isn't it embarrassing?
 

Isn't it embarrassing when your chapter is in such bad shape that
it does not even meet basic chartering standards?
In the sales world out there you would not even get a paycheck
for the sub-standard performance and you would go hungry. And
you would not bring home to your family the basic needs.
Isn't it embarrassing?
Fraternity life is in part an exposure to successful living out in the
real world. You get a shot at getting your act together.
Isn't it embarrassing?
Roast duck does not drop from the sky to failing chapters.
Isn't it embarrassing?
On the outside, the "real world" it is called 'welfare.'
Isn't it embarrassing?

Melchert always said the biggest advantage of fraternity membership is the "opportunity to fail" - usually adding "and learn from it."

Unfortunately, most weak chapters I've been around make excuses, and blame somebody else - usually something like "national hates us, because ....."

It's never the truth, often something like "we like quality, not quantity, and there just aren't any more quality men on this campus (of 18,000)."

We often debated (when we had 300 chapters) just killing the 30 smallest or 30 weakest. Wonder what would have happened?

I agree
 

And this was true 40 years ago..."we have quality" but guess what? Not enough 'quality' to even get a charter from TKE?
I recall some idiot dean at S Dakota School of Mines, I think, who
told me the one struggling chapter of the three they had needed
to get stronger, then they'd let us on...well, here we are over 40
years later...SDMines...has two chapters...one is weak...but as soon as it gets stronger we'll add....duh
or the clown at KState said, well, if we had a smaller house, we'd
be able to fill it (31 pledges had just walked out). Then when we
got down to a chapter of 25 men, we'd simply rebuild to fill. These naysayers were to become bankers which was the family profession)...duh...but the chapter woke up, now it is a top one at KSU around 80 to 100 men, 17 years IM champs. The "bankers" disappeared.
Buckwheat helped
save this one...oh, the bankers...their banks folded after a few
years...like Melchert said, "oughta have the right to fail."
Closing those tiny chapters accomplishes nothing, as Pike or Sig
Ep'll come in, pledge a hundred and be #1 overnight whilst the
TKEs are picking their nose and eating bon bons. Education, a
good chapter adviser, regular board meetings...breathe down the
necks...talk size...size...size...quality is assumed. We simply need
to educate better. Melchert said (adjusted to today's figures):
Gimme 80 squirrels and 5 good men and I'll build you the best
chapter on campus...will work today. Education. (and size)
Size equates presence. Logan was right. One achieves quality
thru growth.

When I was hired to help the Chi Phi chapter at Illinois, I got a note from Wilson Heller saying "take anyone wearing pants." Pretty good advice, but Chi Phi was "too good" to do that.

what is wrong with those not wearing pants?

Erik,

Sadly, I was surprised my own chapter lasted as long as it did. When it was finally shut down in 2000(?) it was because of not being current financially with nationals. Sure there was a list of things cited as reasons but those had been going on for some time. The semester after I joined we initiated 10 guys (the best rush we had in a long time!) and thought we were at a turning point. Unfortunately, most of those guys dropped out of school or were never heard from again. I had to go inactive because of personal problems as well, and had to take a semester off of school. When I came back, they tried to get me to reactivate, but the way things were going, I wasn't about to waste my time and money there. I'm sorry if that's not the TKE spirit, but it's the truth.

Just one more thing to add: TKE is unique, but as long as we act like the "anti" fraternity or the GDI fraternity we will get KILLED in rush by the other houses. Does that make sense?

You are absolutely correct here...one thing that I think chapters need to do is spread the word to their friends on campus. I know here we are the typical fraternity and are really going to have to work hard during rush to try and gain new members. Most of the people that go through rush are what I consider "typical fraternity guys"...most of the guys in our chapter arent. But one thing we have been pretty successful at so far (even though we are just beginning on campus) is talking to our other friends and people in our classes about considering TKE. I dont know how many people I have had come up to me in the past month or two when I had my a TKE shirt on and say something like "hey are you a TKE?? I was talking to so and so about yalls fraternity and yall seem like a really good groups of guys. I am thinking about joining yall next semester." We also bring friends that might be interested out to tailgates and other things where we have a group of brothers together so they can get to know us a little bit and...I think doing things like these and not necessarily relying on the formal rush process are critical in keeping numbers up.

loser's limp
 

am re-writing as apparently lost original, so will re-do
The loser's limp, the GDI, the anti-greek posture...all new to me,
and Beta Omega chapter, long a jock house, furnished many a pro baseballer.
Jon, get over it. TKE had no bad self image and I do not recall ever losing out to anyone while on the road starting a chapter or
running a rush. It is one of attitude. Wish I could join you in KC
and we could go a-hellin' TKE was overwhelmingly the most massive outfit in the KC area for decades. Get over it. You have
been talkin' to the wrong people.
Reactivate the chapter.
The loser's limp is unattractive...and unacceptable.

Erik, Etal,
isnt it true that getting to big for their britches and becoming complacient can be just as bad or worse than a small striving Chapter?

How many times have We all seen this in our own and others Chapters?

Granted each Chapter is on their own "UNLESS" there is guidence by National HQs or a strong Alum Base who is willing to work with them. Left unto their own devices, they seem to get into more trouble in todays day and age.

Sorry Young Guys this comes from an Elder 2nd only to Erik on GC!:D

too big for britches...
 

yes, Tom, complacency is another barrier but we have not the time to write a book on the matter, so we do generalize a lot,
and this infuriates some of the cretins who fire back and lash out
at our conclusions. But, then, if we were not able to generalize we'd go nowhere. It is, then, the duty of the scholar, the prober,
to ferret out exceptions, bring them to light...and make some new
generalizations, kinda like Hegel's dialectic.
Often chapters get the big head upon building a new house or even getting in one...and they fall flat on their face during the first
rush...a common occurence and few undergrads heed this, albeit
a generalization, too.
Failure to plan for rush or to keep tabs on the rush chairman will do you in, too.
And, if your chapter is so filled with 'quality' then there must be a
deluge of knocking on your door...to join.
Naw, we got plenty of hay down without fighting amongst each of
us. Most of us knew little of our faults, peccadillos, shortcomings,
prior to pledging...now those sacred things are exposed!

Erik, this is so true as I am Sure The Many Fraters of TKE can attest to as I can within LXA.

Is complacency still a name for little S**Ts in Britches to big for them to wear!:)

I found and Erik can confirm this that if there is an intended goal to strive for then All will work together for that Goal.

If Hey, We are good enough, then this is when complacency sneaks in and destroys the base of a Group. It is like an old record with a scratch, it just keeps kicking backwards until it is thrown out.:(

E, check LXA Thread!