Joining TKE does cost money, as with any organization we have an operating budget, both at the local level, and also at the international level.

As a new member you are first expected to pay a candidate fee of $90. This covers all of your expenses for the new member education period, mainly your own edition of The Teke, Tau Kappa Epsilon's new member guide, your first fraternity pin, the paperwork process that goes on at Headquarters, and a share of the insurance cost for the semester.

Once the new member education period is over, then there is also the initiation fee. at the current time this is $238, and this covers your Membership Certificate, your TKE badge, the processing fees, and the rest is distributed to these areas:

• 35% Chapter Services 
• 28% Legal and Insurance
• 13% Administration
• 12% Conclave
• 5% Communications, Other programs and Volunteer Support
• 7% Other

The Zeta Zeta chapter does not expect you to pay local dues for the semester that you join the chapter, but you are then expected to pay local dues after the first semester. These dues are decided by the local chapter and are agreed upon by the fraternity members, and are mostly descrecionary, with the exception of a few items such as insurance, composites, and the Conclave Savings plan.

Although this may sound like a lot of money, there are many fundraising opportunities, such as working at Alpine Valley a few weekends during the summer selling concessions at concerts, selling food at the UWM Minicourses for innercity children, and any other fundraiser that you want to do.  To give you an idea of the type of fundraising you can do, many chapter members have made in excess of $5-600 just from working at Alpine Valley that they were then able to use to pay both Fall and Spring dues, or to pay for admission to events such as Regional Leadership Conference or Conclave.

By taking part in chapter activities and staying active, for every dollar you put into TKE, you get back every penny many times over in experiances that will stay with you the rest of your life.