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Alright, sorry I haven't been keeping up, I'll try and respond but if I miss something remind me and i'll get to it. Regarding change, sure obviously the members have a certain amount of power, and I have been to both national conventions, as well as led focus groups at regional convention regarding recruitment practices and new member education. Maybe I mispoke regarding an overhaul, because I'm not sure that the national organization really could help us other than to have a sort of "hands off" policy, which they basically do. My chapter does well in recruitment, is good on campus, but I think the frustration that my brothers have involve the lack of emphasis nationals puts on realistic improvement. Having turned our chapter around about 15 years ago, I think the guys wish that our fraternity was better nationwide, instead of just in a handful of locations. However, like many national organizations, ours focuses mostly on more of what I would consider to be PC practices. They don't speak much about increasing your campus reputation or getting the best guys in rush, but rather about how to foster diversity and avoid what they consider hazing. I realize to many those things are important, but in our view, they don't really make a fraternity better. It often seems as if they care about numbers and diversity far more than they care about what the end result will be....moving on...In addition to the "PC" things I was talking about, one that really bothered people around my chapter was when nationals changed a part of our literature from "Christian" to "religious." The lines they changed were not just in membership literature, but in several statements which shape the entire foundation of our fraternity. Granted, we continue to use Christian, but the reason for the change indicated to us the direction nationals was moving towards. Regarding telling you my fraternity, I'd rather not, simply because of some of the things I've said that may have ruffled some feathers. I also don't really see that it is important. Also, somebody mentioned whether I would call somebody not from my chapter a brother...To be honest, I'm not sure. I really don't use the term that often to begin with, but I realize thats not really what you're asking. I imagine what you'd rather know is whether I consider myself and my chapter a part of a larger whole, or a seperate entity, and I think its probably some of both. Unfortunately we view the larger whole to be moving away from our ideals, so in that respect we might not wish to be associated. However, regarding the core ideals and the way we feel they are to be practiced, we proudly associate with those. I probably forgot somebody's comment, but i'll get back to it.
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