And just to make a point....PowerPoint or lecture formats aren't always the issue in and of themselves. A good presenter can make any topic interesting. If I had to sit though some girl going, "Uhm......so....like....this slide....uhm....our national wanted to show you some pictures of our founders." Then, yeah, I'd be bored too. :p

But, I've been "volun-told" to do presentations on boring stuff and, by golly, I sell it to my audience like "THIS IS TEH BEST TOPIC EVAR!!!1!!!" and my audience buys it every time. I can make a PowerPoint on the history brown paper bags seem like the raddest topic ever. :cool: Maybe our new member educators ought to learn how to present, instruct and mentor?

Edited to add: 33, I am also agreeing with the suggestions for icebreakers and such. Audience participation and application ("You should care about today's topic because...") are key to winning your audience's attention and assisting in them retaining the information.

^^^ I was a New Member Education advisor for a few years. The most effective NMEs were education majors, who were learning how to teach and could present the material in an interesting, well-prepared, interactive manner. Also important -- a caring NME who makes sure all feel welcome and connected. This chapter is very proactive in pairing NMs with active pairs of sisters on a rotating weekly basis (they've had different names, like "Beta Buddies"), who reach out to the NMs to meet for lunch, studying, events, etc.

Lifelong commitment
 

My 4 daughters grew up with me being part of the Volunteer Service Team. They all pledged and were initiated into Alpha Gamma Delta. I am still a part of the Volunteer Service Team. Not one of my daughter's gets it, or spends one minute of their time. There is something missing in our chapters, our education. Maybe it was sitting around that table, polishing silver with my pledge class.....

Lifelong commitment
 

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I don't get- I really don't. I specifically joined to stay connected my entire life, so I don't understand why everyone just abandons it. I'm currently president of Junior Circle but we only have a handful (literally) of people interested. I'm not quitting JC at all, it's been great, but we can't do a ton because of our size, and I am not allowed to be an advisor, so I am very much hoping the VST will take me. It makes me a little sad to think that no one can be bothered to do anything after university.

I had a conversation along these lines with my local alumnae association a few months ago when talking about ways to recruit new association members--we are the joiners and the do-ers and the ones who always say "yes," whenever anything is asked of us. That is just who we are and why we rushed in the first place. I think most of us here on GreekChat, by virtue of the kind of people we are, take our commitments seriously and, as lifers, just don't get the when-it-is-convenient-for-them members. :rolleyes:

I 100% agree. I don't see the point of doing anything halfway, and that includes Alpha Gam. I also don't understand why people say they look at us and don't want to have to do the amount of work we do- you *do* realise we have to do this much work BECAUSE no one else will help?

THIS. Times a gazillion.

I will shed some positive light and say that we have a bunch of super active young alumnae who are actually doing a lot more in our alumnae group than some of the older members. Our VP just graduated 2 years ago and she is great at energizing other young alumnae and delegating tasks they can manage. We also have a new joiner who just graduated in May and was president of her chapter. She just developed our new website.

I think that our very young alumnae group would benefit from having some older members' perspectives- we don't necessarily need them to do anything, just help balance us out. We have all graduated in four years or less ago. We have the energy and motivation to do things, sometimes we are just at a loss/unsure of what to actually do. It also makes it difficult to sell the idea to collegians that we are involved for life- yet the only advisors graduated under 10 years ago, and the only other active alum are the 5 of us in our group. I find it very disappointing. I would love to get to know older members.

I am President of my Alumnae Chapter. Our membership is getting younger and younger because: 1) we get our new alumnae involved in our group. They are put on committees, are asked to be on the board, are asked for their opinion of the type of meetings they would enjoy. 2) We ask the new member to bring their friends to a meeting. 3) We greet our new members and make them feel welcome. 4) We make sure we keep them informed of our activities by putting them on our newsletter e-mail list. Our newsletter goes out monthly.

Many stay active for quite a while until they start having kids. Once they are involved with kid activities and school they leave until the youngest gets to be about 12 or 13 and then they come back.

DaffyKD

The same thing needs to be done for older members.
It's one thing to go to a meeting where you know some people already. Older members may have been out of it for several years (thing moms who's kids are finally old enough to be home by themselves for a couple of hours). A call from an actual person is always more persuasive than an e-mail. Picking up someone new and taking them to the meeting is helpful, too.
Give a newcomer something to do...not just come to a meeting and sit and listen to people they don't know.

