How do you reposition your fraternity?

[violetpretty]

Originally Posted by greekone87

So I joined a South Asian Fraternity in my sophomore spring semester. When I joined, the guys were pretty cool (it was still run by the founding fathers who were mostly seniors) and the alpha class was an okay group of guys followed by the betas- my pledge class...most of whom might not be your typical frat guys, but they were pretty chill aside from two or three complete social misfits.

Now, I don't want to sound superficial in this post...but whether you like it or not reputation is part of a fraternity and determines whether it will survive.

Lately, all we've been getting is entire classes of fobs and nerds. When I say fob, I'm not saying they don't know how to dress- I'm talking about accent like Apu's from the Simpson's. I have no problem with these guys. They're all really nice and I'm sure they'd have my back. However, I can't see myself going to the bar with these guys and picking up girls.

The past two classes we've had have turned out like this, and now it's just overwhelming. We now have about sixty percent of our chapter dominated by fobs and as bad as I feel saying it, it's kind of killing my motivation of being in the fraternity as well as a lot of the older brothers' because our image right now is the fat/fob/nerdy fraternity. How do I wear letters and still be proud even if I didn't care what anybody thought? Stereotypes have a certain truth to them and these stereotypes are mainly true about our brothers. I grew up in the states so I'm not as cultural as these guys and I have a huge mix of friends from all different backgrounds- but they're all very Americanized unlike a lot of my brothers in the fraternity.

I was Rush Pub this semester and attempted a repositioning. But I used the COB method which just caused our fobs to bring more fob friends in. How do I reposition the fraternity or do I just forget about it and send my superficial ass home?

What attracted you to the idea of joining a South Asian fraternity? If you describe yourself as not very cultural (which I presume to mean that you don't identify strongly with your South Asian background), why did you join a culturally based fraternity? Figure out what brought you there and try to perpetuate that.

Have you discussed as a chapter what you are looking for in new brothers? Are you in the minority of wanting more brothers with better social skills? Is there a sharp divide in the chapter? If you want to find men with good social skills, you need to think about where you would find them. Leaders student government, members of performing groups (comedy groups, a capella groups etc), leaders of cultural groups, RAs, will generally have good social skills. Also, ask female friends if they know any men that would make good members, since women can be a good judge of social skills.

What is your purpose as a chapter? You can embrace the diversity within your chapter, as the "fobs" and the "Americanized" brothers have different things to offer each other. Perhaps you can help the "fobs" with their social skills and in turn the "fobs" can help you become more acquainted with your South Asian background.

ETA: Also, are you having events to make yourself visible to the Greek community and the rest of the campus? Share your culture with the community! This will help develop social skills and in turn, help you meet potential members, not to mention, you might have a good time too.