September 2021
Brothers of Psi Chapter,
As of the beginning of this past spring semester, our chapter was in a perilous position. There were fourteen brothers in the house, but only two brothers were returning for the upcoming fall. The house itself was in a deteriorating condition, and simply was not a decent place to live or to hold social functions. We also realized that our recruitment efforts for the semester would be greatly impacted by the ongoing pandemic.
We’ve made some real progress addressing these issues, but a lot of work remains to get the chapter back into a healthy position. Greater engagement between the chapter and our alumni is a critical part of this effort. We’ve set up an eNewsletter for our chapter with the assistance of the UVA Alumni Association. The first edition of this newsletter was sent out in May. This second edition is intended to provide an update on our progress since that time.
We have formed an Alumni Advisory Group to work with the chapter to address membership challenges and the deteriorating condition of the chapter house. This group is working on several significant issues. The goals for the group are the following:
- Improve our communication with chapter alumni on the state of the chapter
We will provide regular updates to our alumni over the course of the 2021-22 academic year through a contract with the UVA Alumni Association. They have staff dedicated to providing communication support to alumni groups including many fraternities and sororities. We hope that these updates will encourage more alumni to get involved with our efforts. - Support the chapter’s membership recruitment efforts
The chapter entered this spring in a perilous position. They rallied to recruit five new members in the midst of the pandemic, but we need a strong recruitment year to grow the chapter back to a healthy size. We will work with the current undergrads to develop a year-round recruitment plan at the beginning of the year, and to support them in executing this plan. - Help the current members repair the house for the upcoming school year
We organized two alumni work weekends this summer. More than two dozen alumni from Virginia, Maryland, DC, West Virginia, and North Carolina came back to Charlottesville to lend a hand fixing up the house. The work completed included structural, plumbing, and wiring repairs in several rooms, installation of several new doors and frames, repair and painting of the windows, refinishing floors, cleaning out the basement, trimming the hedges, and painting the common areas, porches and several of the bedrooms. We also purchased a new dryer and dishwasher and several new air conditioning units for the chapter and have ordered new furniture for the living room, foyer, and second floor landing. With these improvements, the chapter house will be a great place to live and have social functions again. - Raise funds to repair the house and support the chapter’s operating expenses for the 2020-2021 academic year
After reviewing our operating budget and the expected costs for the urgent repairs needed on the house, we realized that the chapter would need financial support from our alumni to successfully recover this year. We worked with the Alumni Association to launch our 2021-2022 annual campaign with the goal of raising $60,000 to meet this need. We are now four months into this campaign, and we have received donations covering over 65% of our goal for the year. - Take steps to prepare for a capital campaign to fully renovate the chapter house
The infrastructure of the chapter house is aging and out-of-date. We will need to address this proactively in the near future. This is a low priority while we focus on restoring the brotherhood to a healthy position, but we have had some strategy discussions with the Alumni Association.
In summary, we have laid out a plan to support the current members of our chapter and enable them to grow and flourish going forward. There are substantial challenges ahead and much remains to be done by the chapter and the Alumni Advisory Group.