Want to start a sorority
 

Hey I go to a campus where greek life isn't a big thing unless you're greek. I want to start a brand new, never been heard of before sorority. I was wondering if there was anyone that could help me figure out how to write a constitution/by laws (I don't know if there is a difference). Any help would be appreciated.

First of all... is Greek Life ever a big thing if you AREN'T Greek?! :confused:

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I remember hearing all about how everyone wanted to be Greek when they got to college, that's changed. But I really want to start something that'll make people see it different.

I guess I'm really confused about your motives? Becoming greek is much more about creating bonds, developing lasting friendships, and becoming a part of something so much bigger than yourself.

Why not join one of the organizations on your campus and try to make people get excited about that?!

ETA: A new group on campus is not going to change the opinions of the non-greek students. They aren't suddenly going to be on fire for greek life.

Groups that start as "the sorority that's not like other sororities" or "the different sorority" usually do fine for maybe 4 years. Then, unless they were founded to cater to a certain religion/major/ethnicity, they start struggling and have a hard time finding members, because their purpose is gone. The fact is...if you wanted to be in something that's not like every other sorority...you wouldn't rush a sorority.

Also, if all the people at your college are (example) hippies, trust me, the NPC groups there are known as "the hippie chapters" in their respective organizations. Creating something new won't change who is at the school.

Yes.

I simply don't believe that there isn't a sorority out there that already exists that fits your brilliant idea. Lesbian? Check. Every ethnicity under the sun? Check. Black, white, music major, business major, service-focused, coed? Check.

I'm sure you are a perfect snowflake, but do more research into the vast number groups that already exist. Your chances of survival are much greater. If you'd like to share your brilliant idea here maybe someone can help counsel you in the right direction.

My point is that our sororities are not about building bonds or friendships, it's all cat fights and who hates who on campus. I want to change this

If you're not in a sorority, how do you know they're not building bonds?

If you want to change the system, become a member of the system.

Or, whatever. Start a sorority.

If you think you are going to get a group of college-aged women together and not have drama, you are not living on Planet Earth.

:)

I'll echo what others are saying. If your reason for existing is "we're not like all the others," you may thrive for a little while, but people will eventually grow tired of that. Your organization needs showcase what it DOES do, not what others aren't.

I thought a bunch of Greeks would be more than willing to help me do something like that, but I see that's just not going to happen. I see greeks aren't any different at other schools either

I feel I must share a PM.

Look, I don't know if you have a problem with what I want to do, but I feel like you were being fairly rude. There is not a vast greek life on my campus. I just want to make something where girls feel safe, and like they have a family away from there family. Our sororities literally start wars with the rest of greek life, I just want to try to change that so it's not so look down upon here. "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." I live by this and I just wanted some help, not to have irritated messages sent to me.

I really need to be warned when a person is looking for the unicorns pooping rainbows section of GC. Starting a question with something like "I'm looking for advice but only the kind that validates everything about me" would be helpful.

Also, I seriously hate when anyone starts a rebuttal with look. And while I'm at it, you may have a limited proficiency in English, but if there were any sororities literally starting wars, I'd have heard about it. It may feel like war. They may even want to start a war, but no literal war has occurred.

Oh, and by the way, it's the weekend and I'm feeling feisty.

OMG I'm so in love with this...

I'm with you.

(But do you have to be so rude? :rolleyes:) Honestly, I didn't see any rudeness coming from you, but then again, I'm just like the sorority women at all the other campuses. Do you want to start a war? Like, a literal one?

Perhaps we could start a new category for threads - Unicorns pooping rainbows.

DubaiSis you're right, you know all things greek about every campus in the country. You may not have a great grasp on the English language, but have you heard of a hyperbole? well that's where you slightly overexaggerate to make a point. It's ok if you don't understand that though, and by the way it's Thursday so it's not the weekend, but nice try though. Normal people don't start their weekends on Thursdays, but you do what you have to.

And that's the way you get people to want to help you.

Well, you're basically telling us that our orgs aren't good enough for you but you want us to help you write rules for your new org. How does that make sense?

I tried being nice, and people decided to bitch at me for wanting to do something. I asked a question and got no help with it, just people telling me why I shouldn't do it.

I have a group of 15 girls that want to start a sorority, but don't know where to start. Just thought I could get a little help

Here's the problem with what you're saying. You're coming here thinking that because you have a problem with the organizations of which we are proud members we're going to want to help you start something new?

