What would you do? (semi-long post)

[ReyNYCPR]

Would like to know your opinions on this topic..
Its a Rush Issue, but I wanted to post this here as well to get as much input from people as possible. I have also posted this in the Recruitment section.

Where should I begin..
My frat currently is going through problems that are not unfamiliar with some Fraternities and Sororities. Basically our main focus for this upcoming semester and year, is Recruitment and Money, but already, with school not starting for at least another 2 weeks, both issues are our main problems and this moment. (We have good plans for fundraising and so on)

Heres the story: We don't have a fraternity house, but in the past we have had guys live together in an apartment so we kind of made it into the frat house. Now everyone has separated. Our rush and social chair are the only ones living together in their own apartment, and at the end of last semester, they volunteered their apartment to the Fraternity to be used for Rush and general frat parties.

Heres where the conflict arises: Our rush and social chair live with another roommate who is not part of the fraternity. Our rush and social chair has come to us and has said now that if we have parties at their house that his roommate must get 25% of the profits (since the roommate lives there). Now my initial reaction is... NO!! (and still is) Mainly for the reasons that, 1. WE HAVE NO MONEY!!! (meaning, we barely have money to begin with, so why would we give away the little money we do have (or the little we will make) to some stranger just because he lives at that house.)

We are at a point where we need membership, but at the same time, I just cannot give out 25% of our profits (even if it was 1%!!) to some guy that's not even apart of fraternity especially when we have no money, also add to the fact, that our last parties we barely broke even. To make things worse, since we barely have any money to begin with, the brothers will be funding these parties out of their pockets, and to think that our out of pocket money is going to some stranger is hard to grasp. This whole issue has my frat divided.

Now, we do acknowledge that we need an increase in membership, but should that come in the expense of giving up our money to a total stranger. Another problem is that the house that their volunteering is the only possible house to have parties. All other brothers live in houses where there strict rules about parties from their landlords.

I was recently elected President and this is the first major issue that has come to me. Now being the stubborn person that I am... I have decided (as of now) that we will not give money to their roommate, and that we will have to come up with an alternative way for recruitment. Maybe a more scaled down version, like pizza and wings night, or sports weekend,.. etc.

I wanted to know what do you guys think about this issue. What would you do? Would you just suck it up and give the roommate the money and hope we get a good amount of potential rush for the semester? Would you negotiate with them? (have the roommate only make money from regular parties but not rush parties?) or would you just forget it and look for an alternative?

I have already made my decision, which is no! Whether or not it will be the right one, we will soon see, but to be fair, I will be meeting with everyone this weekend to discuss and possibly come up with a compromise or some more alternatives.

I also want to say that from time to time I will be posting questions and subjects of interest. You never know who might be having the same problems as you. I look to you guys as my counselors and advisors sometimes, and your opinions and inputs are greatly appreciated!