Help me save my chapter, danger of losing it

[tkeman89]

A brief history of my chapter:

We were restarted in 2005 and I pledged in 2006 because the guys in the frat were really excited to be founding fathers and promise of making my name and holding leadership positions excited me.

My first year, everything seemed to be going great. We were a new house on the block and everyone considered us rising fraternity, we captured 3 of the 8 IFC seats because no one really considered us a threat and old rivalries caused people to look at us as a compromise.

Sororities were starting to look at us and we were doing good at getting events, but we never really had a good amount of guys to build solid relations. We had GFB, a medium tier sorority, become very close with us and would come hang out at our house every once in a while.

My first year I had a blast. We had great brotherhood and solid events for a new chapter, decent sorority relations, IFC representation, and solid guys.

Unfortunately it all began to change by my 2nd year. Putting pressure on us to recruit and grow, nationals forced a quota of a 30 man pledge class for fall of 2007. We literally had to scramble, as our chapter was about 35 people deep and we were looking at doubling the pledge class over one quarter. We bid 30 people and crossed 25 this year, but unfortunatly due to the large demands a lot of them were not exactly TKE material. I like all my brothers but by the end of my 2nd year it seemed a schism had developed between the people who were down to drink and party and those who were more intellectually inclined. This started to give us the reputation of being a "nerd/creeper" house that followed us throughout the year. During our spring recruitment we only pulled in 5 guys, because we didn't recruit well enough and our reputation really hurt us during rush.

During this year our reputation plunged as low as it can go. Houses who had 15-20 guys consistently had a better rep than us. Sororities stopped hanging out with us and we had little money to throw raids or big parties. Everything fell short, people didn't pull their weight. Every event we threw was horrible: parties became saussage fests, brotherhood events started to be very empty, and less than half of the chapter attended our meetings.

Me and the other brothers saw what was happening and over summer worked our butts off and worked hard for the fraternity, determined and well believing that next year's fall rush would bring us back on track. We had never worked this hard before but unfortunately we were only able to pull 19 men during fall. To make things even more complicated, some of the better guys in our chapter unexpectedly dropped over summer: brotherhood chair, and pledge ed quit, as well as a handful of other members citing money issues.

The 19 guys we recruited were solid guys, but then they started dropping one by one. All claimed that there was not enough time for a frat or they didn't have money, but the truth of the matter was that it was obvious our fraternity was doing poorly. We have 10 pledges left and 1 is likely going to drop before initiation in 2 weeks.

To complicate things, most of the house has become apathetic and several key members have said they will likely drop the house by the end of the year.

Brotherhood is at an all time low, as losing all of these members has made us too poor to put on any events.

The same is said of sorority events. We have had 1 in house raid this quarter and only %30 of the chapter showed up. The sorority has already stated that they pissed off that only a few guys came and they felt stupid bringing their own chapter and will likely not do events with us again: And this was the only sorority willing to do events with us.

Right now, everything is looking bleak. Dues collections are not up to date and several members owe us a lot of money but ignore requests to contact or collect.

If we continue like this it will mean that we will probably have a membership review or nationals is going to come pull the plug and restart. Right now we're actually lying to them so they don't see how many people have dropped the chapter.

Of the remaining people, I can probably say that 5% are hardworking and still dedicated, 50% are meh, and 45% are close to dropping because we aren't doing much.

Or reputation is still very bad though it has recovered from last year because we recruited a good looking pledge class and our social chair has been good with contacting sororities and trying to maintain some sort of relations. Unfortunately we have so little money that we can't throw many events and when we do throw them less than half of our chapter shows up.

This has been a nightmare and headache for me personally, and I am feeling my personal life has begun to suffer with all this trouble. I do not wear my letters around school anymore because of our bad rep. and I find that I get farther with girls if I don't mention I'm in TKE.

Sorry if I come off as superficial or stupid, but I really do want to save my chapter. If we don't fix this my chapter is finished or will become like one of the many 15-20 man chapters on my campus and both of these situations are bad.

Can anyone help ?

[RaggedyAnn]

I would stop worrying about tiers and start worrying about the needs of the chapter members. Find out why all the brothers are there. Some may be there to party, but others for community service and leadership opportunities. If you make sure everyone's needs are being met, you should find people willing to attend the events that don't necessarily go with their agenda. It's about give and take.

[33girl]

Never mind, I just realized he used a real sorority name.

It honestly sounds like you guys were made a chapter too soon and now have to pay the price.

