How to start a Chapter

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Starting a new fraternity is an exciting and rewarding experience. Being a Founding Father of an Alpha Chi Rho Chapter, while requiring a significant amount of dedication and time, also allows you to start your own traditions and standards of excellence that will live on as your legacy for generations at your campus. Starting a Chapter is an opportunity that allows you to establish the foundation of excellence that both you and the countless numbers of men that come after you will treasure. Establishing a Chapter, while providing a great fraternal experience is also a great way to always have something to come back to once you graduate. You have the honor of having your name on the Charter and you can start your own traditions and programs, which are some of the most common reasons why many students decide to establish an Alpha Chi Rho Chapter.

Alpha Chi Rho prides itself with hands-on Chapter development. As a midsized National Fraternity, we have the ability to give specific help to each Chapter, colony, or interest group based on their needs. By bringing Alpha Chi Rho to your campus you can guarantee that the National Headquarters, as well as the national staff, will help assist you in doing whatever is necessary to make you successful. We have much flexibility in helping out our colonies and interest groups and have no problems working with schools to make sure that their individual policies are followed, as well as the policies of the NIC (North American Interfraternity Conference), the latter of which Alpha Chi Rho is a 1909 charter member.

The Process

Upon contacting Alpha Chi Rho National Headquarters with an interest of bringing Alpha Chi Rho to the campus, we will coordinate a visit from our Director of Expansion. The purpose of this visit is to allow an opportunity for you and the other interested students to talk face to face with an official representative of the Fraternity. During this time, he is to answer all of the questions your group has about starting the colony. The coordinator will also take this time to assess the quality and character of the men interested in starting the colony. Whenever possible, the representative will also take the time to reach out to the appropriate university officials, including but not limited to the Dean of Students, Greek Advisor, and IFC or local Greek Council.

As both an individual and a small group, you can begin talking about Alpha Chi Rho with your friends and classmates on campus. One of the biggest components for success is going to be manpower, so the more men you have interested the better. Be sure to discuss the idea with a wide variety of men with different backgrounds and be sure that there are a good mix of first, second, third and fourth year students involved. Keep in mind that Alpha Chi Rho is looking for at least 20 involved men to achieve colony status.

Review the Fraternity's Expansion Manual which contains installation objectives, a timeline for colonies, and guidelines for colonies to follow to become a chartered Chapter.

You should begin speaking with university faculty about acquiring an advisor for the new interest group. Once an advisor has been identified, meet with them on a regular basis and make sure they attend meetings. * Advisors can apply for a reimbursement of time and effort through AXPEF for an amount up to $500 a year.

You should begin electing an executive board which includes, at the very least, a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, recruitment chairman, and community service/philanthropy chairman. This group should also be in charge of documenting who is in the group, keep a phone/email list, and take meeting minutes. This will help the group stay focused and organized and will demonstrate the group's achievement and organization skills.

The group should start establishing a routine of meeting and doing recreational events together, such as seeing a movie, playing football, or attending a BBQ. These guys are going to become your Brothers so it is important that you take the time to have fun and get to know one another.

The group should establish a dues system and open a checking account for the group. Dues are a necessary aspect of the group. With dues the group can pay for recruitment, advertising, office supplies, Brotherhood activities, and the like. Also dues are necessary to cover the nominal month-to-month expenses of the group.

Become a registered student group on campus, and get your name out there. A major challenge of becoming a new group on campus is advertising ideas and letting the campus know who you are and what your intentions are. This will help in recruitment and building numbers, which often is the biggest challenge for Alpha Chi Rho colonies when it comes time for them to receive their charter.

Interest Form

Do you want to start a chapter of Alpha Chi Rho? Are you a Leader? Are you passionate about philanthropies and service opportunities? Are you ready to enhance your college experience by forming a bond of brotherhood? Alpha Chi Rho is aggressively expanding, and the Fraternity is seeking to identify high-quality men who want to join the ranks of AXP. Whether you're interested in starting a brand-new Crow Chapter or wish to restart a Chapter, if you think you have what it takes to become a Founding Father of Alpha Chi Rho, send an expansion interest form and and be as thorough and detailed as possible. Thank you for your interest in Alpha Chi Rho.