I don't know how the President of our Houston Alumnae Chapter does it! I got involved with the chapter 2 years ago when the older members were getting too old to keep things going on their own, and a lot of younger members were being pulled in to join. Positions were filled and the new President was more than willing to take on her new role. She had a two-year-old and she was our (many times sole) representative at Houston Alumnae Panhellenic meetings and events. And then about a year ago, she got pregnant. She still only missed one alumnae chapter event... which was held right around her due date. In addition to having two young children, she's also a very active volunteer with the Houston Rodeo, which is a huge commitment.

I understand that sometimes life gets in the way of doing everything we want to do, but if sisters want to stay active, they'll find a way... even if it's only in a small way.

I'm realising more and more that not having an alumnae chapter here is affecting us. :(

Contact you National Headquarters and talk to them about their procedures for starting a local Alumnae Chapter. I started one back in the days before computers. Our headquarters will get me the names of the women who live within a specified radius of a given zip code and they will also send out an interest questionnaire to those who have kept their addresses current. From there, you are able to pull together a group of interested women and begin to explore the feasibility of starting a group.

DaffyKD

I think I have a couple of good contacts for you about alumnae chapters, etc. DM me if you'd like.

Several of us who had made inquiries about rechartering our local alumnae chapter worked with our IHQ on this process, 12 years ago. Our IHQ was very helpful in the process...they handled the initial communication, funded the first get together, and sent a volunteer leader to the first meeting. Do you have an Alumnae Extension Coordinator/Director?

Even with semester-long pledgeship there were some women who didn't "get" it.
(By contrast, others of us have decades of over-compensation. :))

The short NM period is like enrolling in a webinar and expecting the same learning/retention as 3-credit class (whether in person or synchronous on-line).

I believe we do! However, the alumnae chapter requirements seem to be a lot more than Junior Circle requirements, and I don't know that the 4 of us can maintain it. :( The requirements are all on our member services, it's just being able to meet them haha

Do you have the option for an association or a Hope group or similar group below the level of chapter? We do and I know some other groups do.

Junior Circle is the only other option- which is what we are now! There are only 2-3 required offices, and there are pretty much no requirements. The problem is, all of the alumnae chapter duties (planning International Reunion Day, anniversaries, re-dedication, etc) fall to us because there is no alumnae chapter to do it.

And so you don't have reduced responsibilities? Ours do. Much less for an association than a chapter. Basically just 3 or 4 meetings a year (I forget which) and nothing else though Founders Day is encouraged but they could just meet at a restaurant and that would suffice.

Theoretically we do, but unfortunately not :( It's really affected our ability to recruit people, because we can't argue that it's no work when we have to do how many things.

While I truly respect and understand the need for NPC solidarity and if your in group you can't initiate into another, the case quoted above makes me feel that their should be a "gray" area.

What happened to those new initiates is completely unacceptable. It is immoral that the sorority, chapter and their advisory board ALLOWED them to initiate without informing them that their chapter was about to be closed. As these women WERE NOT given the chose I truly believe that they should be given a "clean slate" if they wanted to join another chapter. I don't feel NM should be punished in cases like above when its the sorority, chapter and advisors who are making decisions without consulting them.

Yes, some people might be like "well if they really wanted to be an ABC they would initiate no matter what". I really urge you to think long and hard about that. Honestly, as much as I love ADPi, if I was an 18-19 year old and was told "hey you can initiate but your chapter is closing at the end of this semester or you can drop it", I'd probably have dropped out. I would have wanted that collegiate experience (which I didn't get in the first place but that is a whole other thread).

What would happen if you didn't do them all?????? For us, not much! In fact, you can pretty much rock along as long as you file the annual report - which is very minimal - about a 5 minute online thing. And that's it.

Exactly!

There would be no International Reunion Day, or anniversaries. I know that I won't be allowed to be an advisor right now, but I don't want to burn any bridges and ruin the chances of being one later by getting the current advisors upset :( I do enjoy planning events, but it does seem a little unfair.

I think that it would be beneficial to have alumnae come to chapter meetings and talk about sorority life after college. Especially for seniors.

We do have a program where we go to a meeting with our seniors who are "bridging" to alumnae status. I have presented a couple of times. I always try to hit upon the Panhellenic community as a whole as well as our national organization. Let's face it, when we are out in the world, we are statistically more likely to have contact with people from other groups than our own. Of course, we want our women to discover life long membership and its rewards but sometimes it is discovering how alike we all are to make that happen. For those struggling to have their own alum group, maybe it would be a great idea to try to form a local Panhellenic group. You may be able to mine a lot of members that way. If not, you at least have the support of greek sisters.

True. I know several collegiate presidents who've never even been to an alumnae meeting in their own city.

Interesting observation.

