Local in Trouble
 

Since Phi Gamma Pi is the ONLY local at my college, it's difficult for us to get new members. To quote my Big, "our novelty wore off." It's kind of sad because not only do we lack sisters, we lack morale. I love each and every one of my sisters and it's absolutely wonderful to be a part of such a wonderful group of girls, but I don't know what the future will bring. We have been in a "rebuilding phase" for at least a year and I just fear our chapter dying.

Calling out to everyone- got any tips to help us?!

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

Are you the ONLY sorority, period, or are you the only local?

The only local GLO.

Just out of curiousity, how many members do you have? And how many do the other sororities have? Is Greek Life as a whole "losing its novelty", or is it just Phi Gamma Pi? That might help us be able to answer your question.

My sorority got one girl through formal recruitment last year, and quota was 3. We were at 75% of total. We had 16 juniors out of 30 girls. We thought we were totally screwed.

What did we do? We learned to COB. Freshmen especially are a wonderful resource for this. They can just drag their roommate out to dinner with us or half their floor (as the one girl we got through formal recruitment did). Spring semester, I got my roommate, my former roommate, and a friend from my pre-college years to join. At the end of the year, we were one under total, and we have 3 girls that we wanted to give bids to, but they wanted to wait until next semester. We had girls where it took an entire semester to rush them, but we didn't give up.

I won't kid you, you have to be gung-ho, and you have to be determined. We invited PNMs to every single event that wasn't sisters only. I can proudly say that we are definitely better rushers than we were before, and a stronger sisterhood because we made sure we found quality girls. Only 2 seniors graduated, so we are looking forward to possibly going above total for the first time ever. We'll need to too, with 20 people graduating in the next year and a half.

It took a long time. We had some ups and downs. We initiated 20 women the year I was initiated, and only 8 the next year. We had lots of girls transfer schools. The most important thing though is that you have to retain your image as a strong sisterhood. No one will want to join if they don't see that.

I'll be waiting for your other updates to see if I can help anymore. I hope this did.

Hmmm. Well, we didn't have any locals on my campus so I can't really give the best advice, but if you think it's a situation of more girls being attracted to a national group, maybe you should look at affiliating. I realize you might not want to do that, though, since being in a local can be neat (from what I've heard), so maybe you should stress to PNMs that your chapter is very unique in that it's the only one out there, and play up all the cool things you do and how much you love being a sister of Phi Gamma Pi. And be aggressive (but not scary!)--wear your letters a lot to "advertise," and participate in activities that will get your name out. Anyone else have any good ideas?

I agree w/ AstroAPhi & Achtung Baby.

Without knowing much about Greek life as a whole on your campus and in your sorority, it can be hard to give specific advice.

Like AstroAPhi said COB is always a good idea! and good PR could help you out!

Go to the library with a bunch of sisters and all wear your letters, or have a day out of the week where sisters get together and eat in the campus dining hall. :)

Thank you for your insipring story and to answer your question, Greek Life at Kent seems to be at an all-time high. At least, it is according to my Rho Chi from formal. She said there hadn't been that many girls going through formal rush in quite some time.

We have 6 national sororities whose numbers are an average of about 75 to 80 girls per chapter. As for Phi Gam, we only have 5 active sisters and one sister has to deactivate because she is transferring schools so I guess that brings us down to 4. I've already told her to try to start a colony at her new school, if Penn Culinary can permit it.

I'm so afraid that we're gonna die! Our president isn't the "partier type," but most of my ideas are related to philanthropy and just getting our name out there! I guess it's all a matter of talking to the right sisters as well as approaching our president the right way. Thank you for your advice.

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

At your peak, how many sisters did you have? And just for curiousity's sake, how long since your founding?

I won't kid you, 5 girls is not a lot. It is extremely difficult to make any organization function when people have to take on several offices. That's probably why a lot of your girls don't have the highest morale... they're stressed.

My suggestion would be to work your butt off at Formal Recruitment (if you participate), and then go crazy with COB... inviting girls out to all your events, even ones that aren't deemed "Rush Events". We invite girls to our meetings so they can see how we function and how much work we actually get done. If your meetings aren't closed, maybe that would be another good rush tool.

