For most chapters, the Board of Governors is the only alumni organization they ever really think about. The BoG advises the undergraduates on finance, recruitment, scholarship, and risk management — vital work. But here is what decades of serving Alpha Rho has taught me: a strong Board of Governors is not something you conjure out of thin air. It is the natural by-product of an active, well-run Graduate Council.
Every chapter already has a Graduate Council — the Constitution says so. The trouble is that most exist in name only. When Alpha Rho was suspended in 2014, we needed to rally brothers and raise money for an eventual rechartering, and the Graduate Council became the engine that did it. Along the way we learned that the Graduate Council does something the BoG cannot: it keeps hundreds of alumni informed, connected, and invested. Those engaged alumni are exactly the brothers who later raise their hands to serve on the BoG and House Corporation.
So if you want a deep bench of BoG volunteers, start by building the thing that creates them.
Four building blocks
It takes surprisingly little to begin — a few dedicated alumni and four essentials:
Officers. Start with just a President, Treasurer, and Secretary. Their first task is to draft bylaws and submit them to National HQ — the step that makes the Council your chapter’s official alumni body and seats your delegate at National Convention.
An online presence. Reserve a domain (ours is arpkt.org) and build a simple site. Google Sites is free and ties into Google Drive, Docs, and Groups; we keep our alumni directory in a shared Google Doc spreadsheet with several editors.
A way to communicate. Email is king. Social media platforms come and go, but every working professional checks email. A free, moderated Google Group keeps the conversation going and the spammers out.
A way to raise money. Make giving effortless. A PayPal account lets alumni give by credit card, including small recurring gifts — our “100-for-10” campaign solicits alumni to donate a minimum of $10 a month. Once engaged with the chapter, those same alumni can become a base of support for future fundraising.
Put that engagement to work
Money and communication are the means, not the end. Alpha Rho’s Graduate Council pays for tailgates, Homecoming, and Founders Day; funds rush and semester scholarships; reimburses actives and our elected delegate for Convention and leadership events; and even prints custom chapter swag. We hold monthly Zoom meetings open to any brother, and broadcast two live meetings a year from Manuel’s Tavern. None of this requires officers to live near campus — almost all of it happens online.
The payoff goes well beyond social events. Since 2014 the Council has received tens of thousands of dollars in alumni donations, and that momentum has made far bigger things possible. We recently raised more than $50,000 to endow the James P. Chambers Scholarship Fund, and we are now in the middle of a $400,000 campaign to enable the House Corporation to renovate the chapter house. Neither effort would exist without the Graduate Council. And when alumni see what their gifts accomplish, brothers we had not heard from in years reach out to us. That re-engaged base is where future BoG and House Corporation volunteers come from — and the actives, watching all of it, learn how alumni are supposed to show up once they graduate.
A word to brothers everywhere
Here is something most Phi Taus rarely consider: you can serve a chapter other than your own.
Thanks to Zoom and similar tools, none of this work has to happen in person — the Board of Governors and House Corporation can welcome remote participants just as readily as the Graduate Council does. So your skills — writing, web design, accounting, fundraising — can help a struggling chapter three states away as easily as your own. If you have ever wanted to give back but had no local chapter to give back to, this is your opening. Reach out to a chapter near you, or to one that simply needs the help.
A thriving chapter rarely begins with a thriving Board of Governors. It begins with a Graduate Council that keeps alumni close. Build that first, and the volunteers, the funds, and a strong Board will follow.
Fraternally,
Tim Holman, Alpha Rho Chapter (1977)