However, I think… it really just depends.

I came from one of those small chapters. I also joined as a second semester sophomore and in the time I was active I held the positions of Bylaws, Secretary, New Member Educator, Panhellenic VP, and Panhellenic President. For the most part, we only had between 8-12 sisters (not including new members), so we were holding two or more positions at once. And everyone had to pitch in and help each other when big events came up (recruitment, formal, pageant, etc.).

After graduation, I got involved as the chapter's Recruitment Advisor as soon as I could. I assisted in starting up the Erie Alumnae Chapter. I then moved to NJ where there was no alumnae chapter in the immediate area (and I had a job that kept me traveling most of the time, anyway), but then a couple years later I moved to Texas and got involved with the alumnae chapter there. I was elected to the Secretary position. In addition, I'm now the Lead Editor for the national magazine.

There is such a mix of alumnae involvement from my chapter sisters and how long they were involved as collegians. In the time I was active/the Recruitment Advisor, I saw three different Presidents make their way through. Each of them held the position for two years. One of them joined second semester freshman year, and two of them joined in their sophomore year. The freshman-joiner was basically AST's cheerleader and best recruitment asset while she was a collegian, but she dropped off the face of the earth after she graduated. One of the sophomore-joiners also assisted in starting the Erie Alumnae Chapter, but in the middle of that process, she also disappeared. The last of the three worked her butt off for the sorority in college, worked as an Educational Consultant after graduation, and has moved her way up working at Headquarters in a couple different positions.

I know of two chapter sisters who joined in their second semester senior year. One of them did nothing with the sorority after graduation; the other was the one who really got the Alumnae Chapter off the ground and made it as successful as it is today. She made it known that she wanted to join so that she could contribute as an alumna member.

There were five new members in my class. All of us were at the same point in our college careers (second semester sophomores) when we joined, except one who was a junior. One of the girls dropped out almost immediately after initiation, two others haven't been involved after graduation at all (one of which was the junior-joiner), and two of us have worked as advisors and have been involved with alumnae chapters.

Again… I think it just all depends. But I have definitely witnessed the burnout, and I can understand why that would turn some people away. However, there are others who still think, "If I don't do it, no one will," or they move to a new place and want to make some fast friends, or they just love the sorority and want to do anything they can to help, and they just keep on keeping on and find out that alumnae membership is completely different than collegiate membership.

I found your post fascinating. I, too, came from one of those small chapters - there were around 20 while I was in school; it dropped to as few as 12 before rebounding. There were a lot of functions and events on campus where we literally couldn't participate due to manpower. Frequently, our sisters would (as individuals) join forces with one of the fraternities so they could be involved.

None of my chapter sisters is truly involved. Some of us belong to alumnae chapters, but we found our experiences to be so different from what most did that we have little in common. Yet almost all my sisters are fully invested in something else, from community organizations to state organizations to national organizations. Because as young alumnae we had only our symbols in common with other alumnae, it seems we looked elsewhere. I'm not saying that's a good thing.

We need to talk :) I'll PM you, but there are differences between alumnae clubs and alumnae chapters and you have options and there are people on VST available to help you. And there are plenty of collegiate chapters who plan their own IRD.

LOL, the first thing I thought of when talking to ColdInCanada was "She needs to talk to AGDee!"

I just have to say, everyone's responses have started to give me hope I might still have a place

I think this speaks to the real problem with getting members to stay active in their alumnae years: there's just such a diversity of members at the alumnae level, and our groups are primarily social organizations. The philanthropy, programming, and support for collegiate chapters is all wonderful, but I think most sorority women join for the friendship. But the alumnae groups typically bring together women of a wide age range, and from very different types of chapters, not to mention with different demands and interests (careers, family, etc.). Besides the shared ritual and history, there is sometimes not much else that really binds these women together.

Quite possible.

I've noted over the years, though, that our school tends to produce people who are go-getters, who do something important. If graduates find an alumnae group full of women from a handful of schools that are nothing like the one they went to, they see little in common except , as you say, ritual -- and even that varies a bit. Just as an example, I can't recall any time in my four years that a sister went to a varsity sporting event, but at most large schools, that kind of thing is a significant part of life - so significant that rush is an afterthought around it.

So they get involved in something else -- my chapter sisters are in university administration, politics, DAR, performing arts -- and take leadership roles. Those take over. I have to admit, though, that when we get together every couple of years, the conversations are fascinating because each has done some very impressive things!

You can also PM me! I am also from a smaller Canadian alumnae chapter - I would be happy to chat.
LiEP <3

How did this thread end up talking about alum experiences?