[ASTalumna06]

Wow, that was a lot. But here goes…

It sounds as if your number one problem right now is recruitment. You’re not bringing in the number of guys that you want. Also, you hurriedly tried to get as many members as possible, some of which are leaving, as standards probably went out the window in this desperate state. Don’t do this. You’re better off being a chapter of 20 guys who work hard than a chapter of 80 guys who don’t care, want to quit, or only want to party.

As I say to anyone else who needs recruitment advice, visit PhiredUp.com. This company specializes in fraternity and sorority recruitment, and the information on this website alone is extremely helpful.

And as they say on that website… you have Eventitis. You’re under the impression that in order to help your chapter grow, you need to throw large events or parties. This isn’t the case. Make friends first! You say that you’re embarrassed to wear your letters, and while this should never be the case… don’t wear your letters. Wearing your letters is great, but it’s probably not going to bring in more guys. Just make friends with people!

Another idea… you say that your relations with sororities are strained right now. Do they know the problems you’re having? They must. But do they truly understand what it is you’re going through? Why not make a presentation to a few sororities on campus? You used to be close with Gamma Phi Beta. Ask them if you can make a small presentation at the beginning of one of their meetings. Have a few of your best members dress up, and talk to the girls about how you’re struggling within the Greek community. You don’t have to talk about specifics, but appear genuine. Rather than ask them if they’d like to party with you at your house, inquire about possible philanthropy projects the two organizations could do together. Do this with a few more sororities and see what comes out of it. Remember… girls know guys. Maybe one of those sisters has a boyfriend that isn’t involved in Greek life yet. Get her to introduce him to you.

You say that the thought of holding leadership positions excited you when you first joined. Is that what excites other members? You said that 45% of the chapter might leave because the chapter isn’t doing anything. What exactly do they want to do? Social events? Philanthropies? Figure out what they need to stay active and do it!

Nationals is putting pressure on you to recruit and grow. I understand that this happens, but nationals are not the people to avoid. If you are struggling, and you make your concerns known to them, I’m sure they would be more than happy to help you. National organizations don’t want to see any of their chapters close. Have you had members of national staff come to your chapter to help? If not, plan a weekend for an educational consultant (or whatever you call them) to come and assist the chapter.

Ask alumni for help! Have letters or emails gone out to those who have graduated? I’m sure that the thought of their own chapter going under is something that would cause them to spring into action, especially for those founding members who were so excited to start the chapter. And don’t be afraid to ask for help from TKE alumni members who attended different schools. All of these alumni could come and talk to your members about what the fraternity means to them in order to show those thinking about leaving that this is something that they need in their lives. And if nothing else, even if none of these alumni members are able to physically be there to help you, they might send a few dollars your way to aid in the financial end of things.

And if individual members are having legitimate problems paying dues, do you have payment plans set up for them? My chapter implements a system that allows girls to pay a small amount per week, or per month, until their dues are paid off by the end of the semester.

Also, are you fundraising? There are a lot of really great fundraisers out there that will help you rake in a lot of money. Do you live near a larger city with a major league baseball team, or professional football team? Sometimes, these organizations will allow you to come in and work for them for a day, and I’ve heard of chapters earning close to $2000. Same goes for amusement parks. At the beginning and ends of the summer season, these parks struggle to keep their employment rates up, as students are still in school in May when they open, or they’re leaving to go back to school in mid-August. The parks generally hire temps, but if you have enough people (most of the time it’s between 20-30), they’ll allow you to work for them for a day or weekend. 20 people, 10 hour shifts, at $7.00 an hour, for 2 days… you do the math.

Also.. you have a lot of guys dropping. I understand the chapter is having problems, and many of them could be leaving for that reason. But… are you hazing? You obviously don’t have to answer that question, but if you’re losing a lot of high-quality guys because of ridiculous hazing practices, then it might be time to reevaluate your new member program.

If they’re leaving because of time management issues, what do you do to help them? Do you have study groups set up? Do you have weekly or bi-weekly meetings with your new members to see how they’re progressing?

And I’ll let you in on a little secret.. in every chapter there are members who are apathetic. Unfortunately, 99% of the time, there’s nothing you can do about it. There are people who just do the bare minimum, don’t want to put in any extra effort, and cringe at the idea of having to go to extra brotherhood activities. It happens. Don’t attempt to motivate them, because I promise you, it won’t work. You’ll only be wasting your time on the people that don’t care enough to try on their own. Get the guys together who really want to save the chapter, and change things.

