In the process of a Friendly Venture
 

After some discussion both with Greek Life and ASUN (our student body governing organization....they oversee clubs), we might be able to bring a FV chapter of BSP to our university next semester!

I've been talking with International and they are extremely enthused and sent on a FV Chapter in a Box package with several of the Collegiate recruitment posters included along with a letter to Greek Life and ASUN explaining BSP.

It took a few meetings and presentation of information about BSP to explain to them exactly how Beta Sigma Phi functioned and why having a chapter on campus would be beneficial to Greek life and campus life.


One thing that was made clear to me by International that a chapter could be any of the following, and be a fully-recognized chapter of BSP:

A. a ROJ chapter that consists of students and others, but has no connection to the University.
B. A ROJ chapter that is accepted as part of the Multicultural Greek Council or Panhellenic Council on campus, and follows campus Greek rules in addition to BSP rules. Only University students who are full-time would be able to join.
C. A ROJ chapter that is accepted as a student organization, by the school, but not as a sorority. Only University students who are taking at least seven units would be able to join.

Has anyone been involved in any FV efforts that fell into any of those categories? I'm just curious how things worked in terms of going through the legwork to set everything up.

There are eleven ladies on campus who are interested in being part of the FV, and we are planning a rush event for early February. I mean, we could FV now, if we wanted to.....but the consensus is to wait until after we return from the break between the semesters and see if we can attract other potential members.

What is FV?

Good work!! Congratulations!

My Friendly Venture (FV) fell into your "A" category. We met on a university campus, held our rituals on campus, and all of the members were students, but we did not pursue recognition by the university. It was good to be open to members from the community even if (while I was there at least) no women joined who were not already on campus. One sister was at a nearby school when we first started the FV, but she transferred to the university where the rest of us studied. I was the only one who was a graduate student and teaching associate. Several of the sisters were my students!

Good luck. :)

A "Friendly Venture" is Beta Sigma Phi's term for a newly chartered chapter.

My first FV fell into the same category as Erica! :)

Regarding Option C:

Could this option jeopardize your single sex status?

No. Title IX exemption for Fraternities and Sororities would apply in this situation.

How can a non sorority single gender organization be granted school recognition?

Beta Sigma Phi is a sorority, but falls into what is called a community sorority or non-academic sorority: being that having attended college is not a requirement.

There are Beta Sigma Phi chapters on college campuses, but such chapters are few in number.

I hope this answers your question.

Yes, but I think what Vito was trying to point out is that, in all likelihood, Option C would not be an option. For the fraternity/sorority exemption the school would probably need to recognize the group as Option B or not at all. That being said, I am familiar with other types of campus organizations that are single gender in practice but are required to accept members of any gender to be recognized student organizations. On many campuses this must be part of a non-discrimination clause in their by-laws, even if its unlikely that membership would be sought by people of another gender. At the universities I'm familiar with C would not be viable unless membership was open to any gender. (Which I imagine violates BSP's policies...)

Sorry for the novel :o

This is exactly what I was getting at. There would be very few campuses (and none that I can think of) which would officially allow Option C.

I wouldn't know why a BSP collegiate chapter would even WANT to pursue option C. It seems that it would interfere greatly with their legitimacy (i.e. they would be called a "fake sorority") if they weren't part of Panhellenic or an all-Greek council.

Option A doesn't seem like the best either, because to some people unrecognized = underground.

If the chapter wants to have nonstudents as members, it is the only option. It would most likely be looked upon as a community organization like the Jaycees including college students, rather than a collegiate sorority.

Another example of a community organization might be the Patriot Lodge at George Mason. http://www.thepatriotlodge.org/

I just a quick look to see if they were "recognized" by the campus. It doesn't appear so, but they still have a friendly relationship.

George Mason also has a very active Knights of Columbus Chapter that I don't believe is recognized by the university, but also has a friendly relationship. I believe the use the (off-campus) Catholic Campus Ministry Chapel for meetings and events.

Option A is certainly viable - and especially so for an organization like BSP - without appearing "underground."

Ah, I hadn't considered that. I was thinking of the few chapters that seem to be totally collegiate.

Rush just ended and we have a FV ready to rock and roll with 28 new sisters ! We are busy collecting dues, having our new members fill out the paperwork and getting ready to send out a nice large packet to Lori at the Rushing department.


I'll upload photos from today later....the experience has been beyond describing and we're on cloud nine at the moment. I'll post a new story in the Recruitment Story area soon....so many happy surprises and twists and turns that led to this day!

Congrats misscherrypie!!!! I am going to PM you, maybe we can chat about our new "babies!" We have another meeting on Sat and our pledge ceremony on March 9th. We have 9 members at the moment.

Oh, please write a recruitment story about this!

It is quite impressive how much progress you've made in a semester. Well done.

Thank you. The going was tough sometimes, but the rewards at the end of it all were immeasurably rewarding!
I will, I promise. :)