Chapter Divide

[feaster11]

I’m a part of newer fraternity that has been on campus for 4 years. We’ve had a very slow start recruiting decent members; we have about 40 members and it was a long struggle to get to this point. We have the highest GPA on campus, but aside from that we are not well respected by the majority of the Greeks.

My Chapter was so desperate to fill the house in the beginning that we basically recruited anyone that was willing to join. Because of this, a very visible divide has developed within the house; one side is the more normal and social guys that actually contribute to the well being of the house, while the other half is the painfully awkward group (think dungeons and dragons) who sit around the Chapter house all day with each other in front of the TV for hours on end and bring down our Chapter GPA. (I will refer to the normal guys as Group A and awkward guys as Group B).

Our executive board is basically divided between Group A and B members, with the upper half of the board (Pres, VP, Treas, Secretary) made up of Group A. However, our recruitment chairman and his assistants are all Group B members. The recruitment team is BEYOND clueless about who and how to recruit someone. They don’t understand who the key people in our chapter are that they need to utilize in the recruitment process to impress potential new members. Even when Group A brothers (and our President..) offer help or suggestions, they don’t listen to us. For example, we offer a scholarship to help recruit guys and hold the interviews at our house. The recruitment chairman asked one of our most socially awkward, overweight and unhygienic members to do the interview, instead of asking our well-known, former chapter president, who was sitting in the other room. (I know this sounds shallow, but I personally feel that when you are recruiting, it is absolutely necessary to show off your most impressive members in the beginning). Additionally, the recruitment chairman is willing to give bids out to ANYONE that passes through our doors; in the past he's mentioned giving a bid to a 40 year old man, and we currently have a pledge that has been in the US for less than a year who doesn't talk to anyone because he can hardly understand english. I'm all for diversity, but the fact that our membership is so "diverse" is a turnoff to the other "normal" recruits, and scares them away.

The situation is getting to the point where Group A members are very worried that Group B members are going to be the end of us. Even our advisory team has suggested that we consider impeaching our recruitment chairman—and we intend on doing so, but will face a huge backlash from Group B members. How are you supposed to recruit when you Group B members want to help out and be visible, but they are literally scaring the good recruits away?

My other question is; how can a chapter survive with such a huge internal divide. We are literally like 2 polar opposite fraternities stuck in the same house. Group B is overpowering (unfortunately they make up about 60% of our membership) and they make the Group A members wish they didn’t join (the top half of our executive team is all considering dropping after their term is up). Group A members never come around the house anymore because Group B members are literally wasting away in front of the TV all day. It just really sucks knowing that our fraternity could have such a huge potential on campus if it wasn’t for the Group B members bringing down our reputation (with girls, recruits, other fraternities, and grades). What is the solution to this problem?

[AOII Angel]

Does your recruitment chair really have the power to accept new members without the vote of your entire chapter? The President and the rest of executive council have no say in how your recruitment process runs? This sounds like an unfortunate situation that will continue to divide the chapter. Whether or not your chapter continues to pledge Group A type or Group B type men should be up to your entire membership. Personally, don't be too hard on the Group B type...they're usually the ones to succeed in high paying jobs after graduation and could potentially be big alumni donors to your chapter.

[feaster11]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Does your recruitment chair really have the power to accept new members without the vote of your entire chapter? The President and the rest of executive council have no say in how your recruitment process runs? This sounds like an unfortunate situation that will continue to divide the chapter. Whether or not your chapter continues to pledge Group A type or Group B type men should be up to your entire membership. Personally, don't be too hard on the Group B type...they're usually the ones to succeed in high paying jobs after graduation and could potentially be big alumni donors to your chapter.

The recruitment team has full power to extend bids to whoever they want as long as they all agree and the recruits fit our GPA requirements. Our recruitment success has always been so poor that its become a trend to accept whatever we can get. Luckily, a miracle happened with our last pledge class, and we got about 15 great guys. Now that we have a solid group of new Group A guys to support the rest of us, we should finally be able to improve our fraternity and not recruit anyone who walks in the door.

As far as the Group B type members--they are actually the ones that are not doing well in school and are bringing down our chapter GPA. Surprisingly, its the Group A members who do well in school, are involved on campus, and have their priorities in order.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by feaster11

The recruitment team has full power to extend bids to whoever they want as long as they all agree and the recruits fit our GPA requirements.

Who has given him that power? Is that the way you are set up nationally, or is that just the way your chapter has been doing it? I know we (nationally) require the chapter as a whole to approve all bids.

If the chapter has ceded that power to the recruitment chair, maybe the chapter needs to reclaim its authority.

[knight_shadow]

Is your organization new overall, or just new to campus?

[feaster11]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Who has given him that power? Is that the way you are set up nationally, or is that just the way your chapter has been doing it? I know we (nationally) require the chapter as a whole to approve all bids.

