I'm not sure what the "process" to go through is if a woman is just being her awesome self without the goal of AI. The alumnae and/or collegians recognize how amazing this woman is an extend her an offer of membership, there isn't much of a "process" on the potential AI end if she's genuine. If she's involved just to get membership extended that's kind of shady. If someone is participating or involved for the express purpose of seeking membership as an AI, that's kind of strange to me.

But that's a whole other discussion we've had many times.

Hello all,

I probably should make a better introduction, but since I think I'm going back to lurking after this, it probably won't matter. I came to Greek Chat a few times last summer. I was going into my sophomore year, and decided I was going to rush that fall. I did some reading here and it got me very excited (and prepared!) for recruitment. In my research, I read some threads about alumnae initiation, just cause I was curious of what that meant. When I read it and realized that had nothing to do with me, I moved on. Since summer started, I re-discovered this website, and I've been reading semi-regularly.

Back to the point: I joined the new chapter on campus (one that was colonizing that fall). I love my sorority and I'm really happy with the decision I made! But something happened before initiation that made me remember things I read on this website. When we were getting information about initiation, our adviser told us about alumnae initiation, and our moms, sisters (already out of college), aunts, grandmas, etc., wanted to, they could get initiated too.

I was really confused because from what I read here, I didn't think alumnae initiation worked like that. They made it seem like it was really easy to do, and that it was an option open to many people. In a founding class made up of about 50-70 sisters (I'm not saying the real number in case someone can figure it out or something) there were 2 moms that got initiated as well. Is my sorority doing things completely different then others? Has anyone else heard of something like this?

I thought this was a relatively common practice during colonizations. I'm a charter member, and my mother could have initiated with me as she was not a member of another NPC group.

I was part of a colony too, and I had no idea that AI was common at colonizations. I did know, however, that we did have two moms and an older sister (or maybe it was a cousin??) get initiated through AI at mine. The more I think about it, though, it makes sense that they would have AIs at a colonization!

I was referring to the process of learning about the history of the organization, going through whatever new member education program is required, and going through the steps to actually, physically get initiated. Not everyone is interested in that.

Sorry, I should have been more specific - by technical schools I meant those along the lines of ITT.

I would assume (or I guess I should say hope) that any female relatives that are initiated are women that assisted a great deal with the colonization, or women who do so with the understanding that they will be active alumna volunteers. Not just "oh, isn't that nice and cute that our whole family initiated together." To me, that's making a mockery of the women who busted their butts to get that colony chartered.

Thanks for the replies! I also had no idea that this occurred often (or at least more often) during colonizations. I don't know why I just didn't ask about it before. :o Anyways, thanks for filling me in!

::tiptoes back into the shadows to be a lurker again::