Small town fraternity in need of help

[one800thekiller]

Hey all,

I'm new to this site..and to be honest i was a bit hesitant to come here for help. I'm usually not one to ask others for help, but when dealing with something as important to me as the future of my fraternity, I knew it was time to swallow my pride, so to speak.

So here it is.

I attend Alderson-Broaddus college in Philippi, WV.
We have a little over 700 students that actually attend the school.

For such a small campus, we have a decent greek life on campus.
We have 4 different local sororities, as well as one national

In addition to that we have two(soon to be 3) Fraternities on campus.


Recruiting has never been an easy task, as you all know, but on such a small campus it is an even harder task.

Our numbers are dwindling to say the least, we now have three actives on campus......which .....sucks ...for lack of better words...

The thing is......i know...that if people would give us a chance...and hang out with us....and the alumni.....that still frequently comes to visit...that they would be all about it....

but no one wants to join an organization with only 3 actives in it......


There are just so many people i see on campus, I know they have what it takes to be wearing the letters......



Any kind of suggestions at all would be greatly appreciated.
Keep in mind though, it is a small campus....


Thanks again all

[Firehouse]

I can tell you how to do this.
First, you have to want to be a good fraternity. By that I mean successful, dynamic, fun, aggressive and exciting. The other side is small, unambitious, irresponsible and loutish.

A fraternity doesn't get good slowly. You have three members now; you could have thirty by the end of the year. And if you do, you will find yourself having the best time of your life.

I looked through your college website. All the Greeks appear to be locals. You describe yourself as a service fraternity, thought I assume friom your letter that you are social.

If you have only three members, I am going to assume that your competition is small too. Your college has intercollegiate athletic teams. Go offer them the opportunity to join your fraternity as a group; you may be surprised at their positive response. One of the things you can use as a sales point is the possibiltiy of becomnig part of a national fraternity. All you have to do it get about 30 members, contact a list of national fraternities and call yosefl an "interest group".

The way to get good/big fast on your campus is to pledge collections of men at one time. The varsity soccer team, a dorm floor, an intramural sports team...all of these are good targets. Dioes fast growth cause poblems? Sure, so does winning the Lottery. But they're problems you can solve while you're having fun.
Three men is not a fraternity, but you don't have to be a three-man group. Move quickly ansd aggressivley. Don't be afraid to fail. Keep you goal in mind of 30 by the end of the year.

[EE-BO]

Originally Posted by one800thekiller

Any kind of suggestions at all would be greatly appreciated.
Keep in mind though, it is a small campus...

This is a tough one for me because I come from a very large southern campus where fraternities and sororities are very socially driven, but here goes and I hope I can help.

As you said- your college has 700 students. You indicate there are 2, soon to be 3, fraternities- but according to your school's website, your fraternity is the only one recognized by the college. This is a big plus for you.

Before I go further, here is a link to the list of student organizations at Alderson-Broaddus. As the OP's profile indicates, he is a member of Phi Delta Sigma- the only fraternity recognized by the university (see the Panhellenic Council link in the below link),

http://www.ab.edu/current_students/s..._organizations

In looking through the various GLOs [GLO=Greek Letter Organization] at your campus (not all of them under the scope of Panhellenic Council), I noted that all but one sorority has a specific designated purpose that is not purely socially driven. It would appear that Greek life at your campus is driven more by philanthropic activities or activities based on a student's major- nursing and business to give two specific examples.

The link for your organization indicates that service to the community and the promotion Christian values are two primary aims of your organization. And so I offer the following suggestions in light of that,

1. How much are the dues for your organization? What is that money used for? In an organization such as yours I would imagine the most attractive option is to have the majority of dues be donated to charity with only a small portion- if any- dedicated to a dinner or other basic social event for members every semster/year.

2. How large are the 2 non-recognized fraternities at your campus? What kind of dues do they charge? What do they spend the money on? Why are they not recognized? Do you see any comparability in their mission compared to yours that would make them "competition" for you? Do you have any interest in realigning your goals and purpose to compete with them?

3. Your campus has active church-based organizations. What could your organization offer to individuals in these groups in terms of service and promotion of Christian values that they are not already getting? Could your group perhaps seek to enhance that experience by offering additional philanthropic activities and occasional social events? Your goals as stated at the college website are very much in line with what church groups offer- and the University of Georgia is a prime example of a campus with a very strong social greek system where a lot of GLO-worthy individuals are instead involved in church groups because the latter fulfill their personal goals and also provide social contacts for friends and potential spouses. The 2 colleges are not comparable, but just keep this in mind. You need to find a way to offer something extra and different that would make people want to belong to your group as well as any church groups.

4. Would you consider going co-ed? Since your organization is service-driven, accepting male and female members seems a logical option. Sure it is more complex than that, but consider the option.

