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Hey everyone,
I've received a lot of helpful advice from the posts here, so thank you to everyone who has offered an opinion so far. I'm pretty tired at the moment, but I'll leave you all with a quick update just to tell you all how much things are progressing.
We had our first formal Chapter meeting last night, and it went pretty well. We established what our recruitment goals are, and everyone who showed up was really motivated by the opportunity to recolonize ourselves. Eleven guys out of fifteen showed up to the meeting, and they were all open to the idea of doing whatever was necessary to rebrand our Chapter and defend our charter. I know that this isn't even half of the battle, but still, I was expecting a much lower participation rate, so the fact that so many brothers are keen on helping is encouraging to me.
Our rush shirts have been ordered, and we have also signed up for time slots to table on the walk and give any interested men more information about our Fraternity. We will have a sign-up sheet at the table so interested parties can leave their contact information, and there will also be brothers on hand to hand out flyers about the Fraternity, answer any questions, and also give information regarding upcoming events that we are having. Our first event is a back-to-school party that we are working very hard to organize. When we throw parties, they aren't for us; all of the brothers sacrifice their own night to work different shifts maintaining the party and to ensure that everyone else has a good time. We feel that having a really nice (but not crazy, out-of-control) event to start the year is a good way to make a quick but lasting impression with the students.
In addition to the upcoming party, we are also working with a local company that organizes trips for college students (like paintball, trips to other cities, etc.) to help us plan some really nice rush events. We are also working to get our philanthropy and community service efforts improved. There is a national service Fraternity on our campus that we are considering organizing a community service event with. The reasoning for this is two-fold: 1) these people obviously know what it takes to organize a strong community service effort, and 2) everyone in this service Fraternity (well, every male) is eligible for membership in our Chapter as well. These sorts of mutual partnerships with other established organizations should really be beneficial to us.
I've introduced and begun to implement a lot of ideas that simply haven't been done before in our Chapter. This fresh start has a lot of the brothers encouraged and buying into the cause, which makes me really happy. I was really proud to see that everyone was willing to step up to the plate, and I am very encouraged that things will only continue to improve from here (though I understand that it won't be easy and will require a lot of effort from everyone). The meeting last night reminded everyone, myself included, how great our brotherhood is.
I'm too tired to write anymore, but I'll check in again soon. Thanks everyone. Keep posting; I'm reading all of your suggestions.
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