THE DEKE CORPORATION

&

A PROPOSAL

FOR A THREE-CHAPTER CONSORTIUM

Recolonizing successful chapters at DePauw or Illinois grows increasingly difficult as we alumni get older, our free time shrinks, our interest fades, and the financial costs of recolonization increase. To maintain the option of recolonizing, Psi Phi and Delta Pi alumni need a long-range plan that maintains alumni interest in the fraternity, raises funds to underwrite chapter start-up, and develops a corps of young men with time and experience to help young chapters. It’s not possible for our chapters to do this alone, but we can be successful long-term if we define our brotherhood broadly in the Midwest.

To be successful, young chapters need competitive houses. The RCF proposes the three Midwestern chapters at Illinois, Indiana, and DePauw join together in the near-term to

1.) help Delta Psi-Indiana grow into a successful chapter whose house is owned by a joint alumni corporation,

2.) whose revenue can be used long-term by the corporation and foundation to help underwrite the revival of Deke at Illinois and DePauw, and perhaps other schools, and

3.) whose actives can assist Deke colonies at Illinois and DePauw in the years to come.

Specifically, the RCF proposes:

1.) Regular Communication: the joint corporation and foundation communicate with Psi Phi and Delta Pi alumni as one group, explaining the benefits of collaborating with the long-term goal of recolonizing our chapters and the near-term goal of solidifying the Delta Psi chapter. The RCF develop a regular Midwestern Deke communication (printed, web-based or both), to include Delta Psi alumni as they graduate from I.U.;

2.) Annual Event(s): the corporation and foundation host an annual alumni function to bring together all the alumni with the actives at I.U. The kick-off function could be a 2004-05 centennial celebration of Delta Pi’s founding;

3.) Funding a Delta Psi chapter house: the foundation develop an organized, multi-year fund raising campaign to help Delta Psi purchase a chapter house. Sigma Phi Epsilon’s national is leasing the corporation its chapter house at I.U. for three years beginning with this 2004 - 05 school year. Helping to fund that lease, with the goal of buying a chapter house in 2007 – 08, one owned by the corporation, would help Delta Psi grow in the short-term and provide the corporation with a long-term asset it can leverage later to recolonize at Illinois and DePauw;

4.) Recolonizing at Illinois: the alumni corporation repeat the I.U. process, likely beginning with Illinois, within the decade—involving the I.U. actives in developing a solid colony of students at Illinois, leasing a house, growing the chapter, buying a house, and later using the rental revenue to continue to build the three-chapter endowment housed in the RCF;

5.) Recolonizing at DePauw: the corporation and foundation target Psi Phi’s 150^th anniversary in 2016 as a possible date to repeat the process a third time, on the DePauw campus—leveraging the youth and experience of the Illinois and Indiana actives and the financial and professional resources of the corporation and foundation;

6.) Helping the chapters help themselves: the creation of a long-term funding cycle from the chapter(s) in tandem with the recolonization cycle, one that would see the corporation establish housebills at a level to allow for annual contributions to the RCF. The annual investment would never be spent, but the investment income used in perpetuity to further the mission of the corporation—targeting efforts to increase Deke’s on-campus competitive advantage. This model reflects what can be accomplished at $10,000 annually from one chapter, but this is just one model; and

7.) Funding the “value add:” the creation of an ongoing fund raising plan, communicated regularly, providing tax deductions on gifts from alumni, and growing the endowment to improve Deke in the Midwest. Over decades, the RCF will grow to produce investment income Deke can leverage to create benefits that make it a stand-out among other fraternities—particularly well-maintained facilities, scholarship opportunities, and specialized training and education in areas such as leadership—the “value add” benefits students should gain from the fraternity experience.

The result will be a corporation with assets in property and a foundation with assets in investments. The combined income streams will maintain the three chapters in perpetuity, possibly underwriting struggling chapters or colonies at other Midwestern schools, and see both the corporation and the foundation successfully accomplishing a mission of improving the university and student experience through a solid Deke experience.

Neither the Psi Phi nor Delta Pi alumni bodies are large or engaged enough to return chapters to our campuses. And young chapters like the one at I.U. can't succeed without competitive housing and cannot gain that without alumni involvement. When Delta Pi and Psi Phi alumni join with actives at Delta Psi, interested Dekes of all ages can leverage the resources of the whole and be successful in both the short- and long-terms in creating a renewed and positive Deke experience specifically designed as a foundation to secure the future of the fraternity.