At the same time, members have to be held accountable. What penalties are in place for not attending meetings? For not paying dues? If there are no consequences for these indifferent actions, then there will be no solution. Paying dues and attending meetings are things that these guys knew they’d have to do coming in, so for them to just “not feel like it” is not a legitimate excuse. And if they really don’t want to do any of these things, honestly, they’re useless to your chapter. Get rid of them. They don’t pay dues, they don’t attend meetings, I’m sure they don’t contribute in other ways, so what are they besides a name on your roster?

Again, this comes back to throwing large events. You look bad when half of your chapter doesn’t show up. So don’t hold events where the entire chapter is expected to be there. Each of you must have some girl friends that are in sororities. Why not just invite a couple of them out to dinner? Same goes for recruitment… just have three of your members invite two or three potential members to the school’s football game… or whatever. Another idea… play a game of pick-up football on campus, and ask guys to join you! It’s so simple and it costs you nothing. One of the fraternities on my campus did this, and they gained 5 new members this way, which is good for the small chapters we have here.

I could probably ramble on forever about this (kind of like I already have), so if you have any more questions, PM me.

[agzg]

Does your campus have deferred recruitment or can you rush Freshmen in the Fall?

Keep in mind that you can't afford to burn any bridges as far as recruitment and friendship goes. If you make friends with a guy, and he doesn't join your chapter, that doesn't mean you should stop being friends with him. If he didn't join any chapters there's a possibility he'll want to check it out later, and if he did join another chapter that's an important relationship, too, because you never know when you may need to fall back on your fellow Greeks for help.

I don't know the nature of your campus, but a lot of times fraternity men are willing to join up on some things, and help each other out. The TKEs and APDs on my campus did homecoming together one year, instead of joining up with sororities.

I agree, maybe you should talk to the 45% that are mad that you're not doing anything. Ask them if they want to hold a position in order to make sure you guys do the things that they want to do. Explain the importance of Fundraising to them. Maybe instead of a Fundraising Chair, you could set up a Fundraising committee so that the job doesn't seem so out of control or difficult.

[Elephant Walk]

Proof that nationals rarely knows what chapters need.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Elephant Walk

Proof that nationals rarely knows what chapters need.

Well, I don't anthing about TKE's nationals and whether they'd know what the chapter needs or not, but to be fair:

Originally Posted by tkeman89

Right now we're actually lying to [nationals] so they don't see how many people have dropped the chapter.

Maybe they would be able and willing to help if the chapter wasn't lying to them.

[PANTHERTEKE]

Obviously the downward spiral started when a 30 man pledge quota was set. This was the class where all the "creepers" came in lol.

The best thing, in my opinion, is to do a "clean sweep" of your chapter and start over from scratch with the best guys.

[Kevin]

TKE HQ probably doesn't care about your membership situation all that much. I know they kept the chapter at my school when they had six members, a 1.9 GPA and had been kicked off of campus because of alcohol policy violations.

Unless things have changed, the standard isn't too hard to meet.

That said, work your ass off in Rush. Get quality and quantity.

[PANTHERTEKE]

Originally Posted by Kevin

TKE HQ probably doesn't care about your membership situation all that much. I know they kept the chapter at my school when they had six members, a 1.9 GPA and had been kicked off of campus because of alcohol policy violations.

Unless things have changed, the standard isn't too hard to meet.

That said, work your ass off in Rush. Get quality and quantity.

Maybe that chapter was lying to nationals (like the OP's)? It wouldn't surprise me.

And they would probably care, since it's at a big Greek school and they obviously wanted that chapter to succeed, even if they went about it the wrong way.

[sopranology]

Three words: Values. Based. Recruitment. It seems so simple, but it is absolutely essential. You want guys who aren't going to flake on you and who are in it for more than the booze and girls? You need to find the guys who already live your fraternity's ideals or, at the very most, just need a little pushing.

I'll agree with some of the previous posts and say that it was ridiculous for Headquarters to set your recruitment target at 30 when your whole chapter was just 35 ... however, was 65 close to campus total? Did the original 35 all come together in one year or were they an established local fraternity who decided to go national? If it was the former, then the target of 30 makes more sense ... if 35 men could come together in one year, without any real organization, to start your chapter, then, with the formal organization and name of a national fraternity, 30 men should be able to join, no problem.

I grieve for your chapter since mine was in a similar situation not that long ago, although it had to do more with general lack of recruitment and financial problems instead of lack of ideals and brotherhood, but even the problems of my chapter could have been lessened, if not altogether avoided, if the members had focused on pledging women who were willing to commit themselves to the ideals of Alpha Xi Delta.

