PKT25: Alumnus
So I had graduated and left Cleveland after the Summer 2001 semester, never to return. Or so I thought. Nothing ever quite works out the way one plans, and in May 2002 I was back in Cleveland and starting a new job that I have to this very day. What was my relationship with the fraternity like then?
For the first two years I was back in Cleveland I lived in Little Italy, first in the final iteration of the Phi Kap apartment with Frank and Adam, and then solo nearby. Because it was a short walk to the Phi Kap house and I still knew most of the actives, I dropped by pretty frequently to say hello, hang out and leverage the fast internet. I'd swing by a party to say hello or maybe help out with Greek Week practice. By the time I moved a little farther away to Coventry in 2004, most of the people who were actives when I was had graduated. While I knew many of the new actives, it wasn't the same close relationship that you get from living with people, and the age gap was obviously getting larger, so I hung out much less and less and then none. This pattern was pretty typical for those of who stayed in Cleveland.
One role I forgot from the committee chair summary was the Alumni Chair, who in a good semester would get a newsletter sent out to our alumni mailing list. A great deal of time was spent updating that mailing list. Depending on time and inclination this might involve talking to the university and/or our National office to exchange our updated info with their updated info. This was in a time when email was still not a given, especially for older people, and so we also made our first tentative approaches toward collecting email lists for an electronic newsletter. Again, all of this was done by actives. The newsletter was brief, usually a single page front and back, and a good issue paid for itself by bringing in a few donations. I haven't gotten one in years in either format, which is in line with the historical norms. This effort was the extent of our alumni engagement.
For all of our chapter's long history, one thing it has never really had was a local alumni organization to support it. Officially, the fraternity house is owned by the alumni board. While this board technically exists, when I was an active it was mostly people who'd agreed to put their names on the paperwork and weren't doing much beyond that. The actives were driving everything. This wasn't all bad; we learned an awful lot about taking care of a house while we were the actives, but over the long run the potential for losing valuable information and history without supporting alumni goes up. Heck, when I went to the 75th anniversary, the actives didn't know who Ernie Schmidt was. The plaque that commemorated the brother who was probably the most important brother in the history of the chapter had been lost or stolen, and oral history had broken down, as it often does.
We tried to pull together a bit of an alumni board in the years after I graduated. I don't remember most of what was actually done. From my perspective, what ended up actually happening is that I personally spent 2002 to 2007 or so collecting debt. Quite a few brothers had graduated or left school while owing money to the house, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. The sum was substantial. We had signed promissory notes for all of them, but rather than hand it over to a collection agency, I tried to leverage personal relationships to collect. Somewhat surprisingly, this actually worked rather well. There was a long list of alumni who owed us some money when I started, including two that predated my time as an active. When I finally stopped, only four of those alumni still owed money. Of course, those four collectively owed a LOT of money, but with what I collected we were able to pay off the loan for the kitchen remodeling early, as well as pay for most (all?) of the brand new windows that were put in virtually every room of the house in the 2005 time frame.
Our fraternity motto is "Give, Expecting Nothing Thereof." I don't think I really got it as an active, but let me tell you, collecting alumni debt really burned into my mind that you're not going to get any thanks or win any prizes for doing the thankless work that keeps organizations afloat. If you go in expecting that, you'll be disappointed and unhappy. Multiple brothers stopped talking to me while I was collecting their debt or the debt of other brothers they were friends with. I was pointedly not invited to at least one wedding. A surprising number of alumni were just waiting to be asked before they paid off their debt, but many others required significant reminders on a near monthly basis to get a check sent in. On the plus side, the number of actives who joined the ranks of alumni with debt plummeted while I was doing this. Maybe they saw that we'd follow up or something.
By 2007, I'd had enough. It was clear that the few debts that were left weren't going to be paid back any time soon, and I was burned out and tired of trying. I informed the board that I was done. They paid my way to the 2007 National Convention in thanks, and since then I've done virtually nothing of an official or unofficial nature with the actives. I went to the 75th anniversary event in 2016 and cut the house a very nice check as part of the fundraising tied to that effort, but that's about it. While I talk to many of the brothers from my era frequently and visit them whenever I can, the actives themselves I rarely think about unless someone asks me to.
