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Coramoor- if someone at GF ever said to me what was allegedly (not that I don't believe you- just being fair since the other side has not spoken here) said to you, I would have some choice words for him.
There are many arguments here- all with some merit, but none I could wholly endorse.
The difficulty I see here is in GF taking too much of a hand in operations- specifically in expansion efforts.
A chapter cannot expand and maintain itself without active alumni participation. Not just because of the volunteer resources at hand, but because a chapter with alumni who want to be involved is clearly a chapter that was doing something right to produce alumni who thought more of their time at Beta than those college years when they were getting drunk and getting laid.
And alumni who had a rich experience and care will also be eager to re-start their old chapter or assist in the building of a chapter at a college near their current residence.
I think expansion should begin in the alumni groups local to a given college.
Then GF, in an administrative capacity, can provide general guidance and some degree of administrative support (which helps with the costs but is not just giving out cash.)
RTS is a good example. This is great. It has helped my chapter recruit some top men- including our current President who is a damn good leader. $5,000 in RTS funds to help alumni with an expansion would be a great thing. It is not about the money so much as it is about the message that is sent- we want men who take their studies seriously. This is all the more important since colleges have expanded and more people are coming and either partying or dropping out because they should not even be there in the first place. RTS is a great way to send the message that we want people who are interested in a social life and in personal growth socially, but also know they are here to get a degree and have career choices first and foremost.
GF should of course have the ability to deny an expansion if they have a really good reason they are willing to state and stand by. A minimum degree of demonstrated alumni support is a good requirement- and perhaps the process should be drawn out a bit to ensure those alumni stay up with the process (i.e. you weed out those who lose interest quickly and will not be good long-term volunteers.) Plus GF should be able to limit the number of expansions in a given region in a given year.
But Risk Management and Image Management from the top is window dressing in my view- and does little to help either.
Risk and image management begins at the chapter level, and it has just as much to do with alumni involvement and the individuals recruited as it has to do with the reputation of a given school or Greek system.
My chapter happens to be at one of those big southern schools where the greeks are hated and frequent press targets. But most of those incidents can be attributed to a very few chapters- and certainly not ours. In fact, we have the longest continuity of any fraternity at my alma mater- we have never been shut down, ever.
And while I will not get specific here, I am sure many of you are aware of chapter(s) of ours that received huge MPI support and were considered to be at good schools with the right image- and yet our chapters there failed horribly and publicly.
30 years ago, fraternities- by all accounts- were pretty wild places compared to today. A fellow alum from a prior era recently told me that he does not like to tell stories about the "good old days" because he does not want to give the actives of today any ideas that they should stray from their current direction in an effort to emulate some of our past sins.
And this man happens to be a real key to our chapter's success today.
I think actives appreciate and look up to volunteer alumni who care about the chapter and also about applying our experience and maturity to temper some of the temptations of youth.
It is a fine line, but it is the same kind of positive and beneficial relationship that can come in any situation where someone who has "been there, done that" wants to help the new generation continue the legacy and maybe even make it a little better.
This is how you build a chapter- and it is not an overnight process. Time will tell if the current overnight process works, but I do not believe it will be any more successful than the approach I have outlined above. And the bad blood it is creating among the brotherhood cannot be ignored.
It is a good idea that, combined with what I am suggesting, would work out great. But for now, I think there is a bit too much reliance on GF and too little reliance on the alumni to identify and execute expansion efforts.
Last edited by EE-BO; 02-11-2007 at 04:51 PM.
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