Regime Change, and Need With Recruitment
 

Hey fellow greeks!

Officer elections are happening right now in my house and I know I will become the new recruitment chairman. I have a pretty detailed outline of what I want to happen this spring, summer, and upcoming fall for recruitment. The only problem is for us, fall recruitment doesn't go in our favor. Most of the guys going through rush either choose a fraternity based on it's size (which is not good for us since we're one of the smaller fraternities, with one of the smallest houses) or they drop out. Our entire greek system is "dry" so we can't host any parties, and since we have low numbers in members, all of us are required to live in the house, so that puts apartment parties out of the question. The way our recruitment week is structured is the first day, all the guys travel to all the houses and stay about 30 minutes each. After that day they make their first cuts. Days 2-4 are sponsored events by each house, and the guys in rush choose which events they want to go to. During those days they continue to cut more houses, and we cut guys as well during this time. Here's the problem, all the guys go to the big houses, simple based on the size of their house and members. How can I change this? Please if you have any ideas please let me know.

Have parties.

Off-campus at somewhere other than an apartment. We have lake house / river&springs parties every summer.

"How can I change this?" You can't. You can't change Human nature; men naturally want to join winners, organizations that are perceived to be powerful and prestigeous.

Your solution is to aggressivley add members during the open rush periods, and then create the illusion in the minds of the rushees that you have a large and powerful fraternity, like to ones you compete against. Don't try to rush by stressing what you think are the virtues of (comparatively) small chapters. There aren't any. Aspire for your fraternity to be better than it is: grow your numbers and take on the trappings of the fraternities everyone thinks are the best.
Don't try to have a chapter meeting and get everyone to agree with this plan. It won't happen. You have too many members who are happy being small and inconsequential. Just do it. Take control and do it. As your chapter becomes more successful, the rest of the brothers will come around.
I wish I could tell you there was another way, but there isn't. Chapters in a good fraternity system fall into a predictable hierarchy. People's perceptions may be superficial, but they're real to them.

I think Firehouse just called your chapter losers...

That's funny as shit

No. No intention to be disrespectful. The man obviously knows there's a problem and asked for advice. I admire that, and he deserves the best advice.
In my experience, a fraternity doesn't get good slowly. Improvement comes fast or not at all. It is usually the result of one man's vision and dogged determination.

No, no insult. I'm for anyone who wants to improve his fraternity. I've seen enough layabouts and drunken louts who could care less about being in a good chapter. And I've seen great guys who wanted their chapters to get better but who were frustrated because they don't know how to get it done.

Losers do gravitate toward loser chapters, and quality guys gravitate toward quality chapters. Any chapter lucky enough to have a man who wnats to lead them to a better place is lucky. I want to encourage lambdachiguy11 in every way possible.