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Obsession with total...why?
Ok, I know I don't talk very much but I have been wondering something. My sorority did really well with recruitment this semester and ever since then our vp of membership has been hasseling us to get more girls. I don't understand why it is such a big deal to have total. I personally don't like when you don't know everyone in the sorority. I feel bad when I forget someone's name, but you can't possibly learn every name in a week.
One other thing that I noticed is that at my school the BGLO's are not very big but they are really close. I was talking to a girl in one of my classes and she was going on and on about how she loved being in her sorority and how they are so close to each other. I want my sorority to be like this. I am not sure if they don't care that they are the smallest or what but I really admire how close they are and how much they love each other. I hope that I don't offend anyone with anything that I said. Anne Marie |
why the obsession?
In the immortal words of P. Puffy Diddly Daddly Puff....
"it's all about the benjamins baby." |
My chapter's not so much obsessed over quantity as we are over quality...YES we do get competitive during recruitment and YES we encourage sisters to be on the lookout, but thats only because we want those we KNOW will benefit our chapter. We take pride in the diversity and commitment of our sisters and plan on maintaining the legacy on which our chapter was founded. Right now we are over total and it seems we won't be recruiting 'till next Fall. We might be a "big" chapter, but we set our priorities straight...sisterhood above all else (which is a feat wihin itself since we are a commuter school):D
I *heart* my chapter!! EDITED TO ADD: i KNOW i went into a tangent....whoopsy! |
i see what you are saying....last fall when i pledges my fraternity was about 25 members. our pledge class was 22 strong, and we doubled the house. this year we bidded 48 guys, and keep 28. it strange to see hous house at almost 80 members...and its hard to come to the understanding that i will not know all of my bro's, but as long as i try to talk to everyone, and at least know their first name and where they are from, and they know that i am happy they are a part of phi psi, it is ok.
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I've noticed the obsession with total and I think it sucks. We've ended up taking girls who we knew didn't fit our chapter or would be a problem from the beginning - and guess what - they turned out to be big problems and either deactivated or gave everyone else hell or were just plain miserable. Or we took the ones that were super nice and had so much "potential for growth." Ok, fine, I personally believe every freshman will definitely grow, but why are we taking sophomores and juniors that can "grow"? If you're excepting them to change and suddenly become less shy and turn into super rushers, that's:
1) Not going to happen. 2) Unfair because it means you don't want the girl for who she is, you want her for who you want to try to turn her into. 3) Not staying true to the membership criteria, because last time I checked, "nice" wasn't one of them. Yes, I hate super-exclusive chapters that make a point about bragging about it. But frankly, when you start giving everyone and their mother a bid, that's when your numbers start going down. I'm sick of seeing chapters pushed into taking people they shouldn't solely for numbers when chances are, if they were more picky about who they gave bids to and worked on developing a stronger sisterhood, quality girls would start becoming interested. As heinous as it sounds...no one wants to be in the chapter that gives bids to EVERYONE because you never know who you'll end up with. Can you tell my chapter's had issues with this? stepping off my soapbox now... |
Quality, not quantity!!
