[john1082]

I don't know if I am cynical or experienced . . .

Having seen Great Passage, LEAP, IMPACT, and some others that I don't recall come and go over the past 30 years I look at True Brother with some skepticism. Not criticism, but skepticism. It tested in the midwest and east, save for one chapter in San Diego. Until now all I have seen is smoke an mirrors. The roll out last week dealt with the Outer Circle but not the Inner Circle program. Apparently that will be released to chapters (a) when it is ready, and (b) when the staff decides that a chapter is "ready" (worthy?) of the Inner Circle program.

Will the Inner Circle program readiness be predicated on a series of hoops which must be jumped through? Membership numbers or scholarship or finances? If the program remains voluntary for chapter adoption, what will be the fall-out for chapters that do not adopt the program? Non-consideration from award consideration like the Grand High Alpha award? If that is the cease then it really isn't voluntary adoption because there would be sanctions for non-adoption of the program.

I had lunch on Saturday with the undergrads, passing up the alumni college lunch. One of the guys that I sat with came from a test chapter. When I asked him about TBI he replied that when folks came to evaluate the program he was asked "What is good about the program?" and then, after he offered his thoughts, he added "Now do you want to know what didn't work?" He told me that the reply from staff was "We've already got that." If that is how it was really evaluated at the chapter level then we're not getting, as Brother Paul Harvey says "The rest of the story."