If the chapter has ceded that power to the recruitment chair, maybe the chapter needs to reclaim its authority.

That's just the way we set it up. We used to do where you had to have the majority vote of the chapter, but we ran into trouble because no one was ever getting bids since the majority of the chapter didn't meet the recruit. Also, we found it helpful to trust the recruitment team with this decision because most of our recruiting is done during the summer when only the recruitment team is around. Unfortunately, our current recruitment team is clueless so it may be time to change our policies.

The larger problem is not so much WHO the bids are extended to, but which of our guys is around and visible to recruit these guys. Group B members mean well and want to be around to help recruit, but unfortunately they are hurting us more than they help us by being involved this way.

[feaster11]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Is your organization new overall, or just new to campus?

My fraternity is one of the oldest ones, but we are just being re-opened on our campus after being shut down a few years back.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by feaster11

My fraternity is one of the oldest ones, but we are just being re-opened on our campus after being shut down a few years back.

Check to see if your national organization has rules regarding recruitment. If so, use that to give the power back to the chapter. National bylaws should supercede chapter bylaws.

[33girl]

The fact of the matter is that without Group B, you wouldn't have gotten your charter. This is so common it's unreal, in fraternities and sororities. You can't go back and change it now. I know it sounds Pollyannaish, but try to get the 2 groups to connect on some level. The divide is no doubt obvious to all of the campus.

Allowing bids to be given out when the majority of the group doesn't know the guy is a sure ticket to chapter destruction. I agree w/ k_s, change your bylaws asap - if you need to, call up your HQ and ask them if there's a way they can "force" you to return the power of bid-giving back to the entire chapter.

[ASTalumna06]

While you do need to analyze and possibly change the way you choose to extend bids, you also need to look at your recruitment practices.

First of all, recruitment isn't just about scholarships and PR events. It's about meeting people. EVERYONE in your chapter should be trying to meet new people 24/7/365.

And while not everyone in the chapter can meet every potential member, you have to learn to trust each other. As we always say, "Trust your sisters!" Now don't get me wrong, we've never given a bid to a potential member who only 2 sisters have met. But I think what you need to do is to learn how to introduce potential members to more brothers.

A simple way to do that is to invite potential members to do smaller activities with you, like going to lunch, playing football, seeing a campus concert.. whatever. Then you can introduce them to other brothers by inviting the potential member to the house, or inviting the brothers to go out with you. And try to introduce the potential members to different brothers every time you do something (and make sure you're introducing them to Group B people, too! Maybe not while they're playing Dungeons and Dragons..... but you get the idea.)

And I know that right now you might not have a say in what your recruitment events are (which seems crazy, but again, try to change that).. but who's to say that you Group A guys can't get together and do something yourselves? Plan something (without a vote), invite all of the brothers, but don't count on them all to be there. And do you have a Brotherhood chair? Philanthropy? PR chair? Or a program coordinator? If you do, and the positions are held by Group A guys, why not try to plan something else to mask as a recruitment event?

In the end though, if you still sense this great divide between the brothers, you probably need to address the problem by talking with them. Because other people will definitely notice that, and they won't want to become a part of your fraternity if it continues.

[Gusteau]

Maybe this was a poor choice in recruitment chair, BUT that is NO EXCUSE. As ASTalumna06 said, all of your members should be recruiting, all the time. We like to break up into small recruitment groups who hold small events (like frisbee in the freshman housing area, etc.) to meet new people.

Have you heard of Phired Up? It is literally the best way in the world to recruit. Their book is "Good Guys," get it! The simple principle is that horses recruit horses and mules recruit mules - why are you letting your mules recruit? Also you need to make friends with people in these small events, don't wear letters just hang out and actually get to know people. Become friend with someone before you introduce the fraternity concept. When you meet a potential member SHAKE HIS HAND! After a handshake he has to talk to you.

Pretty much everything ASTAlumna06 said. It all works!

[greektke]

Listen to ASTAlumna06 and Gusteau!

When I got my bid, I only knew 2 brothers and their girlfriends. Since It wasnt "rush time" for our school, they scheduled a meeting between me and the president, treasurer, and recruitment chair. After all three of them approved of me, I was extended a bid. This is unconventional, as ususually you SHOULD have the chapter vote on new recruits, but the chapter should also be able to trust your exec. If your recruitment chair is not a face guy, find a way to drop him from the position. It is not fair to your chapter that someone is hurting your chapters future.

Also, don't talk down to your B group. At least they want to be involved and they are still your brothers. Find roles for them that won't jeoperdize your rush. Even if you hide them through rush, your pledges are going to meet these guys, and will eventually have to call them brothers. Lastly, have some higher standards now that you are more established on campus. Just because you give a pledge a bid who sucks, does not mean you have to initiate him.