On the one hand, you need to have enough members to sustain a viable chapter. If total is 100, all other sororities are at or above total, and your chapter has 10 members, most of them juniors or seniors - you've got a problem. On the other hand, that doesn't mean you should stand in the middle of the student center and hand out bids to every unaffiliated woman who walks by. No matter your chapter size, you need to meet women, get to know them, and then be selective in whom you bid - even if that means you stay under total. No sense in bidding up to total and ending up with a bunch of women who either deaffiliate or are just letter-wearers. Sadly, all inter/national offices usually see is the numbers. X chapter has 75 sisters and total is 100 - that's 25 more potential dues-paying members. And, oftentimes, all PNMs see is a rush room or house that has suspiciously fewer sisters in it than the other houses; they wonder if the chapter will be around in 4 years, so that's the first sorority they cut. |
Re: I totally agree-no pun intended
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If you have a huge house to fill, then yes you need numbers, but if you don't and you have 20 involved, loving, happy sisters who are enjoying being sisters and contributing to the community and the sorority, why penalize them and make them feel worthless simply because there aren't more of them? |
There are some good reasons to be concerned about total, although I can't condone being obsessed with it:
1) The more girls you have, the easier rush is. It doesn't matter whether you want to grow or to remain the same size, but if you're small relative to the other chapters on campus, each sister has to work harder. Rushees don't like being double-rushed formally, and informally, the more girls you already have, the more you know and are interested in you. 3) While small chapters offer opportunities, there is clearly a point of diminishing returns. If every sister has to hold three offices, she'll get burnt out. And not every PNM wants to be Ms. Officer; some just want to join and be active but not a chapter leader. You won't get them if they know they'll have to take an office. 3) If you have a house and wish to keep it, if you get far enough below some number, it will be hard to make rent. The ideal situation is a house that holds few enough girls that no one ever *has* to live in (except perhaps certain officers). 4) Events like Greek Week, for example, favor large chapters. Now, this won't matter to every chapter, but it can be discouraging to come in last place. Every single year. Yeah, can you tell I've been there? 5) If you believe you can't know a chapter of 50 members, how do 150-member chapters do it? Yes, it is different. No, it's not as bad as you worry it might be. Some reasons against worrying too much about total: A) You bid Suzy just to make quota, even though she's questionable - and even one bad member can turn away many PNMs, thus reducing numbers in the long run. B) You start to focus on rush instead of keeping members. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I think aiming for ceiling is a worthy goal. I do agree that if you get 48 instead of 50, you're doing fine, and it's better than taking two not-so-desirable extra girls just to make it to 50. But if you are getting 25 instead of 50, you're not doing OK. Put it this way: If your org is as great as you think it is, shoudn't everyone WANT to be in it? Now if the entire school wants you and you choose to be tiny, fine, but if you're only getting 25 because that's all you CAN get, protestations about wanting to be small sound a little defensive. And yes, I know of what I speak, because my chapter was the poster child for "we're small and dang it we LIKE it that way." If we liked it so much, why did we always stress about it so much, and complain when we got a smaller class than another chapter? |
I wanted to add: I can only speak about my own experiences with my own GLO, of course. But my impression has been that AXD at least is less focused on being at total than being at the same size as the other chapters on campus. At some places this is total or over, but at other schools it's far less (or there is no total).
And even then, it's not like they boot a chapter that's one person smaller than the rest. If say ceiling is 50, they're not going to get too excited if you have, say, 30. The ELC might say, "You should rush," but it's more advice than a mandate. Only once you get down past 50% of average campus size do they start to worry about the chapter. <disclaimer, this is my experience and not in any sense a quote from a national policy manual!> So maybe that affects my outlook. Certainly if nationals demanded that every chapter be 90% the size of total or they were automatically closed, I'd feel that they were unduly obsessed with total. |
I agree wholeheartedly with what FuzzieAlum has to say, as well as everyone else. I'd be perfectly happy if my chapter didn't make total (and yes, that's happened to my chapter, too- it wasn't the end of the world), so long as we got a pledge class full of the wonderful ladies we loved and saw as great members of the chapter.
But... in the defense of "obsessing" over total, sometimes a chapter has to obsess because: a) nationals might threaten to suspend or remove the chapter for not keeping up with other houses (happens every year to one chapter on my campus, and they're a great chapter, just a little weak during recruitment which is OK), or b) Panhellenic on the campus strongly pushes hitting total for one reason or another. I know that Panhellenic on UCR's campus is always pushing for total because if every chapter is at or very close to total, the university might actually see Greek life as something important and worthwhile. It's also stressed by PH because if every chapter is at or close to total, we can increase total and/or look into expansion, which will make Greek life appear more worthwhile to the university. Not that I'm defending people or chapter's who constantly obsess over total- we have one of those on campus and it can get annoying- but I can understand why they do it sometimes. |
I've been wondering what the big deal is about numbers for a long time. My chapter is pretty selective, maybe too much so, but I think that's better than being "that" sorority--you know, the one that bids anyone and everyTHING. I feel like we're under a lot of pressure to keep our numbers up, though, especially since the reason my chapter was shut down and recolonized several years ago was low membership. My campus favors big chapters, but in my opinion, it was a little easier to become close with everyone back when we had 60 members as opposed to the 140 we have now. Aaaarggh! I'm just glad I'm not Recruitment Chair.
