How to make our local sorority legitimate?
 

Hi! I have looked through almost ALL the threads for locol sororities and it's helped out a lot. I know that people tend to ask repetative questions so I made sure I looked through all the threads before I posted my questions.

I am one of 23 founding sisters of a locol sorority in Connecticut called Phi Gamma. We started two years ago and are still very young, but we have a strong group of girls and we already have quite a few alumni. We also have a prominent member of the NPC on our campus who is advising us on everything we are doing. We have the support of the administration for the most part and we have been able to recruit a sizeable number of women these past few years (usually we can get about 12 to 20 girls for our Fall Rush/ 5 to 10 for our Spring Rush). Our name is also readily recognized all over campus which is great. We even have the support of multiple women from other national sororities on campus. Although things are going okay for us we do have problems that I am afraid will hurt us in the long run.

Basically we are an underground sorority. Although we have the support of our administration theres not much they can do but recognize us as a club. We have been trying for the past two years to become recognized by the NPC, but there are certain people who have blocked that from happening. Their excuse is that because chapters from national sororites on our campus have acted inappropriately which in turn has caused them to be "disbanded", they do not want to accept any other greek organizations on campus. As another option, we have been operating under our student government as a club but what we WANT is to become a legitimate local sorority on campus that can be recognized as such.

I am worried about this because there are people who are interested in joining that are discouraged from doing so because they think we arent legitimate and that we have no right to call ourselves a sorority. People from other sororities are telling PNM's that we arent a real sorority and I see it hurting our recruitment numbers.

SO what I want to know is what kind of options do we have for making our group legitimate if we arent under NPC or NPHC? We were thinking about becoming Incorporated but its so expensive and we need our dues to fund us throughout the year. Is there maybe any other umbrella organization that we can join?

Just to make it clear we arent looking to become affiliated with a national sorority anymore. We have started from scratch and all we want to be recognized by EVERYONE as more then just a club faking as a sorority. We just want to be seen as a local sorority that has a legitmate claim to call itself a sorority. What can we do? I would really appreciate any help because I want our young sorority to start off on a strong foundation so that eventually in the long run we can open up other chapters. Thanks!

If you have admin support you are NOT an underground anything. You are just not recognized as a Greek group. Don't make it worse than it is. :)

The admin is gun-shy about adding Greek groups; however, I would point out to them that just recognizing you as a "club" means you can select and train your members however you choose. If you are a sorority, recognized by panhel, you will have to follow Panhel rules which are more rigid. It's to their advantage to recognize you as such.

Unless of course it's the Panhel members who are voting you down, but it doesn't sound like that. Is it?

If you're able to get and keep members, why join panhel in the first place? If you're at a public university, you can probably get money for your activities just as most clubs on campus do. Being in Panhellenic means you have to split those sorts of funds between several groups (and it never amounts to much if anything at all).

Carefully weigh the pros and cons of affiliation before you do it. Right now you have a lot of independence. Make sure giving up all of that is worth it.

Kevin - thanks for the response but in my post i said we DONT want to affiliate with a national. We are looking to stay local.

What I want to know is how we can make our local sorority more legitimate. Is there any other kind of umbrella organization we can join that are similar to the NPC or NPHC. There are people in the Greek community that are calling us a fake sorority and I'm looking for ways for us to say "look we belong to this group we are legitimate." I hope that makes mroe sense!

I believe he was referring to affiliation with the local council, not a national NPC organization.

ETA: There is no central office to make your sorority "legitimate." Joining a national umbrella organization is not going to have an effect on your being able to affiliate on the local level (unless that umbrella org is recognized on your campus). Your sorority could join NMGC (for example) on the national level, but if there is no NMGC on your campus, you'll be in the same boat.

Likewise, incorporation (which shouldn't be that expensive, btw) does not make you "legitimate." It makes you a corporation.

My guess is that nothing can make you "legitimate" except acting "legitimate."

Meanwhile, wasn't there someone here recently working on forming a national council of locals?

Not sure if I missed something, but did someone bring up incorporation? Or was that just in addition to my comment?

