[lenoxxx]

I copied the comments from the C&C article earlier this year- quite a few damning comments- I did edit out Earp's two comments- they were basically not understandable- Tom please understand!


Robert Teglia Says:
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
University of Michigan, Michigan State, South Carolina–all major universities. Sadly, this is another indicator that the fraternity movement continues to lose steam in America. LCAP’s willingness to sell these properties to other fraternities or sororities on campus is a strong signal that all is not well with Lambda Chi Alpha.

Bob Koch Says:
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:55 pm
To Brothers Tom Earp and Robert Teglia:
While the Cross and Crescent article was brief please understand that much is being done by the LCAP board, and particularly Mike Smith it’s chairman, to work with the local alumni groups where LCAP properties exist and return those houses to the local brothers. Certain of these properties do not house Zetas currently.

Shane Foley Says:
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Without commenting on what is going on with LCAP, I will say that there is a significant correlation (yes, I crunched the numbers) between chapter size and a chapter having a house. This does NOT mean that chapter houses make larger chapters. That point being made, there is value in members at all levels recognizing this relationship.

Art Hebbeler Says:
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
What I am reading in all this is another example of the General fraternity taking an action to gain control (owning chapter houses), and then, realizing that a mistake was made (or, more likely, poor prior planning), taking near-immediate action to bail out on the chapters. After telling chapters “what a great deal this is for everyone,” the chapters (and their alumni) are now being told, “You now have a handful of months to buy your chapter house back.”

I am disappointed at the short-sightedness that appears to be at work here.

Rick Hambright Says:
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:29 pm
I like how all of a sudden they figure out LCAP is millions of dollars in debt and the only way to get out is to liquidate all properties. Thanks a lot. They totally screwed over the chapters involved. No one saw this coming until now?

Roger Pruger Says:
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Its funny how LCAP was so gung ho about us handing over our chapter houses, about the economies of scale, and the substantial savings that should have taken place. Poor money management, negotiating skills with builders, and lack of sound leadership by LCAP doomed what should have been a very successful and finacially profitable business model. The property, excluding building in Oxford is likely worth $500,000 plus dollars without the facility. LCAP exceeded their budget of rehab by 25% with renovations, and now are begging us to take the property back and the mortgage, even though we had no mortgage when we gave them the house. LCAP and the overall leadership failed to listen to our local alumni members and their concerns about the chapter. They failed to recruit enough new members when we came back and called it a close tight knit brotherhood, they failed to manage their budget, and they turned our house into a “Nursing Home”. Frustration and embarassment has lead to many alumni walking completely away from a group they really loved.

I wouldn’t go to war without soldiers and a former general, yet LCAP jumped in without those individuals who have worked in property management or had a clue as to what was going.

Lambda Chi Alpha has hung us out to dry.

Todd M. Curro Says:
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:13 am
While the LCAP directors have my utmost respect, I was rather alarmed when I first heard about LCAP, and felt that the Fraternity was getting in over its head by branching out into property ownership at the Chapter level.

This is a serious setback not only for the Fraternity at the International level, but also at the local level for those chapters that may soon be homeless.

Todd M. Curro
B 1233 (Maine ‘95)

Gamma Zeta Says:
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:46 am
Well, the LCAP article is not 100% accurate.

The Gamma Zeta alumni ARE interested in purchasing back the property. Only we do not have the means to carry it for very long, and we would have to take out a mortgage to purchase it. With no recolonization on the horizon, we wouldn’t have the means to keep the property, and we would end up selling it.

So it doesn’t make much sense for Gamma Zeta to repurchase the property from LCAP only to turn around and sell it. We hope to work out an arrangement with LCAP that would essentially cut-out the middle-man (Gamma Zeta).

If something is not worked out, Gamma Zeta would indeed purchase back the property and sell it.

It is a shame that our first chapter house ever will be torn down.

Claud Erickson Says:
February 3rd, 2008 at 4:30 pm
LCAP is a business, and nothing more. At Michigan State, they have put nothing into the house since buying it from the local chapter during the 90s, yet they are asking a ridiculous (not negotiable) price to buy it back. If Al Queda was looking for an East Lansing fortress, LCAP would sell our house to them in the blink of an eye if the price was right.

