OmegaFi

[victoriana]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

I'm always amazed to see "payment plans" that really just let people spread their dues out over a bunch of payments but don't give anyone a reason to pay up front. I certainly understand working with women who hit a one-time financial bump, but letting everyone pay late with no consequences is a problem.

I fully agree with this. My chapter actually has a bylaw stating that payment plans may only be granted to "x" number of girls per semester. We do give people time to pay dues, though. They just have to be paid by the second business meeting of the semester. If a member doesn't pay dues, they go into financial poor standing, which means no fun stuff. If a member is in poor standing for two semesters in a row their membership can be brought up. This system works well for us. There are ways to make exceptions for women with extenuating circumstance, but it's not so lenient that we have a problem with everyone paying dues late.

[TGTKPinkWhalepq]

Originally Posted by AnotherKD

Total side note- this happened when I was a freshman. The Treasurer didn't make grades, and I am 99% sure that she was told she was still in the sorority and still had her duties to perform, it's just that she couldn't do any of the actual "fun" stuff, including basically anything else that dealt with the sorority, for the rest of the semester. I'm sure you can all guess what her reply was.

We require members to make a semester GPA .2 higher than the chapter minimum in order to hold executive office or a judicial spot. If they don't we usually ask them to resign their position and we elect someone else.

Originally Posted by victoriana

There are ways to make exceptions for women with extenuating circumstance, but it's not so lenient that we have a problem with everyone paying dues late.

The last member we allowed to have a payment plan racked up $587 in debt-only bought one shirt so the balance is odd and our new VPF lost the copy of the plan for a while so we didn't know how bad it was.

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Not to say you don't need a dues increase, but have you looked at doing payment plans that reward early payments/punish later payments? For example, if you pay the whole semester up-front, you pay $1500/semester, but if you don't pay up-front, you pay $400/month for 4 months.

Oh we do need an increase. We increased a yearly total of $100 last fall to $900, and IMO we need to increase by another 150-200 so we can afford to offer those types of incentives. Everyone is griping about dues going up because they are used to paying out of pocket for events at their option, "nickel and diming," etc, and then COMPLAINING that our events are low-quality, instead of paying through their dues and having higher quality events b/c everyone would be pitching in. Granted, money doesn't = fun but it provides comfort, security, and an appearance of class. Paying bills and eating sardines while watching That 70's Show at the house isn't as fun as having formals, mixers, other events, though I have made some amazing memories here.

[preciousjeni]

Originally Posted by TGTKPinkWhalepq

We require members to make a semester GPA .2 higher than the chapter minimum in order to hold executive office or a judicial spot. If they don't we usually ask them to resign their position and we elect someone else.

I REALLY respect that.

[AnotherKD]

Originally Posted by preciousjeni

I REALLY respect that.

Ditto. I just remember my story as a side note- didn't think it'd actually be an option. Just thought it was somewhat amusing.

[TGTKPinkWhalepq]

Oh and I got in touch with OmegaFi! They gave me a quote and it was not bad at all. Way less than 10%. If out Alumni Corporation consents we're going to have them collect rent too. Hopefully this is the start of a beautiful relationship :P

[AGDee]

One of the issues I frequently encountered with chapters who were having collections problems was that they didn't have the documentation required to use a collection agency. Omega builds all of that in so that there are invoices, etc. The threat of non-payment actually affecting a college student's credit rating gets them paying too. Additionally, collection agencies charge significantly more than 5%.

Enforcing payments usually means having to suspend the membership of a member or two before people start to take it seriously and you still don't get the money owed to you.

Pull some hard numbers to make your case. Figure out what that 5% means in dollars for your chapter and how much has gone uncollected.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by AGDee

One of the issues I frequently encountered with chapters who were having collections problems was that they didn't have the documentation required to use a collection agency. Omega builds all of that in so that there are invoices, etc. The threat of non-payment actually affecting a college student's credit rating gets them paying too. Additionally, collection agencies charge significantly more than 5%.