And yes, there was someone here trying to create that council. Still not sure how it'd work, but I suppose there's no harm in trying.

It was deep in the OP's post:

Quote:

Originally Posted by dp1228 (Post 1847640) We were thinking about becoming Incorporated but its so expensive and we need our dues to fund us throughout the year. Is there maybe any other umbrella organization that we can join?

Gotcha. There was no way in hell I was reading her whole post lol

Thanks.

33girl - yeah we were trying before to become affiliated with a national but it had to be a unanimous vote in the NPC to let us on campus. The meeting never happened because the women we were talking to never organized it like she said she would. So we started a local. At this point we are past panhel but i was just wondering if there was anything else we could do to have a larger support system

MysticCat - According to the President of our sorority the cost was too high. But I am doing research on that as well and like you said it looks as though it might not as expensive as we first thought.

And yeah you're right we have been acting legitimate and thats why we havent lost too manynumbers in recruitment. Its just discouraging when people say to potential members that we arent "legitimate" because we have no national ties. For us its a pro but for some its a con.

33girl and Kevin aren't talking about joining an NPC/NHPC organization. They are referring to your campus Panhellenic, the governing body over all sororities ON YOUR CAMPUS. It's simply made up of members of different sororities from your school. They have meetings, by-laws, and other ways of making sure that all of the sororities on campus are "following the rules" and running under the same system.

At some schools, the locals choose to affiliate with the campus Panhellenic. At others, they don't. They're talking about your group requesting to become a member organization of Panhellenic so that you will be viewed as a more "legitimate" organization.

ETA: It sounds as if you're already doing very well as an organization. Why do you want to be seen as more "legitimate" by your peers? As the saying goes, "Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind"

Knight_ shadow - you made a really good point about being in a same boat if the umbrella organization isnt on campus. That does make sense loll. I was just rambling on about options available to us. Thanks!

astalumna06 - im sorry i misspoke. i meant we were trying to join Panhel but the meeting to do so never happened because certain members were against us forming another group. while we were trying to join Panhel we were also trying to colonize a chapter from a national sorority. So when were essentially turned away from Panhel we decided to start a local sorority to just start our whole process over fresh.

sorry for the confusino :)

Becoming incorporated in this day and age does nothing to make your organization legitimate, except by showing that you had some cash to pay to an attorney to form a corporation or spent some time doing it on your own *which I do not recommend*.
(Note, there are historical reasons some GLO's proudly say that they are incorporated, but becoming incorporated in 2009 is not much of an accomplishment).

Not that there aren't advantages of being a corporation, but they're not going to help you feel legitimate.

kddani - yeah it was just something we were thinking about. it was suggested to us by our advisor and were looking into it. I just wanted some feedback on what people thought about the issue i presented. But thanks!

In some respects, to potentials that dont know you might think that your org isnt legit because its not a "panhel" org, but in other respects, there are potentials that have no clue what "panhel" even means, so youre fine. I dont think it really matters. You will always kind of battle that issue, but in the end, I dont think it will hurt you much.

As to forming a national council of locals....that doesnt make sense :confused: but that wasnt in the original question....so I am moving on....

I agree with whoever said "just act legitimate". I mean, youre a local, you dont have a national, but it doesnt mean youre not operating as a sisterhood! Present yourself professionally, be organized, show pride in your org and I feel like you'll be just as legit as the other organizations on your campus. (I would suggest that you probably already ARE legit, but maybe your group doesnt feel legit because of the lack of national thing? So just have confidence!)

RhoGamma09 - Thanks I really appreciate the encouragement! :)

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who gave me feedback it really did encourage me. I am going to tell my girls and PNM's what you guys told me. We are legitimate if we continue to act legitimate. Although there are people who will continue to say things to try and slow us down, we are a strong group of women and I know my sorority is going to continue to thrive!

I agree that you don't need affiliation with a national umbrella org to be legitimate. However, I think it would benefit your group immensely to have a better working relationship with the other Greeks on your campus.

