High Tau

[NRG702]

Hi guys ~

I was just officially installed as the new High Tau today and am very excited about the position. One thing I'm not too excited about though is the current financial state of our fraternity. We owe in the neighborhood of thousands in dues and such. I just wanted brothers' suggestions on what kind of fundraisers they did or what kind of incentives they ran so people pay dues on time. We're switching to Omega Financial next semester, but I don't even really know how that works...just that it'll help a lot. Any ideas or comments?

[Eric_Berger]

I could give some lofty answer about keeping people involved and how that will ensure that they pay their dues, but it sounds like you need some real hardcore answers.

Well, I think you did the first thing already by using Omega Financial. I have heard great things about them and they take all of the dues billing/collection work off of your plate, relieving you of being the chapter "bad guy".

Second thing that you should do is clarify who owes who money (I couldn't tell from your posting, whether Brothers owed the Chapter dues or the Chapters owes the Headquarters money).

Third thing that you should do is budget now for next semester, if it hasn't already been done. Require every officer to submit a budget request, so you and the Executive Committee know how much money folks want for programming. Of course, if you owe the HQ money, paying that off should be the first bit of money that gets budgeted for.

Fourth thing would be to start the collections process by sending registered letters to the deliquent members (especially if they have graduated) indicating that the Chapter will take them to collections unless they pay up the amount owed. Just the threat of collections gets people off their butts.

Fifth thing would be to work with the Executive Committee to enforce the provision of the Constitution and Statutory Code that pertains to Financial Suspension. While this is not always the easiest thing to do, it needs to happen or you will never get out of the spot you are in.

In terms of incentives, you could offer discounts to members who pay Spring dues before they go home for the Holiday break. Offer a discount for members who pay for the whole school year at the beginning of the school year. These discounts don't have to be large. Our Chapter probably has 4-5 guys who pay the whole year at the beginning of the year, in order to save $25 per year. This also helps the Chapter finance the insurance bill that you will receive in August or September.

Lastly, contact your ELC for ideas and thoughts. Since they were at the Chapter in the Fall, they should be able to provide insight that the outgoing Tau may not be able to provide.

Hope this helps!

in ZAX,
Eric

[GammaZeta]

Just a word of advice from a chapter that was killed because of debt. Usually if a chapter owes money in one area, it usually means they owe it in another. I would recommend that you check your tax records, utility bills, or any outstanding debt that you might have. Take care of it before it tears apart the chapter. Gamma Zeta found out it was years back on taxes and owed in the neighborhood of $25,000-$30,000. Recovering from serious debt is almost impossible for a chapter.

[HONKY660]

I was once the High Tau at my chapter. At the time my chapter owed the Fraternity about $14,000. We were able to work out a payment plan with them, plus they are usually desperate for money that they will match often dollar for dollar. I believe that we are now out of debt as of last year. Others have also given good advice as well. Incentives usually work, I gave the dicount for early payment, gave prizes to those who paid dues, and at the end of the semester had a dinner for all bros who paid dues. Just another rout you can take.

Daniel
Zeta-Epsilon 660

[Tom Earp]

NRG702, first off, I fought going to an outside agency!

As an Aluma and a member of House Corp. We thought We could handle it ourselves.

Wrong. Contact Omega Financial. It gets the onus off of your back. As for Dead Beat Brothers and that is what they are, do you have a Lawyer who is an Alum? If so ask him if He will send letters asking for past dues owed.

The Brothers who owe Money are hurting the Totqal Chapter and could get it closed because of it. It also happened at My Zeta because the High Tau was a nice guy.

Some very tough decisions need to be made and now.

I do know a little about the Chapter and membership. Say High To High Pi Pierce for Me, He is one of My Guys and He is very good.

Chapter raising events is tough as people will give for Charity, but not for keeping a Greek Organization alive, they could care less unless there is a lot of local Alums who are willing to work and give of money and time.

Whether you know it or not, at one time All of the Nevada Supreme Court Justices are Brothers. Quite an accomplishment isnt it!

