Decisions

ViktorBTP · #1 04-25-2006, 05:37 PM

I was reading over the Beta Magazine and noticed on the very last page that it compared the years 1998 and 2005. In 1998 there were 147 chapters; in 2005 there were 125. I have looked into most of these closures and have seen that they were closed by the General fraternity. Rather than send Beta alumni and advisors to try to aid chapters who are degressing; they would rather take the easy route and shut them down. How do brothers feel about this? Is it right? Perhaps General can take a better route or perhaps an alternative one?

Betarulz! · #2 04-25-2006, 05:53 PM

I don't think you can point to ALL of those closings simply being the easy route...some yes, but definitely not all.

I know that in a lot of cases, the alumni make the call on whether to close a chapter or go through a reorg but keep the chapter open. In some cases the financial burden is simply too much for alumni to muster and it is easier to shut down and then recolonize later. I know that our alumni are still very heavily in debt from them keeping my chapter at Nebraska open in the mid 90's after expelling 80% of the chapter. They kept the chapter house open, they made up for the lack of money just about every where when we had only 14 members. I'm thankful for that, and b/c of that I will be willing to make a similar sacrifice if asked to in the future, but not all alumni associations can/will do such a thing.

I do agree that some chapters probably did deserve to be "saved" but as we've already shown on this board there is a very dichotomous set of expectations of what is the GF intruding and what isnt'.

I mean, if you're a chapter that is struggling and you're already bitching about MOP, or the GF making demands of you like ending hazing, how open are you going to be to the GF if they come in a do something as minor as run a recruitment workshop?

I will say that one alternative, that is perhaps much more viable, is asking for help from other chapters. This would be particularly possible in areas where there are clusters of chapters like southern Cal, or Ohio.

sdbeta1 · #3 04-25-2006, 06:51 PM

I'd rather see less chapters prosper, then more chapters remain mediocre. I know you also saw the rest of the statistics
GPA: 2.836 to 2.99
Growth: -2.9% to +13.9%
Advisors/Chapter: 1.95 to 3.82
Leadership Participants: 15 to 2925

Coramoor · #4 04-25-2006, 07:21 PM

When I was reading that it made me think of the book 1984 when the gov't is telling people that there was an increase in their chocolate ration when there was actually a decrease.

This is propoganda just the same.

How in the world can this be the best year in Beta yet when we are down over 20 chapters, have a lower chapter membership average, and have a much lower undergraduate membership then ten years ago?

Doesn't make any sense to me.

Again, I just point this out as another reason that the G.F. is leading us in the wrong direction.

NOTE: My chapter is very against MoP and we do what is required of us by the G.F. and we still get way too much intrusion by them.

The funny thing is that when we requested to hold a workshop on a few issues, we just happened to fall through the cracks. Ironic, isn't it.

I wonder if one day we can get all the way down to 10 chapters with all 4.0s?

ZZ-kai- · #5 04-26-2006, 11:11 AM

Nice attitude. Don't forget, you're part of a 'General Fraternity'. If your chapter hates it so much, then disband and go local. I'd bet you'd make it maybe 10 years before you go to 12 guys.

You guys keep pointing out the negatives, which is clearly in the minority. Yes, we're down 20 chapters, but our GPA is up, our chapter sizes are up, our advisor core is up, donations are up...etc. If you continue to focus on the negative, that's all you'll think about. Half full, or half empty?

Chapters are shut down for various reasons. And to say 'The GF shut them down, wtf?' isn't really fair. What you do know, maybe, is the GF shut them down; what you don't know, is WHY the GF shut them down.

I'm glad we have a pro-active GF that shuts down bad chapters. I'd rather see that, than a dead pledge, or bad hazing, or small chapters with horrible gpas and big debt.

Think positive guys, move with the cheese. In the real-world, if you fixate on the negatives and refuse change, you'll get nowhere.

Coramoor · #6 04-26-2006, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Yes, we're down 20 chapters, but our GPA is up, our chapter sizes are up, our advisor core is up, donations are up...etc

Being down 20 chapters is a big deal. At our current expansion rate it will take 5-6 years to make those up just to get back to where we were 10 years ago. I've seen it stated that a goal is to get to 175 chapters by 2010....never going to happen.

In fact every year since I've been in Beta we have actually shrunk in chapter #'s.

Our chapter size is not up. It's up from last year, but from 10 years ago we are down by a substantial %, both in chapter size and undergraduate membership.

Our advisor core is up....so what? I bet more than half of those advisors are only active on paper, and the other half are at odds half the time with their chapter because of the differences in the way each party wants to run it.

Donations are up...to the G.F. To send undergrads to 'leadership' schools that they don't want to go too. Any time a chapter is sanctioned one of the sanctions is 'send X amount of brothers to these programs'.

Brothers don't want to go. The guys that I know from my chapter that went came back brainwashed, acting holier than thou, and ended up doing something stupid and getting kicked out of my chapter.

Telling people to stop focusing on the negatives is ridiculous because your negatives are actual problems faced by the fraternity. If you want to sugar coat everything and pretend things are getting better rather than face the problems, be my guest.

furmanbeta · #7 04-26-2006, 03:41 PM

I for one am extremely pro-expansion. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I have gotten to know brother B. Hume Morris extremely well over these past few years. For those of you who don't know who he is, Hume serves as the current GF Archivist, and is a former GF General Secretary and President. You will not find someone with a better resume in this fraternity.

