The end of LCAP

[EM1843]

Don't just whine about it. Start making a plan for how to raise funding to aquire land and build a house. In the mean time look at renting out a large house in town or an entire building in an apartment complex. If you have 10 or 20 brothers who want to make that kind of commitment you can have a temporary housing solution.

[Tom Earp]

So, just how will this affect those Zetas who were covered by LCAP?

How many could and will lose their houses?

EM1843, it may be a little harder than you profess.

Yes, it will be interesting to see if anything is said on the next C and C!

[john1082]

Those houses are on the market and the local alumni get the first chance to buy them. If alumni don't step up to the plate then these chapters could find themselves without a building.

[PiLambda1]

Originally Posted by EM1843

Don't just whine about it. Start making a plan for how to raise funding to aquire land and build a house. In the mean time look at renting out a large house in town or an entire building in an apartment complex. If you have 10 or 20 brothers who want to make that kind of commitment you can have a temporary housing solution.

Fraternity houses are illegal in St. Louis City now.

Some have been grandfathered in (wash u, slu) but they
are on the campus and/or owned by the school.

So regardless of how bad we want it - it's out of our hands
unless we want to drive more than 20-30 minutes both ways
to get to our house way out in st louis county...

[JConleyWCU]

Our campus operates a Greek Village, it sounds fun/cool until you realize your paying more to live there then someone in offcampus apartments and you have to share a room. Not to mention campus can throw "GDI's" in your house without your approval, and you have to move out during the summer. You cannot drink in or around the house or your rooms. Campus has cameras at the entrance's to all the doors going in an out of the house. No parties. No parking. No privacy and campus police "checking" on whats going on...

It isn't appealing, and as we are still in the colony phase at WCU we have decided against moving into the village or looking into a house until we get our charter. We had a beautiful house but during our removal from WCU it was lost. The problem is finding a place to lease in such a rural town like Cullowhee. Not having a house makes it hard to recruit and hold functions. Thankfully some brothers live close to campus and we can do things there, but it is kinda cramped.

-- BZ-686

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by john1082

Those houses are on the market and the local alumni get the first chance to buy them. If alumni don't step up to the plate then these chapters could find themselves without a building.

Thank you and that is just what I ment!

Those Zetas may be lost forever!

[Shane Foley]

I hate to say it, but GammaZeta is right in SOME respects; however, I would characterize it differently. LCAP has/had loans from the Fraternity so it was in the Fraternity's best interest for LCAP to do well. Chapters being open and having bodies in those houses helped LCAP. IHQ and LCAP often coordinated efforts to help chapters succeed. These efforts were usually carried out by LCAP's property manager who had previously been an ELC. There were times when decisions that were inconsistent with standard practice when dealing with LCAP chapters. As mentioned before, the Fraternity had an interest in having chapters open and bodies to fill the houses. To clarify, LCAP was NOT in charge of which chapters to close, open, discipline, etc. That being said, the coordinated efforts makes it understandable why it appeared that LCAP was making the decisions.

This posting is NOT passing any judgment regarding the relationship between LCAP and the Fraternity but rather clarifying that relationship from my experience over the 5 years I was on staff. If people want to know how things happened (with this or any other topic), feel free to ask.

Shane

Originally Posted by GammaZeta

Yes Tom, I have been to many LXA meetings.

What Brother Klimek says is a clear signal of what one of LCAP's problems were.

"that don't understand what being a fraternity means"

THAT is one of the problems. From what I understand, it was never in LCAP's authority to place judgment on what being a fraternity means. Why was LCAP suddenly in charge of what chapters to close, what chapters should recolonize, what chapters violated risk management, what chapters didn't meet their recruitment goals, what chapters should do for ritual, etc.

From what I have heard from other chapters and witnessed, LCAP seemed to exceed their powers. They didn't just focus on real estate, but started to overstep what they were set up to do by getting involved in recruitment, ritual, starting new chapters, setting house policy, etc. The line between General Fraternity and LCAP started to blur. After a while, it wasn't just IHQ making the calls on risk management, recruitment.

However, I don't blame LCAP for doing so. It was inevitable for the position they were in. For example, recruitment. How could LCAP NOT usurp power from IHQ in recruiting to make sure that a house they owned and rented to a chapter would meet full occupancy.

Maybe the lines between the two organizations became too blurred and distorted.

[GammaZeta]

Oh come on Shane, I'm right 99% of the time.

Funny thing is, most people on this forum agree with me and send me PM's all the time. The only difference is I'm not afraid to say what everyone is thinking.

[LCA1950]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

So, just how will this affect those Zetas who were covered by LCAP?

How many could and will lose their houses?

LCAP has properties at Ball State, Butler, Colorado, Michigan State, Rhode Island, Oklahoma State, North Texas, South Carolina and others. This could be absolutely devastating!! LCAP has given alumni groups no time to prepare to buy chapter houses back.

Remember, many of the chapter houses were simply transferred to LCAP in good faith for stewardship at little to no cost. We shall see if the Grand High Zeta puts profits before the brotherhood.

[GammaZeta]

"We shall see if the Grand High Zeta puts profits before the brotherhood."

Do you REALLY have to wait to get an answer to that question?

[lenoxxx]

To All;

The Shippensburg alumni will be unable to buy their house, and it will be sold on the open market. It's a blow to all of us, but that's life, the best thing we can do is do our best to adapt to it, learn from it and move on. LCAP did it's best to help Phi Tau Zeta, and for that I will always appreciate the effort & faith that they gave us. It just didnt work out in the long term despite our best efforts locally, and the best intentions nationally. For us LCAP was the only option available to us, so there is no bitterness or regret for trying to make it work- at least we tried to do something as opposed to quitting back in 2003-2004.

In a few years we'll take another look at the situation and regroup and see if there is another opportunity for a good sustainable real estate situation for the undergraduate chapter that the alumni can get involved in.

I hope that the other LCAP chapters will have a better situation in place than we did at Shippensburg so that they can save some of their properties from being sold - best of luck to all of you!

Lenoxxx

[Tom Earp]

In stead of losing the ones listed above which are major Schools and Zetas, there must be some way to be able to keep these houses intact for the Zetas.

As lenoxxx mentioned at Shippensburg, those Brothers did a tremendous amount of work on preparing the house. Is this and others to be lost and the Zetas maybe off of campus?

If it is set up a different way, maybe a property management will work as while a land lord, the repairs would be done by the Zeta and not a steweardship. Payments would go to the management and payments made by them.

I was not fully aware or most of us on how LCAP worked and maybe Joe or Shane could give and insight.

I would also like to hear from Brother Lynn on the Grand High Zeta take on this.

[Mooch279]

ok this might be dumb but i'm not sure how all the real estate transaction really work. But why would HQ sell them back to the alumni? if in most cases they were holding mortgages, wouldn't it just resort back to them. And can't they get a third party mortgage management firm to look over collecting money and paying the bank until whatever the next iteration of LCAP comes along?

[LCA_Pi_1298]

Tom I would love to help educate the public on how LCAP worked and could work in the future. However, I have been advised that my former employer (the Fraternity and LCAP) is already frustrated over my prior post to this forum. I now work for a service provider to the Fraternity and creating tension puts my new profession in jeopardy. I am therefore forced to return to being a quiet lurker.

I do wish the best to those brothers on this forum that I had the opportunity to work with during my time with the Fraternity - particularly those LCAP clients including Mike Raymond, the Jasons and others at Shippensburg, and even GammaZeta.

Yours in ZAX,

Joe

[Tom Earp]

Thank You!

I can understand!

Please PM and we can discuss it if it is better!

In ZAX,