5. Go for friend blocks. We do this at big Greek campuses too. Specifically- when you rush a guy, if he has a few solid friends who would be good candidates- try and get all of them at once. It brings you several members at once and it is very appealing to a candidate to know he could join a group at the same time as people he already considers good friends. Get yourself 2-3 blocks of 2-3 guys who are friends- and then all of a sudden you have over 10 members.

I hope this helps, and please do post any more details and answers to the above questions to the degree you feel comfortable. The more information is out there on the basics of your situation (meaning don't feel pressured to give specifics you think wise to not advertise on the internet)- the more people can help.

[one800thekiller]

Dues are almost nothing at all, enough for us to provide materials for the pledging process with very little left over if any at all.

One fraternity is actually Phi Mu Alpha, but to be quite honest they are falling apart.- The other is a new Local fraternity that can't even start pledging until second semester(assuming they have the OK from pan-hel)

The college does have a large church base, but the majority of the church crowd has a very negative view on the greeks on campus.

As far as going Co-Ed...a good bit of our fraternity is still alumni driven...with this is mind, making such a large change would be nearly impossible.
On the same note, two of the sororities on campus were actually started by our fraternity, so to create a rivalry between our sister organizations...just wouldn't work

The friend block seems simple enough, and i'm working on that this semester alot....before my time we kind of narrowed our prospectives, and i guess it just takes time to broaden them again.



I hope this helps

Thanks,

[lucgreek]

Originally Posted by one800thekiller

One fraternity is actually Phi Mu Alpha, but to be quite honest they are falling apart.- The other is a new Local fraternity that can't even start pledging until second semester(assuming they have the OK from pan-hel)

Why would Panhel be able to decide when you can/can't rush? I'd be pretty pissed if the opposite gender council was tossing orders at me.

[EE-BO]

Originally Posted by one800thekiller

Dues are almost nothing at all, enough for us to provide materials for the pledging process with very little left over if any at all.

One fraternity is actually Phi Mu Alpha, but to be quite honest they are falling apart.- The other is a new Local fraternity that can't even start pledging until second semester(assuming they have the OK from pan-hel)

The college does have a large church base, but the majority of the church crowd has a very negative view on the greeks on campus.

As far as going Co-Ed...a good bit of our fraternity is still alumni driven...with this is mind, making such a large change would be nearly impossible.
On the same note, two of the sororities on campus were actually started by our fraternity, so to create a rivalry between our sister organizations...just wouldn't work

The friend block seems simple enough, and i'm working on that this semester alot....before my time we kind of narrowed our prospectives, and i guess it just takes time to broaden them again.

Thank you for the additional info. This helps me offer more suggestions. I still have not figured out the multi-quote thing, so below is my reply in the order of your comments above,

1. Good deal on the dues. In the situation you present, I would think low dues are a good thing. My only suggestion would be to see if you could get away with adding $20 a semester or so to cover a small social event- even just dinner or bowling. Something formally organized for chapter members.

2. As to what you say about the other fraternities- this is where your status as an approved organization can help. I would suggest advertising on campus to the extent allowed, and even see if you can have a representative present during student orientation to seek members. If nothing else, maybe you guys could volunteer to help new students move into the dorms. As a recognized student organization, that could be your chance to do a little soft selling or hand out brocheres as you help freshmen move in. Your status as the only recognized fraternity can work to your benefit- find out every way you can use that to access students through the college in ways your competition cannot.

3. On the church member issue, I am surprised that church group members are not Greek-friendly since it appears that all your approved Greek organizations are either service or academics driven. I would suggest giving much thought as to why that animosity exists, and whether you would be better off moving in a new direction or finding a way to make yourself more appealing to members of church groups who- on paper at least- should be at least supportive of your mission.

4. Cool on the co-ed side. This is why I asked before firmly suggesting it. The reasons you list are very good ones to remain a male fraternal organization. Based on what you say it seems clear maintaining your current position will be better than trying to go co-ed.

5. Final suggestion- when you engage in service projects, try to get some press- be it the student or local town paper. Individual modesty is, I think, key to performing community service with the right motives- but it never hurts to make sure the organization as a whole gets some attention as that can be inspirational not only to potential members but to the community at large to get involved in the ideals you espouse.

Hope these additional ideas are helpful to you and best of luck.

[ASTalumna06]

Suggestions:

1.) When doing service events, try to do them on campus, and invite others to participate. Some students may not consider joining Greek Life, but they'd like some experience with volunteer work or the like. Don't even advertise it as a fraternity event. Just ask people to help you out. Or bring awareness to a good cause. Collect donations for a disaster relief fund. Have a campus clean-up day. Celebrate National Hazing Prevention Week (Sept 22-26, '08). Hand out information about the upcoming presidential election. Do anything that will allow people on campus to see that you're involved in a positive way. (And get another organization to help you out if you need more people - and try to recruit them too!)

