LETTING GO
 

IM PART OF A LOCAL FRATERNITY AT A SMALL SCHOOL FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS. RECENTLY I STARTED TO HAVE DOUBT ABOUT THIS ORGANIZATION AND SHARED IT WITH MY BROTHERS AT A CHAPTER MEETING ADN SURPISINGLY THEY HAD DOUBT ALSO. THE ORG HAS BEEN THROUGH INCREDIBLE UPS AND DOWN IN 21 YEARS WHEN I FIRST PLDEGED MY WHOLE LINE HAD NO IDEA WHAT A FRAT WAS WE WERE JUST DRINKING WITH THESE PPL ALL THE TIME AND THOUGHT THEY WERE COOL SO WE WANTED TO JOIN. DURING OUR PROCESS WHICH ONLY LASTED THREE WEEKS IT WAS BREEZE. WE DIDNT REALLY LEARN ANYTHING BUT HISTORY OF PRESIDENTS AND WE DID CALESTHINICS AND HAD SCAVENGER HUNTS. ON THE LAST NIGHT WE GOT PADDLED FOR THE FIRST TIME LIKE 9 TIMES A PIECE. AFTER JOINING WE LEARNED THAT IT WAS ALL FUN BEING YOUNG FRESHMAN DRINKING ALL THE TIME AND HANGING OUT. AFTER ABOUT A YEAR OF HOLDING MEETINGS WHERE PPL WOULD COME DRUNK OUT THRE MIND EVEN THROW UP THERE I STARTED TO THINK HOW COULD WE MAKE THIS BETTER. WE TRIED TO KEEP MEETINGS AS PROFESSIONAL AS POSSIBLE. AS THE YEARS WENT ON WE TRIED ALOT OF NEW THINGS TO MAKE THE ORGANZATION LEGIT WE STEPPED DID COMMUNITY SERVICE FINALLY GOT GOOD RAPPORT WITH OUR SCHOOL. MANY OF OUR ALUMNI MMEBERS WERE MAD BY THIS AND FELT WE DIDNT NEED TO DO COM SERVICE AND WOULD JUST ASK "WHERES THE BEER AT". THEN WE WANTED TO BECOME MULTICULTURAL TO ENCOURAGE DIVERSITY AND THEY HAD A PROBLEM WITH THAT. TURNS OUT SINCE IT STARTED AN ALL WHITE FRATERNITY THE ORIGINAL INTENTION WAS TO KEEP IT THAT WAY. AFTER THESES INSTACNES WE THEN DID RESEARCH ON MANY OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND HOW THEY BECAME SUCCESSFUL AND WE LEARNED SO MUCH WE LACKED. WE ONLY HAVE ONE CHAPTER IN 21YEARS THEY WOULD NEVER TEACH US THE FOUNDERS WE HAD NO REAL PURPOSE. RECENTLY WE HAVE TRIED TO GAIN MUCH ALUMNI SUPPORT BUT THEIR MINDSET IS ONCE THEY GRADUATE THEY MUST LIVE THEIR OWN LIVES AND LET THE UNDERGRADS HANDLE EVERYTHING. WE HAVE NOT GOT 1 DONATION FROM ALUMNI IN MY YEARS BEING THE LAST FOUR AND IT GETS HARDER AND HARDER TO RECRUIT. ALL THIS BEING SAID WERE THINKIN OF DISBANDING THE FRAT AND START FROM SCRATCH WITH A CLUB THAT WOULD BENEFIT ALL MEN AT OUR INSTITUTE MINUS THE PLEDGE PROCESS...HOW DOES THIS SOUND?

I'm very sorry about your fraternity. Sounds like you guys were a party fraternity over the years. Change also comes slowly and is difficult, but not impossible. I would focus on finding a strong purpose for your organization and tone down on the drinking. Also definately be more diverse. Once you figure out what goals you guys want to accomplish, such as brotherhood, community services, leadership, etc, then decide if you can accomplish these same goals as club rather then a fraternity. If your fraternity has a bad repuation on campus then it would be a good idea to start over fresh as a club. Sometimes cleaning house is a good thing.

Once I saw the post I thought the question was how to let go of the caps lock key. That's utterly unreadable.

qfp.

And your story isn't all that believable. Especially love the part where you must have read someone's hazing policy and made sure to incorporate everything into it.

It sound like you need to spend your time learning how to turn off the caps lock and learning how to write coherently.

I GIVE YOU GUYS A WHOLE LOT OF CREDIT FOR BEING ABLE TO READ THIS TRASH. I WOULD TYPE A BIGGER BLOCK OF TEXT BUT EVEN THESE TWO SENTENCES MAKE ME WANT TO JAB MY EYEBALLS OUT.

Why are you yelling at me? =(

He's been there for four years and wants to start a new club or fraternity?

OP - do you ever plan on graduating?

PS SMTTT re: your siggy. I hope no one replaces my coffees with whole milk, because I can't digest it. I have been drinking only skim milk since I was a little kid.

I'm just laughing at the idea of a "barista" -- who probably works somewhere that offers drinks in sizes like "tall," "grande" and "venti" -- criticizing the customers for being pretentious. If you're going to call out someone on pretentiousness, then call out Starbucks and its kin for using such affected terminology. :rolleyes:

Well, it IS her title. I'm sure she didn't come up with the terminology ;)

No, she didn't. Her pretentious employer, or her pretentious employer's competition, did. Which is why I didn't say she was pretentious; I said she ought to be calling her employer pretentious. ;)

How 'bout folks who are willing to spend $4.00 on coffee.

They's pretentious too.

LOL. Granted, it's a Festival of Pretentiousness all around.

And it's caramel, with three syllables. Sorry, but "carmel" always bugs me, unless it's the town in California.

We have a place in OKC which takes starbuck's pretentiousness and ups the ante a bit. They serve the same $4.00 coffee, but if asked to serve it any way other than "black," you get the evil eye. Apparently, cream and such has a negative effect on their coffee's superior aroma/taste/andwhatnot.

Me, being only a medium-sized-(grande?)-pretentious individual, I've never been there. But my large-sized-(venti?)-pretentious friends think it's a veritable slice of heaven.

I drink instant-coffee heated in the microwave.