exactly. i know if a national told me that some of my sisters could not join the organization, i would be really upset! i would be like, we were a sisterhood before nationals came along, and even though we we are local, that would not make our sisterhood any less valid, real and authentic.

thats just how i would feel if i was a local going through expansion.

if you had been interviewed, and nationals decided that they would take everyone except for ONE girl, do you think you would have still accepted the extension?

feel free to shut me up if im being too nosy.

Well, I'm glad that didn't happen, but I'm pretty sure we would have decided as a chapter that that org wouldn't be right for us. I love my sisters, and I would hate to have a representative from nationals tell me she could no longer be my sister.

I guess we would put it to a vote, logistically speaking.

When we went through expansion, we had heard that it was possible for them to not take all of us, but all four orgs that presented to us said that they would take all of us and initiate any alums who weren't already in another NPC group. However, whether or not we got a say in who else would be signing the charter with us was another matter...

...you'll just have to read my thread if you want to know more. ;)

I realized it's been a long time since I updated this, but I've had a request for more details on my expansion story. With another upcoming expansion (Northeastern), it's pretty exciting to think about the process.

I know the way my story played out is not the same as other chapters. For example, the Santa Clara chapter came about in a pre-existing Panhellenic environment. The members went through part of formal recruitment with the other chapters then had interviews with representatives of Kappa headquarters.

Here's some more info about my local: we were called Alpha Sigma Delta. I had no part in choosing the name. I think our President and VP picked the name because the letters sounded good together, and no one else had the name at the time. We made up a meaning for the letters. Alpha was the first/something about being important, Sigma was a strong bond (like in chemistry), and Delta because we wanted to change into a national. Our colors were pink and green. We had the clover and lily as symbols. I think maybe a pink sapphire was included, too.

I'll add more later!

<--- Requestor

Yay! I'm excited to see this.

When there were only three of us, I was selected to be the secretary kind of by default. All of the Greeks at my school do their first tabling/advertising for recruitment at a club day thing a few days before school starts. It was so intimidating! We had a banner on our table with our name, but there were only three of us! A few other sororities had tons of girls with matching shirts. I honestly don't remember how many interested girls we got that day, but as I said, we basically did COB throughout the first quarter.

When we first started, our meetings were PAINFULLY long. I tried to use Robert's Rules like I had learned at my Norwegian club, but I wasn't in charge. We eventually got better about sticking to an agenda, but they were still wayyy too long until Kappa came into the picture.

We tried to have some social events and make our name known on campus, but it wasn't easy. I don't think many people knew who we were for a while. We held a benefit concert for the Invisible Children in January that was actually very successful. Our president was dating a member of a local band, so they helped us out a lot and we raised over $1,000!

Ok...I think next I'll move onto the transition period and how we became Kappa.

Ohh, thetygerlily, you're totally right! I forgot that I added on to this after we affiliated with a national org. Ok, I need to put some thought into this and add more.

Ha, I figured I could only badger you so much ;) But I am still excited about seeing the rest of your story! And it's especially relevant now with several people considering colony experiences.

By the time we had presentations from nationals, Alpha Sigma Delta had an Alpha and Beta class, so we already had some big and little sisters. The members from the Alpha class (myself included) never had big sisters except for honorary/temporary big sisters from the Berkeley chapter when we were installed. Some of the girls kept in touch with them, but I never got to know mine very well. We also didn't have any alumnae of ASD yet because we were so new, so that wasn't an issue either.

Shortly after our new member pledging, a couple of local Kappa alumnae started coming to our meetings and acting as advisers. They helped us make our meetings more organized and started implementing more of the officer roles that we didn't have yet. We didn't have nearly enough members for the amount of positions Kappa has (something like 19) and it was only barely enough by the time we were installed. I'm sure we also started forming committees, but it definitely took us a while (like a year or two) to actually get the hang of them and start using them effectively.

I'm trying to think about what else is different between my expansion experience and those of other GCers. Hmm...what else is there? Our first Panhellenic recruitment? (as well as the first one on campus!) I can't think of anything else right now.