That may change. Some of the brothers from my era have a vision of an active alumni board that focuses on maintaining the house so that the actives can focus on everything else. It's an appealing vision, and I may be helping.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program
Bid Night, Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters
Fall 1996, Spring 1997, Fall 1997, Spring 1998, Fall 1998, Spring 1999, Summer 1999, Fall 1999, Spring 2000, Summer 2000, Fall 2000, Spring 2001, Summer 2001, Alumnus
Events
Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings, Serenading, Greek Week, Rush Events, Formal, Retreat, School's Out
Other
Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2, Fraternity Offices, Part 3, Demographics, Seniority, Bars, Ponding, Video Games, Restaurants, Phi Kap Guy
Additional Commentary
Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, More Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, Chapter Meetings
For the first two years I was back in Cleveland I lived in Little Italy, first in the final iteration of the Phi Kap apartment with Frank and Adam, and then solo nearby. Because it was a short walk to the Phi Kap house and I still knew most of the actives, I dropped by pretty frequently to say hello, hang out and leverage the fast internet. I'd swing by a party to say hello or maybe help out with Greek Week practice. By the time I moved a little farther away to Coventry in 2004, most of the people who were actives when I was had graduated. While I knew many of the new actives, it wasn't the same close relationship that you get from living with people, and the age gap was obviously getting larger, so I hung out much less and less and then none. This pattern was pretty typical for those of who stayed in Cleveland.
One role I forgot from the committee chair summary was the Alumni Chair, who in a good semester would get a newsletter sent out to our alumni mailing list. A great deal of time was spent updating that mailing list. Depending on time and inclination this might involve talking to the university and/or our National office to exchange our updated info with their updated info. This was in a time when email was still not a given, especially for older people, and so we also made our first tentative approaches toward collecting email lists for an electronic newsletter. Again, all of this was done by actives. The newsletter was brief, usually a single page front and back, and a good issue paid for itself by bringing in a few donations. I haven't gotten one in years in either format, which is in line with the historical norms. This effort was the extent of our alumni engagement.
For all of our chapter's long history, one thing it has never really had was a local alumni organization to support it. Officially, the fraternity house is owned by the alumni board. While this board technically exists, when I was an active it was mostly people who'd agreed to put their names on the paperwork and weren't doing much beyond that. The actives were driving everything. This wasn't all bad; we learned an awful lot about taking care of a house while we were the actives, but over the long run the potential for losing valuable information and history without supporting alumni goes up. Heck, when I went to the 75th anniversary, the actives didn't know who Ernie Schmidt was. The plaque that commemorated the brother who was probably the most important brother in the history of the chapter had been lost or stolen, and oral history had broken down, as it often does.
We tried to pull together a bit of an alumni board in the years after I graduated. I don't remember most of what was actually done. From my perspective, what ended up actually happening is that I personally spent 2002 to 2007 or so collecting debt. Quite a few brothers had graduated or left school while owing money to the house, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. The sum was substantial. We had signed promissory notes for all of them, but rather than hand it over to a collection agency, I tried to leverage personal relationships to collect. Somewhat surprisingly, this actually worked rather well. There was a long list of alumni who owed us some money when I started, including two that predated my time as an active. When I finally stopped, only four of those alumni still owed money. Of course, those four collectively owed a LOT of money, but with what I collected we were able to pay off the loan for the kitchen remodeling early, as well as pay for most (all?) of the brand new windows that were put in virtually every room of the house in the 2005 time frame.
Our fraternity motto is "Give, Expecting Nothing Thereof." I don't think I really got it as an active, but let me tell you, collecting alumni debt really burned into my mind that you're not going to get any thanks or win any prizes for doing the thankless work that keeps organizations afloat. If you go in expecting that, you'll be disappointed and unhappy. Multiple brothers stopped talking to me while I was collecting their debt or the debt of other brothers they were friends with. I was pointedly not invited to at least one wedding. A surprising number of alumni were just waiting to be asked before they paid off their debt, but many others required significant reminders on a near monthly basis to get a check sent in. On the plus side, the number of actives who joined the ranks of alumni with debt plummeted while I was doing this. Maybe they saw that we'd follow up or something.
By 2007, I'd had enough. It was clear that the few debts that were left weren't going to be paid back any time soon, and I was burned out and tired of trying. I informed the board that I was done. They paid my way to the 2007 National Convention in thanks, and since then I've done virtually nothing of an official or unofficial nature with the actives. I went to the 75th anniversary event in 2016 and cut the house a very nice check as part of the fundraising tied to that effort, but that's about it. While I talk to many of the brothers from my era frequently and visit them whenever I can, the actives themselves I rarely think about unless someone asks me to.
That may change. Some of the brothers from my era have a vision of an active alumni board that focuses on maintaining the house so that the actives can focus on everything else. It's an appealing vision, and I may be helping.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program
Bid Night, Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters
Fall 1996, Spring 1997, Fall 1997, Spring 1998, Fall 1998, Spring 1999, Summer 1999, Fall 1999, Spring 2000, Summer 2000, Fall 2000, Spring 2001, Summer 2001, Alumnus
Events
Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings, Serenading, Greek Week, Rush Events, Formal, Retreat, School's Out
Other
Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2, Fraternity Offices, Part 3, Demographics, Seniority, Bars, Ponding, Video Games, Restaurants, Phi Kap Guy
Additional Commentary
Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, More Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, Chapter Meetings