When you approached Panhell the first time, it was about expanding the NPC presence on your campus. They didn't want to open the campus for expansion, so you decided to test the waters and see whether there was enough interest to sustain a local sorority. Since then, you've been successful in defining your new sorority's identity and in attracting and retaining members.

Now that you are a somewhat stable group, you should consider approaching Panhell again about membership in the local Panhellenic Council, not as a new NPC sorority but as the local you have so successfully gotten off the ground. If an associate membership is an option, it might be what you need rather than a full Panhellenic Council membership. That would give your group a place at the table in campus decisions that impact Greek Life, and probably enable you to participate in campus-wide Greek events like Homecoming, Greek Week... whatever your campus has.

Be aware, though, that by affiliating with Panhell even at an associate level you'll have to abide by Panhellenic rules governing sororities on your campus. That could be a very good thing, too, for a young group.

Good luck!

ophiaginger - thank you so much. i proposed the idea of joining panhel again to my president and she agreed that it would be a really good idea to try again. you guys really helped me and once again i truly appreciate it. theres a rush event tonight so i promise to keep you guys updated on anything new with my group :)

In general, OPA chapters are chartered as "campus organizations" like you are and most are not members of their campus Panhellenic Council. Joining Panhell is a decision left up to the local chapter. But a few of our chapters have joined Panhell and it has been a positive experience for them. If you have the option of an associate membership rather than a full membership, that might be best for you. On campuses that offer an associate membership, this usually means you don't participate in formal recruitment with the NPC chapters. (And since you aren't paying for any shared recruitment expenses, dues for associate members are often less than dues for full members.)

Good luck with your recruitment this week!

update on my local!
 

I just wanted to update you u guys on how its going with our group. We got 10 new pledges (yayyy!!). We did have a bump in the road though when someone from Panhel tried to shut us down. But because of our source (my universities rules) they weren't allowed to. Now after many meeting with both Panhel, the administration and the student government association we have two options. We can either petition SGA to go under them as a subgroup that would allow us to keep a gpa requirement and just accept girls (because under SGA neither is allowed), or we can join panhel with an associate membership (which our panhel has never done befroe). If we go under SGA though we can't call ourselves a sorority. We would have to change it to society or just keep it to our letters. Under panhel we would have to change some of our rules, our dues would be raised and our graduate members may not be able to to stay as members. There are pros and cons to each side but I think we may be leaning more towards joining panhel. We aren't sure yet but I wanted to update you guys and see what you thought!

What are graduate members?

It sounds like Panhel is definitely the better deal IMO.

Wouldn't graduate members be the members that are in graduate school and active in the sorority?

Just guessing though.

yeah alwayssai thats right. we allow graduate members who go to the graduate school full time our university to participate in our chapter. only bc we had girls who graduated who wanted to remain a part of the group and who would be here full time just not as undergrad anymore. under panhel though we might have to lose a couple of those great girls which makes this such a hard decision :(

I don't think you would have to lose your graduate members if you join Panhellenic. National Panhellenic doesn't have a rule against it, and some NPC organizations have rules that allow graduate members, as long as they are still full time students of the university. I would discuss this further with the Greek Life Advisor on your campus (the staff member who works in the Greek Life office).

I'm sure it would help the OP's case to her Greek Life advisor if she could show him proof of this. Could anybody provide her with something that indicates this arbitrary limitation is actually in conflict with NPC rules? Unfortunately, since I'm not in an NPC, this is way outside my area of expertise.

a real big step in becoming legitimate

GET A TAX ID

trust me, alot of things will come to life with that ID.

Panhel can determine who gpes through rush (i.e. they have to have a minimum GPA and be full time students) but they cannot determine if grad students can stay active. That would be up to the policies of the NPC or other national group you chose and some do allow it. (Ask about that during the colonization process.) If Panhel is trying to tell you otherwise, they need schooled. They're overstretching their boundaries.

I guess I'm confused as to why anyone would want to "stay" local when they have the opportunity to go national. Are there other national sororities on your campus? If so, why didn't you go through rush and join one of those? My school used to have locals, but the thought of joining a local never crossed my mind. If you have the opportunity to have a national base with many chapters and alumnae, why not go the NPC/NPHC route?

