Esprit De Fraternite

[ladygreek]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Inactive Brothers need to feel wanted, not just needed and brow-beat. A phone call that says "Hey Frat, you were missed at the last chapter meeting!" goes a lot further than "When you bringing your ass back to chapter meeting???" (Happened to me!)

Shid, I need to konw hiow that was said, because I do it all of the time (I don't use ass, though.) Is it possible you were being a little too sensitive. I mean the bigger thing is they wanted you to come back. Since I know your situation, I may be naive, but that seemed like a good thing to me.

I guess I don't believe that folx are NEEDED at chapter meetings, unless there is a problem getting a quorum-LOL. I just think it was a crude way to say we missed you--come back.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by ladygreek

Shid, I need to konw hiow that was said, because I do it all of the time (I don't use ass, though.) Is it possible you were being a little too sensitive. I mean the bigger thing is they wanted you to come back. Since I know your situation, I may be naive, but that seemed like a good thing to me.

I guess I don't believe that folx are NEEDED at chapter meetings, unless there is a problem getting a quorum-LOL. I just think it was a crude way to say we missed you--come back.

Oh don't get me wrong -- I know the Brother said it out of love! Plus he's actually elderly, and you know how the filter dissapears after a certain age. Mine was last year, LOL jk.

And I definitely believe that someone asking you back crudely is better than no one asking you back at all.

I guess what I'd like to see is more training on how to be nice to people, lol....sounds silly, but when you're trying to run chapter programs and wonder why the same 15 out of a hundred always show up, there's got to be some systemic changes that (in my opinion) have a lot to do with how people interact with each other, and perhaps more specifically, how black men interact with each other.

[ladygreek]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

but when you're trying to run chapter programs and wonder why the same 15 out of a hundred always show up

This happens with us, too. But have a meeting to elect officers or new members and folx come out of the woodwork.

But you are right about we interact with each other.

[Dynasty]

whats interesting about things are that alot of brothers complain about incative brothers...but they will know like 10 a never do anything to try and help them come back but then at the same time complain about the excessive amount of work that has to be done and how they are the only ones who care....

I wonder what would happen it there was a hiatus on taking new initiates and chapters were required to up there memebership through reclamation...........it would be interesting to see the efforts that would put forth

[7thSonofOsiris]

Bruhs,

As you know, over the course of marked time, things do tend to change and I am speaking of course about the direction of our organization's administrative focuses and our organization's Membership Reclamation focuses. When Past President Garvin partook in the creation of the EdF, things were so different then. Not only was the climate in the country different in regards to everything from Civil Rights, to, black folks' level of literacy v.s. illiteracy, but you must include in that, the climate of what made Men..Men, back then was different.
When I came into the Hood, you were expected to work your ass off, and to hold high the torch of our beloved Fraternity. You were expected to graduate and then to attach yourself to an alumni/graduate chapter and to not do so, meant a slight mark against your undergraduate chapter, and ultimately, it was a mark against the Bruhs who made you, and what was even more amazing was, that if you did something that made your college chapter look like shit, it reflected upon everyone who was ever made at that chapter. The issue of brothers being brothers to one another, was an issue of internal being specific unto each Bruh. Just because one pledged didn't guarantee that he'd be a good Bruh nor a good worker, though, as a chapter, you did your damnedest to try to initiate and bring in good Men. But what a guy's pledging did mean was that he succeeded at an aspired goal to become a member. The true work and worth of that Bruh depended fully upon his character and his holistic understanding of whom he was. Men back then lived by a different credo. Men back then, especially us Black Men, tended to bond together for the sake of true brotherhood and purpose, regardless of fraternal affiliation. Basically, Men tried to ensure that they were Men.
We now, on a contemporary stage of existence, are allowed in some ways, to not operate if you will, in the fullness of the scope that allows one to be just what we were indeed born to be...Men. With so many things out there that firstly, tries to de-masculate African American Men, and then secondly, tries to disrupt our family structure, and thirdly, our understanding of how to propagate the upliftment and overall progression of our race, what tends to be shuffled about and lost is the one thing that is required by all brothers to be brothers, and that is, that thing that makes us Men.
Our culture is wrought filled with images that tend to deny us our place as sons who are decendants of Kings. Our culture is wrought with images that directs our attention, and our missions toward the one thing that will quietly and nefariously cause us to find our moment of true extinction, money and and the need to chase it. Don't get me wrong, economic power, money management and education coupled with masterful handling and good stewardship are necessary, but if our males are more focused on chasing that dollar, our families will continue to suffer, our marriages will continue to suffer and our race as a whole, will continue to suffer. We are truthfully, in some ways, following in the footsteps of Native Americans in regards to our fight against poverty, whether it is economic poverty, educational poverty or spiritual poverty. And truly in my opinion, these things that plague our race can't be corrected by just our women alone, but rather, this fight should be spearheaded by us Men.
Once we have found the ways that will allow us to get back to us being Men, then we will have started the process to understanding what is occuring within the life of not just our Fraternity, but the other BGLFraternities, because as a whole, we are all not operating within the prescribed desires of our most honorable Founders, and to me, if Alpha Phi Alpha is struggling with these issues, then the others will only follow suit, because we lead the way.

7th

[PhrozenGenius]

I am a young brother who has seen more of the Esprite than the Fraternite, so I can completely relate to Sensuret's ideas. As a recent graduate I toyed with the idea of not becoming active because of the pain I endured as an undergraduate member. (Stuff I don't really want to delve into publicly)

However, I chose to stay active because of the bond I was shown with other brothers, chapters, and arms of Alpha. I am often despised because I take a critical stance when it comes to the things Alpha is doing and the Fraternite aspect is one of them.

It's Alpha Phi Alpha FRATERNITY Incorporated. Not Alpha Phi Alpha INCORPORATED Fraternity....

Can we put the BROTHERHOOD FIRST please?

[7thSonofOsiris]

Phrozen,

Young Bruh, trust me when I say this, and I say it with total fervor. Brotherhood exist in that plane betwixt the guttural and the temporal, and it is there that you will and must find brotherhood. If you should happen to meet your brother and you challenge him in the hopes of gaining a perspective of his training and readiness, you should automatically yearn to see him pass the test, but in the instance that he fails to prove himself readied rightly, you must school him.
I say that to say this, in you younger Bruhs, we Bruhs who were made before your genesis in our beloved, find a cause to remember and further, a cause to teach, train and mentor. In us older Bruhs, we Bruhs who were made before your genesis in our beloved, you must find a cause to seek to be taught, seek to be trained and seek to be mentored. After gaining this shield and calling it your own, you must always remain a student to her. Alpha seeks no man, so once she's yours, don't find yourself complaining about her, but rather, you should work to enhance her, upgrade her, and always, always Young Bruh, make sure that you greatly represent her. You never know, your example of brotherhood, might impact those that need to see an example of brotherhood, again, teaching the new what its all about, and reminding the old about what the original draw was, to begin with.
Right after we crossed those perilous sands back in 1991, an Old Head from my college chapter who had crossed in 1980, came down to school us Neos in what's referred to as, "hot seat training". We endured nearly an hour's worth of schooling and there were many lessons learned in that moment, but one of the teachings that was imparted on us that day still rings and resounds aloud in my head. This Old Head said:

"When it comes to being a Great Bruh remember this.
Greatness is in being, never in becoming"

"06!"
7th