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I have not now nor ever thought our HQ is perfect. You can’t have sat through the alumni workshop that Tom Earp, Jono, JoinerLXA and I all did and think our HQ is perfect. Hell we were damn near bankrupt because of jackasses like Tom Helmbock and Bob London who almost ran the fraternity into the ground. "There’s lots of thing that HQ has done in the past that bothers me. I’ll even list a few for you that PROVE that I am not ‘drinking the HQ kool-aid’. 1) I don’t like that money rules the day. Some chapters who’s alums donate a lot of money get treated differently that new or ‘less affluent’ chapters. 2) They have always been very disorganized and have taken forever to get back to you. Hell I can remember that when I was initiated, it took a year to get my membership certificate. That’s ridiculous. But one of the differences between you and I, is that instead of sitting back and bitching about things, I got involved in HQ business to see how I could help. I SAW that the staff up there was made up of good, hard working people who want to help the fraternity. They obviously do it for the love, cause the pay is for crap. HQ screws up. They are human. We all screw up. I am only speaking of the Fraternity here. I could care less what happened between you and LCAP. See, LCAP is a COMPLETELY different entity from the FRATERNITY. Yes, they are separate companies, with separate boards of directors. I don’t work with any chapters who deal with LCAP, so I don’t care what they do. Its not the Fraternity, its a separate company."
I respect your opinion and am glad that you agree with me. However, LCAP and HQ do go hand in hand. They try to appear separate but they are not. I've dealt with both simultaniously during the selling of our house and renting out our house. I think the frat would run much better if there was a true division between the two.
Being in a small chapter means alot more experience than normal. Yes, you have held many official positions. However, my experience, although I too have held many official positions, is more about the nitty gritty of chapter functions. Waking up at 4 am becaue the heater broke or the oil ran out. Dealing with nazi-like health and building inspectors just waiting to shut you down for any violation. Dealing with the town to help schedule the repayment of thousands of dollars of back taxes. Dealing with a stabbing that was non-fraternal related and random on the chapters front lawn. Dealing with non-brother tenants that violate rules or don't pay their rent. Dealing with contractors to bring the house up to code so we can get a occupation certificate. Those are just the normal circumstances I've dealt with. I can't even begin to tell you the absolutely, weird, unusual, difficult, stupid things that I've dealt with. Unlike many chapters, we never had the comfort of having a strong alumni base or alumni experience to guide us through. Our chapter existed on the hard work of a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds with no life experience. We learned as we went along because we had to, there was no one there telling us we were getting ripped off for the price of oil for our furnace. There was no one there telling us the contractor was taking advantage of us. There was no one there telling us our legal rights when it came to house inspection. It was actually pretty damn unfair to have house leadership and members deal with full time college, financial difficulties, normal frat problems, and a house (like other Umass frats) constantly being threatened for health violations. That's why I say I have more experience than most other people in actually "running" a chapter. Our chapter meetings didn't deal with frat problems, they dealt with where we were going to get the money for heat, or how to pay the water bill.
As far as the ritual, I know that damn thing inside out. I have most of it memorized. Go ahead, quiz me.
No I joined at the right school. My best friends were met there. But you are right, it does suck being in any frat up here. Frats in the northeast are not what they used to be, most are struggling to survive. That puts alot of added pressure on everyone.
Sorry for the red-neck comment, uncalled for.
1. Gamma Zeta, if my memory serves me right, was on the lower probation, if not off of it, when it closed. There was an incident several years before I joined in which the probation started. I do think that it was unfair how HQ treated the current brothers for the sins of those before them. No one from the original incident were even active but there was still probation. I can tell you, we worked our asses off to get off probation only to have HQ say not good enough. And that was dealing with all the other crap we had. We showed amazingly good faith towards HQ, only to have them ignore us. The semester before we closed, I believe we were even being considered for the Pheonix Award (I think thats what its called.)
2. I don't know. Hell I didn't even know that HQ had those ratings anymore. When the consultants came, we usually got good comments. Nothing major.
3. Academically we were diverse. We mostly were average to the rest of the frats. However, that was only because of one or two brothers that were slacking. So far, out of the last 25 brothers initiated, we have 5 in top ranked law schools, Cordozza and Columbia and another 4-6 pursuing their M.B.A's. We have several others that are working at some of the most respected financial institutions in Boston and several working for Fortune 50 companies. So to put it shortly, we were actually a pretty damn smart group.
1. None
2. None
I don't need people to have to thank me for my work, I just do what needs to be done.
Now here's two questions for you:
1. How many of your brothers ever thanked you for spending your own significant amount of money to buy building materials so the chapter wouldn't lose its residency permit?
2. How many of your brothers ever thanked you for risking your academic standing because the chapter needed you?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
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