Possible UMASS Expansion

[HONKY660]

UMASS Office of Fraternities and Sororities link that may be of interest to Gamma Zeta.
http://www.umass.edu/greek/Organizat...UMass_Amherst/

[GammaZeta]

APRIL FOOLS!!! No seriously, you're just a few days short Honky.

Kinda funny, I submitted a petition of over 100 alumni willing to donate time and major $$$ (including some people in professional sports, doctors and lawyers) to HQ and no one ever got back to me...

Now, with an already VERY successful recolonization of PIKE, which just happens to be living in our FIRST CHAPTER HOUSE, HQ has finally decided to do something???

Day late and a dollar short.

I kept asking when we would recolonize, and when I did get a response, it was "Umass greek system is dead and it wouldn't be worth it."

All while new fraternity after new fraternity kept popping up at Umass!

Either someone at HQ had a huge grudge against Gamma Zeta and was stopping it, or our research for possible expansion/recolonization is woefully inadequate.

[Tom Earp]

What???

This is not true? If not, how did it get on UMass site?

[GammaZeta]

No Tom, I meant it as being a complete "joke" in the way this was handled.

My main concerns:

1. After several fraternities recolonized at Umass successfully over the past 4 years(including one living in our house), why did it take HQ until NOW to finally realize it was possible to get LXA back at Umass? Several of us alumni personally made HQ aware of that fact.

2. I kept getting the answer that "it wasn't possible", even though other fraternities were doing it.

3. That leads me to believe that A. HQ has no CLUE on how to determine if a recolinization will be successful B. HQ was relying on BAD FACTS and didn't bother to investigate themselves, or C. Someone in HQ had a vendetta against Gamma Zeta and lobbied against recolonization for personal reasons.

4. If it is ANY or ALL of those reasons, I think we are headed for some troubled times.

[Tom Earp]

I do not think you should jump to judgement to soon.

The new IHQ leaders are more apt to work with Gamma Zeta than the ones before. I know who you are refering to and I understand where you are coming from.

From seeing this on the UMASS web site, I would figure it is a good sign. If it is going to happen, this would be a good time to rally the Alums once again.

[GammaZeta]

Tom, why should I bother to rally the Alums once again?

I ALREADY DID IT ONCE AND NOTHING GOT DONE!!!

We HAD the MONEY in place, we HAD the VOLUNTEERS in place, and all we got was a "no thanks".

Well ya know what? In that time there have been NUMEROUS expansions by OTHER FRATERNITIES.

So I want to know, was it an inside job? Was our HQ to inept to get the facts for themselves? Do they have any idea about recolonizations?

I guess LXA nationally has been doing SO DAMN WELL, that we wouldn't need another chapter. Our recruitment numbers are SKYROCKETING so that we wouldn't need another 30-40 guys. It's not like we've had numerous chapter closings this past decade. Ya, LXA definately doesn't need another chapter.

[john1082]

I think that there is a commitment to returning to campuses now. California will see three colonizations within the next 18 months or so: UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and Berkeley. All fine academic schools where we should (and do) want to be. I don't know where U Mass falls into the pecking order but it would seem to be a school where we would want to be at as well.

[Trey_P-I_47]

Hey everyone,

Well its been awhile since ive posted up here, but i have been keeping up with whats going on.

Anyway, i was sitting here thinking about this little situation and i think i understand where GZ is coming from, it must be awful dissapointing to do all of that work and get things to IHQs specifications as far as having Alumni, Volunteers, Money, etc and then nothing ever coming of it.

But, now it seems that Nationals is finally actually interested, and whatever mistakes were made in the past regarding Gamma Zeta should in my opinion be forgiven/grudges dropped. After all we are a Brotherhood of helpig each other, and eventhough people make mistakes at some point we should forgive them and move forward.

It appears to me that there might have been a possible situation a couple of years back concering Gamma Zeta, but with new people in place running our organization, it looks like we are making postive steps forward, especially in this particular case.

Now GZ, i see you keep asking the same question concerning the recolonization of Gamma Zeta, but do you really think ayone form Naionals is ever going to own up to the scenarios you mentioned above?

I think Gamma Zeta should take the oppurtunity now and run with, prove IHQ wrong about UMass and their unsupportable Greek System. With Nationals now willing, this is the oppurtune time to make Gamma Zeta extraordinary and then SHOW the yall were right all along.

In ZAX

[GammaZeta]

Trey, I have already proved them wrong YEARS ago. I have already shown that I was right all along.

I am not concerned for Gamma Zeta as much as I am about a possible institutional flaw in how HQ recolonizes.

We're not talking 15, 20 years ago, but 3-5.

Think about this for a second:

Here we had a situation where several of us alumni demonstrated that we had the people in place.

There were new and old fraternities being colonized at the university.

One of which was colonized in LESS THAN A SEMESTER and had enough people to live in our old house.

