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I think a major reality that we need to face is that we are placing expansion efforts in the wrong places. Let's look at where we have expanded to in the past 3 years. Eastern Kentucky, Bethany College, Florida International, U of Iowa, Cal-Irvine, Loyola Marymount, Hampden Sydney, Denison, Central Michigan , U of San Diego and Colorado State.
Now, this is an alright list, but let's look at it in a slightly different light. We went to Eastern Kentucky, but don't have a chapter at the University of Kentucky. We went to Bethany, but haven't ever had a chapter at Marshall. We went to Florida International, but apparently forgot to get a chapter at U of Miami. Cal Irvine, Marymount, and San Diego, not USC. I hope you can somewhat see my point here. If we want to be taken seriously as a national fraternity, maybe we should put emphasis on getting into a couple more national universities, not the little ones in the area.
I find it interesting that the price of expansion is roughly $50,000 per year. When we were discussing the situation at Convention 2005 in Scottsdale, I was told that the price was $30,000. Going on the idea that the price is in the middle (say $40K), I think we should maybe see a slightly better return than we've been getting. When we expanded to Bethany this year, we got 14 founding fathers. That breaks down to almost $3000 per guy gotten. That just doesn't cut it. Recruitment has to become our major focus, especially since the capital campaign has concluded. 200 chapters isn't anywhere near an unreasonable number, and it's definitely possible to maintain high standards while still maintaining high numbers. Things have to change. That and the GF needs to stop shutting down so many god damn chapters.
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