Delt Stories

March 12, 2020

Fraternity Continues to Adapt as Response to the COVID-19 Virus Escalates.

As the response to the Covid-19 virus escalates, your Fraternity continues to adapt. Your steadfast and prudent leadership team of the Arch Chapter and Central Office have taken several steps to address the issues arising from campus suspensions. Please review carefully and let us know what we can do to help.

• Chapter consultants. We made the decision to remove the chapter consultants from the road for the month of March out of an abundance of caution. Seventy-seven percent of our campuses have limited or suspended face-to-face classes. The consultants will return to the office and then return home where they will work remotely for the rest of the month. We will review their travel schedules the final week of March and decide if we will send them back on the road in April or if we will keep them at home for the rest of their term. They will honor all scheduled “visits” by substituting online web meetings or conference calls with chapter officers. If you have a visit scheduled in March, please be ready to meet via phone or web meeting.
• Essential staff travel. Other staff will be limited to travel only for mission-critical items. As the month of March is typically a quieter month for travel we don’t have many obligations. We will evaluate this position at the end of the month.
• Central Office operations. The Central Office will remain open and operational at this time. We have had only 10 confirmed cases of the virus in Indiana. At this point, we are not in an emergent state. If we need to move to a point where we operate the office remotely, we are set up to do so. Our members shouldn’t experience a reduction in service. We have had remote staff since 2016 and are fully equipped to run the office remotely.
• House Corporations. We have drafted a message to provide guidance to house corporations. This message will come from Andy Longo in the coming days. We are here to support each house corporation’s local decision on a case by case basis. We are comforted by the number of house corporations that have escrow funds and reserves sufficient to cover two months of loan payments. If this situation extends beyond two months we will work with groups to restructure loans and payments. We also are exploring an emergency lending fund for house corporations in dire need of revenue. If you believe you might be in this situation, please contact Andy Longo.
• Pledge programs. We highly encourage any chapters not currently at schools on suspension to accelerate their new member periods and initiate their men as soon as possible. If a chapter is at a campus that has suspended face to face classes, the clock on the 8 week pledge period requirement will automatically pause. We have already notated all such campuses internally. Once the campus resumes operations the clock will begin with some extra time to resume. It should be noted chapters should NOT have any pledge activity if their “clock” has stopped. Such activity would reinstate the 8-week clock.
• Dues and payments. The vast majority of our 2019-2020 dues and insurance has been invoiced and paid. Accounts receivables are low. If we received zero spring annual dues we would experience a loss of 918 initiation dues this spring. While that is real money, we have reserves and a rainy day for a reason. This might be the rain. We would expect to recoup most of those funds in the fall when the spring new member classes initiate. In other words, it wouldn’t be lost revenue, it would be delayed revenue. Chapters are expected to pay any amounts currently incurred. If you are unable, you need to contact the Central Office
• Chapter advisors. You are the eyes and ears of the organization. You will be the first line for questions. We appreciate all you do. Please review the material sent on March 10. Please remind your men to take care of themselves and follow instructions from authorities. We suggest volunteers consider advising via text, phone or video conference rather than in-person meetings. We are a family and we take care of each other. Leave no man behind. And please, let us know how we can help.

The biggest thing we can all do is to model calm prudence. This is an unusual situation, but so was 9-11. So were the 1968 civil rights disturbances. So was the 1918 Spanish flu. Delta Tau Delta has persevered through all challenges because we have steadfast leadership—your leadership. We have thus far surmounted all obstacles to our progress. Please let me know what you are seeing and hearing. Thank you for being a good Delt.

Fraternally,

Jack Kreman, Chief Executive Officer