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Re: I totally agree-no pun intended
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I also totally agree with what 33girl mentioned .. |
for the sake of venting...
I am fortunate enough to be the VP of Recruitment for my chapter for this upcoming year... chapters on our campus are pressured to keep up w/ total but not REQUIRED. Although the majority of the six NP sororities that are on my campus are at or near total, Formal Recruitment always pressures each chapter to reach quota or something very near to it. I admit that when it comes to Formal Recruitment, we all obsess about being in the "top three"...having larger numbers helps out tremendously during Recruitment not only becasue you have a better sister to PNM ratio, but because (as bad as it sounds) it LOOKS good. Granted there are some chapters that are labeled as "super selective" while others are known for "practicaly handing out bids", but in the end everyone gets what they "wanted".
I take pride in the fact that my chapter is 94 women strong, and that these women love their letters just as much as i do. There might be chapters out there that due to their large numbers lose sight of the true purpose behind a sorority...SISTERHOOD. I don't claim to belong to the perfect chapter, but i do belong to a chapter that has gone through it's ups and downs, yet continues to move forward. I came in when my chapter was split into two sides..and am HONORED to see it where it is today. We take pride in the fact that we have nearly DOUBLED in size, not because we "sold" ourselves, but because we've PROVED ourselves. In Greek Bonds, A Random DphiE |
Total is a useful way of keeping score relative to other chapters of your campus as some of the very perceptive ladies pointed out above.
Kudos to you ladies. If you houses at total on your campus, and you fall far short of it, then you have to wonder at the desirability of your chapte, or at least the PR aspects of it lol. What we find when looking at smaller organizations, is they begin to preach the virtues of smallness and tightness. .. . because they are small! If they really wanted to justify being small and exclusive, they would have to definitely something near twice the number of PNM's they need to list their chapter as a first choice . . . and then cut heavily. That is exclusive. If you don't have enough warm bodies to fill quota pick you first, then you are not really competitive, you are just justifying the fact that you are small and not-competitive with the larger groups on campus. |
A few points:
There is almost zero correlation between the size of a new member class and retention. I've seen chapters with 70 new members keep every single one of them, and I've seen chapters with 10 lose half of that. There is also zero correlation between the size of a chapter and the level of sisterhood and commitment to the organization. Again, I've seen chapters of 200 women who live the ideals of their organization to a T. And, I've seen chapters of 13 women who treat each other like shit. Amen to all of those who pointed out that this whole "we want to be small - we're selective" thing is a bunch of crap. If you're so selective and exclusive, why didn't you make quota? Did you have at least quota at your preference parties? If you did, I've got bad news for you. I've you're so hot and your sisterhood is so strong, then there's no way you wouldn't have made quota. Numbers speak volumes. Amen to FuzzieAlum for pointing out the burden that comes with being a small chapter. If everyone else on campus has 150, and you have 50, each one of your members has to do the work of three people. I question where you are finding these women that you are just handing out bids to. Handing out bids to the first women you see without ensuring that they meet the standards of your organization just to hit total speaks of gross laziness on your part. If you can't find what you want, get up and go find women you do want. If you're waiting for them to come to you, you're going to be waiting a long time. From a national org or a campus standpoint, 10 vacancies in total is ten women on campus that could be Greek that haven't been offered the opportunity. If you can't find ten women at your school who you think could offer something unique and valuable to your chapter, then please tell me where you go to school. I'll put it on my "don't ever let any friend or relative go there" list. |
I agree with all of you when you say that being small isn't everything the small chapters make it out to be and that if you're handing out bids to anyone who's breathing, that is lazy. However, it seemed like the original post wasn't dealing with a small chapter, but a chapter that was a few below total. My beef with total is that, if you're a few below and don't have anyone you totally love and want to give a bid to at that very second, why can't you wait and rush some more until you do have the quality women you want?
