emerge stronger than ever. Problems will come up, but they won't be lingering issues if you attack them successfully.

P_Dity??

Agree with all of those who say involve your HQ; also get the local alums involved. Depending on why your fraternity left campus may present issues on whether alums want to be involved, could be a problem. As for "powerhouse" fraternities at TheOSU...even the mighty fall. Some of the largest, and perceived to be strongest, chapters, have lost their charter since I was there in the 80s (hazing, alcohol violations, etc). Many have returned; some strong, and some struggling.

One thing you will need to keep in mind, two fraternities are recolonizing very soon so you are competing for the next "new thing". I believe Phi Tau still has their house, which is in prime real estate territory, and one of their alums works for the university and is very active on campus (he is the AEPhi faculty advisor). Even though ZBT lost their house (albeit the crest is still in the masonry), they have a lot of alumnae in the Columbus area.

I'm not sure what kind of numbers have been required of your chapter. As you know, fraternities range from 100+ to less than 10 on campus and there is everything in between.

Frankly, if it were me, I'd completely delete all posts. Even with specific information erased, your user name identifies your school -- a really bad idea when asking for this kind of advice -- so I bet it isn't hard for people there to fit all the rest together.

Thanks for your help guys, I'll take everything into consideration you said. I'll remove my posts. Thanks again.