OMEGA PSI PHI FRATERNITY, INC.

9TH DISTRICT RETENTION CHAIRMAN

“FRIENDSHIP IS ESSENTIAL TO THE SOUL”

RETENTION<>RETENTION<>RETENTION

SOME GOOD NEWS & RETENTION IMPROVEMENT TIPS

Greetings Brothers! This is Vernon <Bop Swalos> Weakley, the 9^th DISTRICT RETENTION CHAIRMAN. The purpose of this publication is to help improve the district’s Retention performance. Below are some RETENTION IMPROVEMENT TIPS AND VARIOUS OTHER INFO GATHERED FROM our SURVEY RESULTS, FEEDBACK FROM OUR BROTHERS ACROSS THE DISTRICT AND MY PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS. Be advised, the information is pretty frank. IT INCLUDE positive improvement tips as well as negative things that occur in chapters to drive off our brothers. I believe we can handle the truth and do what’s right to correct these serious problems. Please take a moment, kick your feet up and relax, and read this document. When finished, share it with your chapter. Also, feel free to send me some feedback or insight via my RETENTION SEGMENT on the web site that you may have regarding how we can better improve our over-all retention circumstance.

First, let’s start with some good news. Last year the mighty, mighty 9^th D was recognized by the international office as having the BEST RETENTION IN THE NATION OF ALL DISTRICTS. While this is certainly good news, we know we can do much better statistically. This year’s figures just came in. Once again the 9^th District has performed very well. Historically IN YEARS PAST, THE 9^TH D and all districts across the nation have big retention decreases EACH YEAR. THIS IS NOT GOOD! We have been bleeding to death. We take in new brothers each year via recruitment and at the same time have slightly higher numbers leaving out the back door. The major reoccurring problem areas are our NEOs whose three year advance dues payment has expired who do not re-up, and college graduates who do not join grad chapters once they leave college. BROTHERS WE MUST STOP THIS NEGATIVE CONDITION and nonsense AND LIVE UP TO OUR SACRED OMEGA OATH!

The news I bring to you today is that we are finally starting to see positive changes in the right direction. This is the first year across the board that all districts did well IN REDUCING THE NUMBER OF BROTHERS WHO LEAVE. Now don’t get me wrong! While this year’s numbers are encouraging because they are better nationwide than previous years, we still have a lot of hard work to do! It is nice however, to see that we are now going in the right direction. A lot of great thanks go to our very own Willie “Mercenary” Hinchen, who is the current International Retention Chairmen. Brother Mercenary is truly an unsung HERO. He goes full blast for our fraternity and quietly gets the job done, on the district as well as the international level. He has done an extraordinary job in the area of retention and has been recognized for his outstanding performance by the Grand Basileus. Once again, The MIGHTY, MIGHTY 9^th D was among the nation’s leaders in making great strides in the RETENTION area. The mighty 9^th D has also been in the forefront nationally in designing innovative improvement initiatives, RETENTION FORMS AND INNOVATIVE TOOLS for use by us and other districts across the nation.

To begin the TIP Segment, I recommend that each chapter Basileus IMMEDIATELY establish a Chapter Retention Chairman in their chapter, if they do not already have one. In some instances the chapter Retention person and Reclamation person are one in the same. We ask that you now separate these two functions and choose a person for each duty. This separation is in line with the new national retention strategy. Additionally, we also feel it will ease the burden and pressures of these duties, and, as a direct result, enable each area to have more accountability and perform at the optimum. The person you select as your Retention Chairman will work closely with the DR, the State Retention Representative and me on this and future retention initiatives. The person you select in addition to being naturally responsible, will need to be self motivated, innovative, task oriented, able to work well on a team and ideally have a positive rapport and good reputation with members of his chapter.

