There are a lot of great ideas here! I find myself agreeing in part with almost everyone, even though I know how we do AI. One difference is that all Alumnae Initiates are in a chapter designated for them exclusively, not as a member of the Wassamatta U chapter or such.

And yes, there is a big difference between Honorary Initiates and Alumnae Initiates. My chapter's housemother was initiated upon retirement, and the members of the original local which became my chapter were also offered initiation - but those were two separate "catagories".

Structured, but not necessarily with parties and the like. I think it takes a lot of research to decide which group is right for both the initiate and the alums and someone shouldn't jump in just because of geographical location. However you shouldn't be shopping around either. A general meeting with a few groups is different than pursuing 3 groups and seeing who offers you a bid first.

I like the retreat thing but logically, how many AIs are there going to be in one location at anyone time. I know I couldn't commit to travel to far for a mandatory retreat. I can however meet with the new member class at the collegiate level on a semi regular basis.
As for serving as an advisor etc... wouldn't it be better to have an initiated member who can actually attend ritual etc?

Yes and no. I was initiated with Gamma Epsilon BUT my alum chapter is filled with a melting pot of chapters. This is who I have the majority of my interactions with. Yes I am on HCB for the GE Chapter but I serve on the alum side also. I doubt that many of the collegiates even know who I initiated with or a lot of the other alums who help out

This I agree with, not every week but for the BIG stuff.

Overall I think different things work for different groups and different geographical locations. What works for your area should be what goes but an AI should not initiate and disappear, they should be doing something for the Sorority at the alum level or collegiate level while they are able. Obviously things come up in life and it makes it harder but I know I can find time to do some stuff for my chapter. Maybe in 2012 when I deploy again it will be different but I'll be back after my year overseas and active with the alum chapter and collegiates as time allows.

Agreed...although some GLOs and alumnae chapters do publicize AI online, which seems to encourage initial contact from PNAMs. If a GLO does that, that's their business, and they're doing what works for them and what they're comfortable with. If a GLO doesn't publicize AI to "outsiders" and someone makes a cold call, that's a different story.

:) I know exactly where you're talking about! They're both great schools...though kind of chilly!

I know the AST chapter up there has also had a little bit of an issue with that, though not nearly to the same extent. They manage, and are doing great :)

I must say that it's not at all typical for a non-member to advise a Chi Omega chapter. There might be a couple of cases, but I can't think of a single one. Perhaps we're just fortunate to have alumnae who are also faculty on those campuses.

Anyway...back to the AI discussion...

^^^ Fortunate, sure. But isn't Chi Omega the largest NPC organization? To me, it's sort of like DST or AKA -- you're pretty much always going to find one of the two, if not both, among female faculty on a given campus.

True...plus, we don't really colonize if we don't have a strong alumnae base in the area.

Also, a campus advisor is different than a chapter advisor. At my campus, all the greeks had campus advisors who might or might not be members of the GLO, and then their board of chapter advisors. A campus advisor often doesn't have to do much more than sign paperwork - at least in my experience. The chapter advisors are the ones who do the day-to-day chapter, um, advising.

Most alum chapters ARE filled w/ a melting pot of collegiate chapters, unless they are a chapter association. That's how they should be.

I just don't think a woman should bear a certain chapter's name if her connection with it is limited to one woman who sponsored her - at a location 1000 miles away from the collegiate chapter in question. To me it's the same as the women in the south who shout "I was a Chi O at UT!" (whisper "El Paso.")* That wasn't your story, from what I recall.

*No offense, UTEP. :)

Although in some groups it's not as clear cut. In my org for example I think the distinction is pretty hard to decipher.

I think it began when Pi Phi had alum initiates as "honorary initiates" at Convention (a process that still continues, although they're now called AIs for the most part from what I can tell).

Pi Phi also does AI for A) housemothers B) siblings/daughters/etc of prominent members C) advisors D) new chapters - every new chapter has several alum initiates to boost the volunteerism for the new chapter.

W&L was one school that did require a faculty advisor... it so happened that Pi Phi always had an alum on the faculty that we could draw from, but I don't believe that was the case for all the sororities on campus... In fact I'm not sure it was true for anyone except us and Kappa. Although I could be totally wrong on that. Oh, and there was a faculty Phi Mu who served as faculty Panhel advisor since her chapter wasn't there.

At W&L, for that matter, very few of the chapters had active alum advisors whatsoever because there were so few people to draw on. The nearest alum clubs, in Roanoke and Charlottesville, were pretty much always focused on VA Tech and UVA respectively. So a lot of chapters were advised on an official sorority level (not campus/faculty level) by women in Northern Virginia - three hours away. So our faculty advisor (who was also chair of our House Corp effectively served as our AAC chair as well for two of my four years at W&L as well). There were alum initiates from the founding of chapter in 1992 who still lived in town, but they were nowhere to be found hrm. I did find that by my senior year it seemed some women from our founding class were moving back to Lexington to settle and were becoming very involved with the chapter - that was good thing.

Anyway the point being that a lot of rural schools have really limited options with advisors.

