Museum
 

I was wondering what everyone thought about a Museum for Lambda Chi Alpha.

We can all agree that alot of our historical items and such are basically just stored in boxes at the basement of IHQ. Which in fact is really noones fault, it is mostly due to the lack of space at HQ. So an idea that popped into my head is maybe using an historical piece of property that LXA already owns and turning it into a museum. Having a functional museum may also cause alumni who may have collected items throughout their lifetime to donate them to one central location without fear of the items just being thrown into boxes and forgotten about until someone 20 years later happens upon them.

The property that I am referring to is of course the House at Gamma Zeta.

It is truly a very important part of our history, it was the very first place that our ritual was performed (among other things, although you would have to ask GZ for specifics about) not to mention it is fairly close to our founding (about 100 miles from Boston). So it does have some significant meaning to our history.

Also I think it is an excellent idea because from what I understand LCAP received the house for $0, and only put about $90,000 into reparing it and so forth. So it really wouldnt be that big of a deal for LCAP to DONATE it back to LXA. The problem comes with the cost and time of converting and maintaining the property.

Now as I understand, the house has 3 floors plus a basement. So why cant we turn floors 1 and 2 into a huge display area for some of our things, turn the 3rd floor into office space for the people willing to work there, and possibly turn the basement into a 'Chapter Room' for local chapters to perform ritual,or even have the basement set up to reflect a scene from ritual.

I just think that it would be a waste for LCAP to sell such an important part of our history, when something CAN be done to preserve it. Not to mention the fact that if people were willing to get a project like this done, it would be a great place to visit for the Centennial.

However, the biggest problem right now is money and of course time, because we would need some way to keep these items secure, payment for upkeep and employees (or even use volunteers to give tours), electricity, taxes, renovations, display cases, etc, etc

I also think that unlike a normal 'museum' it should only be open for a certain time period. Say like the months of November, March, and the Summer months like June and July.

Let me know what you guys think about something like this, becasue I just hate to see something as important as this house reduced to a pile of rubble.

In ZAX

Agree, money is a problem!

Agree, it is an important part of LXA History!

Will it happen, no!:o

Why, that is a very good question for many reasons!

I wish I had the answers!

That would be awesome, I know it would be a great excuse for a road trip.

I know that other fraternities half the size of Lambda Chi have places beside their general HQ that provides them with a place of memorial.

I know we are bound to have some alum from some chapter that could have the monetary income to not sweat setting something like this up.

The fraternity has wasted more money than it would take to get this going.

I'M TALKING GRASSROOTS BABY!!!!!!!!

Let's get a REAL grassroots campaign from our alumni and chapters to MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

Let's call and write HQ. A few thousand contacts from our brothers would get their ATTENTION. Imagine, just one person in a chapter can be the point man. Get each man in the chapter to write or call. 100 chapters @ ~30 men each is 3,000 contacts.

Then the fundraising begins. We have some deep pocketed alumni. All we would have to ask of HQ would be to carry the building for a little while until we could raise the funds.

LAMBDA CHI ALPHA HISTORICAL SOCIETY!!!!

That's the new organization, run by the alumni and students, with a goal of buying and PRESERVING our heritage.

Why should it be stored in a basment in the middle of Indiana? It's just an OFFICE, with no historical significance. Gamma Zeta was the FIRST..FIRST...FIRST.

Just the actual space is perhaps the most SIGNIFICANT artifact we have! Why would we sell it and tear it down?

I'm no looking at a regular monday through friday museum open to the public. I'm talking more Mason Building like.

Basement would be reserved specifically for rituals.

First two floors a real museum and research area to study and display LXA items and books.

Third floor is offices.

This would be a volunteer organization, no paid staffers, so 100% of the profits goes to preserving our history. There are enough alumni and chapters in the area to get this started AND once Gamma Zeta is recolonized, the chapter could take over most of the day to day operations of the "museum".

WHO IS WITH ME!!!!

WHO WANTS TO START A GRASSROOTS EFFORT FROM THE CHAPTERS UP TO GET THIS STARTED!!!!!

I just checked the little similar links GC automatically posts at the end of every thread and seen this

http://greekchat.com/gcforums/showth...t=70854&page=2

and it seems like DTD has done something exactly like this with their actual founding chapter.


GZ, You know I am with you on this. If only we can get some more support from other brothers, and GC is an ok way to get the word out, but not enough people know about this site to even see this. We need a way to contact Brothers from every chapter to get this rolling. Along with a way to contact more alumni.

