Please Help- Major Fraternity problems

AConnoyer · #1 10-22-2007, 09:41 PM

Ok so I am now a sophomore and an active in my fraternity. I have been the recruitment chair for 1 and a half semesters and it has gone very well. I love all of the guys in my house and we all get along great.

Now here is the major problem: We have no motivation at all, we have no organization, and our reputation on campus is starting to really hurt because of it. Our chapters are completely unorganized and are a joke. We never have any support at our greek sporting events while all of the other chapters have tons of people. During our homecoming, which is huge, only the pledges and a few of the actives really help out. We have had no philanthropy the past 2 years. Our pledge program is coming together but still a mess. Basically we are completely unknown on campus now and only the houses that personally know us understand how good of guys we are. And even they know that we aren't very motivated. Those are only some examples and I could name many more.

I am just so sick of people not doing anything in my house and I hate the whispers I hear about our reputation when these guys could change it. I feel like most of these guys just isolate themselves. The new guys we have could be a great start to turning this chapter around. I'm looking to become president of the house next semester and If anyone can help me at all with suggestions or plans of turning some of this stuff around.

Thank you so much for any comments anyone posts.

1908Revelations · #2 10-22-2007, 09:45 PM

Can't your Alum chapter help you with having more philanthropy? Maybe you can get some recent graduates (or at least guys that were there brfore the problems) and ask what they did and see if that works.

Hope things get better.

AConnoyer · #3 10-22-2007, 10:27 PM

the main problem with that is we've been like this for the past 4 or 5 years and the only alumni we keep in contact with are the older ones but i might look some up if i can. see how they did it. The laziness of these guys in the house went to the alumni as well and the alumni are kind of sick of it. But this past year has gotten much much better with alumni and rush so that may help with talking to the alumni

AKA_Monet · #4 10-22-2007, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AConnoyer

Ok so I am now a sophomore and an active in my fraternity. I have been the recruitment chair for 1 and a half semesters and it has gone very well. I love all of the guys in my house and we all get along great.

Now here is the major problem: We have no motivation at all, we have no organization, and our reputation on campus is starting to really hurt because of it. Our chapters are completely unorganized and are a joke. We never have any support at our greek sporting events while all of the other chapters have tons of people. During our homecoming, which is huge, only the pledges and a few of the actives really help out. We have had no philanthropy the past 2 years. Our pledge program is coming together but still a mess. Basically we are completely unknown on campus now and only the houses that personally know us understand how good of guys we are. And even they know that we aren't very motivated. Those are only some examples and I could name many more.

I am just so sick of people not doing anything in my house and I hate the whispers I hear about our reputation when these guys could change it. I feel like most of these guys just isolate themselves. The new guys we have could be a great start to turning this chapter around. I'm looking to become president of the house next semester and If anyone can help me at all with suggestions or plans of turning some of this stuff around.

Thank you so much for any comments anyone posts.

What kind of majors are your members? How well do they keep up their grades?

You may have to "cull the colony".

1908Revelations · #5 10-22-2007, 10:41 PM

Maybe a few of you that are pumped about improving can break off into committees to do things. Not that you can tell people what to do, but don't ask when they are avaiable for things just set a couple of dates for projects. So you can say " Saturday we will tailgate at the home game at 4:00 who I need 3 people to set up."

I am sorry you are having all of this trouble. Most groups (work, church, greek whatever) have a few lazy people, but they will have a few people who are willing. Hopefully some fraternity guys will chime in on this thread.

AConnoyer · #6 10-22-2007, 10:44 PM

well tailgating we never have a problem with. We get nearly every member of the chapter plus alumni. Only a few people really realize what kind of problem we are having. Their mindset is well this is what we've always done. Its nothing to the point where our chapter is in danger or anything. We just seem to be isolated from the rest of our greek community and I don't know how to get people motivated and involved.

1908Revelations · #7 10-22-2007, 10:54 PM

The tailgating was an example.

Kevin · #8 10-22-2007, 11:39 PM

Clean house, rebuild. Get the alums on your side, then go forward. They will understand that the chapter is clearly going to fail on its current course and that now is the last time when corrective action can be taken.

ealymc · #9 10-23-2007, 12:34 AM

I concur. Sometimes you have to lean up and take those guys that are actually ABOUT something and make it work. Losers recruit losers; it's a vicious cycle... and people will ALWAYS use the "tradition" excuse of "this is how it was/is/always will be"... don't settle and don't allow them to drag the chapter down from moving to that next level.

