I may be politically incorrect in saying this, but from my experience with a lot of HBCU alumni chapters, they are our "Country Clubs." We treat these organizations like they are the "exclusive". They are "exclusive" but not for the sake of being high-society. Usually, events are not heavily publicized and the same ole folks lead them. We have to be humble and about our University's business and propelling them for greater things. I think that we'll get there, especially with the Round-up sites. Ideas are flying all over the place!
...and ya'll left because of that? Change will never come until people decide to stick it out. Fortunately, I have never encountered that with a chapter. In the Hattiesburg, MS chapter you sorta had a young vs. old battle but the youngins hung in there. You all should not have stopped becasue of that. Just cast your vote and move on to the next item.
We had those issues with the Chicago Alumni Chapter here. THe older members not wanting to let go of the "power" and try different ideas. I understood their point b/c the younger members weren't active, weren't coming to meetings, and weren't supporting events. However, I continued to tell them that the things being planned are BORING and too expensive. Especially for someone that is on a tight budget and/or aren't interested in the event. Hell, I was an officer and didn't want to spend money on the boring events we were hosting. Finally, through voting, the prices for events were lowered. A small victory. LOL
Now, as I stated above, I"m more invovled with getting younger people involved and doing more "fun" events that will also raise money.
There were 2 meetings where, after I went PLUMB DUMB OFF on a graduate from the class of '56 (she irks my fugging nerves), that I almost quit. But never did. To her, no matter how much I did with student recruitment, going to college fairs, working with different committees, etc.
If I wasn't selling a great number of tickets then I wasn't doing enough.
I told her, "I resent the fact that you are implying that I"m not doing enough. I'm going to tell you ONE TIME only stay out of my pockets. I will not tell you again. I don't see you offering to refund me for gas money spent when I'm travelling all over Chicago doing these college fairs". Yeah, she and I only smile at each other. She can Kick Rocks.
Now that we are doing "different" things that attract younger Alums they pretty much told us, don't be offended if we aren't there, it's just not our thing. I said...ditto for your events. LOL
Anther older member, he's probably a class of 60+(something) he always says, "selling should be easy just simply tell them it's to help a young black child go to college". Well, this other member, class of '94 (very active) and I try to tell him....in the past, that was enough. But there are so many ways for people to give back to black kids, ie fraternities, sororities, other universities, other organizations. It's not that easy to always sell tickets.
We're working on it though. We just tried a different angle.
Basically now we let them have their events and we do ours.