Exactly Trey.

We HAVE a built in network, If we could just contact 1 person in every chapter to get a grassroots effort together, we could contact the WHOLE undergrad in a matter of hours.

Step by step:

1. Mobilize our brothers to LOBBY HQ to let us do this and get the funding to carry the house for a year or two until we have other funding in place.

2. Use that network to get the word out among brothers and alumni of our efforts.

3. Establish a non-profit to handle the expenses and get this rolling.

4. Work with HQ in regards to the legal aspect.

5. Get the planning and designs out of the way.

6. Set up secure funding sources

7. ....that's all I have for now.

Anyways, the first step is to bring this to HQ's attention!

We need a respected, elder statesman with direct access to HQ. Someone HQ will listen to that can float the idea.

THEN we need to get ALL of our chatpers to get in on this, form the NETWORK.

Maybe an online petition? Something that can easily be emailed?

Then list the phone numbers of HQ and who to call. Then distribute a form letter for people to sign and send in.

Oh my GOD!

Could you imagine how popular this would be with our 100th coming up?

This is the perfect time to start something like this.

Imagine the money that will be rolling in, and with all the conventions already in place, we could easily spread the word.

THIS is the perfect way to celebrate the centennial.

What better way to preserve our past for the future???

While it would be expensive for the start up, I think the idea is outstanding!

In less than 100 years, LXA has a tremendous history and as was stated, many things are while not lost in the basement at IHQ, they are not seen nor on display.

I have a Coat of Arms hanging my living room painted by three Brothers from the now closed Zeta at Texas Wesleyn that would look nice along with many other items that would fit there. Some some what unique.

Would it be great, damn spiffy. Cost of office furniture could help pay for it.:D

I beleive that there is extra land at IHQ that would be possible and more centrally located.

Staffed by volunteers, maybe.

Monies coming in from Zetas, no, as many running to close as it is.

From Alumni also a good possibility!:cool:


It should be worked on and I hope some who monitor this thread take a long hard look and thought about it!

No Tom, NOT in Indiana, the point is to PRESERVE the most important artifact HQ owns, the house where all the "firsts" took place.

Also, Indiana? Seriously.

Here's two scenarios:10 brothers deciding where to go on a weeklong vacation.

A.

"Hey's guys, let's spend our vacation studying LXA!?!?!"

"Let's do it! I heard of a great museum in Indiana dedicated to LXA right near HQ."

Group arrives at museum/hq and does the tour.

Half hour later:

"Well that was nice but ummmmmm, what do we do with the rest of the 167.5 hours left on our vacation?"

B.

"Let's visit Boston and the LXA museum less than one hour away in Amherst for our vacation!"

"Yeah let's do it!!!"

3 days later, after visiting Cole's grave, Alpha chapter spots and staying 2 days in the Gamma Zeta Museum of Lambda Chi Alpha History.

"Wow, that was great! Now that we have seen LXA's most hallowed grounds and artifacts, let's spend the remaining 3 days of our vacation at the beaches of Cape Cod, or skiing in Vermont, or hiking in New Hampshire, or camping in Maine, or taking in the thousands of fun stuff to do in Boston, or watching a professional sports team, or going to some of the many museums available....."

But I won't tell you where Warren is currently marking time.

Just an example to help prove my point.

Why build a generic steel office building or General Steel building with NO HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE to house a museum ...

...when you can host the museum in the FIRST chapter house.

Baller.

I can donate 10 dollars and an autographed picture of myself as
a founding father -- I think it has a place...:-)

Duck,

I don't have any recorded history. I'm just going by what HQ and everyone else I know has always said, that Gamma Zeta occupied the house in some manner since 1912. This information also comes from one of our oldest living alumni, late 80's or early 90's, who knew some of the original members.

I wouldn't base too much in the history book of Beta, after all, they couldn't even get the professor's name right!

Pi, it certainly does have a place. I was thinking maybe right next to the toilet. KIDDING!

But let's hold on the donation of historical items, this is a pipe dream right now.

Is anyone interested in doing this? Helping to round up support?

They way I understood Gamma Zeta history was that the chapter inhabited the house the same time as being chartered.

Back in the day Umass (formerly Massachusetts Agricultural College) did not have a lot of on campus housing.

Most of the fraternity housing was on frat row (most of which was demolished just last year).