Stop lying to nationals about membership and stop thinking about getting more members just so that you can have better parties and "get in" with the top tier sororities. Remember why you joined TKE and all the great times you've had with your brothers (there has to be at least a few), and really reflect on why you want your chapter to succeed. Build up a strong foundation of values and the house won't come tumbling down.

[Langox510x]

Gotta go to class, but will read later.

[RU OX Alum]

Sending you a PM now.

[gtdxeric]

QFP

Originally Posted by tkeman89

A brief history of my chapter:

We were restarted in 2005 and I pledged in 2006 because the guys in the frat were really excited to be founding fathers and promise of making my name and holding leadership positions excited me.

My first year, everything seemed to be going great. We were a new house on the block and everyone considered us rising fraternity, we captured 3 of the 8 IFC seats because no one really considered us a threat and old rivalries caused people to look at us as a compromise.

Sororities were starting to look at us and we were doing good at getting events, but we never really had a good amount of guys to build solid relations. We had GFB, a medium tier sorority, become very close with us and would come hang out at our house every once in a while.

My first year I had a blast. We had great brotherhood and solid events for a new chapter, decent sorority relations, IFC representation, and solid guys.

Unfortunately it all began to change by my 2nd year. Putting pressure on us to recruit and grow, nationals forced a quota of a 30 man pledge class for fall of 2007. We literally had to scramble, as our chapter was about 35 people deep and we were looking at doubling the pledge class over one quarter. We bid 30 people and crossed 25 this year, but unfortunatly due to the large demands a lot of them were not exactly TKE material. I like all my brothers but by the end of my 2nd year it seemed a schism had developed between the people who were down to drink and party and those who were more intellectually inclined. This started to give us the reputation of being a "nerd/creeper" house that followed us throughout the year. During our spring recruitment we only pulled in 5 guys, because we didn't recruit well enough and our reputation really hurt us during rush.

During this year our reputation plunged as low as it can go. Houses who had 15-20 guys consistently had a better rep than us. Sororities stopped hanging out with us and we had little money to throw raids or big parties. Everything fell short, people didn't pull their weight. Every event we threw was horrible: parties became saussage fests, brotherhood events started to be very empty, and less than half of the chapter attended our meetings.

Me and the other brothers saw what was happening and over summer worked our butts off and worked hard for the fraternity, determined and well believing that next year's fall rush would bring us back on track. We had never worked this hard before but unfortunately we were only able to pull 19 men during fall. To make things even more complicated, some of the better guys in our chapter unexpectedly dropped over summer: brotherhood chair, and pledge ed quit, as well as a handful of other members citing money issues.

The 19 guys we recruited were solid guys, but then they started dropping one by one. All claimed that there was not enough time for a frat or they didn't have money, but the truth of the matter was that it was obvious our fraternity was doing poorly. We have 10 pledges left and 1 is likely going to drop before initiation in 2 weeks.

To complicate things, most of the house has become apathetic and several key members have said they will likely drop the house by the end of the year.

Brotherhood is at an all time low, as losing all of these members has made us too poor to put on any events.

The same is said of sorority events. We have had 1 in house raid this quarter and only %30 of the chapter showed up. The sorority has already stated that they pissed off that only a few guys came and they felt stupid bringing their own chapter and will likely not do events with us again: And this was the only sorority willing to do events with us.

Right now, everything is looking bleak. Dues collections are not up to date and several members owe us a lot of money but ignore requests to contact or collect.

If we continue like this it will mean that we will probably have a membership review or nationals is going to come pull the plug and restart. Right now we're actually lying to them so they don't see how many people have dropped the chapter.

Of the remaining people, I can probably say that 5% are hardworking and still dedicated, 50% are meh, and 45% are close to dropping because we aren't doing much.

Or reputation is still very bad though it has recovered from last year because we recruited a good looking pledge class and our social chair has been good with contacting sororities and trying to maintain some sort of relations. Unfortunately we have so little money that we can't throw many events and when we do throw them less than half of our chapter shows up.

This has been a nightmare and headache for me personally, and I am feeling my personal life has begun to suffer with all this trouble. I do not wear my letters around school anymore because of our bad rep. and I find that I get farther with girls if I don't mention I'm in TKE.

Sorry if I come off as superficial or stupid, but I really do want to save my chapter. If we don't fix this my chapter is finished or will become like one of the many 15-20 man chapters on my campus and both of these situations are bad.

Can anyone help ?

[Elephant Walk]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Maybe they would be able and willing to help if the chapter wasn't lying to them.

They didn't lie until well after nationals interfered with recruitment.