My understanding of this particular chapter is that they are building up their membership so they may participate in the future.

Correct

And yes.

Fantastic, fun story. You've got a great attitude, Bellatrix (wow, does it feel strange to type that...), and I wish you much luck!!

Melindawarren, just when I think you couldn't impress me more you show us even more of your kind heart and level head.. I truly hope you find a home with the daughters... any woman would be lucky to have you as a sister!

Remind me, those of you who keep up with the rules. If Parvati depledges ("de-new-members"?) can that chapter COB immediately?

This does depend some on school rules, but if the chapter would be below total by her withdrawing, the chapter could COB. Ususally, a chapter would wait until the next semester to COB if they were that close though.

If the chapter made exactly quota (no quota additions) and she quit prior to going through the new member ceremony/ritual/pinning, the chapter may "replace" her by offering a new bid to someone, even if they are above total. II don't think my holiday-weekend-haze has worn off yet-'m fuzzy on if they could "replace" her if she had already gone through the ceremony; someone else will have to clarify there, but I think the answer is yes? But, if the chapter is over total and received quota additions, they cannot extend new bids unless the number of new women quitting puts their total number of NMs below quota. So, if they are over total and received one quota addition and one woman drops, they cannot extend a new bid.

^^^^ yes this is my understanding.

Here's the quote from the Manual of Information (aka "Green Book")

Vacancies in Quota
When a woman negates her signed Membership Recruitment Acceptance
Agreement and refuses to accept her matched bid at the conclusion of
membership recruitment and does not participate in a ribbon or formal New
Member Ceremony, this space in the chapter’s pledge Quota was not filled.
Therefore, the chapter may immediately bid and pledge another woman,
even if the chapter is over Total. However, if the chapter has received quota
additions, the chapter may only pledge additional women to the established
pledge quota and not to the quota plus quota additions. Example: If quota is 25
and a chapter receives quota (25) plus 2 quota additions for a total of 27 new
members and three new members do not accept their bids the chapter may
pledge 1 new member to fill to quota of 25.

The good news: I had a ton of fun in Hogsmeade! The girls and I really had a great day!
The awesome (to me!) news: I got my Pottermore invite last night!
The not-quite-as-exciting news: informal sorting is not over for another week and a half, so keep checking in for updates!

Re: Parvati, she did the new member ceremony and THEN dropped.

Pottermore invite?

Yay for Pottermore :) Im on it too!

Pottermore is an interactive Harry Potter online "game". Its in beta testing and they only let in a million people from July 31- Sept 30...it opens to all in October.Im not into online games, but Im a huge HP fan so I wanted to be sure to get in early to see what its all about.

Thanks for clarifiying that Pottermore isn't a new house! I was so confused!

Have fun, OP!

Me too...I'm like, "wait...what now!? Another house appears?!"

Whoops! I feel like I've done a million silly little things in this thread. :) Cissy got her Pottermore invite, too!

I've been lurking on this thread for a while, and I must say, as a long time HP fan, I've really enjoyed your creativity, melindawarren.

I, too, am lucky enough to be one of those participating in Pottermore's beta stage—perhaps we should have a GreekChat list of people to add as friends?

Thank you!

I think we should-twinkle555 and I are now Pottermore friends. I wonder if there are other GCers on Pottermore? This seems like it could be its own thread...

The Greek Chat Pottermore Club, anyone?

I feel like such a dork, but I've been a fan of Harry Potter for nearly a decade…and so far Pottermore has been lots of fun (it'll be even more fun once Wizard's Duel is out of maintenance).

Do you know that I check this thread multiple times a day to see if anything else has developed in your quest for Greekhood. (greekness? greekocity? probably should have just stuck with sisterhood.)

You have so many of us on GC rooting for you. I hope it works out for you.

greekdom?

My quest for something Greek continues!

Did I ever mentioned that I'm exhausted? Seriously, this is my third week at this-I'm tired! Oh, and there's this other thing I've been trying to do...some people call it school... ;)

Thank you all for sticking with me! Coming here is really therapeutic and provides nice perspective.

I wish I had more to share with you, but I don't (trust me, I wish I had more to share!).

+ETA: twinkle555, clear your PMs!

Seriously? You must be totally wiped out.

A suggestion for the house in question: I might evaluate a way to simplify your recruitment process. Not that you're asking me, but as a Mom ENOUGH!!!!!!!

.......I'm done now.

She's not going there/they're not having parties every day for 8 hours. I'm guessing her exhaustion is mainly mental. Remember, there are ladies who are just now getting their first invites to the Daughters' house. The Daughters no doubt want to invite everyone to join their sisterhood at the same time.