Enforcing payments usually means having to suspend the membership of a member or two before people start to take it seriously and you still don't get the money owed to you.

Pull some hard numbers to make your case. Figure out what that 5% means in dollars for your chapter and how much has gone uncollected.

Agreed. I'm our chapter advisor and I also happen to be a lawyer. Those Omega Fi contracts are pretty airtight, and I haven't had to yet, but I may be taking a young man to small claims court pretty soon, and with the contract he signed, it'll be easy peasy for me to get a judgment.

[TGTKPinkWhalepq]

Originally Posted by ramsey

So Econ Goon thinks 5% is not worth the features and benefits, huh? If dues at $900 per year, then 5% is $22.50 per semester..... So increase dues to $472.50 per semester to offset the cost. That's less than $6 a month if you bill in 4 monthly installments. If your members can't afford a $6 increase per month in order to benefit the whole chapter's financial situation which would also increase their quality of membership, then they have serious issues.

I was loling all through your post, don't know if it's because these all-nighters are getting to me but it just reminded me of a conversation I had with our old VP Finance and he was saying the exact thing you said about Econ Goon. Econ Goon proved himself right in the numbers game, though, according to this school year's numbers.

Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel

While your econ major brother may be right, once he is out of the chapter the ability to do what he can do may be limited. What is great about Omega Fi is that they will be there beyond the current members and alumni/advisors, therefore able to hand these situations in the long term. Having this handled by someone who isn't a current member cuts down on internal issues. It now isn't a conflict between brothers, but a brother being handled by Omega Fi.

That 5% they take may or may not be less than the money your chapter would spend. When you look at the other costs, time mailing certified letters, filing in small claims court, kicking people out and all of the associated butt hurt and dramatics, that 5% may be worth it.

This is what I tried to advocate after he got the chapter behind him.

Originally Posted by AGDee

One of the issues I frequently encountered with chapters who were having collections problems was that they didn't have the documentation required to use a collection agency. Omega builds all of that in so that there are invoices, etc. The threat of non-payment actually affecting a college student's credit rating gets them paying too. Additionally, collection agencies charge significantly more than 5%.

Enforcing payments usually means having to suspend the membership of a member or two before people start to take it seriously and you still don't get the money owed to you.

Pull some hard numbers to make your case. Figure out what that 5% means in dollars for your chapter and how much has gone uncollected.

We've suspended and expelled some members this semester and last semester. After we expel them for indebtedness, we usually don't see a dime from them.

Originally Posted by Kevin

Agreed. I'm our chapter advisor and I also happen to be a lawyer. Those Omega Fi contracts are pretty airtight, and I haven't had to yet, but I may be taking a young man to small claims court pretty soon, and with the contract he signed, it'll be easy peasy for me to get a judgment.

We have our membership agreements and financial records via Quickbooks and a receiptbook, but that's all we have and I'm afraid it'll look less legit in the eyes of a judge.

[socalGPhiB]

Hey TGTKPinkWhalepq, I think I might be a little late to this convo but I thought my experience might help. When my boyfriend was treasurer for his chapter he started out using OmegaFi. He liked it however his chapter was a lot like yours, they were the smallest on campus (also the newest), were growing at very small increments each quarter, and were having problems getting their members to pay. As treasurer, he didn't like using OmegaFi because the percentage they charged the chapter (I think it was 8%) was for the entire collection amount. So although they helped send out email and paper reminders, he still had to do the heavy lifting by finding members on campus and getting them to pay. A lot of his members paid in cash too and he felt it wasn't worth the percent they paid OmegaFi because he was doing the work and most members didn't pay attention to the reminders anyway.

In 2008ish (I think) he switched his chapter over to ChapterBoard.com because they only charged him a percent on the money paid online (through their website). Any money he collected in person, he didn't have to pay a percent on and that helped save his chapter a lot. He sent a few members to collections and used a partner company of ChapterBoard, Parson-Bishop, which worked out really well (I think the two companies work together on collections).

