The end of LCAP - Page 4

GammaZeta · #1 11-25-2007, 11:51 PM

This past week the alumni of Gamma Zeta received notice that LCAP, after about 10 years in operation, will be "going out of business" and liquidating all their property.

I received many communications about LCAP over the past two years about several "incidents" similar to what happened to Gamma Zeta, which I will not repeat here but everyone is familiar with.

However, I think we should view this as a learning experience instead of a defeat or a loss.

The first thing we should learn is: stay in the FRATERNITY business, and nothing else.

I've always questioned why a fraternity would go into the real estate business. Sure, the motives were good; help the chapters, provide housing, etc.

But in reality it turned into something much worse. Many chapters experienced the line between brotherhood and business becoming cloudy. When it was convenient to be brothers, LCAP communicated as brothers. When it was time for business, brotherhood did not exist. When it was the chapter that tried to operate as a business, LCAP pulled the "brotherhood" card.

Again, we should stick to the fraternity business. We shouldn't begin marketing t-shirts, we shouldn't begin providing classes, we shouldn't begin managing real estate, we shouldn't operate a LXA travel agency.

I also think this was a case of a good idea, poorly executed. When we hire for a position in the general fraternity, a specific education or life experience isn't always necessary to become an ELC.

But when you're dealing with millions of dollars of property across the nation, you need to have people in charge with real estate and legal experience.

I think there may be a spot at HQ for someone to help and consult chapters about property and real estate. Someone with both legal and real estate experience to help chapters get their finances in shape, form a budget and keep health and safety codes up to date.

Maybe LCAP could tranform into regional boards of volunteers to help with housing issues for chapters that request help.

In the end, we need to live and learn.