While I'm no longer in school, I can relate to having been a member of a smaller chapter. When I was an active member we were typically one of the smallest three or four chapters sororities on campus. However, they've managed to work pretty hard and become one of the more medium sized chapters, with somewhere between 70-75 members (total is now 85).

Benefits to being in a smaller chapter - like CarolinaDG said, there's lots of leadership opportunities, because bascially everyone has to do something. I held a lot of different offices, some of which I wouldn't have been considered for had we been at total.

We did have a great sisterhood when we had 45-50 members. I knew a lot about almost every single one of my sisters and I knew them well. HOWEVER, I noticed for the past two years as membership continued to grow that that sisterhood strength is still there. They might have to exert more effort to know each other well, but they still see the value in it and put the time into it.


Downsides - Recruitment is a constant thing - it never stopped. And it seems to wear members out because they've got that going on along with everything else.

Finances are a big part, especially when you have a facility. It's hard to stay in the black sometimes if your numbers are hurting. One of the things that helped my chapter was that we owned our facility. Unfortunately, while lots of chapters on campus, might be getting major renovations, you don't. Lack of money also puts a damper on your already hurting social situation. Bigger houses might have multiple big functions a semster - maybe you get one.

I never got to live out-of-house (other than the time I spent in the dorms). To me this wasn't a big deal, I really liked living in the house. My sorority was really close to campus and I liked being around all my sisters, but to some people they really want to be able to experience 'apartment living' before leaving college.

what's his org? i wanna know!

We've got 33 guys, and we started the year out with 17 active brothers. We only have 4 brothers graduating, so we'll start next year off wit 29, and we will be one of the BIGGER fraternities on my campus! The highest we've ever had for our chapter was around 42 actives and that was a while ago. A smaller chapter is great to get to know everyone, run for a position, have everyone get involved. The only thing that sucks is that you've GOT to do well for recruitment EVERY year. If you have an off year (we had a pledge class of 3 once), then you will be put behind the 8-ball against all of the other fraternities. Not that having more than another fraternity is a big thing, but when you were the smallest (when we had 17), our president got a few letters stating if our numbers didn't rise then our chapter could be put on a probation level. Thankfully, we had a great rush.

I believe he's an Alpha Delt.

And I thought part of the charm of his fraternity was being at older, established, more-elite schools so wouldn't expanding defeat that charm?

-Rude

Please don't say that quality and quantity are incompatible. Picking one over the other is a fool's choice; you might as well choose between air and water.
The highest quality guys - however you want to measure that - are generally attracted to the most successful fraternity chapters becasue that's where they find the greatest number of other guys like themselves. Too often, fraternities that are not popular and are not able to draw the numbers necessery to sustain themselves or even compete, tell themselves that they are "exclusive". It's not exclusive if nobody wants to join.
The concept of "large" is relative to the individual campus. If the most highy regarded chapters have around 50 men more or less, then that becomes the standard. But if the top houses have 100 and yours has only 50, you will never be able to sustain effective competition against them, for sports, for girls, for the top rushees, for anything. You might have an exceptional group of 50 and they may defeat all the 100-man fraternities. But you can't do it for long. You have no bench strength. Every man has to do everything, and that wears everyone out. If you stop to take a breath, or slow down, or make one mistake - one bad pledge class - you will fall into a lower tier.
In that scenario, 50 is "small" and 100 is "large". On another campus, 50 is large and 10 is small. I come from a campus where everyone who is decent has 100 members, and if that's all you have you're probably not competitive, or "small".
Some chapters choose not to compete, and that's fine. When I pledged we were small and uncompetitive. When I finally graduated we were on top. I can tell you that brotherhood is enhanced when you're a member of the winning team.
And another thing as long as I'm on a rant. It's fantasy to think that the large chapters have little brotherhood compared to the small, and that their alumni are not active or supportive. I raise money for a living, and I can assure you that the most successful undergraduate chapters produce the most successful and generous alumni.
End of rant.

I think comparing fraternities to sororities is NOT comparing apples to apples. There are fraternities out there that can be smaller and not be looked down upon, just because of their stature.

A couple of years ago, KA took 5 new members during spring recruitment while other fraternities were taking 20-30.... Did anyone bat an eye?! NO!!! Because the fact of the matter is, KA could have 5 members TOTAL and people (at least in the south) would think of them as this exclusive power that is "The Order."

Anyway, I can't seem to think of a single sorority that could do the same thing. If a "top" sorority takes 50 girls and everyone else is taking 55, people start talking. Sad, but true.

Re: question about smaller chapters...
 

I think the issue of chapter size is a little different for sororities than it is for fraternities. I came from a chapter that was medium size when I first joined, but after a huge graduating class and internal issues we became the smallest chapter on campus. Now I advise a chapter that is a larger one and while there are certain advantages to a smaller chapter, they are far outweighed by the detriments.

A smaller chapter does generally allow you to get to know your sisters better and give your members more leadership opportunities within the chapter than they would have in a larger chapter. But particularly with sororities, there tends to be a lot of pressure from the National to be at a competitive size for the chapter and that can mean you're stuck recruiting 24/7 and that grows tiring. Not to mention that you don't have the budget of the larger chapters and don't have nearly the same ability to plan events.

I'm not trying to be discouraging, and I think it's admirable that you're trying to cheer up your sisters, but I wouldn't try to do it for the purpose of maintaining your current size. You absolutely should focus on the great things that you have in your smaller chapter, and then when your members have a good feeling about your chapter, it will be easier to recruit new members. I'm not saying you need to get up to the same size as all of the other chapters on campus (although your National org. might have a different opinion on that) but operating at half the size just isn't feasible in the long term.

I'm obsessed with recruitment, so I get to see all sorts of numbers and hear everything about every other chapter's numbers on campus due to my position. Here, if a sorority doesn't take a high number of girls, it's usually looked at negatively. If a fraternity takes a low number of guys one quater, it's usually looked at as a smart move because they want to rebuild... so comparing sororities to fraternities just doesn't work in my opinion.

Also, I agree that you can't say you either have quality or quantity. Theta here is one of the largest sororities and we have amazing women. We always place top three in Greek Week. We've had the Best All-Greek or PHA Grades for every quater for the past three years. We have smaller groups too that don't do as well as we do. But that doesn't mean they're a worse organization than us. You can't make generalizations because every chapter on every campus is different.

Sorry, but Fraternities do have Membership recruiments!:)

For LXA. it cost the same for an ELC to travel to a 50+ Man Chapter as it does for a 3-4-5-6 Man Chapter.

In todays econmics is that worth teh $$$s?

No!

We cant afford it either!

Oh, no, I wasn't saying that... But the view from the outside isn't the same for fraternities as sororities. Let's face it, if a sorority misses quota by one, people are talking (what's wrong? Are they closing?), but fraternities don't even have quotas in the first place, and they are judged more on quality of guys and how difficult it is to get in, than size.

However, seeing what I've seen at USC with the houses being built, OF COURSE the smaller fraternities are going to suffer financially. That's why the biggest fraternities with the most alum support built first, and everyone else followed in line after.