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Hey man,
Your story really caught my interest because what you are talking about today at your chapter is just about a perfect representation of what happened at my chapter starting in a big way about 10 years ago.
I commend your thought process, since in your second post you have figured out many things that took me and others in my chapter a long time to really pinpoint and do something about. Your forward-looking vision speaks well of you, and I hope it will be an asset to your chapter.
I actually re-affiliated to the chapter I consider my "home chapter" these days, and when I came in the chapter was pretty good sized, but headed in the directions you mention. We had good parties and all that- but increasingly there was less effort to have well-planned mixers with sororities and things of that nature.
Our house was huge too- but fewer and fewer people lived there even though the cost was incredibly low and included pretty good full meal service.
At the time, I did not think much of it because it was a great bunch of guys and we did have a good time. Looking back, I do not think we really saw there was a problem because things had been moving in certain directions long enough that we did not see what needed to be done, nor did we have any idea how to fix things we wanted to fix. And we had no alumni help because we did not think to ask for it.
Trouble is, a couple of years later as I was leaving the last of the really large pledge classes graduated- a class that had many leaders and a lot of house residents. So we not only lost 30% of the head count that year, but we lost virtually all of the officers and about half of the guys living in the house.
Within 2 years, our house was sold- a house we had owned for decades. The chapter was upset. The alumni were furious- and not just at the actives but the advisors and housing corporation.
It has been a long road back, but the guys of today are doing more and working harder than we ever did- and with a smaller house- and they are achieving a great deal. While I am sorry we had that bad patch, in some ways it had to get that bad before there was a real desire to make it better.
Here is what I would suggest in the hopes you can help be part of the process that either turns this around- or in a few years time be the guy who helps get things back on track after they get worse. And they may have to get worse before people wake up and realize how bad things have become- actives and alumni.
1. Make a list of every active member and when they graduate. Figure out how many people are graduating each semester for the next 4 years. This will give you advance warning if you have a big pledge class about to graduate so that can be dealt with.
2. Get to know the alumni running your housing corporation and managing the house. Get a feel for their sentiments and their current level of involvement. This would be a good way for you to let them know that there are guys in the chapter who want to turn things around, and hopefully they can step in as alumni, bring in other alumni to get involved, and offer support. By support I mean hosting a dinner during rush, or coming around the house more often- things like that.
When a chapter starts to have trouble- especially with housing- the alumni have a job to do as well as the chapter. Housing Board members have a very important duty to the chapter and its well being. So if they are not involved, now is the time for them to get involved. But they need to know that you guys need help and that there are at least some people around who care about the long term and about Beta being more than a place to drink.
Getting to know them and inviting them around etc. is a good way to slowly get them back in the mix without making it look like you are trying to start some kind of internal revolution.
3. Coramoor does raise a good point- and you yourself have hit on a hard reality that I know all too well. While some of my best friends are guys who were active when I was in the chapter, their experience in the house was not to a level that has inspired most of them to get involved as alumni. We are in the process of recharging our connections with alumni now, but there is a very noticeable absence of alumni interest in the mid to late 1990s era which I would attribute to how the chapter was operating at the time.
Point being, you may have to reach back and bit and call alumni from eras past you have never met. A good way to do this is to see if the chapter would do an alumni dinner- say charge $10 a head so the chapter is not out any money- and have a BBQ catered in or something.
4. On the rush point- I believe a fraternity is only as good as its most recent pledge class. And when chapters stumble a bit, I have seen more than once new initiates step in and do a great job in many offices and turn things in a good direction pretty fast. You might not be able to change how the chapter recruits, but the best you can do with those others guys who share your view is to target individual rushees you know can make a difference and try to get them to pledge. Get a few guys like that, and you are on the way.
5. Overall the real danger here I see is how change is presented. During my last semester as an active, we had a group of 5 new initiates who saw that change was needed. They were elected into high office, and unfortunately they made some very immediate decisions that were highly personally judgmental in nature of a few actives- and when the dust settled 2 of them deactivated and quit, and the rest just faded away.
It is very hard to find that balance of making good long term change without trying to tell people what to do or how to live. I think the best way to avoid crossing the line is to make sure your goals and visions for the chapter include every one of the active brothers. Most people in life are happy to go down any of a number of paths as long as they do not feel threatened or treated as second class citizens. And so the key I think is for leaders to make sure that changes are effected which benefit the chapter AND also do not rock the boat for current actives.
A good example of what not to do is to try and get people to leave because you think they drink too much etc. 99% of a chapter could be really frustrated with a guy who cannot control his drinking, but if a few people try to kick him out publicly- 80% of that 99% chapter will react harshly to the idea of kicking a brother when he is down like that. There are other ways to deal with it.
6. In terms of keeping the Greek connection alive- philanthropy is a good way to do that. It is what I did as an active to try and keep our ties going with the sororities.
It only takes a few guys to donate their time/money to participate in a sorority or Greek-wide philanthropy event. So just a few dedicated actives can do a great deal to keep the entire chapter's reputation in a good position in this way.
Same for IFC positions, Greek intramurals sports or any other activity where- unlike with socials- you do not need everyone to participate or give money.
This has been a lot of info, but I sincerely hope it helps. I feel that many of my efforts as an active were not rewarded with results, and when I graduated I never really looked back.
By chance this past fall I came around to check things out and suddenly I am an advisor, Housing Board member and finding a whole new level of enjoyment watching a chapter with the right mentality build things back to where they were. So even if you are not successful in the here and now, come back some day and see how things are looking.
When the time is right and the chapter is ready, you will be a valuable asset.
Yours in ___ kai ___,
Tom.
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