Thanks for your questions dardenr. They are not at all intrusive and I'd be happy to answer them.
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1) Why do you think so many of your chapters are inactive? There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but I noticed that my fraternity has inactive chapters at most of those same campuses.
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I think alot of things contribute to inactive Chapters. All encompassing school sanctions, graduation, lack of interest, competing organizations, etc. I wouldn't attempt to sumize what may be the cause of our inactive Chapters across the board because it probably varies from school to school. As you said there is nothing wrong with inactive Chapter's, and it hardly can be used as the sole maesure of a valid or successful organization, although I do understand the question.
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2) Your fraternity and Iota Phi Theta were both founded on the same campus in the early 60's. In the early days, did they do any joint projects as fellow "new" organizations? Or did they stick to themselves mostly?
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I think every organization learns different things about the relationship they may have with other organizations or Chapters. It is interesting that we as well as Iota Phi Theta were founded within a year of each other on the same campus. Us in 1962 and them in 1963. As far as the events surrounding what occured between the Founder's of my organization and the founder's of Iota that spawned two different organizations will always be left up to the memory and biases of those telling the story. I will say that we are a non-Greek Social Fellowship while Iota Phi Theta is a Historically Black Greek Letter Fraternity - which in itself are some fundamental differences. I do know of an incident with a shopping center near the campus of Morgan State that was highly segregated in which both Groove and Iota were both instrumental in integrating.
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3) Is your fraternity currently gaining members and chapters rapidly, steadily, or would you say that you are maintaining the same levels of membership over the past few years?
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I do believe our National Website states that we have had a 35% increase in membership in the past decade which I think is pretty decent. We currently have over 35,000 members nation wide which I believe even rivals some of the BGLO of the NPHC. With that in mind I would say that we are growing at a pretty steady level. Being that I am still a kara (term similar to the idea of neophyte) I can't speak on a big picture idea of our growth, but this year we will be celebrating our 40 year anniversary during Conclave back where it started - Morgan State University. 40 years is a long time and I think it speaks volumes on the idea that growth is taking place.
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4) I noticed that have been saying "fraternity". . .is that term offensive to your organization?
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As I stated above we are a non-Greek Social Fellowship, which is fundamentally different than the term fraternity. Let me first state that the term fraternity is not offensive but we tend to try not to be associated with the connotations that accompany the term "fraternity" which is usually Greek. I'm sure if you read the website that we have a philosophy behind why we are not Greek and so that plays into why our Founders chose not to adopt the word fraternity into our name. Social Fellowship is signifcant because it describes not only WHO we are but also WHAT we do. Now that's not to suggest that we are merely a "social" organization because that is far from true. We are dedicated to both service and social events that benefit the Afrikan/Afrikan-American community and ultimately mankind. To assume that we neglect service merely because "social" is our name would be foolish because "fraternity" does not imply the idea of service either, yet no one questions whether this service is conducted by those who have "fraternity" in their name. Humans are social beings and anything we do, whether it be service or a party, is done in a social context. You cannot help anyone without interacting with them and, thus, the idea behind our use of the word social. Fellowship describes just that...we ARE a fellowship, and WE fellowship with each other. Thats the idea behind our name. Also, this is not to deny that we are founded on a "fraternal order". Our Founder's believed, however, that it was this construction that like minded men could most effectively share, discuss, understand and relay their philosophies and ideas, as well as service.
I hope I may have answered some of your questions. I typed this somewhat in haste so please forgive me for any typos that may be present. If anything is unclear feel free to continue to post more questions though.
P.S. If anyone else would like to visit Groove's National Website the web address is
http://www.gphig.org. Also, you can get more information about our sister organization Swing Phi Swing Social Fellowship, Inc. at
http://www.swingphiswing.org. My Chapter's website here at Miami University in Ohio will be up soon so stay tuned for that.
Thanks alot. Holla blak.
Groove Phi Shout Outs and a request
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