Quote:
Originally Posted by GammaZeta
Only problem is, NOTHING WILL EVER BE DONE.
Will HQ take any acton? Never. They are just as at fault. They ALLOWED incompetence to run LCAP. They hired the people. They allowed it to go on for years.
There never was a business model.
Like I said before, they should have hired an outside, accountable property management firm to run the properties. Ownership would still be in LXA's name.
But this isn't the best part of it!!!!
In a few years, we will be in the SAME exact situation. More buddies will be hired, actions will be unaccounted for, no one will question, and those that do will be put into a witch hunt.
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All very solid points that I think can be applied to many fraternities today as national office structures and fundraising models are fundamentally shifted.
I think in many cases the shifts are intelligent approaches to a changing world. The difficulty is that leadership are often reluctant to be transparent about what they are doing because they know there will be criticism. But at the end of the day, there will always be critics- and so when you are not forward with your plans you just alienate even more people who are more upset about being left in the dark than about the long term game plan and how it can be practically executed.
With something like LCAP there is an inherent additional difficulty since you are talking about housing. That is the one aspect of fraternity life that absolutely demands a businessman's approach, and to put it in the hands of people with a different mindset and skill set is dangerous.
As to your comments about professional management and getting into the same mess every few years- this is, I think, the sad story of every fraternity at the chapter, alumni and national level. Preserving and passing down historical knowledge to capable leadership is very difficult.
Add in real estate management and running a non-profit that engages in mortgage transactions, and an entity like LCAP has far less ability to financially absorb periods of mismanagement- plus the general implications of bad decisions can have an incredible impact. And note that mismanagement does not necessarily mean fraud or malice. More often mismanagement is the result of people getting in over their heads.
If a fraternity adopts a policy that proves unpopular or ineffective, they can just change it if the leadership realizes it will cost them membership.
But poor management of a housing entity that has engaged in legal transactions with banks or other third parties, and must manage significant non-cash assets under the scrutiny of the IRS and other legal bodies has far less breathing room to make mistakes. And to be fair to LCAP- given the massive changes in the housing market in recent years including property appreciation, scarcity of real estate in proximity to major universities and a whole new range of mortgage options which are much less stable than traditional mortgages; it is quite possible that these were well-intentioned people, perhaps even somewhat familiar with real estate, who got caught up in a mess.
The right answer is to get the numbers and find out what really happened. And yes, the witch hunt concern is a valid one. Quite frankly, if LCAP and LXA are not letting out financial information to alumni who have the status and education to be of assistance- you are going to have to find guys like that who are willing to risk being ostracized for doing a good deed for the benefit of the present and future of LXA.
If you want a financial expert to look at whatever public reports are available on LCAP- PM me and I can at least take a closer look. When I first came to this site I had just become an advisor to my chapter, and Tom Earp was a HUGE help to me- and has been all this time- giving me advice on how to do my work- and his advice has been key to my success. If I can help you guys out in some small way in return, I am happy to do it.
I think goal #1 is to find out what is really going on and then decide later the extent to which there were inappropriate or reckless actions later. Odds are this is just an honest effort that went bad because people did not know what they were doing. That does not make those guys bad brothers, but it still does not help the chapters who might get unfairly messed over in the short term.