To turn an up and coming frat co-ed or not

[TheseGuns]

Wat's up guys, were a fob frat just starting out, were having our first rushes and pledges next semester (yup were ffs). We currently have another chapter on another campus in state. We had a question. Now that we are growing, should we consider turning our frat into a co-ed or not. Please list pros and cons. Thanks in advance.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by TheseGuns

Wat's up everybody, I am a member of an underground fraternity at my university (for many reasons I will not state my frat's name nor my university) and we have two chapters currently in two universities. Now a good amount of the members at my chapter want to turn our frat into a co-ed social frat, but the other chapter at another university directly is opposed to this issue. Now, my chapter has at least twice the member of the other and my chapter feels the other chapter does not reserve much of a say since they are small. I myself am neither for nor against this issue and am just here to ask If turning a basically new frat co-ed is a good idea or a bad one. Many people say it's bad because it would be controversial, but my chapter wants to do it because of a lack of members. My plan was that we should make a sister sorority instead. What do you guys think?

The bolded points are 1) bullshit and very unfraternal 2) contradicting your first point, and a dumb reason to do anything. I see nothing that says you want to do this because the members truly feel that a single-sex fraternity is an anachronism, or something they don't want to be involved in. You are proposing it for the shallowest of reasons.

Have you talked to the alumni AT ALL???? If this is a group that's gone on for a long amount of time, the alums will NOT be happy if you take this step just to "get bigger."

WHY do you want to be bigger anyway? You don't have national dues to pay, you don't have house payments (I assume) and you don't have IFC dues. I've seen locals keep going with 5 members and then in subsequent years, their numbers go back up - but not if they go pell-mell into something they don't really believe in.

If you can't attract members anymore (as in you are all graduating) then it may be time to just pack it in and admit that an underground fraternity is not something the students at your school want anymore, and die with dignity, rather than be sellouts.

As far as the sister sorority, well, you're assuming a lot in that they will stay by your side (and/or do your work for you). The day may come when they get sick of being underground and want to become an NPC. What will you do then?

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Have you talked to the alumni AT ALL????

I agree with the other things 33girl said, but THIS especially.

[TheseGuns]

Just edited the previous post written by one of the members, hopefully it makes a lot more sense now. sry if we offended anyone.

[knight_shadow]

I think 33girl's responses still stand, regardless of how the question is asked.

[TheseGuns]

Well let's see here... I am a founding father, so there are no alumns yet. We want to get bigger because if we want to get national we must expand. I never said anyone was doing my work for us. We are unique in that three chapters were founded less than three weeks after the first. We are growing so fast, we have two more schools prepping for chapters all in less than a year. We don't care if we are recognized or not, out priority is to prepare college students into professional men and have them ready for the real world. All the founding fathers pledged the process we made up to pass on to the next line, so we were never lazy. Our pledge process is four moths long, took fathers six because of the trial and errors. All I am asking for is opinions, not insults, not disregards, just simple pros and cons, but if you see it to yourselves to treat us as idiots, wannabes, and unprofessional than don't bother answering because I'm sure your founders would be rolling in their graves. And if you must unacknowledge us then do it in a professional mature manner, thank you.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by TheseGuns

Well let's see here... I am a founding father, so there are no alumns yet. We want to get bigger because if we want to get national we must expand. I never said anyone was doing my work for us. We are unique in that three chapters were founded less than three weeks after the first. We are growing so fast, we have two more schools prepping for chapters all in less than a year. We don't care if we are recognized or not, out priority is to prepare college students into professional men and have them ready for the real world. All the founding fathers pledged the process we made up to pass on to the next line, so we were never lazy. Our pledge process is four moths long, took fathers six because of the trial and errors. All I am asking for is opinions, not insults, not disregards, just simple pros and cons, but if you see it to yourselves to treat us as idiots, wannabes, and unprofessional than don't bother answering because I'm sure your founders would be rolling in their graves. And if you must unacknowledge us then do it in a professional mature manner, thank you.

First of all -- chill the fuck out.

Unless your ORGANIZATION was founded very recently, you have to have some alums. You're all brothers -- reach out to the alums from the other chapter.

Regarding the bold -- I doubt you would have said that if it wasn't based on your mission. If your organization was founded to accomplish what you've said, then how would you mold young women into professional men? And if going co-ed was your goal all along, then you shouldn't have brought a single-sex organization to your campus.

It sounds like the underlying issue is numbers. You can get your numbers up by boosting your recruitment efforts. Read the recruitment threads for ideas. Also, while being a national organization is a fine long-term goal, you need to make sure your ducks are in a row before trying to expand. There is A LOT of work that goes on with the higher-ups in a national GLO, so there's no sense in growing something that doesn't work in the first place (it'll cause more harm than good). Figure out what you stand for, figure out what is keeping potential members away, fix that, THEN worry about going national.

I know you're new and you're on the defensive, but us saying "Why?" or "Consider doing..." does NOT mean "OMFG IDIOT STOP ASKING US QUESTIONS"

Take the advice and keep it moving. Good luck.

[Senusret I]

This thread is about to give me life!

[Senusret I]

Life gotten!

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Life gotten!

LOL

[DubaiSis]

Adding women to your fraternity is not going to help you achieve numbers because it's going to cause you to have to completely rewrite your mission and probably a bunch of other stuff just to make that possible, and in so doing you'll probably turn off your existing or potential new members. There are some good co-ed fraternities out there, but I think that was part of their initial mission and not something they tacked on later.

If you are growing at the pace you say, worrying about attracting a wider pool of people seems unnecessary. The NIC fraternities have thousands of active members at any given moment, but it has taken most of them literally 100+ years to get there. I would worry about what you have now and grow incrementally, not exponentially. You're going to have enough growing pains without feeding them with gender issues.

If it's something you want to do at some point, you need to start with re-wording your mission statement to be either gender inclusive or gender neutral. And you need to get over yourself about the smaller chapter/s not getting the same vote. If they're members, they're members. Every NIC fraternity and NPC sorority have stronger and weaker chapters but every last member gets the same responsibility and reward of membership. If you're not cool with that, then you're not cool with your fraternity having more than one chapter.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by TheseGuns

Wat's up guys, were a fob frat just starting out

[Coolmaniam]

I both see and don't see what he is trying to ask, but you should just get together with the other chapter and talk about. This is an issue we just can't decide for you, but If you must look for pros and cons look them up in the forum. Other than that good luck in your venture and try to keep questions short and simple.

[Kevin]

What the crap do any of us know about your organization? Our organizations have been around for 100+ years for the most part. Many have hundreds of thousands of members. What the hell do we care about some three-chapter entity which will more than likely live on for another 2-3 years and then wither and die?

Do what you think you need to do. Chances are, you'll be like most groups like yours and be a flash in the pan. If somehow I'm wrong and you're still around in 20 years, look us up.

As far as asking strangers on the internet whether you should fundamentally alter the makeup of your organization. Really? Do you see the national members from Alpha Phi Alpha, Tau Kappa Epsilon, Delta Zeta, etc. coming in here and asking advice about fundamental issues regarding their organizations?

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally Posted by 33girl

LMAO!