[23008] in APO-L
Re: [APO-L] Proposal Question: B-02-035 & B-02-036: Raise Initiate Fee
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Daniel Berman)
Tue Oct 22 23:27:41 2002
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 23:27:49 -0400
Reply-To: Daniel Berman <dkberman@WOLFNETFX.COM>
From: Daniel Berman <dkberman@WOLFNETFX.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
I have a couple things to mention.
First off... A prospective pledge will not have any clue the richness of
the fraternity life that we offer when they are looking for groups to
join. On campuses where greek life is almost non existent, a majority
of the student life will not have a clue as to what fraternities in
general can offer. In some cases the chapters are more like a club that
they participate in instead of a fraternity. If the groups behaves more
like a club then a fraternal order, then they will definitely have a
hard time surviving with the increased dues paid up front.
What about the students that have no clue about the group, but went
through the induction ritual to see what the group is like and to figure
out if they want to become a full brother. If the fees are increased,
it will become a deterrent to the prospective that are looking for a
trial run.
Also, the full benefits of being involved in APO may not become relevant
to the student until well past the pledging semester. If during a 6-10
week pledging period, they don't immediately feel the connection and
find the benefits, it will be hard to convince them to pay the
initiation fees.
There is a big problem of chapters turning in their AAMD's in time.
Some excuses are that they don't have the money and are waiting for
everyone to pay before sending it in. This paperwork problem also
extends into initiation and induction paperwork. If you are asking for
at least $75 from the new brothers, this same trend will extend into
that aspect of the paper work and the number of active brothers will be
less accurate.
If you look at the two situations, I feel that figuring out which
chapter hasn't completed their AAMD's will be easier then figuring out
which brothers are not brothers according to Nationals.
I noticed that the math was off. The average life of a brother is two
years. The two years includes their pledging period. If you also
figure in the fact that they don't pay AAMD's during their first
academic year, the typical brother will end up paying on average $50
right now. This will require doubling the amount that a typical brother
pays.
As was mentioned before, college costs are increasing. You also have to
get into the mind of the students. As a freshman, if you are given a
choice of spending $100 on either life long fulfillment vs instant
gratification, they would choose the instant gratification. This is
evident in the number of students who spend a majority of their evenings
partying. $35 is easier to convince them to pay. As a student
continues in their education past their freshman year, they will incur
larger debt in part to college costs, but also due to all of the the
credit cards that are given to them. A student with larger minimum
payments can more easily find $35 vs $100 up front.
Money speaks larger then paperwork... Every year, a brother invests the
$15 in the national fraternity, this helps to build the stronger
connection to the national organization. If a person invests all at the
beginning, you will find an increasing trend where the brothers
investment to the nation will shrink the longer they are a brother,
because they only have to do paper work.
I think the removal of the AAMD's and placing the burden of the fees on
the pledges is a bad idea. If money is an issue, I would rather see the
AAMD's doubled instead of the proposed changes because it would be
easier for brothers to work out payments. We can not expect people
who are not fully invested in our group to fully fund it.
Daniel Berman
Alumni, Chi Pi, SUNY Fredonia
Advisor, Epsilon Sigma, SUNY Buffalo
Section 89 Service Coordinator
Life Member
p.s. as a potential member to 2-3 alumni associations, I like the idea
of charging annual national fees for membership, but please remember
that people can be members of more then one and might not want to pay
multiple times.