I've graduated, so I'm no longer active in my chapter, but the people who are have had a lot of pressure from nationals to give bids to girls they don't know that well just to hit ceiling. To me, it makes more sense to hold off and keep rushing because, chances are, if there are only 2 or 3 spots open, you'll be able to find 2 or 3 great girls after a few more rush events. It doesn't mean you'll NEVER find 2 or 3 great women, so what's the problem with trying to find them as opposed to giving up just to make numbers? That's what I don't get - it doesn't make sense to me for a national organization to encourage a chapter to take the first girls that show up and seem "ok" when, chances are, given another month you'd be able to find 3 great girls and a lot more. When you're half the size of the other chapters on campus, yeah, there's a problem there. But if you're down by a few and actively rushing, what's the big deal? |
Well, its as good a time for my 2 cents as anyone else's.
I agree 100% with what rushqueen said. But, as I'm from a northern chapter with quota at 60, I think 50+ is a lovely size. :D But, if you are a third of the size of other sororities on your campus, it is time to examine your image to your campus and how you examplify the ideals of your sorority. It has been my experience that no matter what your size in comparison with the other sororities on campus, if you really are that tight and strong as a chapter, you will have your pick of interested, quality women. We doubled in size this term, taking 19 new members with quota at 17, and some days we had just 17 sisters recruiting while most other chapters on campus had over 50. And we still cut usually a 20- 40% every day with the support of our nationals, even as small as we were. I truly question people's perceptions of what they believe their nationals want as far as numbers and recruitment go. As a freshmen and sophomore, the attitude of everyone in my chapter was Nationals only wants us to get numbers and warm bodies in the door. They really didn't care about the integrity of my chapter and the need for quality women. And it is hard as a collegiate to remember that Nationals really does want the best for your chapter, whether its total, a kickass new member program or a strong financial plan. However, and my Nationals is the only one I know about, my chapter was dying and when the poo hit the fan, they actually stood by us. They've pushed us to examine the qualities of women we want in our chapter, how we can find these qualities during recruitment, and how to market our small chapter effectively to retain these magnificent (sp?) women during recruitment through to initation. Basically, they used every one of their resources of the behind-the-scenes rush stuff to help us realize our job. IT WAS SO MUCH FREAKING WORK!!!!! But we did it - and now our small chapter is growing and that is the biggest compliment ever. (All but four women in my chapter took littles!) However, if your Nationals is not providing these resources, and just ignoring your pleas for help with recruitment, then try having your rush chair talk to your Greek Advisor about getting help from National Panhel. Oh, and COB COB COB COB COB. Dude, you already know quality women or they aren't worth your time as friends. If you have 2 or 3 spots from formal recruitment open, you should try to fill them with people. Waiting two or three months just means competition for women rushing is that much more desparate with other chapters whose Nationals are forcing them to total. From a national org or a campus standpoint, 10 vacancies in total is ten women on campus that could be Greek that haven't been offered the opportunity. If you can't find ten women at your school who you think could offer something unique and valuable to your chapter, then please tell me where you go to school. I'll put it on my "don't ever let any friend or relative go there" list. Amen to that. This has been, like, my longest post ever. WHEW! Edited by James to make the Color Orange come out |
OK, this has gotten totally off Anne Marie's original post. She was expressing her dismay that her rush chair seems to be more concerned with hitting total than strengthening sisterhood.
