Lethbridge Colony?
 

I noticed a reference to a University of Lethbridge (Alberta) colony on Chi Gamma's pages (http://www.ucalgary.ca/~zetapsi/join.html), and noticed they even had a photo album of going to visit this colony (though that page is down now; you can only see it in Google Cache)... yet I don't recall hearing anything about it at the most recent Convention '05; just the new U Ontario Tau Theta chapter...

Did a Lethbridge colony fail? Did it ever exist?

There was indeed a colony at Lethbridge. I met several of the colony members at the 2004 Toronto Convention. A motion to grant a charter to the colony was not presented to the Grand Chapter at that Convention, because the colony had not met the required minimum number of members.

Though I don't know too much about the details, I am told that the colony has subsequently failed.

TKPhi,
TK

Lethbridge? How about recolonizing a great chapter like Lehigh?

No need for Lethbridge-trashing. I liked the men of Lethbridge. I came late to the process, as I didn't become ED until January. So I can't say much about why they failed, or even much about the school. But I did like the guys.
And I would love to recolonize Lehigh, Harvard, Bloomsburg, and a bunch of other chapters. We don't have a team to go into a school to recolonize, but if a group is there (we have groups at U of GA and ASU now) we will spend time & money helping them become a chapter. Often, these groups are formed by an interested alumnus.
Do you know of someone that is interested in recolonizing Lehigh?
TKPhi,
TK

I was fortunate to meet a few of the members from the Lethbridge colony at the 2004 Convention in Toronto where they presented. They managed to get about 20 members in thier colony but not enough to be granted a charter. They were really thrilled about Zeta Psi and wanted to become a chapter. The Chi Gamma boys put alot of work into things, and one of the colony members Uncle was a Zete. Being from a University that had no fraternities and is relatively small in scale it was hard for them to get a large group of men together. As many of us Canadian Zetes know it is difficult to get many members all accross the country even in big cities. The colony the members became frustrated with waiting and with the amount of members they needed, knowing that it was a lost cause trying to get the 40 members they required. With the closest chapter a few hours away and no real assistance from anybody they started losing interest in us. Chi Gamma only had a few members itself and was undergoing a bit of trouble, and IHQ was not helping them as much as they needed. Another fraternity jumped at the oppertunity to move in(Kappa Sigma), flew some people up to the school and set up shop. From what I've heard most members jumped ship and went with what they knew was going to be for sure. That was the end of the that colony.

The University is not well known and is in Southern Alberta. It is growing REALLY quickly and with the large amount of money from oil in Alberta will be a great school very quickly. It is currently ranked 13th by Macleans Primarily undergraduate universities Canadian list, higher then that of Brock which was another attempted colonization in Ontario a few years back.

How are the groups at t U of GA and ASU doing??
TKPhi, Matthew Lofgren

Brock was actually granted a charter in 2000 as Zeta Chi, but has been inactive since at least 2004.
We were approached by a group at ASU in fall of 2004. I flew down to help start the Arizona Zeta Psi Alumni Club in Phoenix, and met a half-dozen of the group. At one time, they reported 35 members. They were granted colony status by the Executive Board at the Boston convention. Since then, their main motivator has left school, and I have heard very little from them. I recently heard from Andy O'Brien that there was a different group at ASU but I know no particulars.
The GA group is reported near 20 and is assisted by a Beta Tau transfer to GA and an Atlanta-based Alpha Mu Zete. I know nothing personally of the group members.
Midwinter Board meetings are January 27&28 in San Diego. I hope to hear a lot more about these groups there.

TKPhi, TK

Thanks for the Info
 

Thanks for all the info; it's really too bad we couldn't go the final yard in Lethbridge, letting someone else swoop in on a potentially good group of guys and a new school--though I do agree that recolonizing some now defunct chapters is also high on the priority list.

Look forward as well to hearing about the ASU and UGa colonies come the end of January. I visited ASU over the summer and found myself thinking it was a great frat school; and as someone originally from the southwest, I always appreciate Zete expanding farther down here.

If anyone hears anything about the colonies, I'd love it if you could drop a post on here.

TKPhi,

Jared

Just me, but I didn't go to Lehigh. I know one Zet Psi member from Lehigh. He doesn't think they will recolonize. The chapter isn't on very good terms with the university and the university owns the house so the chapter would have an uphill battle.

I thought I read something in the Circle about potential expansion at Pitt and Drexel. What happened? I always thought Drexel would be a good fit. Penn and Drexel are right next to each other. Zeta Psi(Penn) has a million dollar house which is about a block from the Drexel campus. If a new chapter did start a Drexel the members could probably even live at the Penn house until they found a house of their own. The last time I was at Zeta Psi(Penn) house there were about 20 empty beds.

Greg Plezia was talking about Bucknell a few years ago. What happened there?

All those places are news to me, but sound good. I'll ask Andy whether he can give me any info on them.
TKPhi,
TK

Hey, did you hear anything about the new groups at the board meeting?
Matt

The Board granted Colony status to the UGa group, which continues to grow. You can find Austin Carson, the colony president, on Facebook.

There may be a Charter vote in August at the convention. It appears there is some life left in the ASU group, as the main guy has returned to school after a really bad thing happened to him, not his fault.

Zeta Psi has turned away several other groups at schools not deemed suitable for Zete charters.

TK

Its good to hear that we have a couple of colonies. I wish we could get some of our inactive groups reactivated though. Or some chapters closer to us hear in Halifax. With UNB gone currently, Montreal is the closest and it is at least 8-10 hours away.

So go fire up the Delta Kappa again!

The men are still there in school, it wasn't a problem with the brothers, it was just a money thing. Now that the chapter fee has been reduced by over half, it makes a small chapter viable again.

And if you're driving to Montreal, you might as well keep going and visit Minnesota & Wisconsin to see our renovated houses. It's just a few hours more...
TK

Is there a new chapter fee? We have not been informed of that! If that is the case the guys here would start up UNB in a heartbeat. They still have approx 10 guys around who are still in university and would immediatley be active. Not to mention that it would save us as well, finances are really the only thing holding us back currently from growing.

The Fraternity Board approved a new finance arrangement to begin next fall, IF it is approved by the Grand Chapter at the the Convention.
Chapter fee of $1850, initiation fee of $350, pledge pin & book charge of $10. The initiation fee is paid directly to the Grand Chapter, and nobody get initiated without it being paid in advance. The fee pays for the badge & certificate.
That should substantally solve our collection and our database problem, and the active chapters will be able to budget without knowing how many pledges they will have, since the pledges are a wash.
TK