This action, your selection of a Chapter Retention Chairman, will not only support and significantly amplify our district’s retention efforts, but also, more importantly for you, serve to better propagate your chapter by helping it prosper and grow. Please send your person’s name to me via email ASAP. My email address is swalos@aol.com. Put the word RETENTION in the subject line of the email you send to me. Additionally, please have your retention person (old or new) contact me immediately so that we can all get on the same page and I can let him know what is going on in the district and internationally where retention is concerned. WE WILL BE MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE WORKING AS A TEAM THAN WORKING INDIVIDUALLY.

I also suggest putting together FOCUS GROUP SESSIONS MADE UP of both financial and un-financial brothers in your area to dig deep into WHY YOUR CHAPTER brothers stop coming to meetings. It can be done by the Basileus, the Retention Chairman in a chapter or any interested brother who want to improve his chapter. These sessions should be held at least twice a year. This Focus Group session approach will reveal some interesting stuff that can be of extreme value to your chapter. It's not hard to put together one of these sessions. Just go through your roster and ask as many old and active brothers to show up at a time and place to discuss retention. Make certain that you also make a special effort to invite INACTIVE BROTHERS who have not been around awhile. The more of these brothers, the merrier. This is very important. You must get these brothers’ input on why they stop being active. Believe me, it will be very interesting and extremely valuable. Otherwise, your efforts with only active brothers in attendance may lack creditability and be seen as “preaching to the choir” Get input from all sides.

Hold the session at a time and place separate and apart from your regular chapter meeting. It can be as few as 3 people to 20 people or more. Keep the topic and discussion exclusively on Retention What is the problem and how to improve it. Don't let the brothers ramble or get off track with a thousand other subjects (sports, women) that can side track a good meeting. Set as your “FIRST AND FOREMOST” ground rule that you will stick to the subject. Also, have a good watch and time each and every person and segment. Establish duration time frames for each person TO SPEAK as well as the segments in your meeting. For example, one minute per person and thirty minutes to an hour per segment. Tell everyone up front that they must stop when their times runs out. Believe me this is very import and generally people will respect this feature. It is a win/win for all.

After setting your ground rules i.e. “We will respect each other, We will not speak while another person is talking, We will set a time limit (1 minute for example) for each person to speak”, then appoint an official scribe to record the meeting. From here, I suggest you FORMALLY begin the FOCUS GROUP SESSION by briefly telling everyone the purpose of the Focus Group metting, which is to find better ways to significantly improve retention in your chapter. Then start by going around the room and letting each participant give you one reason they feel there is a problem and give a solution if they can. Each brother gets 1 minute and one minute only during this phase OR WHAT EVER YOUR ESTABLISHED CRITERIA MAY BE! Time them. Use a time keeper. Do not be the scribe or time keeper. Your important and vital job is to facilitate the session. Trying to cover these jobs as well could sink/doom the session. Post the list of items and then lead a discussion on each one for no more 4 minutes per item. A good technique is for the group leader to summarize the ideas for your group and not judge/evaluate as you go. Then formally begin the group discussion on each item by advising the group that the clock has started and from there let each idea stand on its own merit. Once the time runs on an item, formally close the discussion on it and then move to the next item on the list until all is done! Have the scribe record the information as it is being discussed, rather than after the discussion. This is very important! This works best and instills trust in the process by the participants.

Then have the group rank in importance via one man one vote (without debate or judgment) the list of items. The majority vote wins. Then let them take the District Survey. (it can be copied from this web site, if you do not have one) Prepare in advance and have a number of copies available to hand out at the beginning of your session. There is one on the web site. Or, you can use one of your own creation. The group, from reading the questions taken from across the district, will see that their concerns are more than likely universal. The survey may also clarify or broaden gray area ideas that may have surfaced in your session. The survey takes about ten minutes. Now hold a free for all discussion (15-30 minutes) on the ideas generated by the survey and most importantly from the discussions in your Focus Group session The focus should be on finding the best customized solutions for your particular chapter. Rank the best solutions as they rank in importance to the group. Have the group vote on them and establish their rank in importance by number. The majority wins. Thank the group and advise them that all issues will go to the Executive Council and the District Retention Chairmen.

