I completely thought I replied to this thread..oh well, here goes:
This has been a rather long battle between the fraternity and the Memorial Foundation. This article gives some solid background:
http://readthehook.com/stories/2004/...SigHeadqu.html
Basically, this all came out of a misunderstanding of assumptions; the fraternity assumed it held power over the Memorial Foundation and IMH, and the Memorial Foundation assumed it held power over IMH. There were issues over the years over the maintenance of the facility, but the real problems came when the Memorial Foundation tried to sell the property. Then it became an issue of who really had the rights to the headquarters and land, the fraternity as a whole or the Foundation.
It turned into a mess, and several well-known board members of the Foundation (Bob Dole and Sam Donaldson included) resigned from the board. The Foundation retained rights the the property, and now the fraternity is building a new headquarters, mainly from money donated by alumni. One alum has pledged $1 million, and there are other large donors who are funding the bulk of the project. Hundreds of brothers have also donated funds.
Other brothers would probably be able to supplement my explanation; I can't remember all of the details of what happened. We're getting a brand new headquarters that looks like it will be amazing, but it's been a tough process with everything else that has happened.