Mizzou Greek Houses Must Meet Fire Code...

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

Not many, if any. That's why I suggested fundraising should be done by HQ, for all its chapters, not by each chapter alone. If HQ does it, money can be solicited from the whole membership.

Right, but even a medium sized fraternity like us (115-120 chapters) averaging $250K per chapter is in the neighborhood of $30 million if they all have a close deadline.

Hopefully, that wouldn't happen because it could bankrupt many fraternities.

(Of course not every chapter has a house, but the figures are still staggering)

[SmartBlondeGPhB]

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

Right, but even a medium sized fraternity like us (115-120 chapters) averaging $250K per chapter is in the neighborhood of $30 million if they all have a close deadline.

Hopefully, that wouldn't happen because it could bankrupt many fraternities.

(Of course not every chapter has a house, but the figures are still staggering)

Plus, that assumes that every current house is lacking one and that may not be the case.

But I believe that's what a loan is for........

[Tom Earp]

While Insurance rates would go down, I do not think it would offset the cost of construction.

Getting loans are fine, but they have to be paid off. Usually these loans are not over the normal 30 year loans for homes.

As DeltAlum said, we all want the best for our chapters and I doubt there is a National Organization is going to be able to afford to do something as a loan program as we all are working on short purse strings no matter how big or small the size is.

So, here we are between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

As far as money rasing projects by Nationals, they get money from dues and donations from Alums. If 10-15 % of Alums donate, that will never start covering projects of this magnatude.

[boz130]

Today's math lesson...let's say you have 60 chapters that don't have sprinklers. Some are large houses, where the costs would be in the $250K range. Others are smaller, so their costs would be closer to $150K.

If you average it out, that comes out to $200,000/chapter. Even though I was a Mass Comm major, I can do the cipherin' and realize that this is an investment of $12,000,000. There aren't many GLOs that have that kind of swag lying around @ their beck and call...

It's going to be up to us, the alumni, to do what we can to assist our chapters, whether they're our alma mater or the local chapter in town.

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by boz130

Today's math lesson...let's say you have 60 chapters that don't have sprinklers. Some are large houses, where the costs would be in the $250K range. Others are smaller, so their costs would be closer to $150K.

If you average it out, that comes out to $200,000/chapter. Even though I was a Mass Comm major, I can do the cipherin' and realize that this is an investment of $12,000,000. There aren't many GLOs that have that kind of swag lying around @ their beck and call...

It's going to be up to us, the alumni, to do what we can to assist our chapters, whether they're our alma mater or the local chapter in town.

Yup. I think we're saying the same thing. Even with your slightly more conservative figures, those costs probably aren't something any NIC group could deal with.

[boz130]

Add to that figure 10% per year...on average, that's the going rate for cost overruns. He (or she) who hesitates is lost...

[Kevin]

One of the guys on our house corp is in the construction industry. He also sits on the Oklahoma University chapter's house corp. We're still in the planning/development stages for building a house. When it finally comes time to do so, we'll probably heed his advice on the matter -- build using non-flammable material. It's expensive in the short run, but the long-term savings can be huge.

They built the OU house that way (it's kind of an eyesore from the outside, but it's built very well and is very nice inside, just underwent a 1.5 million rennovation).

In the 90's, there was a really bad fire which started in one of the rooms of that house. The fire completely gutted/destroyed that room. Melted the doorknob.

Due to the construction of the facility, however, the house was otherwise undamaged. There were no sprinkler systems.

I thought that was a pretty good deal.

At any rate, if any of y'all are in the planning/development stages, you might consider the future cost-savings of spending a little now for the steel/concrete frame rather than 2x4's and plywood.