Heck they might still be for all I know.

Please keep us updated and keep postng on Site!

Unpaid Advertisment:

Post on G C, PM, OR EMAIL and Ask Your Brothers Questions, We are here to help!

[vkaul]

Our chapter, on a three-quarter per year system, always had dues due at the begining of each quarter. If you paid them the first week, you got a bonus of 1% (I think) and if you were past the due date (2st week, again, I think) by more than a week, you had a small penalty (unsure of how much.) We, on the whole, weren't too bad about it, though. Money's been tight recently, with a decline in memebers, but we budget fairly effectively.

Until recently, we had a phenominal amount of alumni debt. We turned to a collection agency, as well, and the problem was solved.

This is a slightly different topic, but, I'm always upset about our alumni relations. We always have a great number comming back for homecomming and "Pig Week" in the fall and spring, and we always do well in the "total gifts to the general fraternity" by chapter in the C n C... but I've never seen a cash flow from alumni to the chapter. Is that normal?

[Tom Earp]

Vijay, that can be true.

I read the C & C and see Brothers from LX Z who I do not have emails for but donate to IHQ.

While the reason may be that LXA is a lot bigger than individual Zetas, the Zetas are what Make LXA Int. as good as it is.

But, here comes the rub!

I am A LXA, if my Chapter is NO longer there., I am still a Brother of LXA!

If the Chapter is a bunch of screw ups, I am Still A Brother Of LXA!

We are One as a Whole only if We work as a whole, but We as Individuals are worring about our Chapters. Correct. That is the time priority at the moment isnt it?

What is sad and do not forget this, the High Rho is one of the Most Important Officers of the Zeta.

Alumni relationships is one of the most important Officer Ships.

You keep the Alums involved, things will come a lot easier.

How about a list of Who You and any Brother thinks is the most improtant job of the Chapter!

Tau, Rho, Phi are the three that come to my mind.

[Eric_Berger]

Vijay,

I have two thoughts, not just for your situation, but for the Greek Chat community as a whole.

In terms of donations from Alumni to the Chapter, you need to ask. It is a horrible thing to say, but I give to the HQ because they ask. I hear the same thing from the Chapter...why don't the Alumni give to us? Well, because you haven't sent out a newsletter in five years. Also, what are you going to use this money for?

So here are my two points:

1. Ask the alumni to give to the Chapter but for a specific purpose. Whether it is to fund an academic scholarship, a house improvement issue, or to fund one or two Chapter members to attend a Regional or International Conference (hint, hint, to those Chapters who have poor attendance at these events), give them a reason to give.

2. Get with your Alumni Association or House Corporation and have them work with the Educational Foundation to set up a fund for Chapter use (and these need to be specific because of tax laws). Tell your Alumni who do give to the Educational Foundation to have it go to this specific fund. That way the Chapter directly benefits from their donations.

Hope these ideas help!

in ZAX,
Eric

P.S. In response to Kevin Piket's earlier post, some of us are good High Pi's because we use good ideas from other Chapters (like Kevin's).

[GammaZeta]

Eric's got a good point.

If you ask your alumni for money, the worst thing that can happen is they say "no".

For alot of the chapters that don't have alot of overhead, like houses, etc., alumni donations can help to reduce your dues.

From my past work experiences, if you don't ask for something, you're probably not going to get it.

So do a newsletter, or even a direct solicitation for a donation. It's easier than most people think, and pretty cheap.

I can recommend www.48hourprint.com to use. Just design the piece, they print it up, and will bulk mail it at the cheapest rate possible. All you have to do is email them your list.

A thousand 5.5 x 8.5, full color postcards is $250, mailing services are $150 and about $.18 a piece for mailing your'e looking at about $580.

So, out of the 1000 postcards you send out, if you get 5%, or 50 back, with an average of $25, then you get $1250. A profit of $670. Not bad for an afternoon's work. If you get 10% back at $25, it's a profit of $1920.

[Tom Earp]

GammaZeta and Eric along with all, Seek and Ye Shall Find, or The Dumbest Question is the one You Dont Ask.

