Because there could be Greeks who DO know her well who do NOT live in her hometown, like aunts, cousins, family friends, etc. in this exact situation.

Hometown does not guarantee that the recommender knows the PNM. I don't understand why chapters would require a rec from the hometown. Obviously your hometown would be the best place to start...you wouldn't live in Philly and solicit a rec from a random Seattle alum. But if you have a family friend in Seattle, then that rec should carry more weight than one from an alum you don't know (or just met for coffee) in your hometown.

Bottom line is that a rec should ideally be from someone you know, but a "hometown only" rule seems like it would exclude any out-of-towners who do know a PNM.

I don't know. I think an ideal system allows for recs from anyone who knows the PNM, but for accuracy of information about what someone is really like, a person who actually knows her from her hometown is probably going to have a lot more info about what she's really like these days than an out-of-town friend of her mom's. Will a little old lady from her hometown church know more than the family friend? Maybe not, but I bet a high school teacher would.

But more than anything, I trust individual GLOs to choose their own best system to select membership, and although I've found some GLOs' policies outrageous (chapters that don't allow affiliates freak me out, for example), I think we probably generally should avoid calling other groups policy's stupid. If it works for them; it works for them.

ETA: I know I seem like I'm on my high-horse. Violetpretty, I can see that when you said that you didn't even know it WAS a group's policy, so my intention isn't to preach to you. You're welcome to have any opinion you want; it's just kind of hard to stress how panhellenic everyone else ought to be if we're calling each others' policies stupid.

So let's suppose this PNM goes through APH to find a recommender from her hometown for XYZ because she can't find any hometown XYZs she knows personally. If her mom's out of state XYZ friend sends another rec/letter of support, is it disregarded because it's out of state? Maybe that question can't be answered because it treads toward membership selection. If it is disregarded, THAT would be stupid.

My guess, and of course I don't really know about other groups' policies, is that groups that have policies that heavily tip towards hometowns work hard to develop hometown-based systems and networks. So it's quite possible that mom's out of state XYZ friend would be able to find out whom to contact in the PNM's hometown to offer information.

Honestly, though how accurate and informative will a rec from a mother's friend from out of town be? Sometimes, if the PNM is actually a good kid, it will be great. But mom's out of town friend isn't really going to know anything that makes a PNM a less than desirable candidate, and sometimes groups need to know.

Again, I'm willing to bet that groups have policies that work for them. When chapters realize they are missing out on great PNMS, they can work within the GLO to make the changes they need.

The group that I am aware of utilizes - how to say this - alum designees for the area and she can - shall we say - ratify - the out of town alum's rec. I'm not a member of this group so I am just trying to put it how it was described to me. I think we all probably have rec chairmen in most big towns...and these are people who know a lot of people and can find out about someone. The original poster just doesn't understand how deep our contacts can go.