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Old 01-06-2012, 05:05 PM
applesofgold applesofgold is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 1
At the risk of sounding crass, I have to wonder if Kappa Sigma's approach to expansion is sound. While I applaud our big numbers since WGMs Kaplan and McClamroch, I think we have the reputation for being the fraternity at all the universities no one has ever heard of. And I'm not sure that haphazardly blanket-colonizing and trying to be everywhere all at once is the smartest use of our resources. Perhaps we should be taking an account management style approach and really focusing on the colleges and universities that will yield the most 'productive' alumni (i.e., successful, willing to volunteer, eager to donate, model example for future members) for Kappa Sigma.

In my mind, this means going all-in on the very best and most prestigious universities FIRST AND FOREMOST, many of which we have zero presence currently such as Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Northwestern, Berkeley, UChicago, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, and pretty much all the Ivies and U of California schools. These schools should be our tier one and hence, our highest priority. It also includes colonies or faltering chapters at top schools where we are currently (like our chapters at Cornell, Michigan, Duke, UCLA, etc.) and assisting them with DGM and endowment support + recognition. Brothers at these chapters are tomorrow's clear leaders in business, science, politics, academia, and media. And they will have much deeper pockets from which to give back to Kappa Sigma. And their successes will only make our fraternity look better.

In the second tier, we should establish colonies and build solid chapters at large universities with powerhouse athletics programs. The top NCAA Division I BCS schools would be a good start. We currently do a pretty good job in this area, but there are still major schools - big, big programs like Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia, Oregon, Arizona, Auburn, Miami, VA Tech, Syracuse, Penn State, and Memphis where Kappa Sig is totally absent. It's no secret that big schools with prominent athletic programs have the best athletes - many who go pro (some which may be Kappa Sigmas) - and the strongest Greek Systems. And alumni from these colleges who love their college teams, love their fraternity experience, and have deep emotional bonds to both are much more likely to give money and donate time to us. And again, we should provide support and resources for struggling chapters in this tier because it will absolutely payoff in the future.

Case in point: it's a real pity that the UC Santa Cruz colony mentioned earlier in this thread did not work out. That's a very strong school, full of really smart kids who will move on to lucrative careers up the road in technology (Silicon Valley) or Finance (SF). We should, or should have, been doing everything possible to concert that colony into a Kappa Sig chapter.

Moving on. In the third tier, I suppose, is 'everyone else'. Colonizing in this tier is gravy. Don't get me wrong; it's great to see solid 25 man chapters at Southestern Wyoming State, but if Kappa Sigma is going to be run like a business, then we should treat our expansion (and expansion investments) like a business. And university fundraising studies over the years show consistently that the bigger, more prestigious schools - in terms of academics or athletics - receive have larger giving rates per alumni. The bottom line is that alums from tier 1 + 2 above payout more.

My point is, we can't go chasing after every opportunity to colonize like a chicken with its head cut off. We have to prioritize where Kappa Sigma should be and then organize an expansion strategy around it. Incidentally, I did share this tactic with my DGM and with nationals recently and am waiting to hear back, as I would be very glad to volunteer my time and money into implementing a plan such as this.


AEKDB
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