Where will all the money go????

(2/9/04 Note: Correction on NBD meeting date has been made.)

Have you read any of the National Board of Directors Minutes yet? Well, there was a resolution passed a number of Conclave's ago that the Minutes were supposed to be made public and that there was to be a list of standing committees and their constitution posted on the National Website. Well, you can get the NBD minutes, only if you specifically request them, so that's a step in the right direction. If you are looking for the unabridged version, forget it. The Executive Session stuff is not published and even what you do get seems to be quite well-sanitized. Nonetheless you get a glimpse of what is going on. Considering they only meet 2 or 3 times a year, getting those minutes would at least keep you informed rather than depending on the communication that has been non-existent this year from Zollinger House.

Anyway, take note Alumni Board Treasurers and Presidents, for I have uncovered an interesting fact from the JULY 2004 Board Meeting with regard to your Chapter's CIF fund. These are monies garnered from chapters into individual accounts to hopefully assist with all sorts of long-term improvements to chapter facilities. Looks like there is a plan afoot to "tax" your money even more to support the apparent floundering operational structure on the Fraternity side of Zollinger House.

According to a motion passed by the Board at their May 2004 meeting, the NBD has decided to apply an additional management fee to the Chapter Investment Fund of 75 basis points annually. Of course there is an Investment Manager’s Fee already incorporated into the Fund Cost. This new "tax" of 75 basis points will funnel additinal revenue into general fraternity operations. Is this so we can hire more people for the Richmond staff to not return phone calls, e-mails, or communicate in general? For what additional services will this increase in their revenue provide? Is it to cover up the fact that maybe they can't operate within their budget - or is our performance as an organization not what they tell us it is? I will leave that up to you, but I would be concerned about continuing to dump money into a black hole.

It is the understanding of this writer, that the National Housing Corp trustees advised the board that this was unnecessary and would cause unwarranted harm to the individual chapter funds held in the CIF. If you do the math, this "tax" would extricate about $80,000 out of the CIF annually reducing chapter earnings and suggests that over 10 years or so, would reduce earnings in the CIF by over $1 million dollars.

Fraternity is expensive to operate. One would also guess that there will be legislation proposed at Conclave to drastically increase all fees to cover the increased operating costs. I would guess that the discussion of this would simply sweep the above proposal under the rug and no one would be informed of what is being done to your CIF money behind closed doors.

You are expecting value received for dollar paid. However, it is the decision of the undergrads and alumni boards to either examine what is happening or to simply ignore it. You are paying a lot of money to not get value for dollar invested. But, it's your decision. It is just my responsibility to keep you informed.

I am Il Doge.