Some people like the independence of locals -- no national office or governing stucture telling you how to do things.

From what I can tell on GC, locals get this question a lot. Unfortunately, a similar argument is used against the existence of any non-NPC/NIC organizations.

Different people are looking for different things and Greek Life offers a lot of options.

This reason is definitely something that would surprise a lot of people. You wouldn't necessarily think along these terms when you consider the resources and support available with a national organization. But, it's true.

I think usually when that happens, the locals have been around longer and the nationals are looked on as Johnny-come-latelies/carpetbaggers. Not that an 18 year old girl going through rush would put it that way.

Right. Personally, I find it amazing that some locals have been around for over 100 years and they're still going strong. It's very cool.

I'm one of those people who was always interested in national organizations. I imagine my perception would be totally different if I'd been on a campus where the locals had more recruiting "strength."

Are you in a local?

Yes, I see your point-to an extent. In all honesty, though-I still never got the reason behind it. No offense (so I hope no one gets upset with this statement)-when you leave campus "State U" and you say, "I'm an XYZ" it is good to know that people have actually heard of your organization. Now, in some areas-that is not always true, however, just knowing you are part of a big organization with many chapters is something to have pride in.

I know many people who don't consider locals to even be "real" sororities. I remember one of the girls in charge of our Panhellenic that made the comment that local sororities are just clubs with letters. If you are on a campus (like some campuses of Pitt) where there are only locals-I get why you would join a local. If you are on a campus with a couple of nationals-even if they aren't exactly #1 on campus or thriving-why would you go local? I never really wanted to join a local for that reason. When you say to people, "I'm an XYZ" and they look at you funny because they have never heard of it because it only exists on like ONE campus-that has suck (I can't find a better word for it-sorry) to some degree.

Thoughts?

Jeni's a member of Theta Nu Xi.

I see what you're saying about liking being part of a national organization that people have heard of -- I wouldn't want to be in a local because I value the national connections. But in all honesty, I've known plenty of Greeks who weren't familiar with lots of national organizations -- they only knew the ones they interacted with on their own campus.

Thanks MysticCat! :) There was a local at my alma mater (in fact, a member of that org is on GC), but I wasn't interested in going local so I didn't give them a chance. Now that I'm some years out, I look back and think it might have been interesting to go to some recruitment events and find out more about the org. I probably wouldn't have joined regardless, but it would have been a great chance to meet other women on campus.

:( This is the attitude that I was alluding to in my first response. My question is how does it hurt the national org member to show respect to the locals? It just seems petty and unbecoming to me to say that another organization isn't a "real sorority."

And, it's downhill from there. If a local isn't a real sorority, then who's to say a service org, a Latino fraternity or a sorority for stud women isn't a real Greek organization? The further you get from mainstream, the less people are willing to accept other members of the Greek community.

Greek unity is absolutely crucial for the survival of ALL Greek orgs. There are far too many people out there who have a dim view of us already, plus some people who want to bring the entire community down to its knees.

Alpha Sigma Alpha and Alpha Sigma Tau come to mind. I had never in my life interacted with a member of either org until I came to Greek Chat. I knew they existed, but only because I made the effort to learn about all the NPC sororities. Obviously, they are both national orgs and part of a national conference. But, as with any Greek org, proximity impacts a person's knowledge of an organization.

It makes me sad when people say things like "locals aren't even real sororities" and in my opinion, it reflects far more poorly on the people making those statements than on people in local organizations.

As to why people choose locals over nationals, perhaps its for the same reason a lot of people choose national sororities...because they feel a genuine connection to the members and would like to form a sisterhood with those women.

While I agree that it is nice to have a national structure and national recognition, I'm not sure I'd say that it "has [to] suck...to some degree," to mention that you're a member of a local. Local organizations may have their own alumni associations and other ways of supporting members after college. Moreover, there are plenty of groups that exist on only one campus (Princeton, Yale, and Harvard all have groups that come to mind) that are quite influential, and certainly don't "suck."