I was actually waiting for this one. Some people may have guessed based on my user name that I live in the Middle East (where we KNOW what war is). Our weekend is Friday and Saturday, so Thursday evening is the beginning of our weekend.

Literally is a word that automatically makes something NOT hyperbole. That's literally what it means - this is exactly and only the truth.

AlphaFrog, you beat me to the punch!

Their foundations a good, but it's not what it could be. I just want to help build greek life on my campus and give these girls a place where they feel safe. they're all leaving these organizations because they don't feel that family bond. I'm sorry you all don't agree, but I just wanted to try. All of your sororities were started from scratch, what's wrong with something like that happening now?

1. You're going to have the same women rushing, so there's not going to be a huge revolution if/when your organization starts.

2. If you're starting from scratch, then you shouldn't be using sorority templates. If everything about the current GLOs are bad, why would you try to emulate them when creating yours?

You are culturally ignorant. You are also a youngster who knows nothing about what "normal people" do, hence this thread.

Most importantly, she's an idiot. Idiots cannot do anything that is not idiotic.

We know. That idiot does not know.

By the way, I'm in North America and my weekend is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So, Thursday evening is the beginning of my weekend. My weekend used to be Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

I wonder how many "normal people" around the world do not have (what other cultures consider) weekends at all. :eek:

We don't care. This thread is now about telling you how young and dumb you are.

Find Greeks' advice, that you agree with 100%, somewhere other than Greekchat. And don't try to create a new username and ask for advice.

You need to stop. Right now. You don't know the first damn thing about the foundations of ANY greek organizations. :mad:

You just made me curse in my letters.

How do you even know what our foundations are? your not greek!

I think there's a problem here in that she doesn't realize there are a LOT of sororities that are not NPC and offer a very different kind of experience that she wouldn't be required to reinvent. Some of us, while new to GC, kind of thought the only Greek experience was our own. I, for instance, never really thought of locals, service fraternities, professional fraternities, etc. as REAL Greek enterprises. Using the service fraternities as an example, yeah, their little group does some good things, but it's not like it's lifetime membership or your brothers matter to you beyond college or anything.

Obviously I've learned a lot here and I think I can counsel potential members about considering a variety of alternatives beyond the 26 NPC sororities. I can't say this or that group is better, worse or should be avoided, but I CAN say there are some great alternatives out there that you may not have considered.

A casual reader may be very surprised to see the gender, race and age differences that flourish here and the variety of organizations represented. But hey, 50 different voices that all say the same thing but don't agree with you are probably all wrong.

Are you only talking about locals, service fraternities, professional fraternities here? :)

Just in case you are not, when it comes to NPHC, I ask that nobody counsel people about considering NPHC organizations. We are not alternatives and we are not second options.

As far as the OP is concerned she doesn't need any counsel. She just needs to have a seat and learn some things before she tries to draw conclusions.

Let me pull out my handy 'GC-to-English dictionary'...ah, yes, here it is:

"I didn't get a bid".

DrPhil, I would never presume to tell someone what NPHC life is like, but if someone says all sororities suck because of x,y and z that makes it sound like she has only considered NPC sororities, I would probably say, have you looked at NPHC, mult-cultural, non-academic, service, whatever? There are a lot of ways to have that lifetime bond that are not NPC and in no way are a consolation prize and that's exactly what I was getting at. I can imagine the crucifixion if a girl had an unsuccessful NPC rush and I said, well have you considered AKA? YIKES. But that girl who says she went through NPC rush and just didn't feel it, well that may be a time for her to consider other avenues, including NPHC.

Psst... scroll down to the bottom of this page. There's an area that lists threads that may be of interest.

And yes, we are here to help, but not spoon-feed. There are a TON of threads if you just search.

I'm sorry this thread had to turn into this, I didn't want to be spoon fed, I just wanted an idea of where to start. I'm not an idiot and I have gotten a bid to sororities, I just didn't like how the girls themselves treated everyone inside and outside of their sorority. I am now a pledge for the APO service fraturnity and those friendships will go beyond college, I've seen it happen. I just felt like I could use some help with getting the bylaws written. Thank you anyway, I just really wanted some help because I am young and it is going to be a new sorority. We have a name, a moto, a philanthropy. We know that's not even the majority of what we need, we just wanted some help with bylaws. I've looked through the other threads and I was having difficulty still on even seeing where to start.

Why do you assume that?

Please don't, for the reasons I stated. ;) People don't need to be directed to us.