He is an ardent expansionist. The reasoning for this is extremely simple. Beta Theta Pi is the best, right? We have more to offer than any other fraternity, right? We are leaders in the fraternity world, the business world, and the political world, right? So why wouldn't any college want us? And by affiliation, why wouldn't we want to get the best men at each and every college. You want to talk about disturbing figures, I'll throw some at you.

Most people who have travelled around the country will tell you flat out, the South is where fraternities are really fraternities. I'm talking big houses, big chapters, tailgates, parties, the works. Let's look at Beta's numbers throughout the South, shall we?

Louisiana: 0 chapters open, 3 closed
Arkansas: 0 chapters ever opened
Mississippi: 1 chapter ever opened
Tennessee: 5 chapters open (one virtually dead) 1 chapter closed
Alabama: 2 chapters open, 1 closed
Georgia: 3 chapters open, 1 closed
South Carolina: 2 chapters open (one about to close), 1 closed
North Carolina: 3 open, 1 closed
Virginia: 3 open, 7 closed

Seem like the marks of a champion to you? They certainly don't to me. Why aren't we opening chapters faster? Why aren't we doing more to help the chapters we have now? Most chapters aren't being helped right now because the GF is so self-righteous with their leadership programs, and their scholarships, and their MOP crap that they have forgotten the true nature of being a fraternity. We all know that rush is a pillar of being in a fraternity, so why aren't we doing a better job rushing American Colleges and Universities?

jkllkj · #8 04-26-2006, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by furmanbeta
tailgates, parties, the works.

Because AO loves for us to party and tailgate.

My 2 cents: I want to see more chapters. Since I was raised a military brat I have friends all over the US and I'm really tired of hearing. "You're in what fraternity?... Oh, we don't have them here." And then me having to explain to them that they were shut down because of blah blah blah. I agree that we should be trying to get at every decent university there is and getting the best damn guys they have to offer. Also I think it'd be better if AO found some way to keep "problematic" chapters by working with them that isn't so intrusive and isn't as annoying as sending delegates to leadership events.

Coramoor · #9 04-26-2006, 07:24 PM

Why do alumni look back on their Beta experience as an undergrad with such pride and good memories?

It sure as hell wasn't because they were forced to go to some leadership/MoP workshop.

It was because of the socials, tailgates, formals, brotherhood events, and having a good time.

It just really pisses me off that we have a 15 million dollar foundation...that goes to pay for stuff like Keystone, MoP initiative, etc when that could go into much more productive ventures.

ViktorBTP · #10 04-26-2006, 09:34 PM

I agree with Coramoor, the G.F. is too quick to shut down, I know on my campus when fraternities would screw up, their alumni were sent and they would have a chapter review. They wouldn't even think about shutting them down; for there is soo much that goes into colonizing and setting up a chapter that it's crazy (to me anyways) to shut down a chapter due to a couple of delinquents.

ZZ-kai- · #11 04-26-2006, 09:51 PM

I have a suggestion for you guys. Why don't you lobby the GF or the AO officers, and try to change things. If your chapter is in dire straights over attending Leadership seminars, do everyone a favor and request your paid-for spots to go to a chapter that wants them.

As for B. Hume - yeah good guy, but don't believe but maybe 30% of what he says in Beta 101 - the Beta history stuff is good, but the stuff on other orgs. is a bunch of smoke. Trust me. Oh and by the way, when you talk to him next time, tell him I want my original 1901 fraternity constitution back - guy never returns my calls, e-mails, IM's - a real stand up guy.

Expansion, you guys get a slap on the back from me on that one. Do I think we need more? Hell yes? Like 50 more. But to think we're going to become TKE in 5 years - I don't want that to happen. And it's OK that we're not at Arkansas, or LSU. Beta has been OK for almost 170 years, we'll be OK for another 170 years. I'd rather see us go back to campuses where we were at, where we have history and alumni and buildings named after us anyway.

BTW, I come from a non-partnered chapter. I have facilitated an MOP session as a 'non-believer' (or whatever you want to call 'that side of the fraternity') and worked with some of Beta's best, and worst members. Everyone, EVERYONE benefits from those leadership seminars. And, if you were to look at every other fraternity, they're all following in our footsteps. We continue to pioneer the greek world. Just because we're not in Arkansas, god forbid, doesn't make us weak.

What are you guys going to do when your alumn? Still sit and salk about how the GF is going, or are you going to do something about it? Think outside of the box.

I'm done with this pity party.

Coramoor · #12 04-27-2006, 11:11 AM

I'm definitly interested in working for the G.F. after I graduate and help change it towards a direction I think is better.

The problem lies in that a lot of the guys I've met that works for the G.F. will go to any means necessary to exclude members that don't think like them from getting a position within the G.F.

From my personal experience, I know there are two men that work for the G.F. that are lying, two-faced, backstabbers. I have no respect for them, and if I tried to get involved I have no doubt that they would use any means possible to see that it didn't happen.

Additionally, I would rather go out and start a career and bring honor to Beta through my work and get involved in the fraternity later in life rather than right now as a fresh out of college graduate.

No one here hates being a Beta or is disappointed in their choice of fratnernities. I know that many members disagree with the way things are being done right now.

sdbeta1 · #13 04-27-2006, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ViktorBTP
I have looked into most of these closures and have seen that they were closed by the General fraternity. Rather than send Beta alumni and advisors to try to aid chapters who are degressing; they would rather take the easy route and shut them down.

Would you like to enlighten us with the findings of your research?