There is strong sisterhood in all sizes of chapters, and there is weak sisterhood in all sizes of chapters. If you have 200 sisters and you are happy - stupendous. I personally would not have enjoyed that, and chose my chapter because it was smaller than the other group I was looking at. I felt I would get lost in a bigger group (this was before I had such a big mouth ;) ) - in the smaller group I would have more opportunity to be myself and stand out. Of course, those are my personal reasons. I had sisters who wrang their hands for 4 years because we were small and they were so hung up on it that they couldn't change it - i.e. rush or COB quality women effectively. In retrospect, perhaps they shouldn't have pledged us. I've never claimed my chapter was "elite" or "exclusive" because it was smaller than some of the other groups - just stated that I, personally, preferred it that way. I agree with what AXOLiz said - I'd rather wait 2 months to work (and yes, sometimes it takes a while to get someone to pledge) to get women who I know will be great, rather than give in to the "quota pressure" and bid "OK" women solely because they happen to be there. Edited to add, going Greek is not for everyone. Unless you have zero variety in your social circle, not everyone who is a great friend will make a great sister. If you believe they will, I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you. |
The issue of numbers seems to come up a lot around this place, I don't really get it either, but for the thread, it is good to remember that while it is everyone's job to have a strong sisterhood, it is the recruitment chair's job to push for a good new class. Creating a strong sisterhood takes time, and tons of committment from everyone in the chapter. My chapter has worked on the quality of our sisterhood and it is starting to be seen, but it doesn't happen overnight. We looked at how our WHOLE chapter worked, from our philanthropy, sisterhood to bids; making sure we understand who we are. We are young and have a lot to develop.
I think it is a pitfall to blame national or NPC for a chapter needing numbers. We have AST chapters that have had incredibly low numbers and instead of yanking charters, they've sent people to help. A chapter close to mine lost half of their 22 women to graduation, making them tiny. Instead of whinning, they invited the chapter's near them to come and help out during pref/rush. It was a great experience for both us/them/ and the rushees who saw the sisterhood first hand. I guess don't blame, different chapters do better at different sizes there are no two identical chapters anywhere. (I don't believe it anyhow) and saying we should be we should be is wasting time. Enjoy your collegiate years and have fun. Make it your experience, get to know the new girls, branch out. But don't blame, it doesn't belong anywhere but yourself. (In most cases) Tau Love and Good Luck Lil E |
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However, I've got to admit that my pledge sister is an exception to this. Our president (and her Big) saw the potential she had to become a great sister. I've got to admit that I didn't see it until i-week, but now she is so determined to keep us going. She really came out of her shell. |
Right now, my chapter is at 3 below total. We haven't been at total since our chapter was founded in 1990. This is very exciting for us, especially since we have full faith in all the girls here. Up until this past semester, we have always hovered somewhere between 28-33 girls, and total is 40. I have only ever had one sister resign in my 3 years here, but Florida Tech has a tendency to lose many freshmen after their first year. I am always very sad because each year, at least one of my sisters simply don't come back to school, without warning.
However, we NEEDED to be at total right now. When I joined, we had some of our largest pledge classes ever. My pledge class is 12, and the one after me had 9 girls. Most of us were freshmen when we joined. Now, seniors make up over 1/3 of the sorority. We were terrified that we wouldn't have enough girls when all of us graduated. However, if we are at or above total, that makes us much more healthy than we were before. Many fraternities are getting worried because interest is low on our campus right now. If it doesn't pick up in the next year, I expect we'll lose a fraternity or two within the next 2 years. I've seen chapters die or halve in size when their senior class graduates. It is very difficult to recover from if your underclassmen don't have enough leadership opportunities or experience with being Greek. That's another reason why being at total is important. |
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1 superduper senior 1 super senior 1 senior 1 sophomore and 16 juniors. We're in good shape right now but we have got get a lot of freshmen or we'll be in big trouble in the next two years - everybody will be disappearing. |
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The way I understood it from our COB chair last year was that as long as we had open spaces, aka not at quota, we had to keep having COBs. We are also the only chapter on campus not close to quota, so that might have something to do with it. We are also the newest chapter on campus and we just rec'd a house this past year, since the house number have increased dramatically. I also could be wrong. |
Bumping as this has been on my mind lately...
rock on all. |
I agree with Rushqueen44. People need to realize PR is a key point in maintaining a sorority or fraternity, although not the only thing. Most members in Greek Life don't want to do the work of 2 or 3 people and therefore they don't do it. Due to that, PR isn't up to par and you won't get the quality or quantity New Members you so desire.
