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I agree that proper maintenance and care needs to be taken with respect to business ends of a Fraternity. I also am amused by several slogans suggesting a "return to values" or "what would your founders think". I understand the overarching goal is to chapters from running into financial or risk management blunders. However, I would think many National or International GLO's have evolved into something their founders never intended. I will use my Fraternity as an example. Our Preamble was written by our founders, thus it is truly their statement of purpose for the Fraternity. In regards to Pike it is as follows.
For the establishment of friendship on a firmer and more lasting basis;
for the promotion of brotherly love and kind feeling;
for the mutual benefit and advancement of the interests of those
with whom we sympathize and deem worthy of our regard;
We have resolved to form a Fraternity,
believing that, thus we can most successfully accomplish our object.
With the first line we see the Founders primary concern was developing relationships between the men that composed it's membership. In essence they want to go beyond what was socially acceptable at the time and truly dig into what made each other unique and enlightened men. Secondly, they wanted to form a sense of family and empathy amongst it's members. Lastly, they recognize the necessity of service to the community which they are a part of. They finish it with a charge to each and every brother to fulfill these purposes.
This is my personal interpretation of something that is typically memorized yet rarely analyzed. It is my belief that several of my Fraternities leaders have lost sight of this, yet send out the buggle call to return to the values firmly set at the organization's foundation. So the question I pose to this forum is what is the modern day purpose to the Fraternity?
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