need advice on reinstating
 

Hi! I found a link to Greek Chat from some unrelated website and have been lurking for awhile. Lots of good stuff and I love reading the recruitment stories!

I have done a couple of quick searches, but I have not found any threads that have helped me figure out what to do in my situation. Hopefully you guys can provide some insight.

I was active in a large national sorority on a campus with a strong Greek system. I lived in house my senior year and was current on all house payments and dues. For various reason, primarily due to my mother's health issues, I moved into an apartment right before my last semester of school and just wasn't as active as I could/should have been with my chapter.

I moved to a different state, got involved in my career and never really gave it much thought. My husband is somewhat active in his fraternity; we live several hours away, but we donate regularly to his national and chapter funds. I contacted my national office to see how I could get involved again - we do have a local alum chapter and there is a chapter at the college in my city. Apparently, the national office has me listed as "voluntary withdrawal" and says that I can't reinstate.

I am fairly sure the voluntary withdrawal staus is incorrect. I thought that I had to sign paperwork and turn in my pin to voluntary withdraw, and I did neither of those (I still have my pin). I should also add that the President & VP during my senior year kind of had it out for the group of girls I hung out with (we had over 80 in my pledge class, so yeah, cliques formed), so I am not sure if they could have filed something on my "behalf".

Does anyone have any advice as to how I can pursue getting things cleared up and possibly reinstating so I can become active locally? I just hate to feel as if all of the time, effort and money that went to my sorority during my college years is wasted due to this.

Thanks!

I would contact your sorority's headquarters and just ask them if you an alumna in good standing.

ETA: You never know if paperwork was maybe turned in incorrectly and your status was not changed. Just a thought!

I think they've already answered that question:
cbm, I'd contact your national office again and explain that there has been a mistake and their records are in error, as you never voluntarily withdrew. If the person you talk with can't help you, ask to speak to the next person up the food chain until you get to someone who can help you figure out how to rectify the error in their records.

I think the only way you will find the answers you want are by contacting your National Headquarters, as each organziation is going to have different policies for membership status changes. It certainly is possible that the president may have changed your status to voluntary withdrawl "on your behalf," but it may have been in your favor. I know in my organziation, the door is at least open to reinstatement from voluntary withdrawl, but virtually impossible for expulsion. You may have to do some digging, but I would venture to guess that every organziation has some sort of system in place for handling this, as many women want to ensure their good standing when they have legacies coming through recruitmen! :)

Finally, while I'm sure you didn't mean it this way, I would hope that no matter the outcome today, you wouldn't consider your time in a sororoity a waste.

I contacted Nationals (again) and was told that my status is "Resigned". The person answering my email gave me the name, email and number of another person to contact at Nationals.

Any further advice? :confused:

^^ All you can do is call. See if you can get anywhere that way. If you're still getting nowhere, I would say to contact the National President directly. I know that I have emailed my National Pres a few times, and she has always responded within a day or two. I'm not going to guarantee that your President will do the same, but if you have a problem such as this, I imagine it will probably catch her attention.

Some chapters will turn anyone who's been late for x amount of years in as Resigned or Withdrawn, or whatever - it's a bookkeeping situation. Write to your National office again, asking for copies of the paperwork for your "voluntary" withdrawl. Offer to pay your dues in full, and mention that you'd like to be active in the local Alumnae Association. There may be hoops that you need to jump through, but if you want it badly enough, good luck!

PS: FWIW, I can think of at least four times that the above has worked.

Right, but if the records say she "voluntarily terminated" or "resigned" when in fact she did not voluntarily terminate or resign, then surely there is some way to correct the error in the records.

I would contact the headquarters, tell them that they have made a mistake. If you never signed anything, still have your badge and never resigned, this should not be a problem. AOII has a system that allows people to apply to be reinstated even if they did voluntarily resign. I don't know how often they let former sisters come back, but your situation (if it's exactly as you've told us) sounds like the perfect reason to have this policy.

I would contact that person. The National Rep you were talking to probably was not in charge of what you were asking about. Think of it like dealing with a business.

Oh please don't contact the National President...you've been given a name to contact at HQ -- do that. The office should have paperwork to support the status they have for you on their computer screen.

Thanks for the advice! I have contacted the name given to me with pretty much (most of) the information I posted above. I'll post an update when I have one so that future GC members seeking information on the topic will know how my situation turned out.

Thanks again!

I did say contact the person at HQ. All I'm saying is, if she runs out of options, and she truly wants this to happen, she could go that route. I know that my National President is very open to talking to all members of the sorority, and I would hope that if I desperately wanted to be reinstated because of a stupid mistake, and no one was able to help me, that I could contact her.

Our last National President is actually on Facebook, I'm friends with her, and we talk pretty often. So asking her questions and/or for help isn't something that ridiculous to me. It might not work for everyone, but it was a suggestion.

