The Scale of Brotherhood

IMDP VS RECLAMATION

A SENIOR BROTHER’S PERSPECTIVE

By Brother Ryle Bell

The initial reason for the creation of IMDP was the elimination of violations of pledging. Alpha’s Internal Review Commission which functioned in the 1990’s concluded that one of the ways to protect the fraternity from lawsuits resulting from violations of pledging was to remove the process from the chapters and elevate it to a place where it could be overseen by “responsible” brothers. Thus, chapter initiations were terminated, and the cluster format of intake was introduced. Pledging became a thing of the past and “intake” was created in an attempt to control “underground” and illegal activities. While the IMDP process is better than chapter pledging, it has failed to eliminate underground and other illegal activities.

There are several reasons for this, chief among them is that many brothers have scant respect for any process that they feel does not allow them to “make brothers right,” whatever that is, and their disdain for following and obeying a corporate edict. In addition, chapters and brothers, that violated the edict were rarely disciplined commensurate with their violations. This, along with the attitudes of some regional district and area officers, who clung to the idea of having brothers “made right,” generally meaning being made the way that they were made, has doomed the new process to limited success. This then leads to the question, is reclamation a better way to go than the infusion of new brothers through the IMDP process? This presents an interesting conundrum as both methods present challenges that are difficult to navigate.

Unfortunately, we must accept a given in this equation and that is that the fraternity’s budgetary process is inextricably bound to membership numbers. Without a continuing influx of new brothers or a very supportive membership it is very difficult to maintain financial solvency to allow the fraternity to function in today’s national environment. Having accepted this premise, we can now look at the effort to maintain fiscal autonomy for the organization.

Reclamation involves luring brothers back into the organization to help defray the cost of running the organization. The problem is that there are various reasons why brothers disassociate themselves from the fraternity. Some do, because the programs that are pursued have little or no interest for them; some because of the cost of remaining financially active as they try to build personal lives and careers, some because of conceived religious contradictions involving the poem “Invictus,” and some because they had no right being in Alpha in the first place! To really reclaim a brother, therefore, his personal grievance must be addressed permanently, or he will walk away again. In reclaiming those that do not belong in

the house of Alpha, we do the fraternity a disservice to bring them back in. For them, a policy of good riddance to bad rubbish is better. Bringing them back only intensifies problems that we had with them in the first place! Reclamation, therefore, as valuable as it is, is not really a good answer.

“Intake” itself is fraught with many issues, chief among which is brothers bringing in associates or associates of brothers with whom they are not familiar and really cannot vouch for. The IMDP process is based on integrity, the integrity of the sponsor! No sponsor should agree to sponsor a candidate that he doesn’t know well. Today’s intake process depends upon a brother’s trust in a sponsor’s judgment because there is not time enough for all brothers to get to know the candidates. When brothers agree to sponsor candidates that they do not know, or sponsor them because a brother who supposedly knows them asks him to sponsor them, he defeats the purpose of sponsorship based on knowledge of the candidate, and destroys the integrity of the process!

IMDP holds the promise of a better solution for augmenting the ranks of the brotherhood IF brothers would exercise some personal integrity in their choice of and agreement to sponsor candidates!

To help in both cases, and often unused by chapters is the invaluable involvement of senior brothers. What happens often is because some brothers know that the senior brothers will not support their intentions, they sideline them or try to keep them ignorant of the process. As a result, many of the senior brothers feel alienated from the chapters and that they are only needed when fundraising is an issue. The loss of institutional knowledge created by sidelining the senior brotherhood causes many chapters to pursue programs and issues that they otherwise would not if they enlisted the aid of the senior brothers. Many of the senior brothers also, grow weary with trying to guide a younger element that has scant respect for their knowledge and So how do we address these issues? First, young brothers need to appreciate the wealth of knowledge available to them through the senior brotherhood. Involve them in the thought processes and rationale for what they are doing. Senior brothers will save a lot of wasted time by sharing their knowledge of prior activities and provide practical solutions to problems that younger brothers may not foresee. This creates a more unified and vibrant chapter involving senior and younger brothers who respect and trust one another. Where IMDP is concerned, brothers who sponsor candidates should be required to know those who they sponsor for at least a year! This at least helps to make the sponsor’s support based more on personal knowledge than cursory examination. If a sponsor’s candidates fail to meet the standards required by the chapter over time, the sponsoring brother should be prohibited for sponsoring future candidates, until he demonstrates that he can do so responsibly. This will limit the induction of “fly by night” candidates that disappear after they have been initiated.

Reclamation is a good thing, but only if the needs of the reclaimed brother are going to be met in a manner that maximizes his future involvement. A viable reason must be created for his return, or he will leave again. For those that didn’t belong in Alpha in the first place, leave them where they have gone!

Finally, the involvement of the senior brothers in the chapter is good for both young and senior brothers. It gives both a sense of purpose and creates intergenerational bonds that will go a long way to sustaining the chapter. Dentists have a saying that “If you ignore your teeth they will go away.” If you ignore your senior brothers, they will go away too, and your chapter will be the poorer for it!