Thank you all for the feedback
skylark: I did #1. Very effective.

Has anyone had any success with requiring sisters to be members of other groups? No other group on campus (from what I've heard) has any such requirement but it's done willingly.

Sorry for the late response! I have been inactive on here for the last couple of months...

So glad to hear it worked! It is definitely effective and I learned it from one of my advisers when I was an active. One thing to remember, though, is that (IMO) you can really only effectively pull it off every 3 to 4 years because you need the impact to feel fresh.

On requiring membership in other groups... I'm a big believer that a carrot is a lot more effective as a stick with things like this. Requiring membership could have a negative effect of a PR problem by putting a downer sister negatively presenting herself and she might even say to people "I'm only a member in [X] because Theta says I have to" or something similarly griping. If instead you as an adviser make a big deal over members taking leadership roles in other organizations and make an effort to talk to women about the other things that they do, members catch on naturally that being involved in other things is (1) valued, (2) encouraged, and (3) rewarded with praise and leadership roles within the sorority as well.

Like skylark said, make it a positive thing not a "I'm in this because I have to" thing. If sisters are in theater productions, make attending the production a sisterhood event. Ditto athletics. If a sister is in a group sponsoring the bloodmobile, at the next meeting give little prizes (like a notepad or something) to the sisters who show up to donate.

RE: blood donation, not everyone can donate, so encourage members to volunteer with the blood drive in other ways, and try and get credit for that. I can't donate for health reasons, and a personal reason I have chosen not to, so I have helped people make appointment or brought cups of juice in the past.

I'm talking about getting a credit if you show up, even if you know (i.e. you're under the weight limit) you can't donate. This is how it works when it's a competition on campus. If another group is running the bloodmobile, they will have the appointments, refreshments etc taken care of themselves. You want to show support but you don't want to step on toes.

If you have personal/religious reasons you can't donate, no biggie. Honestly bloodmobile was just the first thing I thought of.

I think we're on the same page. I just don't want there to be credit for only those who participate, and if for whatever reason you can't or don't want to, you're screwed. We have blood donation, I swear every week, so groups can sign up for their times to help run it which could be the time credit is given for helping or donating. I am hoping that members are involved in other activities so their sisters can support them (music, theatre, sports, what have you) so it can be a sisterhood as well as a cultural event or something. One way to cut down on over programming.

One comment that no one here has mentioned: look at the financial health of the chapter. (having done the finance end of advising for many years this is my personal hot button... ) Finance is the one area where there really isn't shades of gray. Either you've paid or you haven't.

Start at the beginning of a quarter/semester and lay down the law. Anyone who doesn't pay is out. Period. Obviously you say it in a nice way "Ladies, this semester we're going to be following through with our financial policies. Those members who don't pay will be subject to disciplinary action per the chapter bylaws. We're doing this as non-payment can significantly impact chapter operations. blah blah blah...If for some reason you are unable to pay, you must come and meet with the financial committee immediately. "

Then enforce your group's rules regarding non-payment, pursuit of debtors, late fees, bounced checks etc. In my experience, the non-paying deadbeats are also the troublemakers and non-participating members. If you get rid of them through the correct formal process, members may be upset at first, but you can point to the rules. And you can also say "I gave everyone fair warning and discussed the consequences. If you had a problem, you should have come to the finance committee and discussed your situation. This is the same thing your credit card company or your landlord would do if you missed a payment. We have bills to pay, and cannot honor the chapters debts if members don't pay."

Over the years, I've seen how a chapter's financial health is directly connected to the overall chapter strength. If a chapter fixes internal financial issues, many other disciplinary & membership issues come along for the ride and are resolved indirectly.

Good luck!

I don't know about other sororities, but this is especially important in AOII, because we pay International dues based on chapter role. It doesn't matter is Suzy hasn't paid, we still pay her dues to IHQ. Pretty soon, a list of delinquent sisters can really hurt a chapter when the bill to HQ comes due. It may not seem so important when you don't have their money to do things, but when you are paying out of pocket for the dead weight in your chapter, it becomes imperative to clean house.

When I was a Finance Advisor, I made a big chart on poster board showing fixed costs, variable costs (usually the SOCIAL budget!) and how it is affected when a member hasn't paid. The peer pressure when they realize that it's the social budget that gets cut, or that formal ends up costing $20 more per couple, etc. becomes quite effective in getting sisters to pay up!

Thanks for the input everyone.

The chapter has finances in order and they've made some good choices for new officers. The area I think they need to work on is building relationships with other groups, getting more involved on campus, getting a name for themselves and working on recruiting year round.

They ended up deciding on a reward system for sisters who joined other organizations and additional benefits for taking on leadership roles in other groups.