Well, you've succeeded in dragging me into this discussion group!
I'm a bit shocked by all the negativity. I really don't see how True Brother is a slap in the face to alumni.
From what I've read here, it seems people are upset because:
1) The Fraternity launched this without consulting them (and over a
hundred thousand other alumni), because their main focus is the
undergraduate chapter.
2) They feel that they are the type of person that would not be
sought-after under the new suggestions for recruiting.
3) There's no new programming geared toward alumni.
So, my response is:
1) Duh! The primary focus of the Fraternity has always been the
undergraduates, as it should be. As for all alumni being consulted
on the matter, that's obviously not practical. Were you upset
about the launch of LEAP or Impact? I doubt that more than a
handful of alumni knew about those before the first Leadership
Seminar workshops.
2) The core values enumerated in the True Brother program are nothing
new. I have a 1948 edition of the Paedagogus that has a very
similar list of ideals. The revised statement was clearly derived
from research of the primary documents of the Fraternity (rituals,
creeds, and constitutions of LCA & TKN, early writings of the
founders, etc.) To be blunt -- as far as I'm concerned, any alumni
that object to those values should never have joined this
fraternity and are quite welcome to leave.
3) This goes back to the principle the Fraternity's primary
constituency is the undergraduate chapters. As was explained,
there is more to come, and that will include material geared toward
alumni. The people putting this together wanted to
wait until it was complete to begin the roll-out, but there was
strong pressure to accelerate development and release the first
portion right away.
From what I can tell (and, btw, I am not one of the architects of the
program), TBI in essence is:
1) Publicly enumerate the core values of the Fraternity.
2) Align all programs and publications of the Fraternity with those
values.
That's basically it. The rest is just organizational detail. I would suggest that we try to be patient in waiting for some more of those details to be explained.
In ZAX,
Ed Miller
(GGZ alumnus)