FSUZeta · #10 10-23-2007, 10:04 AM

arrrrgh! i had just typed many suggestions and gc timed me out and when i logged on it was gone.

are you a national organization? you could ask that a leadership consultant come to your chapter-they could assess your chapters strengths and weaknesses and suggest a plan of action. he might also be able to boost morale.

many sororities use a points system to get the membership to participate in the less popular activities-chapter meetings, study hours, fundraisers, attending intramurals events to support the chapter, attending campus lectures and productions, etc. each event has a predetermined number of points to earn the required amount of points so that they can attend their formal(or tailgates or mixers) seniors graduating that semester don't have to earn as many points.

support the other campus organizations in their fundraisers and philanthrophies-wear your letters when you do.

have a weekely letters and lunch day. all the brothers wear shirts with your letters on them and sit together in the school cafeteria. of course, if goes without saying that everyone should be on his best behavior. you could even take it one step further and have a dress day, where the brothers dress up and wear their badges, in addition to the letter and lunch day.

ask each member to join one campus organization. ask the more ambitious brothers to volunteer to hold an office in their other org.

if your campus has a late night escort service and accepts volunteers, have the chapter volunteer and wear their letters when on duty(if that is okay).

if your campus has greek housing, and the houses serve meals, make appointments during the evening meals to make an announcement when you are holding an event. ask some of the best looking brothers to dress really nicely and have a prearranged speech prepared. you could also do this to congratulate the sororities when they win the flag football championship, or the homecoming float competition and take a bouquet of flowers and give it to the president. trust me, this wows the girls!

REE1993 · #11 10-23-2007, 11:02 AM

I think that every organization (GLO and otherwise) goes through spurts where motivation isn't magically happening. In your case, members probably don't see any consequences of their (in)activity.

If you are national/international, do you have community service requirements? If not, maybe think about addressing that on a chapter basis and putting it up for a vote. Poll your members and ask them what activities outside of tailgating would they like to do, that may also benefit campus/charity/etc. Kind of a two-fer.

Maybe have something before tailgating, or wait - how's this idea.... Cleaning up the parking lot/grass/etc. AFTER tailgating (or the game)? Challenge other GLOs to participate, and rotate week-to-week. That gets the guys to focus on something other than themselves....and seeing that they are all there for tailgating, why not stay a half hour longer and help out?

You have to approach this in a non-confrontaional way if the issue hasn't been addressed before. If all else fails, bring out your constitution/creeed/etc. and have the guys answer what your ideals really represent in the "real world". If they come up with the answers themselves, it might spark some motivation, and become something that they are proud of.

Good luck. Let us know how this goes, I am really interested to see what happens!

Kevin · #12 10-23-2007, 12:19 PM

No. Do not boost morale. Clean house. Have your officers come together, gain the cooperation of your national/alums, get rid of everyone who is holding you back. Start from scratch. You'll probably need your alums' financial support to do this, but if they're worth a crap, they'll back you every step of the way.

In my opinion, there is no easy road back. Most chapters in your chapter's situation are going to fail without strong corrective action.

All of this "cleaning up," "becoming more active on campus" stuff will not help when many of your members don't care. Drop the dead weight, THEN pursue those other things.

33girl · #13 10-23-2007, 12:36 PM

How old are the guys who are just sitting around not doing squat?

If they're seniors, I would say wait it out...maybe offer early alum status.

If they're juniors or sophomores, I agree with Kevin. Cut them loose. You're not a sorority, you don't have to worry about quota or total. It doesn't matter if you have 60 guys on your rolls if 40 of them never show up to things or do anything to promote the fraternity's name to the community.

There's nothing wrong with being the "laid back" fraternity on campus - not everyone wants to be Joe College - but if it's to the point where you can't get anything done that doesn't involve alcohol and you can't even get them involved in big events like homecoming (at a school where homecoming is a big deal), you need to do something.

nittanyalum · #14 10-23-2007, 12:39 PM

LOL. Such a stark difference in the approach from the female and the male perspectives.

33girl · #15 10-23-2007, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

LOL. Such a stark difference in the approach from the female and the male perspectives.

I think that's because women believe the sorority makes them. Men believe they make the fraternity. Obviously that's rather oversimplifying, but I really do think that's the crux of it.

Believe me though, I was the first person to say "terminate her sorry butt" for members who didn't show up, did the least amount they could possibly do...I don't believe in dead weight, but that's because I come from a smaller chapter where you just can't afford it. "But she's soooooo nice" didn't hold for me. Let her be nice elsewhere, but not in my sorority where she doesn't fulfill commitments or doesn't know her sisters.