*** User255 *** 08/11/1999 18:30 EDT ***
Some thoughts:
In that case, I'd recommend handing the checks to the treasurer only. He's
responsible to the actives for the money. I don't see a reason we have to
do that before school starts, unless the house has operating expenses that
they were planning on covering with this money (And if they were doing that,
I'd rap them on the knuckles for piss poor financial planning).
As far as wasting it on kegs, who are we to say how the house spends it's
money. They've had to tough it out and eat their debt in the past, now they
should be able to say how they're going to spend the windfall. If they have
outstanding debt such as back rent then we should take that off the top and
then return the difference.
If we thought they were too irresponsible to handle the money then I'd
recommend that we set up an EBA contingency fund that takes a percentage of
collected debt after EBA renumeration and before forwarding the rest on to
the actives. Seeing as we're helping collect the debt we could justify
getting some of the "benefit". That way we would know that some of the
money won't be wasted.
As much as I personally think going local is a great way to say "screw you"
to what I percieve to be a more and more anti-fraternity WPI, I have to
agree with Jim. Any "blaze of glory" or "going local" sentiment should be
quashed quickly. The house cannot survive that way, and any factions that
think this is an option should be offered the option to resign. A smaller,
more committed brotherhood is preferable to a larger fractious one. This
should be communicated to the officers, who in turn need to percolate it
from the top down, thru the brotherhood.
The problems that Woody's identified do indicate severe problems. The house
needs to be committed to a good rush this year. No questions. As for
living outside the house, we once had a by-law that listed the exeptions to
living in the house when it wasn't full (married, RAs, ROTCs, and I believe
super seniors). Does that still exist? If so, it's time they started
enforcing it - by having each brother required to return at the end of their
current lease. And as far as the Alter app goes, I agree - there's no
excuse for not turning it in. The house needs an attitude adjustment.
On the positive side, I met an active at the last EBA dinner in Hudson. He
seemed to have his head on straight and the house seemed to be heading in
the right direction. I hope it's people like him that have the influence in
the house.
*** User255 *** 08/11/1999 18:32 EDT ***
Jim:
Alumni debt has always been an unsolvable problem. I'd say just make a
policy to use a collection agency if payment is not received by graduation,
send them the person's ss number, and be done with it.
Enough of this.
David J Cohen
Manager, Storage Solutions Group
Lucent Technologies
Mail Stop M32-EN3
55 Fairbanks Blvd
Marlboro, MA 01752-1298
*** User255 *** 08/11/1999 18:33 EDT ***
Hi all-
i would like to start by saying that i feel any discussion of going out with
a bang or going underground is merely immature college frat guy talk with no
backing. its just like saying "f_ the man"
as far as alumni debt, i feel that the current members should not get
comfortable counting on an inflow of alumni debt collection. the actives
should assume an 85% collection rate and budget on that. anything in
addition could go towards a maintenance fund. if this means the housebills
must be raised or the brothers organize a fundraiser then so be it. as for
alumni debt collected, this should be pooled towards an emergency buffer or
spent on educational seminars for the brothers, ie CPR, first aid, how to
cook more than just toast, whatever may be appropriate.
a more important issue that concerns me is the size of rush. without the
numbers there will be no alumni debt to collect. rush is down and that is a
fact. i believe, but may be mistaken, that rush is down for the entire
campus. with a new mortgage on the house this worries me. a house like
zeta psi can afford to have a small rush and still make their mortgage
payments. we on the other hand can not. i think that the impact of a poor
rush has not entirely hit home because the number of super senior that live
in the house has been relatively high. this is an inflated population that
the house can not count on from year to year. this year some super senior
chose to move out of the house and the house is now seeing how small it
really is. many are blaming these guys that moved out for hurting the
house. regardless of whether they were right or wrong in doing so, it is a
wake up call for those still there. the numbers need to increase or things
will have to drasticly change. i have confidence that the brotherhood can
do it, but it will take a serious effort from more than the exec board. the
entire house and alumni board must work towards meeting these challenges.
*** User255 *** 08/11/1999 18:34 EDT ***
From: MDupont842@aol.com
Subject: Re: Re: alumni debt and the chapter!!!!!
To: Jeremy_John@millipore.com, theta_chi@oxe.East.Sun.COM, ox@wpi.edu
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
I think these emails about the actives not caring and wanting to go
underground is a bunch of bullshit. As the email states these rumors are
coming from other alumni. How about you ask the actives these questions to
there face instead having a rumor mill between alumni. Alumni typically
don't know whats going on at the house once they've graduate and moved on
into the real world. I've been to the house a few times over the past year.
Ox and its actives are still going strong in my opinion. Rush has been
pretty weak over the past couple of years, but so has the whole greek system.
The numbers are declining each year, and thats going to happen unfortunately
as houses move closer and closer to going dry...
So these emails about alumni not wanting to pay because they think the
actives will spend it this summer on beer, etc is COMPLETE BULLSHIT. These
alumni making these claims I guarantee are the cheap bastards who have been
stiffing the house since they graduated. This is there excuse for prolonging
there payments even more.
Alumni Pay your fuckin house bills.
*** User255 *** 08/11/1999 18:34 EDT ***
From: "Driscoll, Matt"
To: "'MDupont842@aol.com'" , theta_chi@oxe.East.Sun.COM,
ox@WPI.EDU Subject: RE: Re: alumni debt and the chapter!!!!!