Never settle! That's my advice I guess. To never settle, you have to put everything you have in you plus some. It's like the giving 110% thing. I wish the best of luck to everyone during Recruitment and I hope everyone does/did well! |
my school doesn't have total but i can understand why its so important to your national. i really feel numbers are a reflection of the chapter. from personal experience my chapter's number have increased in the past couple of years and i think its directly correlated to the strength of our chapter. we are getting along better so sisters stick around longer, our sisters perform better in shcool so we are having less sisters transfer or drop out (fairly common at my school), we are better organized so we run things like rush more efficiently and effectively and resultingly keep getting women. And its not about giving bids out to everyone either - we gave out the least amount of invites to pref night last year.
Other chapters on my campus have gotten smaller and maybe they don't realize why but i think for some the reasons are obvious: some are always fighting with each other, other are still obsessed with hazing as the only path to sisterhood and lose many new members as a result, some are completely disorganized. Low numbers are often symptoms of problems like these and i think it makes complete sense for nationals to focus on your numbers as a symptom since they can't be on your campus everyday and see the exact problems. |
Lets say a semester has 15 weeks.
After formal Rush there is a COB process of a couple weeks and then you form your NM clas right? Mostly I have seen the inflexibility of the new member program as a major issue. Most Programs seem based on Cohorts. Your grouped is formed by 3rd week of classes and and then goes through as a cohort, beginning and ending together. Are your programs flexible enough that can keep adding girls into your New Class all the way until the end of the semester? Even if they have to initiate at different times? If you can do that it would be so much easier to keep numbers up. |
Well, the Alpha Phi new member period is supposed to be around 6 weeks, with 8 weeks being the absolute maximum. In the past, we'd always had the girls wait 8 weeks because they never felt like they were ready.
In the Spring of my sophomore year, we gave a bid to a girl who was pinned and initiated 3 weeks later. Alpha Phi requires that a new member have a minimum of 6 hours of fraternity education before initiation. She was willing to put in the extra time so that she could be initiated that semester, and caught up on all the time. This past fall we did the same for another girl. It can work. Both girls were happily accepted into their pledge classes. However, doing more than one initiation/semester would be really rough. By the time we were able to get around to our 2nd initiation, it would either be Thanksgiving or right around the middle of April, when seniors are scrambling to get everything done. That, and the fact that I'm pretty sure that we're only allowed to do one initiation/semester makes that almost impossible. Honestly, I think keeping numbers up has to do with 2 things: Rush skills, and general interest in Greek life. It's a lot easier to keep numbers up when you have people wanting to Rush or at least investigate GLOs before they even get to school. |
Alpha Xi Delta chapters are required to be meet quota and be at total - hence the push for COB at you chapter RocketAXiD. That doesn't mean that Fraternity HQ will step in and close your chapter if you are a couple shy, but they want you to get there.
