Supporting Other Chapters
 

What action is your chapter taking this year to help any neighboring chapter?

Are you scheduling a friendly visit? Do you "trade" pledges for a road trip and further education in the traditions of our Brotherhood?

Are they a sport rival? If so, is there some friendly pre or post game events planned at the host chapter?

An excellent question. I would like to point out that this idea - that is, of chapters assisting other chapters - is a Beta First.

From almost the very start, Beta made it a point to see herself as a UNION of equal chapters, working in concert. (Others at that time had a "mother chapter" who tended to run things.) Remember that our magazine was begun as a means to enlarge this union - both through maintaining friendly relations among existing chapters, and by what we might consider "rush-in-the-large": the consideration of new places to begin chapters.

Indeed: chapters were ordered (by the Convention, NOT by alumni!) to communicate with the others by letter during the school year. That's why there is the difference in officers - the "CORRESPONDING secretary" writes these letters (and others); the "RECORDING secretary" writes the minutes of meetings. The book called Beta Letters (edited by Baird) is a collection of these - they give an amazing insight into chapter life of long ago.

And if you find it too tedious to write a letter (how much IS postage this century?) then use this electronic form! You can do good for others by keeping the "sisterhood of chapters" strong. As our first editor phrased it, Alere Flammam.

-kai-
Dr. Thursday

Interesting. While I was a pledge at the Indiana State University colony, Spring 1983, I never saw a another Beta from any other chapter. And when we (the colony) were closed before I could be initiated, the other chapters basically shunned us.

I certainly hope chapters are reaching out those expansion and reorganized colonies to they do not fail.

I know that several years ago, when the Oklahoma State Chapter was restarting up, their group of founding fathers (those that had been recruited by the expansion team) asked our chapter to put on a Rush workshop for them. A couple of our guys made the trip. From what I vaguely remember it didn't work out quite as planned - Our guys thought it was going to be very informal, the Okie State guys were hoping for a complete workshop with agendas and specific ideas. I believe the biggest problem was that there were some major differences in what rush is like at the two schools.

The Knox (maybe it's the Sisson) requires proof of assistance to another chapter which did not win a Sisson at the previous convention. Not sure what is considered "enough" though to win the award.

Wow, 1983... that was 24 years ago...

My memory of 1983 - you DID say 1983, not 1883? ... Well, that was the last convention at the Woog... er, I mean the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, and the centennial of the time when C. J. Seaman went around talking "Clubhouse!" to any Beta he encountered. I must say that it was great; no convention, except perhaps the major anniversaries at Oxford, compares to those at the Grand Hotel... so MANY Beta memories there...

RE Indiana U - it's possible there may be some details in the convention minutes from that era (if they still exist). Sorry I can't recall more detail about it just now.

Yes, I did say 1983. And yes, the convention was at The Grand Hotel.

IU (Bloomington, IN) does still exist. It is the Pi Chapter. I was at Terre Haute, IN at Indiana State University - where Larry Bird played basketball.

Why yes, I did mean Indiana State - that error was not intended. Sorry.

I think the ECU chapter is working hard, as always, to foster chapter relations with other schools.

The undergraduates are planning to assist the Duke chapter with their initiation rituals in November.

Our chapter has had a good relationship with the UCF Betas, seeing as we play them every year in football. No matter which school hosts the game, the other school sends a delegation to enjoy the tailgating and game.

The John Carroll Colony has been helped immensely by our sister chapter of Case Western Reserve University (Lambda Kappa-Beta Chapter). They assisted with our first recruitment, Pledge Ceremony, and will be in charge of our Initiation Ceremony in Oxford next month.

My fellow Founding Fathers and I are thankful for their efforts and assistance, and our Brothers at CWRU have told me they are glad to have a Beta colony close by for future cooperative activities!

It is wonderful to have these inter-chapter relationships. They are what keeps our fraternity in its prime. Assisting a new colony in its founding and helping your neighbor chapter in its hour of need can help the chapter a great deal!

Remember, You are your brother's keeper!

~Nick

Back when I was an undergrad, we only had like two chapters within a moderate driving distance. Once in awhile we would get together and do something (besides conclave)...but the chapter personalities were so different that it made it difficult.

I respected them as Beta's and it was cool to meet Beta's from other schools...but I probably would not have joined their Beta Chapter.

Looking back, I do wish we would have made more of an effort to visit with other chapters though.

Here in Texas all the chapters support each other. The home chapter will often host the guest chapter for football games. And this past year the University of Texas chapter invited other Texas chapters to the annual alumni golf tournament.

Back when I was an active we did much the same.

And at Georgia we really had fun with it. Every fall semester, groups of us would visit other chapters and spend the weekend for football games. And we hosted other chapters for game weekends as well.

Those were some of the best times I had. In 1995 when I was a pledge, a few of us went to Auburn for the UGA vs. Auburn game. I snuck in with a few others and we sat on the 40 yard line and watched UGA break Auburn's 2 year winning streak with a 20-20 tie game!

When we got back to the house, we quickly got the impression that the Auburn guys were pretty upset about Georgia breaking their winning streak (we weren't even ranked that year) and that Georgia guys were always welcome- but maybe not tonight.

So we took the hint, snagged a few Auburn Beta T-shirts from a couple of bedrooms in the house (I still have mine- a 1994 ADPi-Beta mixer Tshirt), pretended we were Auburn students and crashed at the Lambda Chi house after one of the best band parties I have ever been to in my life (Sylvester was the headliner that night- red jumpsuit and all!)

We discussed doing stuff with other chapters, however we found it difficult. UConn wished to stay at Granville on a trip, and I was the direct contact in fact, however, we don't live in our house, and we didnt have the space to house all of them within our dorms (at Denison, you have to live on campus in the dorms and freshman live in the fraternity houses). As far as the chapters around us, well, they weren't really chapters we wanted to associate with. The fact is, there are dramatically different chapters out there, and when go to the convention or the leadership institutes, you realize this. The three chapters around us just are not currently on the same track we are on, so we needed to distance ourselves as a colony, not a chapter.

Another example of one chapter helping another- Brothers of the Lambda Kappa-Beta Chapter (Case Western Reserve University) ran our initiation ceremonies last night. Then, we went and sang a serenade to Kappa Kappa Gamma. (Our colony's first) They were nice enough to record the finale and post it on youtube for us, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajlAa-s-rsA

I proudly present "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (originally) by the Temptations.

Congrats on the initiation to you, Nick, and your brothers. And good job on the serenade!