It's so interesting to "see" how things have changed on your campus in such a short time. So a year ago you were at, what, 9 girls, and now you're at 25 and you're going to have to limit new members due to meeting campus total? It does sound like it's time for some sort of formal recruitment, and you definitely don't want your recruitment chair to be on panhel. Now that you have the members to work with, get someone else to do it. More exposure and less pressure on one girl!

When this recruitment is over, is the plan to gather the 3 sororities and make a procedure for spring/next year? There are SOOOO many different ways to recruit (I'd have never guessed before spending time on GC), that I bet you can find the best of the best from here. Kudos to the Greek Advisor. I'm assuming she/he must have a strong role in this new interest in Greek life on campus. Besides, success begets success. Do you have any sister chapters in nearby and fairly similar campus size/style to visit and brainstorm with?

The next stage of your saga is going to be really interesting because here's where you make a jump to 50 and 60 members, and then is a house or a dorm floor far behind? The possibilities are very exciting. Do I jump too many steps ahead? That's me. I can never just be happy for what I have right now.

AHHH! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to update. It wasn’t until Friday afternoon when we found out how many new members we received, I was at a wedding all weekend, I’ve been working and running around like crazy for the past few days... but it’s finally time!

The Gamma Theta chapter of Alpha Sigma Tau now has...


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11 wonderful new members!

They originally gave out 15 bids... one girl went Theta Phi, another went ASA, and two others (who are both freshmen) were really excited about it, but they decided to wait for a semester and focus on school first.

But everyone is very excited! I was also happy because 4 of them are freshmen, while the rest are upperclassmen.. so even if first semester freshmen still weren’t allowed to be bid, there would still be a class of 7 (which is excellent for the fall semester!).

This is the entire chapter (minus one sister) after the ribboning ceremony this past Monday:

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._7175187_n.jpg


30 sisters total!

The wedding I was at this past weekend was actually for one of my pledge sisters. There were a lot of AST alumnae there, and I ended up sitting with my New Member Director who joined a couple years before I did. She had asked about the chapter, and I told her they were at 30 members. She was extremely excited to hear the news, being 1 of 4 active sisters of the chapter when the national organization was about to close it. In fact, all of the alumnae were thrilled (and amazed) to hear this. We always struggled so much, and it’s good to know that Greek Life is thriving again on campus.

I hope all of the active sisters can appreciate and really see what they’ve done for the chapter, and for a few alumnae who wanted nothing more than to see it become what it is today.

And speaking of hard work, this is the Recruitment Chair and I after the ceremony. I know that by the last recruitment event this semester she was tired and overworked, but her efforts have paid off, she was truly a pleasure to work with, and has really made my job a whole lot easier! Thanks a bunch!

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._2233179_n.jpg


Final numbers for Fall ’09:

Alpha Sigma Alpha - 12 (39 total members)
Alpha Sigma Tau - 11 (30 total members)
Theta Phi Alpha - 16 (35 total members)


Until next semester!

:)

Wow all three of you guys are right up there! What's total again? 40?

Congratulations! All the hard work has paid off! It's wonderful to see Greek life growing across the whole campus!!!

Yes, 40. I think they're going to be discussing a quota system for next year.

Even the fraternities are doing really well. I don't know exact numbers for Sig Tau and KDR, but I know that Delta Chi received 16 (doubling their chapter).

Everyone is doing very well, and we're hoping that the trend continues :)

Those numbers are great! How exciting for you! Congratulations, and good luck in your future recruitments :)

Congratulations to you!!! What a story of perseverance and it really goes to show what can happen when you care and see worth in your organization. I wish you all the best and you will be stronger for it.

What an inspirational story!

And what a tribute to the collaboration of actives and advisors focused on the wellbeing of the chapter they both love. Here's to advisors!! I never appreciated them enough when I was an active....

Ok, so this semester there has been A LOT going on, and I've been much to busy to post after all of the recruitment events. But I thought I would give a brief update of what has gone on since I last posted.

Unfortunately, last semester, there were 2 new members who dropped out early in the process. One of them was having a lot of family issues, and felt that she would be unable to fulfill the time commitment (with the sorority, and with many other things), and in turn, her financial obligations.

The other, well... it was probably a good thing that she left when she did. I won't go into details, but let's just say I'm not quite sure why she went through recruitment and put on a happy, smiling face, only to join, stay for a week, and then drop. It almost seemed intentional.

But... from there the chapter moved on. As I mentioned in another thread, in order to bid first semester freshmen, everyone had to agree to a Greek-wide supplemental new member program, "New Member Academy". It was actually quite successful, although I'm not sure how the new members felt about it as a whole. But everyone made it through the semester, and the chapter initiated 9 lovely ladies in the fall.

