IU colony

[AstroBJJ]

Hey pikes, my name is Mike and I am currently a brother of the colony at Indiana University. The colony here is striving to get rechartered this semester. After being kicked off in 2002, IU asked PIKES to come back last year, so last October the colony was started. We are striving to get our charter this coming semester but with a greek system this strong it is definetly hard. We currently have 60 members and are shooting for 90. The average fraterniy sixe here is 95 brothers so we this next semester will be the most important for us. Any support and advice is welcomed. I just wanted to let you all know that the pikes are back at IU and will be huge after we get our charter. I hope to talk to all of you in the message board a lot so have fun guys...Mike

[BobbyTheDon]

Welcome Mike!

You have come to the right place to seek guidance. Firehouse and KEPike can answer many questions as can I. best of luck and you have made a wise decision. Delta Xi has alot of prominent alumni!

[Firehouse]

Congratulations, Mike!
Whatever average is at IU (95?), don't be that. Be the largest, the best in sports, run campus politics, be the darling of the sororities... I remember that the Pikes at IU used to have four or five IU basketball players. Do that again. bring in basketbal and football, and other high-profile guys.
I strongly urge you to contact Bobby-the-Don personally. He's a young guy from a top chapter and he is a marketing genius. He can give you sterling advice. If you want to ask questions about rush, send a PM to me.

[frathole]

Don't shoot for numbers, the whole strategy put fourth by nationals is the most rancid thing ever and encourages taking quantity over quality, the only fraternities that do that here are miserable bottom tier houses. Don't take people based on their extracurriculars, gpa, desired role in student government or any other bullshit, take the guys you want to hang out with, who are sweet.

Also, don't wear your letters around, it makes everyone involved look like a clown. Keep it classy, throw good parties, keep gelheads out of the house, you'll do fine.

[nebpike]

Don't wear your letters around? That is some of the worst advice I have heard. Wear your letters ALL the time. Get your name known. We rechartered in 1999 and have won 5 straight Smythe awards, 5 straight All-U Intramural Championships, 5 straight C.B. Schulz awards(our local philanthropy award), and numerous other awards. When we rechartered in 1999 they went to sorority houses, professors and administration and asked them who would make a good PIKE. We have the reputation of being the sorority's fraternity on campus for that reason. Another reason we have been so successful is our pride. We are proud that we are PIKES and we wear our letters as much as we can. We get our name out there as much as we can.

[kambelsoop]

[i]
Also, don't wear your letters around, it makes everyone involved look like a clown. Keep it classy, throw good parties, keep gelheads out of the house, you'll do fine. [/B]

Look like a clown? Are u Fu*%ing kidding me? What bull Sh&% is that? Since when do wearing your letters make you look like a clown? Dont listen to that guy - Wear your letters with pride! And every chance you have! Let people know who u are! The more they see your letters the better!

[Firehouse]

This guy "Frathole" has posted on something called "Frattynet.com" and indications are he is not a Pike.

[kambelsoop]

No wonder he doesnt want to wear his letters;0)

[Firehouse]

Kembelsoop...Are you at Alpha Zeta? I'm anxious to know how we're doing there.

[ThetaO Pike]

Glad to hear that you guys are back!!! Keep up the hard work, I’ve heard some good things about you guys even all the way over here in Terre Huate. You guys have had some very prominent alumni come out of that chapter, actually one of your alumni helped start the Theta Omicron chapter... to which I am very thankful for. So I hope to see you guys do well, and I suspect when you do receive you charter you will be right up their with us competing for a Smyth!

[DeltaOmegaPIKE]

Hey I know this is an old post but I just joined the site. I am the newly elected SMC of the Delta Omega Chapter of Pike. Going into our rush week(Jan 29), I was wondering if anybody had any ideas on ways to get quality guys who would be an asset to PIKE.

[Firehouse]

Yes. You might want to send a personal message to Bobby-the-Don; he's a brilliant marketer for the fraternity. Lots of great ideas.
On a small campus like High Point, fraternities tend to be specialized. Maybe you could focus on varsity athletes, or just on one sport, and choose the best guys on that team to be Pikes. Then, you have a constant source of new members.
The best way to get quality guys is to go out and look for them, and not wait for them to come through rush.

[aschmitt23]

IU Colony. It was good to meet some of you at Regionals. I hope that the Spring finished up nicely. Please, if you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to ask your fellow IN brothers here at Purdue. If I can be of any help to you guys, please let me know. This is my 5th year of fraternal brotherhood and look forward to your advancement. Also, I am applying to IU Law Schools for the Fall of 2007, so if you guys need an advisor, give me a holler. Take it easy.

In Phi Phi K A,

Alex Schmitt
aschmitt@purdue.edu
Phi Phi 2060

[FratAmerica]

This is too proud of a PKA chapter, and too good of a fraternity system, to allow for anything other than excellence.

Barriers are always in the eye of the beholder. On "small" campuses, success is limited by the supposedly limited pool. On "big" campuses, success is limited by the degree of "competition". Bull.

Here's what you have going for you: 95% of chapters don't COMMIT to WINNING. It's as simple as that. Don't let the simplicity of this statement by ignored. You have to choose success.

Yes, the competition is tough. Yes, you may have lost your house. (Which, next to Pi Phi was a great location, by the way!) Yes, there may be rumors on campus considering the circumstances of your departure from campus several years ago. And, yes, the student affairs department may be largely staffed by neo-Fascists. BUT - You still get to choose.

You get to choose how hard you work to succeed. And, your success will be totally determined by how hard you work and how good you are at SHEDDING perceptions of how it "should be".

Here, try this math:

20,000 person campus.
5,000 freshmen per year.
2,000 freshmen males per year.
500 can't afford a fraternity.
500 choose your competitors (mistakenly)
500 are idiots

That leaves you 500 men to choose from per year. Even if you ONLY are able to pull 10% of this total per year - a 90% failure rate, by the way, you have a 200 MAN CHAPTER (over four years).

See, it's all about how you perceive your situation.

And, one final thing. Pike chapters need to understand that the Heller philosophy was not "quantity creates quality" but "quantity attracts quality". This does not mean that bigger is better at the onset. You need to be EXTREMELY selective - but the key to success in knowing that there is plenty of prospects out there to grab.

Don't lay on your rear and take the top 10% of "formal rush" (which is the welfare system of the fraternity world), but take the top 10% of the total pool - athletes, student leaders, "studs", academics, etc. included!

Pike needs to kick some ass at Indiana.

We're counting on you.

[Firehouse]

FratAmerica, I don't know who you are but you are absolutely correct about everything. Bring us up to date about IU. The lastest issue of the S&D shows them with only about 50 members! They had more guys than that to start. Did they lose their house?! No way to survive at IU without a house. What is the comment about the student affairs weaels (what else is new?)?
Pi Kappa Alpha needs to have a strong chapter at IU, and I thought things were going well there. What is the latest from Bloomington?
phi phi