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Originally Posted by dnall
Yeah, you're going to be broke, which will very seriously limit what you can do, as well as your ability to grow in competition with other chapters (assuming they're actually 50-60). That's not necessarily deadly, but it is a significant challenge to overcome.
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How do you figure? I know of chapters that have no house, dues of just a couple hundred dollars a semester, and they do just fine... because the campus culture doesn't require HUGE events that cost tons of money. You have no idea what this poster's situation is. Don't make blanket statements when you've been provided with virtually no details.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dnall
There is a difference between financial difficulty and buying power.
Quick math lesson, X dollars times 20 guys is less than X dollars times 20+anything, especially X+50 which is where he said the other fraternities are.
At any location, dues rates are not just set randomly, they are normally within a range of what the market will bear. In other words, if you raise dues another $100/yr it would lose you more members than the increased income would replace.
As a social fraternity you need Y number (normally 14-20/yr) and Z quality (locally defined) of events to show your members their monies worth in social events. That costs X money. Your competitors for recruitment & social market share have presumably 200% more than you. That doesn't mean you fail, it means you have to be twice as good as them to stay competitive.
If they pay you 1000/yr dues, and 400 of it goes to social, you need to make that 400 seem like it was worth 1000 to the guy. If you don't do that, then you will have trouble retaining guys &/or collecting dues. That's not particularly hard to do, but it takes hard work and creativity. If you are a small chapter versus a couple other larger chapters, then you won't be able to out compete them financially in social events. You can only lean harder on the hard work/creativity and take fun classy guys.
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Fraternity dues and how they get a chapter what they want/need is not an exact calculation in the way you describe.
Also, at my school, the largest chapter on campus was the one that lost their house, participated in events with other chapters the least, and didn't show up to Greek week at all in my last year of school. The reasons for that, I'm not really sure. But the smaller chapters never had a problem. Hell, my chapter was the smallest of the sororities, we paid about $150 in dues a semester, and the only time that we really "struggled" financially was when trying to collect money to send sisters to convention. But we got it done.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dnall
For an NIC fraternity at any school that is 14-20 events a year, and those have a definable cost. It will be variable from place to place, depending on the rule structure between your school and nationals as locally enforced, and what things cost in that area based on what's available.
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What the F^%& are you talking about? Where are these numbers coming from? Just because you say it's true, doesn't make it so.
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20-anything is always going to be a struggle for resources. That chapter would be best served to get their numbers up closer to 40. There's a lot more synergy in that range to capitalize on.
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How do you know this?! Because of your super-scientific calculations?
Stop posting. Seriously. How many people have to say it before it sinks in?
Fewer than 30 members DOES NOT equal a chapter that can't afford to survive. CUT IT OUT. You've tried saying this all over GC, and NO ONE agrees with you... because there are numerous examples that prove you wrong.
Brotherhood is what matters. The rest is gravy.