This semester, kicking things off with 27 sisters (one of them graduated in December) was a good start. While last semester saw a very large number of PNMs come through recruitment, now allowing first semester freshmen to join, this semester was a little slower for the sororities as a whole. However, our chapter still had a lot of PNMs come out... about 20-25.

Our last recruitment event was on Monday, but the sisters are hosting a game night with Delta Chi on Thursday, and they're hoping to gain a lot of attention from that. They have invited all of the PNMs to attend, so hopefully a lot of them will make an appearance!

This semester, the chapter has also completely re-vamped their membership selection process. Not being used to such a large number of PNMs proved difficult last semester, but they're hoping that this new system will make things run a little smoother.

Bid day is next Wednesday!

:)

Good luck - I hope everything goes well.

And if you could let us know how Delta Chi is doing too, I would really appreciate it! :D

I'm sorry for the delay with the update. But there's a good reason! I'll get to that later.

After having a successful game night with Delta Chi where most of the PNMs who had consistently come to recruitment events had shown up, and an extra recruitment event the weekend after that, it was time for the new membership selection process to take over.

It went surprisingly well! The entire process was very productive, and everything ran smoothly. The girls extended bids to...

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Nope, not yet.

On bid day, the girls decided to do something different. A year or so after I joined, Panhellenic (after many accusations of bid promising being thrown around) decided to do away with giving PNMs ANYTHING on bid day. Our recruitment has always been some weird breed of informal and formal (with informal recruitment parties, but planned recruitment times and a designated bid day). But recruitment rules weren't really known and giving gifts on bid day wasn't really seen as "bid promising" when I was active, even though PNMs hadn't yet signed a binding agreement when they received a bid.

So again, a few years ago, they did away with giving anything away on bid day (even though I just got a few balloons and a poster saying "Welcome to the AST family!"). So bid day kind of became a boring day. "Here's your bid... go sign it if you like... blah blah blah." This year, the girls decided to do something different.

The President had found a short ceremony on the national website that she suggested the sisters perform on bid day. The whole thing was a poem about a "lonely sailor girl" who found a ship of sisters who wanted her to join their crew. By the end of the whole thing, all of the sisters and PNMs formed an anchor. The President then presented the PNMs with their bids.

The sisters had covered the entire room with green and gold decorations, and the whole thing was adorable!

And I am happy to say that all of the PNMs accepted their bids, and the chapter now has...

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Nope, not yet.



Ok, just kidding...

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6 new members!

Each one of them seems very excited about joining the sorority, and they are all very involved around campus and seem to understand what it means to be a part of the chapter. I think that this semester will go very well!

There are now 33 ASTs! (but there are quite a few missing from this pic) The new members are the 4 standing directly in front of the banner, and the 3rd and 4th girl in the middle row.

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._6963053_n.jpg


Theta Phi Alpha has 4 new members. They also had some new members drop last semester, so I'm unsure as to how many total sisters they have right now. Alpha Sigma Alpha decided not to participate in recruitment as they are so close to total (38, I believe) and they wanted to focus on other things right now.

Now... the reason it took me so long to update... I've been in the process of moving to New Jersey. Needless to say, I won't be the chapter's Recruitment Advisor any longer. :( However, at the very least, I will try to keep updating with recruitment numbers and will report any small (or large!) victories.

:)

(And Gusteau... Delta Chi has 9 new members!)

Wow- thanks for the update ASTAlumna! 33 is incredible, especially up from so few. My chapter went from 5 to 30 in the time I was there and it's quite the sight to behold. Definitely a lot of learning opportunities, and having dedicated alumnae made a world of difference. This chapter was lucky to have you there to help them get up to 33!

Good luck in your move to NJ... you can start a new thread with the recruitment story for the new chapter you go to. Growing, struggling, or successful- they're all interesting in my book, especially when you're a great storyteller. Thanks for sharing!

Update!

I know I haven't provided any updates since last year, but things have been crazy with my travel schedule for work, and I haven't been able to keep up with the chapter and all that's been going on. But.. I briefly wanted to mention that Panhellenic has now moved to a partially structured recruitment system in the fall. They implemented it last year, and everything seemed to work out a-ok!

And while last year they had just over 60 girls show up on the first day for the recruitment kick-off, last night, 84 PNMs attended! Needless to say, everyone is thrilled :)

I only started reading this thread this morning but I have so enjoyed every post. I love how this small group has blossomed and grown. You have very special young women on your former campus. I sincerely hope that you will be able to update or maybe someone from your chapter might continue to update. Thank you so much for sharing the story of your chapter - the other side.

The very same with me. Great posts, and an even better story :)