From working at a national level, I can tell you a couple of things numbers are handy indicators of: Is the group always 2 or 3 below? If so are they actually doing COB/COR or do they just not bother because it's only 2 or 3. This make bring on a strong push by FHQ to get those few women. While you might not "need" them, there are some chapters that are just to lazy after recruitment to do it, or see it as a sign of weakness to "have" to COB. Is the chapter starting to slip in recruitment? Do they usually make quota but all of a sudden they don't get any where near quota? Did they suddenly loose a lot of members, either through new members release or initiated member release? Any of these can signal internal chapter problems. If a lot of new members released, there's probably a good (or maybe it's really a bad) reason. Maybe the Membership VP fell down on the job and recruitment didn't come off. Is the chapter on the slippery slope? This is the biggest one for all national groups - to catch little problems before they become big. One bad recruitment won't kill a chapter, but if it is a sign of other problems it can be a nose dive the group can't get out of. I know with the chapters that we have had to closed for membership, most were not on campuses with small chapter total. One group I have worked with for the last 10 years or so has not and won't be closed unless the members of the chapter want it. Total is 45, the campus is commuter, and as FuzzieAlum said, most girls hold at least 2 offices. Because they have no chapter house and the girl are still having a good time, FHQ gives them help/suggestions and visits from our ELC as needed. Chapters were total is much higher and we have substantial housing is a little different, but we are always going to give as much support as possible to the group to help them turn things around. No national group wants to loose/close a campus, it's usually a last resort. I also fully agree with James and Rushqueen - I think that the Quality over Quantity refrain is overused. I know that the original post is alittle off some of my topic, but it seems that this post has morphed into a little more. Sorry for the long post, but having worked with many chapter on a national level I had to thrown in my two-cents!;) |
I've seen it... quantity breeds quality! Maybe not immediately. You'll get a few members that you might regret. However, many folks going through rush will be a lot more prone to joining whoever is the biggest house. Large membership = success in their minds. What better measure is there?
If ya'll can keep it up at total, the quality WILL come. The quantity vs. quantity argument is a moot one. Quality comes with quantity. And the extra $ in your chapter coffers doesn't hurt either. |
Your group can end up smaller than other groups on campus quickly if you aren't careful about staying at total.
Let's assume total is 100 and quota is 35. Assume every group has 65 women. After formal recruitment you get 30 new members and everyone else takes 35. YOu decide to stay at 95 because you are less worried about quantity than quality. You're 5 smaller than the other groups. Now 20 seniors graduate. You're at 75 and everyone else is at 80. The next year, quota is set at 35 again and total is 110. You take 33 women this time and the other chapters take 35 (or maybe more with quota additions). Now they have 115 (which is higher than total but okay since they got there with quota) and you're at 108. You're over total but in two years you've gotten to be 7 below the rest of the groups. You got closer to quota this time but you're growing at a slower rate than the other groups. If this continues, you'll have to do more than make quota to get total and you'll have a long way to go to catch up. Being 7 less than the others may not sound like much but in 5 years you could be 15 or more less and it just grows from there. I used to have a better example in some of my recruitment material from HQ. I wish I could find it! When you get to the point where you are only half as big as the other chapters, you can claim that you're happy with your "small" sisterhood all you want but the PNMs will see the size as a weakness. I've watched it go on for at least 10 years with a chapter from my alma mater. Edit: What the poster says below is true - not making quota once doesn't mean you won't the next year. Like I said, I have a better example somewhere and I will try to find it. |
I don't think that just because you don't hit quota one year, you won't hit quota any year after that, so this example is somewhat flawed.
It's all a crap shoot...there are semesters where there are tons of women you want and they want you...there are semesters where you can barely get through the parties because no one in the room is clicking with each other. It's the same as birth rates...one year the graduating class might be 70% girls, the next year it is 70% guys. It's not anything anyone planned, it is just the way it happens. I'm not saying don't go out of your way to rush women who might be on the fence, I'm saying don't pick someone who would be a TERRIBLE addition to your sorority just to attain the almighty quota/total. |
I know this thread has been dormant for a while and I understand that most people here are talking about NPC sororities and IFC fraternities, but I wanted to address the original comment that included NPHC groups.
I can only honestly talk about my sorority, Theta Nu Xi. We intentionally maintain small chapters. http://www.thetanuxi.org/question4.html :) I certainly believe that there are benefits with bigger chapters just as there are benefits with smaller ones. I think it really depends on what you are looking for. With big chapters, you have a lot of programming options and you can be very active with a lot of your sisters/brothers. But, with smaller chapters, you have a lot more freedom to choose the programming that your chapter will proceed with, whereas bigger chapters have to be pretty rigid so plans don't fall through. And, bigger chapters can be great since you have sooo many people to get to know...you're bound to find someone you click with. In smaller chapters, you pretty much have to get along with everyone whether you like her/him or not...but I believe this teaches a good lesson. We ALL have strong reasons why we picked our chapters, right??? |
33girl made a good point about different years. For example, my son's graduating class had so many boys because we are a sports nutty area and parents held them back. Add the late babies and parents who held them back for maturity reasons.