Set a private meeting with the Basilues before the EC meeting. Hold a frank objective review of the items raised in both the Focus group session and survey. Explain to the Basilues that this is extremely valuable information that can have significant immediate, positive impact on your chapter.

Ask that these items be raised at the next EC meeting and changes be made as appropriate. Keep your information handy and keep resurfacing it, if you perceive that it has not been acted on properly. Please, if you feel it is okay, email me the ranked final improvement and solution items that your Focus Group came up with in your session. I want to compile an anonymous District wide list to be published later (more than likely at a district meeting setting or via the web site) so that the whole district can benefit.

You can mail or email me your information. My email address swalos@aol.com. My address is 2103 Linea Del Pino, Houston Tx. 77077. Please put Retention Focus Group Results in the subject line of the email and on the mail envelope. I will compile the information and use it along with other input from other chapters to make our district better. No chapter names will be used when publishing this information.

IN MY DUTIES AS 9TH DISTRICT RETENTION CHAIRMAN I have uncovered a lot of reasons why brothers are not staying with chapters. The district Survey has also been very helpful in helping us identify many of the reasons. The Survey has given some very valuable interesting insight on why our good brothers leave us, so take a look at it. It is in the Retention Committee session inside the web site. I have also received a lot of input from good brothers who have given insight on the subject of RETENTION. Please keep this valuable feedback coming. It will make our district better.

Let’s get into the findings. In real terms my brothers, it seems to come down to these missing brothers not being happy. Some of the reasons are not justified and some appear to be legitimate. Real or imagined, our job is to MAN UP, separate the fact from fiction, put it all on the table and resolve the problems or mis-conceptions. Most of these brothers will not openly verbalize their dis-satisfaction, they simply go away mad. This is not good!!! We must get these brothers talking and saying what's on their minds.

Communication is the key. When there is an obvious problem between brothers, we others seem to just get out of the way and hope it work itself out. We cannot do this! We are not some high school glee club or the school band where people can just go on their way. We are Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. We stand for something. We have our SWORN SACRED OATH THAT BINDS US and we have principles AND STANDARDS of behavior that we live and die by as well as the great poems we study to guide us! We must intervene and mediate. THESE MEN ARE OUR BROTHERS. It was not by chance that our great Founders chose this avenue of expression (the term brother) to guide our fraternity. We must do whatever it takes to help the disputing brothers mend their relationship. That is what any good blood brother would do who cares about his family. We must do the same!

I have also found that Chapters do not communicate well internally. Many brothers say they are being systematically left out of the fraternal fun and gatherings because they do not clearly get the word on what is going on. Most grow to believe that they are being left off of the so called “A list” on purpose. As result, they separate themselves from the chapter and go away mad. Basilei should stay on top of this situation, double checking and triple checking at various points during the year to insure a good communication link exist between all members in their chapters. This communication failure is tricky and often hard to detect. Its impact however, can have very serious negative impact on the membership and life blood of a chapter. This circumstance does not help our retention situation.

Too much use of the Internet to communicate within a chapter has been cited by brothers as a problem. It appears we are choosing to lean on the Internet too much to communicate event info etc. Most of our older members do not often use the Internet or they have limited experience with it. As a result, brothers feel they are being left out. This failure to successfully communicate to all brothers is doing serious damage to our fraternity. We must insure that all brothers get each and every message communicated. We must make a special effort to talk to our brothers and share this information directly, rather than use the Internet too much.

TOO MUCH RELIANCE ON THE INTERNET CAN ALSO BE A DETRIMENT TO FOSTERING BROTHERHOOD. Call a brother up or go by his house! Going back to this old school practice of face to face or voice to voice communications will perpetuate good OMEGA BROTHERHOOD. Establish a Minister Of Communication position in your chapter, if necessary to improve this circumstance. Their job could be to make certain that not only all active brothers get the word on all meetings, events, community service functions etc, that all brothers who once were active in the chapter get the word as well. THIS IS THE FIRST STEP IN GETTING THESE INACTIVE BROTHERS BACK INTO THE FOLD! *I am not suggesting that we let these brothers participate when they are inactive, That is a DR and chapter decision. I am just saying that we still should let them know what’s going on so that they will want to get active.

