[16350] in APO-L
Re: Help! Membership Problems!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Grossi)
Tue Mar 4 07:37:43 1997
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 07:36:09 EST
Reply-To: John Grossi <jgrossi@MU.BBN.COM>
From: John Grossi <jgrossi@MU.BBN.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
I sent this list about a week and a half ago to APOSOC-L when someone
asked a similar question. I've polished it a bit... but other than
that here it is...
Here's a short list of things that you can look at in any small chapter to
see what's wrong (the one thing I've almost never (the was one
exception) seen lacking is the service):
1) Look at your pledge program to ensure that your traditions are not
driving people away?
a) Is your pledge program too hard? (missing the point)
b) Do you have lots of odd hold overs in there from the 50s
and 60s that most people coming in would think are dumb?
2) Look at meetings, are you uselessly using Robert's Rules of Order
when you've got under 10 people in the room? Do meetings go for hours
at times when you've got little to say? Do you pull out the bylaws and
fight over them every week... Do your bylaws make a thunk when you put
them down on the table?
3) Look at Rush? Are you reaching out to the same segement of the
campus population? Is your rush varied enough that you are hitting
different segments?
4) Is your rush all postering or is it the personal touch? (personal
touch is 100% better) Have you analyzed what works for rush and what
doesn't? Are you trying different approaches?
5) Is there an emphasis on graduating in your chapter? (grades are the
reason you are in school, not APO)
6) Have you talked to the people who are inactive and asked them why
they are now inactive (the most telling reason why your not getting
new people is why these old ones are inactive)
7) Are you living in your traditions? (Has your chapter become so
mirred in telling stories of ages past that they never look at the
present) Tradition is good in teaspoon sized doses... but in buckets...
8) Are there lots of relationships in the chapter (well these three
are couples, and well he slept with so and so...)? Many people
(especially women) will be hugely turned off by anything that looks
like a pick up scene.
9) Do your alumni go away? Or is Dave so and so from the Fall of 1971
pledge class hanging around at every week's brother meeting? Is alumni
a term interchangeable with active not taking classes?
10) Do you have actives that have been around so long (6-10 year
range) that they have more in common with the Section Chairs and
Region Directors than with the 18 and 19 year olds that they are
trying to recruit?
11) Are you truely listening to the advice that your Sectional
Reperesentative, Section Chair, and Region Director are giving you?
Is your staff serving you? Do you have a Sectional Representative?
Can you find your Section Chair short of driving to his house and
knocking on his front door at 3am?
12) Is every week's meeting open season on whoever is not in the
room? Is there an insipid gossip chain that makes sure some people's
reputations have better sex lives than they do? Do you ever have
anything nice to say about your brothers?
13) Do you do CPPC? (constructive feedback and then taking it well)
Do you use the CPW's and LDW's that the fraternity puts on?
14) Is your idea of fellowship getting smashed off your ass and not
getting arrested before the night is over?
15) (this one is intentionally last) Do you have advisors? Do they act
like advisors (or is it a method for someone to stay active beyond
graduation)? Do you listen to them and use them?
If you've got any questions feel free to talk to me. I've got some
experience in working with chapters on problems similar to these
(three terms as Section Chair so far). What I would most encourage
you to do is have a positive attitude and go through these 15 things
and see where your chapter stands...
For those in the Northeast I would encourage you to attend the
Chapter Program Workshop at the University of Maine, Orono Maine (July
25-27) Dave Emery is going to be one of our presenters
-John Grossi
Section 94 Chairman
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Quebec