I don't know if this helps at all, but I thought I'd share. My chapter uses ChapterBoard (not for payments) and they really like all the social tools. Also, my friend's brother's chapter just signed up and she said they got a lower rate because ChapterBoard is running some kind of matching deal. I'm not sure what that is necessarily, but it might be something to consider if you're still looking.

When I was on HCB, my chapter had a ridiculous time with a girl who deactivated but still had outstanding charges. At my school, we were able to freeze her school records so she couldn't register for classes or graduate and that was a HUGE bargaining chip for us. Not sure if you're able to do that (I think we were because our housing is partially campus housing) but something to look in to.

Also, to your comment about people not joining your chapter because you're "not living up to the image [you] sell", I think you should take this as constructive criticism. From my experience (as an alumnae I've served on House Corp. Boards and alumni boards), the strongest chapters are the ones who know who they are and are very proud of it. I think one of the worst things a chapter can do during recruitment is try to be something they're not. Like your friend said, the truth comes out eventually, whether it's during recruitment or after, and then you're just stuck with an active who doesn't want to be there (i.e. collection problems). I'd figure out who your chapter is on campus and within the Greek community, and embrace it. I'd also take time to focus on the internal relationships of your chapter and to improve the brotherhood. The worst thing during recruitment is when one brother bashes another to or infront of a pnm. If your members get along and actually like hanging out with each other, that'll show during recruitment events and entice pnm's to stick around.

I know it sounds corny to "just be yourselves", but from my experience it really works. As your chapter grows in membership, your rep on campus will grow and change too. My boyfriend's chapter is now one of the top houses and, when I was in school (2004) they were brand new and pretty much unknown to the entire Greek community.

Sorry for the long comment but hope all this helps!

[TGTKPinkWhalepq]

A lot of our guys pay in cash too, so it's not about how we get the money from them. It's those guys who rack up several months of dues after we've paid their lifetime fees that really suck. I'd like to have some bills sent home so the parents know what kind of crap their kids are pulling.

If we increase our size, the percentage would be worth it if the rate of brothers who leave with money owed stays constant. I'm hoping that won't be the case though.

We've put an end to paying those lifetime fees. Lesson learned the hard way.

Chapterboard has potential, I'll look into it. We've had problems in the past convincing members to use things like Chapterspot, OrgSync, etc. I hate to admit it, but the men we recruit avoid anything e-mail related, so registering for these sites is a "hassle" in their eyes. Yet they can check Facebook every 10 minutes.

As for our image, it's a work in progress but we've been making strides, and we're starting to become more selective in recruitment. Next fall is make or break probably because we may be on "notice to close due to manpower" for the third time in the past five years and the second year in a row now.

We met our challenge in terms of recruitment this year, but it turns out our classification is about to change because HQ wasn't aware of a fraternity recently chartering on campus. Personally, I appreciate the cause for motivation but wish we were being motivated by different circumstances.

[SIGMANU@MSU]

I know that PIKE nationally has agreed to use Omegafi as their primary chapter hosting website...my fraternity is considering using them as well, but I have been unable to find any sites that Omegafi currently hosts...can any of you post a link to some chapters that use Omegafi as their website host so I can see how they do things?

[MrKSig]

Got a quote for 13.5%, but we are a small chapter. I really like all the benefits that you get with Omega Fi, along with the potential for 100% collection rates. That is about $35/brother. I am hoping with more recruitment and brothers, the percentage rate will decrease.

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by MrKSig

Got a quote for 13.5%, but we are a small chapter. I really like all the benefits that you get with Omega Fi, along with the potential for 100% collection rates. That is about $35/brother. I am hoping with more recruitment and brothers, the percentage rate will decrease.

This isn't just a suggestion for your chapter or situation, but I can see the potential for groups to use Omega Fi as a gateway to helping students learn about money management, credit ratings, and those sorts of things early on in life.