new fraternity on campus

[evon1221]

Originally Posted by 33girl

When you were recruiting new members, did you blatantly or subtly put other fraternities down - slogans like "this is not your father's fraternity" or "we're about more than partying" do not engender love from the existing groups. If you really DO have something VERY different to offer, then just state what it is (i.e. you are nonsecret, you are for music majors etc). Too many groups confuse "pride" and "arrogance."

Are any of the guys in your fraternity people who depledged other fraternities on campus?

Are you horning in on long-established fraternity/sorority relationships? At some schools this doesn't exist, but at some schools it's taken VERY seriously and not something you come in and mess with - i.e. if XXX fraternity and YYY sorority always do homecoming together, horning in on that is not a good idea.

Have other fraternities on your campus closed recently?

Are you giving bids to just anyone to get your numbers up?

Just wanted to throw some ideas out there.

when my fraternity came on campus, we didnt impede on anyones territory, and we didnt say anything negative about anyone either. none of our brothers depledged themselves, and we havent (to my knowledge) ruined any fraternity sorority relationship. and we certainly didnt give out bids to just anyone. it just happened in such a way that there were alot of guys that were all close and this is why we started it. we didnt steel pledges from other frats.

[33girl]

Then just keep doing what you're doing, and be positive. Support the Greek community as a whole.

[wptw]

Evon, I've been through it too. It just takes time. In my experience it required 5 years, long enough to turn over all the original undergrad players with their hardwired mindsets and preconceptions.

Keep doing the right things and be patient. The pace of culture change is glacial. What I noticed in my fraternity and later in my companies is that culture change doesn't happen by changing people's minds. It happens by changing the people entirely.

I call this process "scrabbling", like in Scrabble when you have lousy letters and can't make a word, so you lose a turn, dump your letters, and get 7 new ones.

Look on the bright side, in college the scrabbling process only takes 4 years. In a corporation it can take much much longer.

Hang in there. I frankly wouldn't worry too much about "horning in" - in fact I'd encourage it, to show that you're there to stay. Just stick to the high road and focus on recruiting the best people.

wptw

[evon1221]

Originally Posted by wptw

Evon, I've been through it too. It just takes time. In my experience it required 5 years, long enough to turn over all the original undergrad players with their hardwired mindsets and preconceptions.

Keep doing the right things and be patient. The pace of culture change is glacial. What I noticed in my fraternity and later in my companies is that culture change doesn't happen by changing people's minds. It happens by changing the people entirely.

I call this process "scrabbling", like in Scrabble when you have lousy letters and can't make a word, so you lose a turn, dump your letters, and get 7 new ones.

Look on the bright side, in college the scrabbling process only takes 4 years. In a corporation it can take much much longer.

Hang in there. I frankly wouldn't worry too much about "horning in" - in fact I'd encourage it, to show that you're there to stay. Just stick to the high road and focus on recruiting the best people.

wptw

thanks for the advice, i myself feel in 1-2 years we will be known and not to be messed with lol.