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Seton Hall Tekes
I just found this page today so it feels good to be offering some advice. Okay. I can tell you from personal experience that 8 members do not mean shit as far as rush. One guy alone could rush as long as he knows how to do it. With your 8 guys I think the first thing you need to work on is MORALE. As a former Hypophetes I can assure you that morale is one of the most vital components in chapter maintenance (equal to grades in my opinion). Hang out all of the time. Go out to campus events together. AND BE SURE TO WEAR LETTERS!!!! Be sure to have a good time in doing whatever you do. Just don't get out of hand. And TRY to conduct yourselves as gentlemen. It's okay to get rowdy if it has a positive effect on the chapter (in my opinion). Let the brotherhood as others see it speak for itself. Any other fraternity at my school can tell you who has the baddest house, who has the most money, who can get the most women, but beyond dispute they all know that nobody holds the brotherhood that you can get at TAU KAPPA EPSILON!!! I can't tell you how many times I've had guys from the biggest fraternity at our campus come up to me and tell me, "I've had some fun times in my fraternity, but I can't say I know my brothers as well as you know yours." It feels damn good. And that my brothers is what TKE is all about.
If you need further morale tips (if you feel it is low at your chapter) feel free to private message me or something for my e-mail address.
Now that I got that out of my system the next step should be, of course, rush! At my chapter (and INTERNATIONALLY) rush should not be focused once a semester, but YEAR ROUND. If you rush a guy late in the spring, chances are he might want to pledge in the fall or vice-versa. Rush is the little things we do when wearing letters. Talking to someone in class who may need help, offering assistance to someone on campus, or (in my case) offering a cigarette to someone (you'd really be surprised how easy that one is). You and your guys have to be vocal. You have to go up to guys and you have to talk. NEVER WAIT FOR THEM TO APPROACH YOU. Being a Teke you already know that we are a social fraternity.
My second piece of advice for rush is, and this is most important, NEVER BRING UP THE FRATERNITY. Let them ask the questions. Your first time talking to the person should always be about them. Ask them an open-ended question and follow up with it. Add a little personal input in on the answers. Get to know them. Remember not to bring up the fraternity unless they ask. I've tried this tons of times before and got guys out for rush single-handedly. Imagine when you got about ten more people out doing it. It works out great. When you have rush at your designated location remember to follow those rules for the first day or two and as the week goes along gradually feed the fraternity to them. If it's just in an occasional conversation do not talk about the fraternity.
I am not sure if these things go against what advice International gives for rush, but I can say that it has benefited my chapter (at least my part in helping the chapter). If at all possible I would try to get someone from Headquarters to help you out. I've never had the pleasure of meeting Dennis "Buckwheat:THE LIVING LEGEND" Perry, but I have got to talk to Shane Prier and he is ONE HELL OF A MOTIVATOR.
Now let me give you a little background information. My chapter was like yours 1.5 years ago. All except we were down to 7 members. My happy-go-lucky butt held two officer positions to make up for the open seat. In the fall of 2001 we had lost our hang out house (not an official fraternity house), we had 7 members, and we had just come off a rush where we made a whopping ZERO rushees. ZERO. NONE. ZILCH. Shane came down from International and began a week long Instant Activation program. In that time we netted 9 guys. We upped our numbers to 16 total and guess what happened? Our morale skyrocketed, our grades improved, and by the grace of God we got an official fraternity house. The following semester we got number 1 in grades beating the all-mens average on campus. It was amazing. I think that morale was the key reason for all of it.
I'm sorry to go on rambling here, but you get the jist of it. I am so passionate about my fraternity, locally and internationally. If you have any further questions seeking advice or anything feel free to post them and I'll help out as best as I can.
I LOVE TAU KAPPA EPSILON!!!!
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