Sounds like your chapter has really made the most of going alcohol-free. I know that Phi Delts are one of the fraternities that is leading the charge for alcohol free. I think the Phi Delts on my campus will be dry by 2001 or 2002, if they aren't already.
To your knowledge, was there any "secret" drinking going on in your house? That's been one of the biggest problems in my chapter. We tell the public and rushees that we're a dry house, yet almost all of the members who live in house are stashing alcohol in their rooms. It's as if we give the impression of being dry just for the sake of setting ourselves apart from other chapters when it comes to rush. Then, once our new members pledge and initiate, they find out the real truth--that there's just as much "secret" drinking going on in the house as there was "out in the open" drinking before our house went dry.
There is a core group of brothers who really want to uphold the rules, and are strict about "no drinking in the house." But I think they are the minority. And it's not doing our chapter any good to have people taking sides against each other: the ones who want to uphold the rules vs. the ones who are going to drink inside the house, even though it's against the rules. I don't know how my chapter plans to stop this problem, because every year it's the older members who corrupt the younger ones and encourage them to go ahead and drink secretly inside the house. Unfortunately, I am four years removed from the active chapter, so it's not really my place to tell the actives how they should run things.
One more question for Phi Delts: what was your chapter like before you went dry? Were you one of the bigger chapters on your campus before that? That can make a difference too...if you're a popular chapter on your campus, you have a good reputation to go on, and being dry shouldn't be as much of an issue to rushees. My chapter was one of the smaller ones on my campus, and we've always had to fight for recognition, so it's really been an uphill climb. It's easier to make a dry-house policy work if you're an established chapter to begin with.
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