Also I think a lot of times the collegiate chapter doesn't have much of a choice about initiating alums. At least in my experience. The chapter gets to take a vote, but in most cases refusing to initiate the selected individual (who has already been vetted by the alum club by the time it gets sent to the chapter) would be extremely awkward and uncomfortable and make for hard feelings. Especially, as it often is, if it is a family member of an advisor or something.

All that said, I would have absolutely no problem with widespread AI, I don't think, if we could put into place the same policies and precautions that NPHC currently has. Although I do believe that that change would fundamentally change the character of the NPC and I don't know if it will ever happen. Right now, most sororities and their respective alum clubs don't have time or preparation to do the kind of process that NPHC currently does with their grad membership. For most sororities, the problem of the nascent artificial demand for AI that I believe GC in part or whole created was easier solved by restricting or limiting their AI programs rather than creating a whole new side of membership intake like NPHC has. Which is understandable.

I also think it would be prudent at some point if these programs continue to grow and be as controversial as they are becoming if the NPCs could come together to make some unanimous agreements about how they will work. For the sake of all our organizations.

On a more personal note, I would really prefer if all AIs to my own org were required to have a college degree. Although I realize there are some situations where exceptions can and maybe should be made (housemothers don't necessarily have college degrees, nor do outstanding mother volunteers, etc). I just feel that my org is an org for college-educated women.

Given the fact I'm not in a sorority, I did considered AI at one point just because I enjoy being a mentor/leader to girls. Which comes to my next point...

IMO, I think organizations should request a "resume" from each potential AI, with a list of college orgs or leadership positions they have participated in the past (if they attended college). That way, you can tell who is willing to put in an effort in the sorority, and who are coming in just for the letters.

Also it would be nice to have them go through a series of interviews (like why you didn't join a sorority in college and what can you do for the chapter etc) , anywhere from an Alumni Chapter President to high ups. That way, you can effective see who is a good potential AI and who is not.

I've heard stories that AIs put more effort into their sorority than collegiate who have graduated an moved on.

It seem to me that this highlights the distinction (or what should be the distinction) between AI and honorary initiation.

For us at least (granted, not NPC or an NIC fraternity), only a collegiate chapter, the National Executive Committee or the National Assembly can initiate. A chapter can, by 3/4 vote, choose to initiate an honorary member; that decision has to be approved in writing by the province governor. A chapter cannot initiate more than two honoraries in one year unless the National President gives written permission otherwise. So far as I know, the honorary initiate is never informed that honorary initiation is even being considered until after the province governor has given approval -- there's no seeking it or vetting candidates for it, other than the chapter's own decision-making.

Per our national website, we've initiated 1,700 honorary members in our 110 years -- an average of 15+ per year. Some of them would have already been brothers who were made honorary members of a chapter other than the chapter that first initiated them.

We did once allow alumni chapters to initiate, but that was done away with some decades ago. And we don't usually have the advisor problem. While we are always required to have a faculty advisor, there will usually be brothers on the music faculty. We do allow faculty/staff members of the sheltering institution to pledge and be initiated as collegiate members; they can then immediately transfer to alum status. If we colonize somewhere that there is not a brother to serve as advisor to the faculty, then the man who serves as advisor to the colony is initiated along with the colony.

I'll admit that I like the way we have it now. I have no problem with occasional and appropriate honorary initiations, or with allowing the occasional initiation of faculty/staff members. But otherwise, I think a brother should pledge and be initiated in college.

I know I'm a little bit late in saying this, but I agree 100%!!!

Interesting. Pi Phi is the same. Only a collegiate chapter or Grand Council can initiate. This strikes me, again, as one of the main distinctions between the NPC AI programs and the NPHC graduate intake programs. Alum clubs in the NPC can't, or at least generally can't, initiate members. So they have to rely on the collegiate chapters to initiate. In the past, when most AIs/honorary initiations were either occurring A) at convention B) at the installation of a new chapter C) by a chapter honoring a volunteer/advisor/house mother, that was not really a problem. Now that alum clubs are selecting AIs... it is a more awkward situation.

I'll go on and say that when my chapter initiated an AI many of the members were confused about why we were doing it. I was President at that point and had to explain what AI even was. We approved it because she was the daughter of our regional advisor and it was an honor for us to be asked to initiate her instead of another chapter, and because the Northern Virginia Alum Club gave her their strong recommendation. But many members were confused about why we were being asked to initiate her, what an AI was, why we should do this, etc. It was not really a case where this person had volunteered extensively for Pi Phi, or that our chapter knew this person or anything; moreso it was a case where the person felt a strong affinity for Pi Phi, being a multiple legacy, and wished to get involved. Incidentally, our house mother was already a collegiate initiate of Pi Phi so there wasn't any need to AI her. :)

AIs in Gamma Phi have to be recommended or sponsored by an alumnae group. I believe the thinking is that the AI will be active with the alumnae group, so it makes sense that the alumnae group "sponsor". So in my experience, when a collegiate chapter wishes to recommend someone for AI, they do so thorugh the alumnae chapter with which they work. The alumnae chapter does the paperwork and the member education, while the collegiate chapter does the initiation. I have no idea how it works for those initiated at Convention.