At The Crossroads - My Chapter SUCKS

[DeltaSigStan]

Sorry, this is going to be long.

I'm pretty much at the crossroads at this point.

I love Delta Sigma Phi. Period. I love the ritual, the tradition, the fact that I have bros all over the country. I can basically name every active chapter, and make an effort to talk to Delta Sigs from many chapters.

My chapter, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. I thought things were finally turning around, but this evidently is not the case. We initiated 7 great pledges, but I know we could have gotten more if more people had been involved; 6 people in a chapter of 28 do 95% of the work, while the rest just slack off and don't really believe a fraternity is for anything but partying. We never show any interest in philanthropy, and normally just show up with "enough" people to take part. And some members claim that philanthropy, community service, and many other things that we, as greeks, are obligated to do, is "IFC bullsh*t".

Many of the guys just have this "laid back" attitude, and it doesn't bother them that we're the smallest IFC fraternity, that sororities constantly dog us, and the rest of IFC talks so much smack. And they have every right to say it because everything they say is true: my chapter is apathetic and unproductive. I mean, I have SIX, count em, SIX positions in the house, and I do them all to the best of my ability not because of the chapter, but because I love Delta Sig as a whole. But it's so disheartening when members don't even know anything about the ritual outside the founders, don't really care to set up social events (The one exchange we had this semester was set up by me) nor do ANYTHING ELSE.

Nobody understands that we should be the best chapter we should be because we are representing Delta Sigma Phi; they think representation like cheering and yelling and chanting AND KNOWING THE RITUAL is, well, in their words...."gay".

There's nothing I can do to get these guys to work for anything other than themselves, outside the few guys that actually do care. I'm honestly at the point where I'd rather see my chapter closed than in the state we are in; Gamma Alpha is an insult to Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity and damn near 60 years of tradition at SDSU. I'd rather go to Convention every two years and hang out with guys that actually care about the fraternity than see Gamma Alpha just rot the way it's doing.

I know some of you are in this situation, and giving me any tips on how to boost motivation or production just will not work: I can't get these guys to do anything but party, which we suck at as well.

I mean, there's a reason SAE, Phi Psi and KA all are huge chapters and very popular on campus; yeah, they throw awesome parties (which I wish I could be let into, but because I'm a Delta Sig........), but they also do community service, work on campus, and basically, everything else a Fraternity is SUPPOSED to do.

What makes it even worse is that if we throw ONE, ONE good party, the chapter throws its hands in their like "oh, they know Delta Sig now"......"our prescence is so strong"......It's like they purposely get miopic in order to cloud their own illusions.

I also realize that we have a VERY, VERY, VERY superficial greek system where popularity is picked over presentation (otherwise we'd have gotten philanthropy next Spring instead of the house that DID get it, who even TOLD me they didn't want to do it. But I'm at the end of my rope.

I sat there, one night, and told myself that the rest of the house can go screw themselves; if ONE person had to set up EVERY social event (i.e call the sorority to actually ask), maintain our website, plan EVERY alumni event, AND go to every scholarship meeting (I dropped Greek Week chair), then fine, I'll do it...not because of our chapter, but because I love Tonsor, Boesky, 1899, CCNY, and everything else about Delta Sigma Phi. I'll call every sorority, I'll call all the alumni, I'll do everything I can to make sure we're doing SOMETHING besides sitting on our (collectively) fat asses. I'll be the guy who represents the ideals that one jew and one christian founded back on December 10, 1899.

But on the other hand, why should I keep doing this when I'm not getting ANYTHING out of it? When the rest of frat row thinks we're a joke, when almost every sorority walks by our house during walkaround and doesn't even acknowledge our presence?(Thanks KD and Sigma Kappa BTW, you make my Sunday nights). And most importantly, why should I keep doing this when the rest of Gamma Alpha doesn't share the same passion for this fraternity that I do?

I just really don't know where to go from here. I realize that I shouldn't worry about the other greeks, and that I need to stop bitching, but what else can I say/do when you're the smallest and least popular house, and people keep bullsh*tting themselves into thinking otherwise?

I really don't know where I'm going with this, other than I'm just tired of it all, but I can't leave because I love those three letters just too damn much.