Alan Garber Says:
February 3rd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I am truly sad to hear about this decision. Any hopes of bringing back Lambda Chi to Colorado State University are now quashed. Without a the fraternity occupying the property, it surely will be sold.

It’s really tough reading our Creed and not think that maybe things are not going well for the Fraternity as a whole. Has Lambda Chi lost it’s faith and hope?

Chris Dodd Says:
February 3rd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Few points that should be pointed out: LCAP dealt with less than approx.475 brothers in total - so while we spin our wheels over physical plants, what about the other 9000 men that deserve the attention, money and support from IHQ that is being funneled into the failing LCAP; if the General Fraternity continues to pour money into a ill managed and executed housing plan, what parts of overall fraternity operations do we put on hold or discontinue? How many expansions do we put off. I never heard anyone at HQ say this was a good situation. We have to acknowledge that LCAP is an open wound bleeding money. But it seems the General Fraternity would like to operate in the black and avoid what we heard about from the staff that operated in the red year after year. Finally I would caution all brothers to do a little homework and call 8741 Founders Road sometime, things are not bleak at all; a sold out winter retreat two weeks ago, close to 800 men at the leadership school last summer and campuses asking for us to return because of the new True Brother Initiative. Let us remember to celebrate that recruitment is up, being a consultant is an honor again, and advisers can be trained for free with quality education. And I thought it was cool when our consultant told us ALL manuals are being professionally redone in one year’s time (when they sat unchanged since the eighties up until now); with consistency in recruiting with values, educating with values and HQ teaching quality pre-initiation again, we cannot lose! To wrap up; I agree that LCAP is a horrible nightmare; but that is a bitter pill because none of us paid attention when the previous LCAP Board made some pathetic decisions that has held us all back (no wonder the power chapters like Arkansas sent them packing when they tried to get their house). I think the guys at HQ will make sure there are no “homeless” chapters bound for closure and we will be stronger in the long run. Keep the faith - I have called and talked to consultants and advisers who tell me this is one of the most exciting times to be a brother. So instead of acting like chicken little, call the staff, ask the hard questions, get the answers and celebrate the good - and our Creed will remain strong

Larry Brinkley Says:
February 4th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Promises, promises that is what we got! We listened to LCAP and the fraternity say how great it would be to have the international fraternity run our chapter house. Listening to them we were going to have the best house on campus. Instead the brothers at UNT saw their house left to fall down around them. I agree that it is time for LCAP to go away, but I don’t agree that the zetas that entrusted houses to our Headquarters to take care of our properties should now find themselves deep in debt and struggling to figure out how they will keep the properties. I think the fraternity should take responsibility for its actions. If you make a mistake you don’t put it off on someone else to deal with if you are a true brother.You deal with it. I beg to differ with brother Dodd that it only affected the men at those chapters. It effected 1000’s of brothers unless I like my other brothers are no longer counted among the faithful. So Arkansas was lucky but that does not make them any better than our zeta. Lambda Chi Alpha has long stood for the rights of all brothers including the minority as well as the majority. We all should be treated equal. We will get through the crisis, but I think the fraternity should take some of the responsibility and help the zetas involved instead of putting all the mis-management problems back on them.
A vote for LCAP at one point was for progress! Now the vote is to get rid of a virus. It fed on us and spent a lot of money and we now have nothing to show for its effort but ill will.

I agree that the undergrads are still learning great things under the direction of Bill Farkas but lessons don’t stop at your senior year.

