T H E
PHOENIX
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VOLUME I ovember 8, 1914 U""IABER 2 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A BUSINESS BASIS A business administratio.n means efficiency, solidarity, econo my and reputation. By proper management, Alpha Sigma Alpha can be made a power locally, nationally, Helle.ncially and socially .in a very short time. It has a Ritual that should make a powerful appearl to every initiate. Standing, as it does for worth while things, there is no reason why Alpha Sigma Alpha should not become a strong sorority, provided it is run on a business basis. High ideals, .tho the prime essential in an organization of this kind, are not enough. Hopes and amlttions, no matter how good will not be realized, unless they are supplemented by hard work, well thought out, any more than seeds will blossom into flowers without the right kind of intelligent care. ~o be successful, a sorority must be managed well like any business. Chapter and National Body alike must know what efficiency means and how to attain it. The backbone of any sorority is its National Income. This comes from two sources, ll) Initiation Fees and (2) Annual Dues. The amounts received from these two sauces used to differ greatly in the different organizations, but the passage of the years has brought it about that there is now marked similarity in the per capita amounts received • . As a rule, the larger fraternity does not tax its membership so heavily as does the smaller, having a larger number to call on and no great expenses relatively. Generally speaking, the fraternities have a larger per capita tax than the sororities. The latter differ somewhat both in the matter of National Initiation Fees and in that of Annual Dues. 5 is considered a very reasonable amount to ask from each initiate as a National Initiation Fee and also as a yearly tax during undergraduate days. In this way the National receives i25 from an initiate during her four years' college course. '!he fact that Alpha Sigma Alpha is built upon the olan of FOUR has made it seem eminently appropriate to place the National Initiation Fee at $4 and the Annual Dues at $4 the latter to include the subscription to the "PHOENIX". A Convention decision to make the National Initiation Fee i4 would not, in any way, take away the chapters' right to ma~e their own fee much higher than that. There is no collegiate sorority that permits anything less than $10. Some put their minimum at a uch higher figure. Sou.ld our coming Convention vote for a National Initiation Fee of ~4 and a minimum chapter Fee of ilO, each initiate would be taxed ®10, and of this amount :jp6 would remain with the chapter, while $4 would go into the National Treasury to be dewoted to such purposes as the Convention may decide in the matter of ap portionment. What these purposes should be in the case of Alpha Sigma Alpha is a matter for serious discussion. In the early history of the sorority system, the different organizations were in the habit of considering themselv es merely good time affairs. ~ith such idea in view they spent t heir incomes carelessly and without thought of the future, but the strong, well-established orders are being managed today very differently from what they were even ten years ago. All of them are pilllig up endowments by keeping inviolate a certain amount of each initiation fee. They are endowing the sorority as a whole, and they are endowing the magazine. The latter ambition is accomnlished by a life subscri ption of $25. Upon t he deat h of t he "Lifer"