How big is your chapter?

as the VP operations (rec. sec. equivalent) advisor, i'd say that position almost NEEDS a single. way too much paperwork and NO glory whatsoever...

- marissa

It would be so nice to have an office! The whole keeping everything you need to do your job in room doesn't really work to well :)

Our office on the hall is REALLY little; there's barely enough room in there for a desk. But we do also have a lounge with mailboxes for the sisters/study files/chill space.

No I never wanted to be on exec because to much drama to deal with and I also think its stupid because we are only allowed 5 singles (don't know why if we have 18 room and can house up to 32 girls) so a lot of drama go with who get a single and how doesn't

On my campus the sororities have suites and the fraternities have houses. People used to say the sororities didn't have houses due to "brothel laws" which we know are fake! IIRC, all the sororities agreed that if everyone couldn't afford a house then no one would have one.

While I wish I could have lived in the house I am glad it is fair for everyone. The suites are in two dorms (one dorm happens to be an all women's dorm) and they are right next to each other. In Woodworth we have 6 and in Dehority we have 3 suites. They are at the ends of the hall with one sorority to a floor in Woodworth.... The only party I hate is walking up FOUR flights of stairs to my suite!!!

The rooms are fairly good sized and we have use of the student center or business building for chapter meetings (80 girls in one suite wearing formal clothes and all of that other stuff DOES tend to make the room a little cramped!) and the school lets us use the student center for pref rounds. Its nice for PNM's to be able to just walk around one building and stay inside (instead of dealing with the heat or potential rain of early September!)

I have been able to live in the dorms and meet people from all other chapters. I lived with a girl in AOPi this past semester and this year I am actually living with 4 chi omegas. Of course I am looking forward to getting a house next year with my sisters... but it has been nice to live with my friends from other chapters. I think that has actually HELPED us to meet girls in other chapters.

I love you, will you marry me? :D

I know with my chapter members of Standards didn't have to live in the house; the President did have to live in the house and therefore was more aware of people violating alcohol rules. The house governance structure was a lot like the American government in Exec was the enforcer of the rules and Standards interpreted the rules. The two balanced each other out and you were generally verbally warned by Exec and then sent to Standards to "plead your case".

As a former ASB Chairman and member I preferred to not be around the house as much because of the fact that my opinions in those meetings weren't skewed by gossip as much as some girls who were privy to house gossip and served on the board. Because of this I spent a lot of time working and focusing on my studies and not on house drama although I was involved.

Exactly.

This burns. It's almost as if you're saying "I want the privilege to be in the sorority, but I dont want the 'extra' work that being an exec member involves."

80% of the people want credit for what 20% of the people do.

guess what? if you go the extra mile, by being on exec, you SHOULD get extra privileges, such as a single room. Don't complain that you cant have the privileges just cause you didnt wanna deal with the drama. It's selfish.

A House!
 

Yes if You have a House, there are certain responsibilitys that go with it!

1. Having The House Full. Why? Da well making payments.

2. You dont feel ok about living in The House and supporting it, get out.

3. How important a Member are you? A 20 % or an 80 % ?

If you are required as an Officer to Live in the House, there is a reason. You are "ass"eable to Your Members.

If You do not want to live in The House, dont be an Officer or a Member!!!

Harsh, Yes, True, Yes!

If every member felt like this, How long would the Chapter be open and functinal?:(

This is not aimed at anyone person, but a truism, isnt it?

Not everyone is exec material. Our Organizations wouldn't be able to run if everyone wanted to be a "chief."

The way our sorority solved this problem is that every girl had points. You got points for how many semesters you lived in the house, how many semesters you have been an active member, your GPA, and how many semesters you lived in the "10 girl room" (i.e. the room with the least amount of privacy). Our house manager kept track of all the info and whoever had the most points got to pick their room first at the end of each semester. The only exception is that Pres got her own room, and VPM, EVP got doubles. It worked out really well because whenever someone had a problem, all they had to do was look at the points.

Did you also notice that the person you called "selfish" is one of your sisters? Just an observation.

I love our house but sometimes it really does get tough, even for exec board members, to live there.

I held the NMC office for my sorority, effective January - December 2003. My first semester, I feel like I did a much better job, because I could go home after chapter and NM meetings and work on my stuff for the next week.

As NMC and all of exec board are required by our bylaws to live in the house for the second semester of their term and the semester after (we can't move in the middle of the year because of housing agreements with Gannon) I moved in last August. Our house sleeps 9. I was real excited when I moved in, and lucky enough to get my own bedroom which I made use of in preparing things for the New Members (I felt like arts and crafts chair a lot of the time and it spread out all over my room).

However, and this is not typical by any means, I was having trouble keeping up with my New Member paperwork and organization, even though for most of the meetings I just had to walk downstairs. I ended up faxing a lot of paperwork in to IHQ because I didn't have enough time to send it by snail-mail. I think it has to do with your preferences and also whether or not you have a thick skin. I was (and still am) fully capable of carrying out the duties of my office and doing a good job. However, I found myself overwhelmed and depressed most of the time.

A lot of it had to do with the rest of my schedule the semester I moved in. I had a heavy courseload, and my studies really suffered the semester I moved in. I also was trying to re-vamp the new member program, and it was creating a lot of drama in my chapter because it hadn't been changed in at least 5 or 6 years, and with new hazing rules and laws in place, we needed to cut out a lot of things that are now considered hazing.

To be honest, I think it was the changes I was making that was causing me the most heartache. The house was split 5 to 4 in favor of hazing, and my roommates and sisters were slamming doors in my face even if I went to ask them for a piece of tape or something.

There were fun times, too, though, especially when the dust settled from the new member changes, but overall, while I love my sisters (even the ones that hated me), I was left with a horribly negative view of living in the house and I would never do it again.

I think I'd rather live on the streets, to be honest with you... When I say you need a thick skin to live in the house AND hold an office where there is a lot of work, it's true, especially if you only can house 9 out of 40 members. When sisters come to the house, you take the heat for it not being spotless (of course, I mean, they did spend a whole hour of a saturday morning cleaning it, didn't they? so of course they can come over and trash it then whine because it's not clean). When something goes wrong or someone doesn't like how you're running your office, you take the heat. There were days where I would go from a chapter meeting in which the entire general discussion was basically about how crappy a person I am and how much they regret giving me NMC, and then I would go home and someone (who didn't live in the house) would be standing in the living room whining about how my homework was on the coffee table and aren't I a jerk because I made them spill their drink all over it?

That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about.