If anyone has any concerns about the current situations in the house
concerning bills, condition, morale, etc. I would be more than happy to
have a discussion with them. As Dupont has pointed out, in the past few
years there has been a decline in many areas, but this is a Greek wide
occurrence, not specific to Epsilon chapter.
I have an extremely optimistic view of this upcoming year. If you look out
our current executive board and EBA I'm sure anyone could see that there are
many outstanding members contributing to the betterment of the house and
Greek wide situation. We have remained passive in the past few years hoping
things would change back to normal, but we have realized that is just
wishful thinking.
It may take some time to get finances into order and bring upon the
necessary changes but many brothers are currently dedicating there time to
see that this happens. I am confident that any alumni concern can be
settled if an issue is brought to our attention.
Driscoll
*** User369 *** 08/11/1999 22:42 EDT ***
Hi all!
Here is the short and sweet version.
All those Brothers who would like to start a local are welcome to use the back
door and leave! As long as I have one Active who is a member of Epsilon Chapter
of Theta Chi it will exist. He can call me on advise on how to run one hell of a
rush!
I beleive if we focus on Theta Chi and what its all about will solve the issues
at hand.
Regarding finacnes. The active chapter is responsible for paying the rent. Its
part of the learning curve (least all of you have forgotten that already). My
suggestions ares simple....the EBA should collect the rent and provide guidance
(advice only) to the house officers to solve there collection problems.
Remember its up to them to manage their affairs. I know its not easy, its been
a problem for years but lets face it, its the active chapters responsibliy to
governer themselfs and solve one of the basic things of life...MONEY! You know
what? There Engieer "want to be's" and they will figue it out for themselves.
I still love you guys to death and our house as well. Theta Chi for Life!
Paul J. Landino '76
*** User517 *** 08/12/1999 09:33 EDT ***
Once again I open my mouth and get in all kinds of trouble (yes, I'm the one
that started all this). Anyway, here are my thoughts:
At the summer party, a couple of concerned, recent alumni spoke with me about
the Chapter. They expressed their concerns that "the current brothers don't
care about the rules and want to go out in a blaze of glory, and then go
underground". They also told me that they felt alumni debt money would be
wasted if turned over to the house directly.
Since these concerns were addressed directly to me and I am an EBA officer, I
felt it was my job to express these concerns to the rest of the EBA. It was my
intention to bring the matters up with EBA officers ONLY and then discuss these
issues with the current brothers next week at the EBA meeting. Unfortunately,
the message was mailed to the wrong address, everyone saw the email and now it
looks like the Chapter is being openly criticized. I sincerely apologize to the
Actives for this mess up. I have seen alot of good things from the Actives
since starting with the EBA and I feel the current slate of execs is a great
one. I agree with Dupont that alumni don't know exactly what is going on and
these isssues should be discussed with the current brothers to get the real
scoop.
As for alumni debt collection.....I took on the responsibility of collecting
this debt because I felt I was a big part of the problem. I served on the exec
board for 3 years and was Pres in 95-96. Over 85% of the current alumni debt
was accrued during my terms of office. I, in part, allowed it to happen. Now I
feel it is my responsibility to get that money back. I didn't benefit from the
money when I was an active (hell, we ate pasta for entire semesters because of
debtors!), but I feel the current Actives should benefit from this money.
Personally, I feel the best way to use this money is towards the chapters
current debt, but that is just my opinion and open for discussion.
The issues that I see with the Chapter that Do concern me are:
RUSH - THis has always been me number 1 concern. Obviously rush numbers have
declined in the recent years and we need an outstanding rush this year to have a
chance for survival. Jim Melvin is working hard with GAC to try to improve the
rush rules to benefit all GREEKS and hopefully this will help tremendously.
Active Brothers moving out of the house - This REALLY pisses me off. 6 brothers
is almost 15% of the house. These guys are screwing the house big time and in
my opinion should lose their letters. Not only will we not see money from these
6 guys, but more than likely, they also won't rush or contribute at all to the
Chapter. I would rather someone live in the house and Not pay than move out for
no reason. I am very disappointed in these individuals and I pray that this is
not a trend that continues into the future. In my opinion, the Actives should
pass by-laws to discourage brothers from moving out, regardless if their super
seniors.
So anyway, Driscoll, Dave Scott and the rest of the Actives, I apologize for
jumping the gun and look forward to a productive meeting on Tuesday.
Woody
EBA VP
*** User550 *** 08/12/1999 12:21 EDT ***
This talk of actives being prevented from moving out of the house borders on
Orwellian principles. A brotherhood is not set up to keep brothers from
making sometimes informed, responsible decisions to look for alternative
living arrangements. It is unfortunate that some decide to strike off
on their own, but sometimes it is necessary to find cheaper housing, look
for ways to improve their scholastic ability, or just get out of a
situation. Granted, some reasons are suspect, but there are exceptions
to every rule.
As for the EBA keeping moneys collected by alumni, that is utter bullsh*t.
The house should be able to manage its own financial obligations, which include
paying off the EBA. This money is owed to the chapter, not the EBA, and the
chapter should decide how to manage itself. As someone who still owes money
to the house, I guarantee I will send it care of the treasurer of Theta Chi,
not to any EBA representative.
Jesse Parent '96.5
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