We must all be aware of and look out for brothers who appear to be unhappy with the chapter and begin a personal dialogue with them. We can handle the truth and/or be diplomatic enough to dispel mis-conceptions and mis-understandings. Reach out also to those brothers who left the chapter many years past. If they have concerns, ask that these brothers privately raise them directly to the Basilues in a private session or with other members of the EC they feel comfortable with. If they will not take it a step further this way, then you (WHO EVER IT IS READING THIS INFORMATION) be their advocate and do it for them. I find that most people just want an opportunity to get stuff off of their chest. ONCE THIS IS DONE, you’ve created an atmosphere and an opportunity for a significant break through.

Also, my research and the input I have gotten from good brothers (inactive and active) in this area on why our good brothers leave chapters, reveal that brothers become unhappy with their chapters for many of he following reasons.

They feel that many chapters are more about politics, cliques, money making schemes and power base building than promoting brotherhood. All of these things are very destructive forces that can tear a chapter apart and/or chase off good brothers one by one. Cliques for example, are contrary to good brotherhood. All Omega Men are worthy to be in your circle. By separating yourself from brothers, you break down the very thing our beloved Founders stood for and wanted to perpetuate in establishing our great fraternity. We are men of like attainments. This is not a theory. This is what we are! We must give ourselves the opportunity and/or create the opportunity if necessary to see this and the good in our brothers.

Invest time in getting to know all brothers in your chapter, not just a chosen, golden few. We must also realize that we all have strengths and weaknesses. We all also have faults, you included. Our unified brotherhood results in us acting as a whole and from there being a great collective force in lifting not only ourselves up, but our families and communities as well. This, I believe, was the Founders’ hidden (hidden because of the dangerous racially charged times they lived in) goal. It is easy to see or assume a weakness in a brother. We must fight this and get to know the real man and the reason why he is the way he is. When we do this, we amplify our chapter’s potential and broaden ourselves intellectually.

Additionally, if we do not see this or the potential (the shinning qualities/standards that we live by and want and exemplify) we demand in our new recruits, then we should not be bringing them into our great fraternity. There are rumors of chapters who have had lines just because they saw it as a way to increase money into their chapter. Most brothers do not like this and have openly stated publicly say they will not respect chapters who are suspected of doing this. Do not choose money over brotherhood. Chapters should not recruit just because they need or want more money in their chapters. This negative condition also hurts Retention. The silent majority, the Good Brothers, see this as dishonorable and will walk away from chapters who are guilty of it.

Regarding constant pushes for money in frat meetings, it should be watched and held to a minimum. Brothers, while they may not openly say anything, most do not want to be pressured and hawked for money every time they come out to a meeting. These pressures often come directly from the chapter and its members as well. This behavior sends a very bad signal. And, for the person who simply don’t have it to give, it can be very embarrassing and make them feel uncomfortable. CAN A BROTHER JUST COME OUT AND HAVE A GOOD TIME WITH THE BROTHERS WITHOUT BEING NICKLE AND DIMED TO DEATH! Chapters should make certain that they include none pressure brotherhood sessions/get togethers into their meetings and events etc. where there are no pushes for money, ticket sells etc. Just a good ole session for the brothers to hang together. BROTHERHOOD IS WHY OUR FRATERNITY WAS FOUNDED. IT WAS NOT FOUNDED TO BE A MONEY MAKING POT or a get over OR A POLITICAL INTERNAL POWER BASE TOY and/or tool FOR OUR MEMBERS. Perhaps a regular domino or card playing hour before the regularly scheduled meeting or at someone’s house once a month will have significant positive impact in demonstrating to chapter members that we are about fostering brotherhood and our bonds first and foremost.

2. Some brothers feel that their chapter meetings are unproductive, a waste of their time and are often high jacked by brothers with ulterior agendas. When brothers feel this way it must not be left to fester. These negative feelings must some how be brought out into the open, <the light of day> and frankly and openly discussed.

