[9803] in APO-L
Re: quality/quantity
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Randy Finder)
Mon Oct 17 07:41:10 1994
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 07:38:00 EDT
Reply-To: Randy Finder <NARAHT@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU>
From: Randy Finder <NARAHT@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L%PURCCVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
>Hi everyone.
> I'm a relatively new Brother of a relatively new (rechartered)
>chapter. Our actives total about 30, and some people within the chapter
>seem to want to expand greatly, while others don't feel the need. Is it
>possible to have dozens and dozens of people who are truly understand and
>are committed to AphiO? If so, how does it work? At this point I personally
>would rather have ten people who actually care about what they're doing
>than fifty who are only half with the program, but that's just me. I
>understand there's always going to be a mix, but what seems to work for
>other chapters? Any insight into 'growing pains' would be much appriciated.
>Thanks in advance.
The number of Active brothers in a chapter can and does vary greatly.
The largest active chapter is about 300+ brothers. The smallest I know
of that is reasonably healthy is about 20.
nationals requires at least 15 to start a chapter (though if you have exactly
15, the rest of the application better be rock solid.) and while a chapter
can theoretically stay active with one brother, it is certainly not healthy.
A large number of things will affect both how large a chapter thinks
it should be and how large it ends up: School size, emphasis on brotherhood
(leads to smaller chapters) or emphasis on service (leads to larger chapters),
competition for members with social fraternities & service clubs, reputation,
and sometimes I think phase of the moon.
Most chapters have a range of opinions within the chapter on how large
the chapter should get. Most of the time as you stated in your post,
belief in appropriate size is a result of other beliefs about the future
of the chapter. In your case its wanting to make sure that everyone in the
chapter is commited, that is certainly easier to do with a smaller chapter
but can be done with larger chapters as well. I think that you'll have more
luck discussing issues like that in planning conferences than picking
a number out of a hat for a desired pledge class size.
While sectional staff are likely to let a chapter know if
it is getting too small, I think we are less likely to think of
any particular size as too big. (Some of the staff from smaller chapters
may have a different opinion) But too big is generally safer than too small
(IMHO)
There are some private rules of thumb that are used by some staff
members of determining what they think proper size is, but given that
these rules of thumb disagree significantly, I'm not sure that explaining
them would really help.
>In LFS
>
>Seth M. Skinner, aka NatureBoy, aka TastyTaste
>Zeta Psi, University of Oregon
>"Make somebody happy. Make somebody strong." -Santana
YiLFS
Randy Finder
Section 84 (maryland & DC) Vice Chairman
Randy Finder
Section 84 Vice Chairman
