It is a great practice to send a letter to parents, whether a hard copy or electronically via email, to inform them of their son’s membership in the Fraternity and your chapter. In the letter, you want to congratulate them and their son, discuss the obligations of membership, talk about the benefits that your chapter and the Fraternity will provide to their son, highlight any accomplishments and any prominent members from your chapter and the Fraternity, and finally, open the line of communication with them so that they know they can contact the chapter at any point.
INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY FACTS
Below is a list of International Fraternity “fast-facts” to consider incorporating into a letter to parents, however, it is not meant to be exhaustive. Essentially you just want to highlight the overall organization for the parents.
- Pi Kappa Alpha was founded in 1868 at the University of Virginia
- It has grown to be nearly 220 chapter/colonies, with over 14,000 undergraduates and nearly 300,000 lifetime initiates
- Last year the Fraternity as a whole raised over $2.3M for various philanthropies and conducted nearly 300,000 community service hours
- Our Headquarters is in Memphis, TN along with the Fraternity’s museum
- Fraternity prominent alumni such as Country Music Superstar Tim McGraw, ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, Coach Bobby Bowden, Dr. Stephen Covey, U.S. Congressman Pete Sessions, etc.
CHAPTER FACTS/NOTES
Although it is beneficial to highlight the International Fraternity, it will be more beneficial to highlight your chapter’s accomplishments at the local level. Below is a list of ideas to possibly include regarding the chapter’s accomplishments and its membership
- Chapter’s cumulative GPA and how that compares to the all-men’s and all-fraternity GPAs
- Prominent members in the chapter (i.e. varsity athletes, student government members, campus specific prestigious organizations, etc.)
- Chapter philanthropy and service hours figures along with civic organizations the chapter worked with
- High-achieving chapter programs (i.e. TPE member development program, public relations program, scholarship program, etc.)
- Highlight any of the chapter’s prominent alumni, alumni that work with the chapter on the advisory board who might hold high positions in their respective career and the number of alumni the chapter has produced to show that the network is strong
SAMPLE LETTER TO PARENTS
Below is a sample letter to parents to get your thoughts flowing on what this would look like all put together:
Rob Howard, Recruitment Chairman
The Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity
47 West Range
Founders, VA 186800
August 30, 2019
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
98765 Market St
Richmond, VA 12345
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Smith,
On behalf of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity (PIKE), I would like to congratulate you and your son on his acceptance of membership into our organization. Our Fraternity has a great deal to offer him in the way of leadership training and personal development through our True PIKE Experience member development program, friendships, and an opportunity to immerse himself in the chapter, campus, and community. We believe James will be a tremendous asset to our group and make us even more successful at (SCHOOL NAME).
I’d like to inform you of some of our accomplishments over the past academic year. Scholastically, we ranked among the best on campus with an overall grade point average of ______, which was higher than both the all-fraternity and all-men’s averages. We also did significant charity work with Habitat for Humanity and the Boy Scouts of America. Furthermore, we promote involvement outside of our organization and currently the student government vice president and several campus orientation leaders are members of PIKE.
On an International Level, PIKE is one of the largest fraternities in North America with over 220 chapters and nearly 300,000 lifetime initiates. With alumni like Ted Koppel, Tim McGraw, Scott Van Pelt and Dr. Steven Covey, you can be assured that our alumni network is strong.
Again, I would like to congratulate you and your son and encourage you to contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Rob
CONCLUSION
If you are going to send physical letters, be sure collect parent addresses beforehand from your new members. If you would like to send it electronically, be sure to get the email addresses of your new member’s parents and it is recommended to send them a PDF of the letter. Remember, proofreading is also going to be extremely important as this letter will be a parents first impression of you and the chapter.
A letter to parents is a great touch and an awesome way to create buy-in with parents of the newest members in your chapter. To find a PIKE-branded letterhead to develop your chapter’s own letter to parents, be sure to check out the Chapter Marketing Tools section of the website, or you can also find the letter head in the myPIKE Resource Center, specifically in the public relations chairman folder.
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