Greetings from New Haven--Day Two.

My boss flew in last night and we met with a few Yale alumni. It was a good dinner. I was expecting a tense meeting, but it wasn't. This is one of the most difficult chapters to deal with. I have never met a chapter that is so mediocre and yet, so afraid to try something different. To reiterate my comment yesterday about being clueless on chapter operations, here are two perfect examples:

The General Fraternity offers Recruitment Through Scholarship grants to every chapter who applies each year. They are eligible to apply for $500 from the Foundation to offer to incoming freshman. Not only does it show our value we place on academics but it assists chapters in building relationships with freshman--with a purpose of giving away a scholarhship. Most chapters have seen great results and use it as a cornerstone of their recruitment program. Yale has yet to implement such a program and I have suggested it every time I visit. The president told me that the application asks for a letter of recommendation from a Greek Advisor, but Yale doesn't have a Greek Advisor so they thought they were ineligible. DONE. End of story. There was no phone call or email to me to ask if they were still eligible, they just assumed they couldn't do it. This after I have been begging them to give it a try. Where is their problem solving ability?

Another example: If a member decides to quit Beta he must submit a "Volunteery Resignation Form" and submit it to the General Fraternity, so we can note his resignation in our records. Yale has a member whose last name is McGill and another member whose last name is McGell. The guy with the last name McGill wanted to resign, but the Treasurer went to McGell and had him sign a resignation form and they sent that in. McGell didn't read the form that he was signing--now I have to help the chapter get that straightened out. These are YALE students--you would think they could learn to read.

I get things like, "Oh, we're struggling with recruitment"..and then 5 minutes later they will tell me how they don't want a recruitment advisor thats not a Yale Alum, but yet I have 3 UConn alums who are begging to help the chapter.

I'm just so frustrated right now. I am here on a two day visit and I emailed my visit setup form to the president 5 weeks ago. Did he have meetings set up for me--no. The Vice President just stopped by and said that he wouldn't be able to meet until 8pm tonight. I've got a conference call at 10pm and I have a 2.5 hour drive to Hoboken, NJ tonight. Do I really need to stay around until 8pm to have a meeting with some clueless officer....NO, I don't!

Thought of the moment: 'It's hard to polish a turd.'

-T