But...........HQ did nothing, knowing this.

I'm don't care about what happened in the past with Gamma Zeta.

What I DO CARE about is the numerous OTHER scenarios that HQ is ignoring/doesn't care about.

How do we know this isn't happening nationwide?

I think we need to know what happened and how do we fix it!!!!

Just "moving on" doesn't fix the problem.

I'm not holding any ill will or grudges. I never had. I just wanted the truth to come out.

"but do you really think ayone form Naionals is ever going to own up to the scenarios you mentioned above?"

No, they won't. That's where WE come in. WE need to hold them accountable. WE need to make sure they are doing their job.

It's kind of funny. Just a few years ago, someone from HQ told us group of alumnis that "there will never be a LXA at Umass ever again" and "the Umass greek system is dead".

How many times did this happen, or is STILL happening across this country?

There is a problem here that needs to be addressed. Not for Gamma Zeta. But for our ENTIRE fraternity.

[Trey_P-I_47]

Like i said i understand where yu are coming from and i would probably feel the same way.

My thoughts on GZ is this: it appears as if someone had a long standing grudge against your chapter, and it seems with some new heads in place, they started to listen.

I think what has happened is the person who held the grudge is no longer there, or we got some people in officer positions with backbones and dont just make a decision based from their golf buddies, but are actually wanting to help us out.

I know our chapter was/is struggling on a campus thats not very welcoming to a "white" fraternity, however we have already been sent some help from HQ. So i do believe they are there to help out. Like i sad your situation looks like one of a personal vendetta.

[GammaZeta]

Maybe there should be some sort of changes to HQ where decisions aren't made by "golfing buddies".

Regardless, why didn't someone higher up do something?

If it was really a "grudge", then why didn't someone step up? Most of HQ knew about our efforts. Most of HQ knew about the status of Umass. Are we going to let one person decide LXA's future? Why did the higher ups ignore the facts?

Maybe we should have a neutral, unbiased committee to decide where and when to recolonize?

[john1082]

I think that the 'marching orders' are to return to campuses where we used to have chapters. If a golden opportunity presented itself at a new campus then we'd take a look at it but right now we aren't going to go prospecting at campuses where we haven't had a presence before.

[Tom Earp]

Gamma Zeta, let me refresh your memory for a moment.

At the conference in Indianoplis, there was a local at the time living in the old house. They were invited to the conference to try and persuade them to affiliate with LXA. I know of two Brothers on this site who talked with the young men, myself and Brother Jono.

I called them a couple of times and then they just disapeared.

I am aware as you know the person that you are refering to and he is no longer at IHQ. He also was the one totaly dead set about going back to UMass.

With the current leadership who I along with Trey have delt with, there is a huge change. We as a Fraternity were darn near bankrupt and changes had to be made. As all of have seen a lot of hard changes had to be to cut the budget and get the finances back in place. The electronic C & C, cuts in staffing and other things that we may not be aware of. But the one thing that was held in place was the number of ELCs to work with existing chapters.

The time frame you are talking about was before Bill Farkas and Biff Holloway arrived and many changes have taken place. Some not so good, but many more to the good.

Expansion at that point of time was just not in the cards as it is today. As John said, there is a concerted effort to go back to closed chapters and reopen them as opposed to expansion in new areas unless there is a compelling reason to do so. I have worked with both Bill and Biff concerning my chapter that should ahve been closed but was sent help and LX Z is now growing again.

So now GammaZeta, since there is an effort to come back to UMass, now is not the time to keep complaining about the past, but to plan for the future.

1. Begin working again with Alums and build a strong core group.
2. Have monies in place for aiding the possible new chapter.
3. Work with IHQ not against them.
4. When the chapter is reopened, have a web site in place.

Be part of it or not, that is your call and complaining what had happened before will not get anything done now.

I am sure all of the Brotherhood would like to see Gamma Zeta opened again.

[GammaZeta]

Tom, I am not complaining about the past, but rather expressing concern about CURRENT decisions that are possibly being made at HQ that are not in the best interest of the fraternity. We need to LOOK AT the PROCEDURES in how recolonization occurs, so that ONE PERSON doesn't determine the fate of a chapter.

That old local has nothing to do with this. They really weren't much more than a science club than a fraternity, and they are no longer there.

[Tom Earp]

GammaZeta whether you agree or not that is your problem.

You do not help yourself or your Alums and Gamma Zeta.

LXA IHQ has made an inquiry about LXA and G Z coming back. It is planned via the School not until 2010!

I think this is to long with the background and History that we have there but I have no power over that, neither does IHQ.

If you and The Alums can prove any different then prove me wrong

You talk crap but show nothing to help.

I have done a lot of work on this to see what can be done and I do not piss and moan! Maybe you should start stepping up the same way?

Your rhetoric is getting very thin!