I know...I know...You are correct. And yes, the excitement will/would be greater...but.....this has been going on for a long time. I, for one, am exhausted. And whether it is physical or emotional exhaustion, it is kind of the same.

You're actually both right. One the one hand, it's very much mental-I'm new to Hogwarts, things are different, I have sorting stuff. On the other, I floo (or fly) to and from school every day, we've had crazy weather the last week and I haven't had a decent night's sleep in a while. So it's totally both. But whatever! Everything I'm doing is worth a little bit of exhaustion. :)

All clear!

I need more!! This recruitment story is MAKING MY LIFE!

I have a few updates on the orgs my friends have joined (high school friends at other schools, not Hogwarts):

Two went ALPHA EPSILON PHI
One went ALPHA CHI OMEGA
One went PI BETA PHI
One went SIGMA KAPPA
Two went KAPPA ALPHA THETA

Yes, I based the color codes off of Jill's, but I needed to find out the colors SOMEWHERE! :) Also, I don't plan on divulging school names since these are my friends' results, not mine. Just thought I'd share some happy endings (with many more to come-some of my friends haven't even started school yet!).

hooray for your friends!

You knew this would end someday...right?
 

Dear witches, wizards, muggles and others of GreekChat,

My journey as an unsorted witch has FINALLY come to an end!

Thank you to all of YOU, my darling readers, for following me on my journey, for encouraging me to keep going, and for being AMAZING with advice! I love you all, I really do, and I plan on being an active member of your community.

In addition, I need to thank a few individuals. Thanks to VandalSquirrel for awesome shoe advice (if I hadn't twisted my ankle this morning, things would be much better on that front! Perhaps I should visit Madam Pomfrey); AzTheta, for basically explaining everything to me; and two women who did more for me than anyone (when it comes to recruitment, of course!): ellebud and Football Fan. Seriously, you two are my fairy godmothers for recruitment! I cannot thank you enough for all of your assistance, support and caring wisdom. All PNMs should be lucky enough to have women like you guiding their experience.

Also, I know my mom is reading this (she finally asked for the link, so I gave it to her), so thank you, mommy, for being so awesome about recruitment (even though you personally don't know much about how it works). You've done everything you possibly could just to help me pursue this goal, and I'm so happy that we were able to take this crazy, amazing journey together (man, it'll be so much easier when Cissy goes through, right?). :)

Ok, so now, for the big reveal. As you have likely figured out (or maybe not?), the very muggle location I've referred to as Hogwarts is USC (fight on!).

And now, I will use the Sorting Hat's famous line. "Better be...a Daughter of the Knights of Walpurgis."

This is also known as...


























































SIGMA DELTA TAU!!!!!!

I am THRILLED! This is absolutely what I wanted and I could not have asked for a happier ending. :)

For those of you who were wondering, yes, our very own kaeb is one of my new sisters. She and I met on day one and she said that she has been very tempted to post in this thread! Go for it, kaeb! :)

I'm sad to be ending my recruitment story-this has been a ton of fun, and how often do you get to call yourself Bellatrix Lestrange? But hey, this is one experience I will never, ever forget. And, to end in true Harry Potter form, I'll say that things have finally calmed down for me and, to quote the seventh book, "all is well."

Congratulations.....Sig Delt is awesome

Yes, most of us knew which school and chapter, but it was fun nonetheless waiting for the big reveal. Congratulations and many happy years of sisterhood to you!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! I'm glad your sorting ended happily :-)

side note: I saw you in the "users online" list so I clicked your name and it said "is currently responding to 'Better Be...'" and I decided not to go to bed till I saw the ending!

I'm happy for you!

Congratulations on a great story and a great sorority

Thank you for the kind words. I know Sigma Delta Tau will be blessed to have such a highly talented and gracious new member.

Best wishes as you begin your lifetime journey within the bonds of Sigma Delta Tau.

Thank you all!

You have no idea how awesome it is to hear that-it's moments like this that made all the craziness worth it!

Congratulations, Melinda! I'm so glad your story will not be coming to an end. I was keeping my fingers crossed for you and SDT and kaeb who'd get a bunch of PM'd "WHAT!!!"s if you hadn't gotten a bid like we had a say or something!

Congrats to you and SDT!!!! This thread was truly a pleasure to read. :)

Congratulations! I am SO happy for you! (And I am tearing up as I say this) Thank You. You deserve all good things. As a Norman (yes, LeslieAnne, she shares our heritage) and a Trojan you are the best of our schools.

Now that you've been "sorted", you are going, with you SISTERS to conquer the world.