Larry Brinkley
IZZ 433

Tim Ferry Says:
February 4th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
LCAP was run as a business, but not very well. Despite recommendations from chapters and alumni, they treated all of their properties vitually the same. Their downfall was not managing EACH property.
Also, I believe there was some politics with at least one of their properties: due to local alumni pressure at one school, LCAP was forced to cover the loss of a half-empty house for years. My own chapter had under-occupancy, but it was made clear my chapter would cover that cost.
Neglect and apathy can ruin a fraternity, one chapter at a time.
Tim Ferry
Phi Tau 285

Justin Leisure Says:
February 4th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
LCAP, like any business in default, needs to be held accountable. The board of directors have mismanaged funds; funds entrusted by countless alumni and active brothers. They made countless misrepresentations, about their abilities to manage properties, their financial standing, and on and on. Now many chapters will be forced to sell their homes during a down market. Much like a chapter has to answer for their shortcomings, HQ & LCAP should as well. A dissolution plan is only the start.

Jim Hart Says:
February 4th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I built our fraternity house some 35 years ago as an undergraduate with the help of our own Local Alumni House Corp. Frankly we beleived that only the “privileged” few like Butler were able to access LCA money. As a small House Corp still in existence, we have been through good years and bad ones. We have the same troubles about balanced budgets and the like…so I am absolutely shocke that a much larger professional team couold not manage the LCAP well enough to stay in business. Mostly fraternities have not been able to keep pace…financially at least…with the changing living arrangements of college students (I have a son who is a LCA now). Much of that blame lies with the university communities who subsidize every type of housing except the Greek experience. That is the real answer…to become more of an integral part of the educational community…insted of the universiities merely benefitting from our presence. Indeed our primary “competition” may be found right in the university administration looking to offer more out of the box experiences…that I got only from being Greek many years ago.

Surely the LCA experince must be good enough to attract more and better young men than we are doing, and I wish our leadership was doing a better job. Selling out to the Sig Ep’s, or Sigma Chi, etc. never seemed like somewhere we should be!!!

As an alumni….why would LCAP want our House Corp to be in a business that they themself could not run successfully?

Mikel McMullen Says:
February 5th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Lame decision, lame past management. Couldn’t state any better.

T. Healy Says:
February 5th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Clearly the Alumni recognize that LCAP never delivered on their promise of quality housing leveraging expertise, shared purchasing power, better management, and improved communication and relationships with the Active Chapters. Their cut and run strategy is not sitting well with Alumni. Until we Alumni vote with our checkbooks and advise National that they will no longer be receiving contributions from us, they will do nothing to reverse their position. We need to realize that our loyalty needs to be to the local chapter and the local Alumni Board and not to National. They are abandoning us at a very difficult time yet asking us to bail them out.

National will never see a dime from me.

Concerned Brother Says:
February 6th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Okay so what the “New Plan”? Quit, give up and liquidate all LCAP owned properties? Some plan you have there, very nice. That will really help some brothers out.

First off, there’s no way all the properties owned by LCAP were losing investments. I’ve seen the way they’ve operated and the major problem is the way LCAP operated and charged expenses. They would simply write off unpaid rent as overhead instead of holding individuals and chapters accountable. LCAP also had huge bills for overhead that made no sense in the real business world. The expenses of actually running LCAP was more then the profit of all chapters. LCAP had no reasonable structure in place that could actively monitor individual properties expenses vs. profits while keeping overhead in check. What a joke.

I simply have a hard time seeing that all of these LCAP properties lost money. Why don’t you publish some real numbers? Why not figure out what properties lost money, which ones were profitable and support the chapters that make money? Why not keep the profitable ones operating instead of cutting the whole program?

The way LCAP was run is a dishonor to LXA and to all the alumni/undergrads who put there life and investments in LCAP hands. Wouldn’t it make more sense to liquidate the properties that were losing money and keep the profitable ones running? It’s a disgrace to our letters that LXA that they would just quit give up on so many dedicated alumni and undergrads. This is just another example of how out of touch nationals are with local chapters. If LCAP had chapters running in red why would they continue to fund them after years of loses instead of dropping individual chapters along the way while picking up profit generating chapters?

Thank for running over budget on repairs at numerous chapters, thanks for having ridiculous overhead for unpaid rent which should have been sent to collection, thanks for carrying losing chapters for so long it actually crushed the entire program, thanks for wrecking a number of local chapters and alumni groups, thanks for forcing local chapters into extreme debt by charging over market prices for houses they can’t afford in a bad market.