I think it's swell that you and your National President are FB friends. My point is that the OP stated she's from a large national group. While all members certainly have access to the Sister who serves as National President, can you imagine the deluge if everyone took that option? Plus, no National President is going to have the documentation at her fingertips to deal with this situation. I also think the HQ staff would appreciate being given the time to respond to the request before the OP goes to a higher authority.

Even if my national officers were on Facebook, I don't really think that's the appropriate method of contact for this type of request.

Bump

I was wondering about the status of your situation. Please update us. I hope it is a positive outcome.

Just seeing this thread.

I have dealt with a reinstatement before.

There was a member of my chapter who resigned her membership and immediately regretted it and wanted to reinstate. She had to put in a formal request for consideration to the Pi Phi Grand Council to be reinstated. She was denied at that time (she was still in college), but was told there was a possibility she could reinstate later, as an alumna, which I thought was interesting. Obviously that only really pertains to Pi Phi, but in some NPCs, you CAN reinstate.

I do think your situation sounds more like a paperwork snafu. For example, we had one member when I was president who spent a semester studying abroad in the spring. The following fall, she decided not to return to campus and instead to transfer to a different university. She had some minor unpaid bills. We were worried because we contacted her multiple times and did not hear from her, and were concerned that we would have to expel her or something (I can't remember what the final protocol in the situation would have been, but it would have been fairly drastic). Making the matter more complicated, she would have had her badge and (let's just say, hypothetically) if she hadn't been receiving our correspondence asking for the payment, she might never have known that she was leaving Pi Phi in bad status. Luckily, in reality she finally did reply to my email and sent in a payment so she could be an alum in good standing. But you see how these things can happen...

Hi all - I thought I would give a quick update. I contacted our national office and was told, after a paperwork review, that I was not eligible for reinstatement. Some of the dates (such as the date I graduated) given to me were not correct***, so in my opinion, it appears as if I was lying about the whole ordeal!

***I graduated in 2004, however I moved out of state for an internship (required for graduation) in 2003 (after completing 4 years at my school), got offered a job and stayed here. I completed the 2 courses remaining for my degree via distance learning. So when I said (via email) that I moved during my "last year of school" I meant my last year on campus...from their perspective it probably did look like things did not add up!!!

Anyway, I received a curt, short email asking me to call her. I just never called. I just felt so intimidated!

I started my provisional year with Junior League and that really has fulfilled my need for philanthropy, which was one of the reasons I wanted to become involved as an alumna. I know that I should call and discuss things, but I just keep putting it off.

My entire family is Greek and if I ever have a daughter, I will hate telling her that she can't be listed as my legacy because of some silly paperwork issue! My mother in law is a Pi Phi, sister was a Phi Mu at Ole Miss, other sister was my legacy, husband was an officer in his fraternity in Alabama....I hope that if my issue never gets resolved this will at least help a little on recs for future children! LOL

I do want to stick around GC though, I really enjoy the posts!

I hope you do stick around!

But I don't like the idea of misinformation about you (or anyone) floating about your National HQ. If I were you, I would detail my involvement with Pi Phi and your college career (including the internship), year by year on paper and send it to the proper person. I would add that, if there was an outstanding balance or any logical reason that you did not know about prior to graduation to cause your termination, you want to know about it. If it was a standards issue, you want to know about it. If it was a grades issue, you want to know about it. Whatever it is, you should know (and IMHO, deserve to know) why you are ineligible for reinstatement.

FWIW, a sister from the 1960's was deactivated from a chapter, and after much pleading, was reinstated by ADPi. Unfortunately, she pulled a MAJOR standards issue (embezzlement of chapter funds) in the 1980's, and then her membership was withdrawn - forever. In my book, unless you've pulled something as unforgivable as that, you should be able to plead your case. Yet, I'm not a member of Pi Beta Phi, so I don't know if your HQ is much stricter than ours.

Best of luck! I would hate to think that this would be held against any possible legacy.

Thanks honeychile - you are right. I do need to get the information cleared up.

Also, I'm not a Pi Phi...I have not posted my affiliation. I kind of like being anonymous!

OOPS! My bad! Best of luck anyhow!

That's the problem with emails. Sometimes they sound curt, but aren't intended to. God knows it takes me forever to send an email out because of that. I'm usually one of those "to the point" people. If she said to call and didn't send the "no" letter, give the person a call. She's just another woman and she needs help clarifying your situation-probably so she can bring the correct information to the Council-no need to be intimidated. Good luck in whatever you decide to do!

If it's important to you, you should follow up with a phone call. Most of the information that your headquarters receives about when you graduated, etc. is based on reporting from the collegiate chapter. This does not always get reported accurately so it's in your best interest to follow up with that phone call to clear things up.