What is the relationship with Alums, that can be a key point for trying to help get money in. It is also a key point in getting Alums involved to work with the Zeta.



What it boils down to, and I speak from experience, if they get that far behind, suspend them and if need be, have them expulled. Harsh, not so, it just means they are not good Brothers who put the burden on the rest.

Those that take the wealth and go but return with nothing can be forgiven. Sound familiar?

Get to an outside source to take Brothers out of the picture of having to be nice and not getting the money to pay All of the Zeta Bills or you and the Zeta will go down the tube.

Please tell Bud Pierce, I expect to see Him In Feb. 4 Th Weekend for celebration of 40 Years!

He is still Your High Pi isnt He?

[vkaul]

Oops! I missed a word and lost a lot of meaning. Let me ammend my previous post by changing "alumni relations" to "alumni relations program." It's not and never has been our alumni that I'm upset with. Really, they are a great bunch. But rather, our program. It's more or less consisted of a twice-school-yearly newsletter, which hasn't always gotten out twice a year. Furthermore, it often is just active chapter related stuff, when, acording to an old Rho, it sholud be 60/40 alumni/active news, coordinated and sent out by our Rho. This makes sense to me: the idea would be to help keep all us alumni aware of *each other* and our active chapter.

When I asked "Is that normal?" I was really curious if it is a common occurance that chapters have alumni actively giving money to the fraternity without giving to their chapters. I'm afraid it is.

One of the best points that I've heard in reply to my original comment, Eric emphasized asking for money to fund specific projects. That sounds like a oft-overlooked point. I can totally see passing by a "We'd like some $$, too." But if, in a newsletter, there was, "We'd like to raise X dollars to build a Y." And, better yet, the next newsletter said, "Those who donated helped us build a fantastic X!" with pictures! Who *wouldn't* be donating to the chapter!?!

Eric's second point, setting up a fund with the EF, is also something our chapter should be looking into. I've seen some brothers drop out of Rose because of grades, but I've also seen it happen because of cash. It only makes sense that we should be helping each other get through that highly expensive school.

Now, more than ever, I feel like not having a High Pi has really hurt us. These ideas seem like so much common sense, but we had no one to give them to us. Our chapter always felt, at least to me, isolated from the general fraternity. We just never got involved with SAC, the various student awards/scholarships, etc. We always sent brothers to GCs and such, but the chapter as a whole felt isolated. Especially after the close of the chapter at Indiana State. Although, really, I seemed to only see them at parties (specific brothers excluded).

I tend to make long rambling posts... I think I'll end this one here. : )

P.S. I'll pass on the link to 48hourprint.com (Although I doubt we have 1000 correct addresses, I think we could pull 50 responses.)

[JonoBN41]

Asking for donations really does work. Our alumni association started doing this in earnest about 5 years ago with what we now call the Duesletter which we send out the beginning of each year. Usually it's combined with a printed newsletter, and - most important! - includes a return reply stamped envelope and a slip of paper for the donee's name and any address / e-mail changes.

Response has been good and is getting better every year. We make it a point to ask for only $25, but about half the alumni send more than that - $50, $100, $500, even a thousand or more. This year one brother sent two checks totaling $1,400.

With an alumni base of about 600, we have around 350 valid postal addresses and I think we got 64 checks this year totalling almost $5,500.

Most of the money collected goes to the chapter in one way or another. For the past two years the AA has sent a check in the fall for about $1,500 for them to use for the escalating costs of liability insurance premiums, 90% of which is due very close to the beginning of the school year. It helps them from getting behind right off the bat. Other funds go to the chapter for Founders Day, conferences, General Assembly, etc.

Any leftover money is kept as savings for a possible scholarship or emergencies. Florida Tech is so expensive now that the small amount we have at the present time would be essentially meaningless as a scholarship, but we hope to build that up over time. Right now, we just want to maintain the chapter on a solid footing.

So don't hesitate to try something like this. Although we have a response rate of only 18%, in terms of fundraising that's not bad, and many send more than is asked.