3. Brothers feel that their chapter lack purpose. In other words, what type of community service are you doing. Are we helping some needy person other than ourselves. While having great fun in our chapters is a good brotherhood perpetuating thing, we must also have purpose and compassion for others. This is how we lift up our communities. Our mandated programs must be aggressively executed with zeal and passion to consistently achieve excellence.

Brothers also say brothers leave chapters because they are angry that their individual candidate(s) for EC (Executive Council) did not get elected. It's very important that the new incoming administration understand this and reach out, and reach out often to the unsuccessful candidate as well as his supporters to overcome this serious divide in a chapter. In some instances, the “it’s good to be king syndrome” kick in and no effort is made to work through bad feelings and blood in a chapter by the new administration. THIS ONE IS A BIGGIE. It has severely hurt many chapters across America and in our beloved District as well. The new administration has got to take the first genuine step toward these brothers to heal these potentially devastating, lingering sores.

One possible idea to resolve this problem, is to organize a team of well respected brothers to go to the MIA brothers homes and sit down with them, talk to them and get them back to the fold. This contact may need to be done more than once. Remember what is at stake. Brotherhood is more important than politics. The Founders’ intent was to perpetuate brotherhood and friendship. Omega was not founded on politics, constant money making schemes, cliques and created internal power bases. We must keep our ECs and members on track with this issue. Some high powered brothers measure and incorrectly solely link their chapter’s success to materialistic things like how much money the chapter made or have in its treasury etc. Not to say, that it is not nice to have money, I am saying it should not be put over brotherhood and the purpose of our fraternity. Perpetuating great brotherhood is the purpose of our being. Brothers we must not forget this critically important success factor.

5. To move into another subject, please allow me to share one very effective thing that my own chapter’s Reclamation team did to perpetuate reclamation and retention. As the Retention and Reclamation guy a few years back in my chapter (Rho Beta Beta in Houston), my committee and I would go down through our roster that included current and old names and numbers of brothers who had not frequented a chapter for many years. We would start calling these brothers beginning the Sunday before the next meeting and remind them the meeting is this coming Friday. This may sound odd, but I was floored to find how many brothers just needed that little reminder that the meeting was coming each month and just wanted someone to give them a call and nudge them into coming back. Brothers we had not seen in years started coming back to the meetings. It was like old home week each meeting. Brothers would be slapping hands and hugging and talking about old times. This is the type of buzz and old school good feelings/fraternization we want to create in all our chapters across the district. It is why, I personally believe, our members became Omega Men. It is our great brotherhood and the everlasting bond between us that our souls crave.

My hat goes off to THETA ALPHA Chapter in Dallas Texas. They have by far the biggest active chapter in our district. This has been true for many years. They do a great job in the area of Retention each year. I attended their meeting and would like to share one of the many great things they do to perpetuate RETENTION. They have a person who, before each meeting not only call brothers who have not been to their meetings in awhile, but also go and spend time with that person and find out what is going on and from there share it with the chapter in a stand up special segment at the monthly meeting. He also shares any information the missing brother wants the chapter to know. This segment was very heart warming. It may be that the person is sick and is not feeling well. Or that the person is going through some tough life difficulties and perhaps can use the brothers help! Most importantly, in the end, the appointed brother encourages the brotherhood to get by and see the missing brothers.

AWARENESS IS A POWERFUL THING MY BROTHERS! It is very hard to reach down and lift a brother up as we all know we should, if we do not know of his plight/situation. This out reach and expression of great brotherly concern goes along way to not only pep the person up, (by knowing his brothers still love and are concerned about him in his absence), it also heals his spirit and who knows the physical as well. This public forum also motivates the brothers in the chapter to reach out in a special way as well to the missing brother. In reaching out to a missing brother, it may be as simple as setting up a time to go over to play dominos, have a beer or play cards with the brother. OUR BROTHERS (active or inactive) SHOULD NOT HAVE TO WONDER IF WE still CARE ABOUT THEM. THEY SHOULD KNOW THIS BY OUR INDEPENDENT AND SINCERE, CONTINUING demonstrated ACTIONS. THIS IS WHAT TRUE BROTHERHOOD IS ALL ABOUT! Keep up the great work Theta Alpha. And for you other chapters out there, let me know the great retention improvements EFFORTS going on in your chapters and I will publicize them as well. Chapters are now sending in their personal chapter information to be considered for the THE RETENTION CHAPTER OF THE YEAR. This honor will be awarded at this year’s district meeting.

