The Fraternity Advisor

I just stumbled on a great article a few days ago, and thought I would share. It is an article about Skull and Bones, a Yale Secret Society. This is a lot different than fraternities, as their members are sworn to secrecy.

My fraternity’s national governing council is comprised of twelve alumni brothers and one undergraduate brother. The undergraduate brother was elected at convention every year. I was fortunate enough to be elected as an undergraduate, and that was a huge break for me.

A leader from one of your fraternities emailed me asking for advice on how to handle the fall-out from the recent, highly publicized incidents (Exhibit A and Exhibit B) in your community. After a few discussions, we agreed there is value sharing our thoughts with the rest of the Miami of Ohio Greek Community.

Fraternities are great organizations and do a ton of good for both their membership and their community. However, fraternities do a lot of dumb stuff and is the reason why they often have a negative image.

Fraternity shirts can add tremendous value to your fraternity, especially coupled with great creativity. These two stories show the importance of using shirts to advertise your fraternity.Fraternity shirts can add tremendous value to your fraternity, especially coupled with great creativity. These two stories show the importance of using shirts to advertise your fraternity.

A fraternity that doesn’t own its house is in a bad position. They are either at the mercy of a landlord or the university. Any brother who has been in this position knows how awful a situation this is for the fraternity.

The number of members in a fraternity fluctuates throughout a fraternity’s history. There are going to be times when a fraternity is very low on numbers, or even on the brink of closing. While it does present a serious challenge, it isn’t a situation that can’t be overcome.

If you haze, your fraternity will die. The severity of your hazing will determine how fast. Fraternities that haze severely will eventually get caught and be forced to close by their university or their national headquarters. Before that, their membership will dwindle at an alarming rate because the brothers will lose interest in the fraternity. They will lose interest because hazing is not that much fun.

Every fraternity believes that their alumni have deep pockets and will help the chapter out financially. However, most fraternities do not receive much financial support from their alumni. The reason for this is simple – fraternities don’t know how to ask.

Your fraternity has to have an answer to this fundamental question in order to be successful. More importantly – you must have an answer to the question of why join your fraternity?