2.) I also went to a smaller school (a few thousand more people than your school), but still small. Your school actually has more GLOs than mine. So that says something. People must be interested in Greek life. My chapter was also down to less than 5 members about 5 or 6 years ago, and it sucks. But you can build it back up. Just meet as many people as possible! If people are your friends first, they'll have a chance of being your brothers next. Don't sell people on the idea of the fraternity. Sell them on the idea of being your friend.

3.) Use your chapter size to your advantage. Don't think only in terms of "What can we offer to students?" but, "What can the students offer to us?" You're small. You need people. Hard-working, motivated people. Advertise that way. Talk about what you're looking for, and then what you think other men on campus can do to help. Sometimes, when people know they can be a large part of what helps an organization to grow and run effectively, they will be that much more likely to take an interest.

4.) Will your school fund an event for you? On my campus, one of the fraternities had a bowling night at a local bowling alley. But instead of directing it only toward men as a recruitment event, they opened it up to all students, and they received enough funding for all of the brothers, and to have an additional 30 people join them. They had a sign-up sheet in the student union, and the first 30 people to sign up got to bowl for free.

5.) Talk to the sororities! There is obviously an interest in Greek life from the women on campus. Keep an open line of communication with them. Do service projects with them. Ask them out to dinners and events. Because there's a good chance that collectively, these women know A LOT of men. And see if you can make a formal presentation to them at their business meetings. Talk to them about what you do, what you can offer, and the type of men you're looking for (and bring them a small gift, like their sorority flower for each one of them). Then ask them to write down on a piece of paper names of as many intelligent, hard-working men that they know. This will give you names of people you can contact. And there's a good chance that girl will tell her guy friend that she gave you his name. This way he won't be so surprised when you get in touch with him.

Be creative and open-minded and you'll go far.

[one800thekiller]

thanks for the help all, rush is fast approaching here, so i will keep you all updated on the status

[DS_Castro]

one800thekiller,
President here of a small local fraternity. The university I am in has roughly 1800students. Obviously more than yours, but since I am located in Quebec, Canada. They generally are not accustomed to Fraternities, and thus we have extremely low interest in the fraternity from campus. So It seems as small as yours.

The number one thing I would say, Is for one month you have got to focus (all three of you) on the fraternity. This is mainly done in September, but you can focus on October now i suppose.

I encouraged my guys (5of us right now) to go to as many different club meetings as possible. We got REALLY NICE shirts from one of our alumni, that has a roll number on the back and name and what not on the front. We wear these to the meetings. When we go party, we wear them.

We knew we had to grow this semester or we would die, so we also threw a legendary party. Molson Sponsored us, we had a live band AND a live DJ. We had a beerpong table out, as well as a foosball table. We had roughly 180 people show up. We invested in female shirts that had our fraternity name on them, and tossed them into the crowd and gave guys free Molson stuff (That molson gave us).

We didn't take a break from the party, and went right into rush. We got to know everyone, didn't sleep at all. you are catering to the rushies, but dont let them know that.

We have our alumni coming down this weekend for homecoming, and we are getting them to meet them, drink with them. Then we make them pledges. This semester was so good, we already have minimum 4 guys, more like 10 though. The highest we have ever seen in one semester is 4 (my pledge group), so this is awesome.

If you need more help then this, let me know, send me a message. I have tons of things you can do.

[hayden83]

I've recommended what I call the "Facebook rush" strategy to some of my smaller chapters. The members go through their male friends at their school on Facebook and make a judgement about what it would take to have each individual student pledge, and then they use that to approach the student. This is an easy way to build a large list of potential members.

Given just how small your chapter is, you might try the "we have a proud history and we're looking to re-establish ourselves on this campus, and we need your help" angle. In effect, admit you're small, need help, and come from the position of rebuilding your chapter.

[gr33k_boi45]

hey boi - first i just wanna say, u guys gotta STAY STRONG and remembver that teh Lord will watch over u and guide ur FRATERNITY to great things!!! praise HIS name

i might suggest if i may following the xample set by us brothers at beta rho and recruiting from a diverse selection of potential brothers... i.e. brothers (the black kind), gay ppl, indians, whellchair ppl, ppl with confederate flags, etc. etc.... just keep it cool and remember to stay REAL.

[Elephant Walk]

hahahahahahah

please don't ban this guy, he's too cool.

[SWTXBelle]

I love the idea of Confederates as a singular group.

So all you so-called diverse groups - if you don't have someone with a Confederate flag . . .

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by gr33k_boi45

hey boi - first i just wanna say, u guys gotta STAY STRONG and remembver that teh Lord will watch over u and guide ur FRATERNITY to great things!!! praise HIS name

i might suggest if i may following the xample set by us brothers at beta rho and recruiting from a diverse selection of potential brothers... i.e. brothers (the black kind), gay ppl, indians, whellchair ppl, ppl with confederate flags, etc. etc.... just keep it cool and remember to stay REAL.

qfp

[IFKY]

My little started this feed.... keep up the good work. and help my fraternity survive bro!!