[David White MBA RP]

1st, Alumni Brothers should never get tired of being the core financial supporters, because they are in the best position to financially support the Fraternity. Increase for the chapters is long over due. How a chapter pays for it is another discussion. In my opinion, we need to move back to being a “national organization”, with membership categories; like Life, At-Large or here’s a new one..Probational (undergrads who pay a minimum of $55 to begin “course” work or certifications (ie Leadership, Communication, Protocol, etc.) lasting until they graduate and move to full membership; if they don’t finish, then wish them well on any other endeavor. Individuals should make ONE payment that includes, dues and assessments (region, chapter, scholarships, etc.)

But what is the right number? Well that depends on budget needs and obligations, but most importantly, ROI on how the fraternity money is spent. Why pay for services we get no return on? Next to every line item in the budget there should be clarity on ROI back to the Fraternity.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by  David White MBA RP.

[steves504@yahoo.com]

Totally in disagreement with this but good topic. Instead of focusing on increasing chapters dues and reducing individual intake, I’ll say flip that view. Reduce chapter dues with increasing number of financial members in that chapter.

Our issue today is the lack of member and chapter numbers that are paying dues. We have a 3k membership fraternity (or whatever the average is using the last 5 yrs average number with the intake average of same years).

Most if not all fraternal benefits are at the member level and not the chapter level. Create a link that entice members to become financial while reducing the chapter due cost. Similar to the UG approach but use buckets to separate chapter due cost. A chapter with 1-5 active members pays $x dollars chapter cost, 6-10, 11-15 (whatever the bucket is using the average of active chapter members). This will drive active membership where most benefit lies and increase active chapters but the cost of that chapter to be directly linked to chapter growth/membership performance. The fraternity will win across multiple lanes without losing total revenue. More to this, just too much to type.

It may be time we shift to performance based operations to help drive other areas of our metrics which ultimately increase incoming funds but maintain same cost or even lowered cost with every increase.

At the end, great topic and point. I’m a firm believer that when we are at the point of increasing “taxes”, we are also at the point to reevaluate our operating cost. We may needs to reduce cost instead of looking at increasing tax. Just a formula I’ve used in business that have saved a lot. In this case, not sure if its relevant but could be considered.

[CentaurOfAttention]

Good points frat

[g1stgee@aol.com]

Thinking about the numbers first. The break even is the chapter with 14 fully financial brothers. The formula allows the brothers to save $350 (14x$25) in individual dues but there is no loss at the national level because chapter dues increase $350. Clearly any chapter with over 14 members results in a decline in income at the national level. Chapters with less this 14 brothers this becomes a tax. I prefer not to hurt the national funds and to many brothers this becomes a benefit especially since most chapters receive dues from brothers who are financial at chapter level but not the national. This also creates an appearance to those same brothers to see dues are coming down and maybe this incentives them to become fiancial nationally. So the only chapters that get hurt by this are chapters where brothers are not paying local dues to support the chapter. The goal of this in my opinion is to get nonfinancial members to support locally ( which is good) in order to get them more involved in supporting the chapter and maybe it’s endeavors. Brothers need to discuss further the need for being financial nationally. Brothers need to see there are fixed cost to running the organization before benefits can exist. I think there are ways to approach this and this may not be a bad start but I think we have to discuss further as I now consider the impact to a chapter with 14 life members. On average I do not think those chapters would complain much because they are willing to support and the cost based on 14 life members is only $17, so they get taxed. I see us spending money on things, and I think there are areas we can cut the fat. This approach seems harmful but if we can reduce cost for the average alumni brother this approach is worth discussing further.

[Mrkmaxw62]

Good afternoon sir. What would be the reason behind Raising chapter dues by 40%?

[Dr. William White]

I don’t think all of our chapters would be able to sustain themselves if there was an increase in chapter dues right now. We are living in a pandemic economy and our average alumni member roughly makes 60K a year. Alumni who are recent graduates often fall into the ‘member in transition’ category and most are seeking gainful employment. Perhaps we could provide member education on including the Fraternity in our own charitable legacy plans. This could entail educating all members regardless of financial standing on leaving a percentage of their estate to one of our nonprofits or making the organization the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, for example.

[Anthony Harden]

This is a great long-term plan that we are establishing soon but we need to invest in our future today with the chapters we have. This will be stretch for smaller graduate chapters and I agree with you on that.

[Brian Johnson]

As a Life Member I would like to have the option to pay more for my dues if I choose too, so if would nice to add a donation tab when brothers pay dues if they wanted to give more or just have one in general

I personally want to pay dues for the years when I didn’t pay because I did not understand that importance of it

I don’t mind an increase in national dues for grad chapters but $1,000 might be a little too high for some chapters

$750 a year would be find with me to help rebuild our undergrads and maybe increase intake fee for grad by maybe $50

Also has our intake numbers for grad and undergrad increased over the last few years ?

I believe it has but not sure

[Millard Younger]

Good evening sir

Your proposing to raise the chapter national dues from $650 to $1000 and lower the individual national from $300 to $275. I do believe what you said about members willing to pay local dues instead of national dues because it’s lower. But what about those chapters that do the opposite. Pay their national dues but not their local. That’s going to put weight on the the chapter and the financial brothers to carry the load and give the individual local non-financial brothers a break.

There has to be a happy medium.

[Richard Gibson]

I disagree. Not seeing the full comparison of numbers and what the current breakdown is, this would exacerbate the chapter financial status picture. 5 members for a chapter, would mean going to brothers putting $200 towards chapter dues. That’s an increase in $70 per member vice the reduction of $30 on the individual. Plus this does not account for chapters with more than a certain amount of members.

Go to a scaled rate where an individuals dues include contribution to the chapter. A dues base, plus an individual contribution distributed based on chapter size. So 350 plus 200 is max. And 350 plus 25 is lowest. That would mean chapters larger than 40 members would be helping nationals with income. Could even kick the chapter back 50% of the $25 for member counts 41 and above.