This was a banner year for our area in terms of joining fraternities. Quota for a sorority IS important, but being a few off here and there doesn't seem to be all that big a deal. Yet, if someone misses, it makes the headlines in the gossip circle along with barbs, jabs and unwarranted commentary. I guess everything is relative to the campus standard, but in cases where the system is strong, I think quota is rather high. BUT, so are the operating expenses. A lot has been lost for the sake/need of numbers. There really are chapters that are quite happy being slightly smaller, but in the long run, it can present a problem. As James mentioned, it can come from a PR angle. Then, throw in PNMs who wonder why THAT chapter is so small. It can have a snowball effect. (There was quite a heated argument on this issue about a year ago.) I still believe that quality and sisterhood should be the number one priority. However, "Many hands make light work" and finances will always be an issue. We are kind of brainwashed into believing "Bigger is better". So, let's just SUPER-SIZE that!:rolleyes: Does EVERYTHING have to boil down to money???:( |
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As for small chapters... I come from an extremely small chapter (12 active). And yes, it's very hard. We're lucky to have a nationals who is supportive and understanding. But we always have money issues, retention is extremely important (every time we lose a girl, we have to cut 1/12 of our budget - not fun), and having some events is just plain hard. While I love my chapter, I do wish we were bigger. And it's true - right now, everyone HAS to basically hold office. We don't have the choice to just be social members. That hurts recruitment too. So, yes, I agree quality not quantity - but watch how much quality you are asking for. |
For everyone who still believes that achieving quota and total is the mark of success, please take a look at this thread.
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National/International Groups are incentivized to get to total because ultimately, a chapter at total is
- Not a Financial Risk to the HQ and House Corp - Dues are lower for chapter members - More members means each bed in the chapter house is full, which means parlor fees for out-of-house members is lowered - More members increases campus visibility/ campus participation/more hours of community service - "Competitiveness" with the other chapters on campus - Opportunities for teamwork and leadership to be spread out (you don't have women with 2-4 leadership roles, who are having to fulfill those roles for 2-3 year terms) so that members can focus on both the sorority and their academics A Sorority HQ will further incentivize chapters at total and who meet quota by presenting them with awards and recognition. It is a drain to chapters whose campus total is set at unrealistic number to have to COR/COB continuously thoughout the year. This happens when the Greek Adviser is not doing his/her job. If the number of women coming through recruitment is nowhere near enough to help chapters get to total, and COR/COB becomes a staple of every semester/quarter, there is definitely something wrong. This is not to say that a larger chapter is "better," has stronger member retention or better sisterhood. It only means the chapter is fiscally healthy and has the strength of numbers to allow members to experience many different facets of college life without giving all their extracurricular time to the sorority. |
I'm in the largest fraternity on my campus. I know that guy's and girl's rush is completely different... we don't even have quota. We just work our butts of and pride ourselves on having the highest number of bids accepted - we give out less bids than any other fraternity and have more accepted than any other fraternity. Concerning the questions about not knowing all of one's brothers or sisters: As the chapter grows, the pledge process has to change to make it easier to get to know everyone. Our pledges have to meet with X number of members a week and have X number of house hours a week. Pledge retreats and member retreats also promote brotherhood. We also have brotherhood events about every 2 weeks (ex.'s: movie night, just going out to eat, bon-fire in the back yard, etc.). The pledges are required to get to know all of the members. This is hard when you are pledging, but possible. After you are a member, you only have to get to know 30-40 new associate members a semester. It requires work and dedication, but so does anything worth having.
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