In the future, I will be sharing other chapters great retention work as well. Chapter Retention Chairman, don’t hesitate to blow your chapter’s horn. By doing so, you help to uplift our whole district. *Oh and by the way, I am toying with an idea of also recognizing outstanding individual chapter retention chairmen for their innovation, outstanding commitment and hard work. Stay tuned on this idea.

In regards to our MISSING brothers, many say they want and truly DESPARETLYneed someone to remind them of the meeting dates and help them out of the house when they have gotten out of the habit. Now I KNOW THERE ARE THOSE OUT THERE THAT SAY,”WELL WHY DO WE NEED TO DO THIS” WE DO IT BECAUSE THEY ARE OUR BROTHERS. AND, NO ACTION OR GOOD DEED IS UNWORTHY WHEN IT COMES TO helping AN OMEGA MAN. We must put OUR PRIDE A SIDE TO LIFT UP A BROTHER. Be he worthy or unworthy. Doing this may very well be the fuel/fire to make the unworthy become worthy.

One great tip that was shared when calling a brother by phone is to be very, very courteous when talking to the wives when they pick up the phone. Don’t just dismiss them and immediately ask for the brother. Explain who you are to them when they ask. Believe me this is a major suspicion reliever and tension ice breaker. Explain that you are the Retention person for your chapter and that you and the chapter are trying to get your brother ( her spouse ) to come to the meetings. Be prepared to tell the wife some positive things that the chapter is doing, most especially the good community out reach stuff. Tell her we really need the missing brother to help the chapter be successful in pulling off these events. Let her know his presence is a critical success factor for the chapter. Invite her to also volunteer to assist the chapter on some of our public community out reach programs. This is always a hit. This will get a lot of positive points for the brother with his spouse. Also be prepared for some long lost brothers to vent a little bit. That goes along with the job. Listen patiently, do not argue any position. Let the brother know you will raise his concerns to the appropriate levels, then do so. Tell him the chapter needs him, loves him, misses him and want him back active with the chapter.

It may take several contacts to get brothers back. The key is not to give up. Keep making these calls. They really pay off. Do not make these contacts with emails. They are too impersonal. And, deep down most people, particular older brothers over 30, or any age brother for that matter, do not like an appeal to come via this route (email). Also if you (the Chapter Retention Chairman) have a good committee, split the names out and have them call as well. The caution I raise here is only let tactful brothers who really want to make these calls do it. Those with the pull, great communication skills, charisma, good interpersonal skills, good listening skills and compassion fit best on this assignment. Don’t draft people to make these calls. Only take serious volunteers, responding to your request. Additionally, getting brothers from the missing brother’s line or older brothers who they respect and have a connection with (when the times in their mind were great and when they actively participated) are the ones who can have the best chance for a break through. The wrong negative gruff person calling can do more harm than good. I suggest you (the Chapter Retention Chairman) make all the calls yourself, if you have the energy and time. This way filtering does not occur.

This TIP is more Reclamation than Retention, but another cutting edge idea is Advertising. Buy an ad in a well read paper in your area. Bargain with the paper’s advertising section. They are often open for negotiation. You may be very surprised at how low the cost ultimately is. Around Founders day is a good time to advertise but I recommend you do it once quarterly if you can. The chapter or chapters in the coverage area will reap the benefit, so inquire if they will cover the expense. Advertise preferably on a Sunday, in the front page section or sports area. Your ad can simply say:

ALL UNAFFILLIATED

OMEGA BROTHERS

INTERESTED IN RE-CONNECTING WITH

OMEGA PSI PHI FRATERNITY INC. PLEASE CALL __________.

