My local is having rush at uga next week. Can't believe its been almost ten years since I joined!

expanding your organization to another school
 

I didnt want to start a new thread so i decided to post this question here..my sorority would like to increase our chapters to other local schools but we dont know exactly how that would happen.

I know schools have to be open to adding another GLO to their council. Even if they are, how is it possible for us to find out and perhaps host an information session on the campus?

I am not looking for specific school answers, i'm looking to find out how other organizations were able to expand to other schools.

Currently my organization is not affiliated with any school but we are hoping to expand to schools in an effort to gain national status.

We had a school permit us registration last spring but the chapter we were hoping for collapsed.

Any comments, questions, or similar situations?

I think you'll have to find individuals who are willing to start a chapter. Have your sisters talk to their non-Greek friends at other universities and see if any of them are willing to start a colony of your sorority.

If you find individuals who are willing to put the work in, I think you'll be more likely to suceed.

good luck!

Your alpha/founding chapter isn't affiliated with a school either? Did your founders create your organization with the expectation that it would become a campus-based organization? If it was created to be a community-based organization, you might rub some of the older members the wrong way by trying to expand.

This is the situation.
We were founded to be a college based sorority at a specific school. We do not consider ourselves a community sorority.

At the time of submitting our constitution to the greek advisor we were informed that local sororities were not permitted registration.

We were offered opportunity to look into other existing groups that are on a national council.

We chose to keep our letters and are currently attempting to gain national status in an effort to become members of this campus' IFC.



My question is:
National organizations have chapters on multiple campuses.
what are methods to get other schools, who have the need for a sorority to join, to know that we exist and contact us for a new chapter.

OK, that makes sense.

My fraternity began expanding when a brother transferred to a different school and brought the organization to the campus. Now our expansion occurs when an interested group of men contacts us to see if we'd like to open a chapter.

You could try contacting local colleges (expansion is usually easier if it's done nearby) to let them know that you'd like to expand. They may invite you to come out and present/advertise on campus. That could stir up some interest and get the ball rolling.

FYI - How would your sorority be joining IFC?

It's actually IFSC here. so we'd be included

Your initial post says IFC. That's where the confusion came from.

ETA: I'm looking at the constitution for an IFSC at a school near your Alpha chapter. If it's the same school that you attend, there is no section requiring members of the council to be national organizations. You may want to bring that up to your Student Activities advisor.

What school is that? Perhaps I could contact them in an effort for expansion.

But our student and activities handbook clearly reads that all sorority and fraternity groups must be of national existence as a requirement to join the IFSC.

No local groups beyond the one that was founded in the 70's, is permitted to register.

They consider us an underground sorority.It's an awful position to be in.

The greek advisor encourages other registered groups to disregard our members as other greeks.

That's why its important to us to become national.

I invited my friends on facebook to attend an informational meeting that the sisters are having next month. Perhaps that will help us out.

Adding to knight_shadow's comments, expansion requires networking, so you need to have people who are REALLY outgoing/social and are willing to talk to anyone under the sun. Your members would also be well served to take on leadership roles on campus and attend regional events for the various groups they may be involved with.

My sorority began expanding when we were contacted by women at a school nearby our founding location who were familiar with some members. Now, in our eleventh year, we have Greek Life administrators actually contacting us and inviting us to expand.

La Salle.

ETA: I just got a chance to look over some of the pages on your website. One of the "reasons to join" is that you're not governed by a "giant head quarters [sic]." You realize that in order for your organization to function on a national level, you'll need to adopt some kind of national structure (i.e. headquarters)? It also states that the way to join is by applying. Do you interview prospects or just bid them because they apply? It comes off as a "hey! we'll take anybody!" type of organization, and I'm sure you don't want that.

.

As far as the "giant hq" it means that we will not become members of a national headquaters that will require demands that we may find unecessary to maintain a sisterhood.

An example would be quota. We dont believe in quota. And that's all i have to say for that. We are members of a smaller council. This council provides us with the national structure we need and find acceptable.

My sorority is an inclusive organization. We do offer membership to all applicants. That is not to say that every applicant becomes a member.

We require applicants to participate in a variety of mandatory events in order to demonstrate their ability to carry our mission as a sorority.

It kind of seems like more than it is when its typed like that, but its not.

OK, maybe I'm blind but your page confused me and your myspace didn't help. Where are you located - Temple or Cheyney? Which is your Alpha chapter? Plus, you need to put the founders' full names on the site.

knight_shadow - if they are at Cheyney, more than likely there IS something on the books saying they have to be national. Ditto for Temple. Cheyney is state-owned, Temple is state-affiliated. LaSalle is a private Catholic college - it's a WHOLE different animal.

Our myspace needs updating. We dont have chapters at those schools. This is old information.

I actually update our website and I am not putting full names because of security reasons. I understand that if anyone truly wanted to figure out the full identity of our founders they could, but for now the names have to stay as they are.

What's the reason for full names anyway?

If our site confuses you, let me know what i can change. I'd like for people to understand the message of my sorority.

Then you have a lot of work ahead.

It's not professional to omit last names and locations - and I don't understand the "security reasons" for doing so.