* Make certain you put in A GOOD CHAPTER NUMBER OR USE YOUR NUMBER. I RECOMMEND THE Retention Chairman’s number, if possible.

There are a lot of good un-affiliated Omega Men in cities across America just sitting around at home in cities they are not familiar with wishing they could be involved but simply do not know how to take the first step. Sometimes even their pride get in their way. Or, they are simply out of the habit and are a little ashamed to walk back through the door, having been away a while! They may have re-located to your city and simply got out of touch. Or, many just are satisfied and comfortable with just hanging out with the brothers they went over with whenever they go back to the cities they went over in. Let’s consider college homecomings as an example. Brothers throw on those old tee shirts and hang out for a weekend with their old brothers, get a bunch of memories and laughs and from there return home with a smile on their face until next year. That's the cycle we must break. Now it’s okay to have these great feelings, but we must let these brothers know their souls can be fed even more if they be with the frat year round. They are really missing out on a lot. “FRIENDSHIP IS ESSENTIAL TO THE SOUL” THERE IS NO LOVE LIKE OMEGA LOVE! It's every good Omega Man’s job, AND I WILL EVEN GO SO FAR AS TO SAY DUTY to get these brothers BACK active in local chapters. But to do this, we must find them. Now how do we do this? Statistics say they are all over the place. All around us my brothers.

Over 250,000 Omega brothers are reported out there. Only roughly 18,000 are active nationally. This is an embarrassment. What is also funny is we are doing much better than the other fraternities. They are in much worse shape than we are. I believe that good, well placed ads are the key to bringing these MIA brothers back to the Omega family. On the national level, the frat is talking about advertising with Tom Joyner, Jet magazine, Black Enterprise < which is owned by a brother) and in most major cites via the news paper. One of my goals is to have the national frat fund and initiate payment for the ad expense in some of the smaller cities as well. I also believe each chapter must do a better job of publicizing their local activities and events. We must get outside of our regular promotional circles. We must also have as an aim, not only reaching our old customers but also putting stuff out there that will be aimed at and ultimately seen by inactive Omega Men as well. Posting ads or flyers in churches, schools when applicable, grocery stores and fitness gyms are very effective ways to get the attention of these missing brothers! Sending event flyers to African American women organizations, not just limited to Greeks, is another good way to reach these missing brothers.

ALL IN ALL MY BROTHERS I HOPE SOME OF THE TIPS I GAVE CAN HELP YOU IN YOUR CHAPTERS. I will keep the tips coming as we get them. Please do me a favor and pass these ideas on to your chapters etc. Oh and don't hesitate to contact me brothers, “BOP SWALOS” at swalos@aol.com if I CAN BE OF ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE TO YOU.

RETENTION<>RETENTION<>RETENTION

“THERE IS NO LOVE LIKE OMEGA LOVE”

                                                                                                                                  Vernon (BOP SWALOS) Weakley

                                                                                                                            9^th District Retention Committee Chairman

PS: Chapters please don’t forget to provide me with your chapter’s great retention work AND INNOVATIVE IDEAS so that you can receive strong consideration for THE RETENTION CHAPTER OF THE YEAR AWARDS that will be presented AT THIS YEAR’S DISTRICT MEETING. This honor will be awarded to the chapters making the most strides and/or having the best innovative ideas in the area of RETENTION. PLEASE GET YOUR CHAPTER’S INFORMATION IN TO ME BY MARCH 1^ST. Email is the best way. Put “Retention Chapter of The Year Award” in the subject line. THANK YOU MY BROTHERS!

“ OMEGA MEN WORKING TOGETHER CAN ACCOMPLISH ALL THINGS ”

15 COMMANDMENTS OF GOOD OMEGA BROTHERHOOD

UNDERGRAD ADVISOR INITIATIVE

NEO PAYMENT REMINDER ALERT

FRIENDLY REMINDER

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