Another thing, the nice thing about not having deemed "Rush Events" but just inviting girls to everything you do saves you money on those darn expensive rush events. ;)

Update
 

At our peak, I believe we had about 25 to 30 girls. We've been around for almost 15 years and this is the first year we are not participating in formal rush, fully. We are only going through "first party" to introduce ourselves and then having our own informal right after that.

Our informal rush events are pretty simple. So far it's been kind of an informal "meet and greet" and I believe we played board games when I rushed last spring.

I have already talked to our former treasurer and I want us to at least double by the end of next semester. I am all too willing to take on more than 1 little (if need be). It's just a matter of getting the rest of the sisters to want to do it.


Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

P.S. The chapter doesn't do very much in the first place and I'm trying to change that.

P.P.S. Another disadvantage we have is that we do not have a house.

Re: Update
 

That in itself sounds like it could be the majority of your problem. You have the right idea in mind to work on that... don't give up!

I hate to say it, but not participating in Formal Rush might be a mistake. I know that I at least like to keep all of my options open, and eliminating 6 other sororities for one is scary, especially for new students. It took me all of Recruitment to decide that I wanted to join Alpha Phi as opposed to the other national sorority on campus.

Another thing, a house isn't everything. We had just gotten a house when we went through Formal Recruitment and only got one girl. Quota was 3, but XYZ got 5 girls total because they were smart in making their bid list, and at least 3 girls suicided them. They didn't have a house. It's all about presentation. They did a better job of that last year, apparently.

Re: Update
 

That1LoudChick, I think astroAPhi might have a point when it comes to recruitment.

Can women participate in formal recruitment and go to your 'open' recruitment events at the same time? If they can't, maybe that could be a problem as to why recruiting may be a problem. :confused:

Correction
 

I seem to have confused you all. We are dropping out of formal after first party (which I think is lame as well) because we fear nobody will accept a bid from us like last fall. In turn, we will have our own informal rush after formal rush is over. Many of the details are kind of shady to me, but that seems like the just of it. I personally don't agree with this, either, but it has already been decdied by the chapter that we do this.

Thank you all for your support and I am considerring running for president in the spring (when we have our elections). Hopefully our chapter will double by that time.

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

Coming from a small chapter myself, I understand what you are going through. Total at my campus was 53, and quota was usually around 10 or 11. The year I joined, 8 of us joined through formal recruitment, and we were able to COR (recruit instead of bid) an additional 3 women, bringing us up to quota. Let me tell you, that's the BEST our chapter has ever done in formal recruitment, "numbers" wise. Every year, however, we are consistently the smallest chapter on campus, with usually around 20-25 members. It is tough, as others have said, to keep the morale up when women are taking on more than one position. I personally think it depends on the chapter. If your chapter is good at formal recruitment, then go for it. If you're better at COR (which is the case with my chapter), focus most of your energy that way.

As an example, my senior year, we had the most wonderful, well put-together and stunning formal recruitment, to find on bid day that we didn't bid ANY women. That was a crushing blow, and it took that type of incident to help our chapter join together as a sisterhood and work our tails off for COR. (Quota from formal that year was 11). By the end of the semester, we had picked up 10 women, and it started with just one woman around Valentine's Day...the other nine joined over the course of the next two months. It is possible to recuit wonderful women, it takes a lot of desire and hard work in order to accomplish it.....best of luck to you and your chapter! Please keep us updated!:)

Re: Correction
 

Well, you might not be able to have a proper recruitment with only 4 girls. I know in our rounds at my school, there were about 26 girls in a party. The smallest sorority at my school had to ask other sisters from schools to come help them, and they had to double rush EVERYONE. This is a national sorority, and since yours is local, there might not be people to call on to help you with recruitment. No one got one on one time with a member.

They did something pretty shady though (which is why I am not mentioning which sorority) - they kept inviting every pnm back to parties, even after the pnm had cut them. The reason is, if for example, they get cut by 2 sororities - they don't have the opportunity to cut the ones they didn't like, so if by chance the next day the pnm doesn't have the opportunity to cut, then if this particular sorority invites them back anyways - they have to keep going back day after day.

Anyways, to make a long story short, not many girls went this sorority during recruitment because of the way they presented themseleves. When I went through, I cut them twice and they STILL kept inviting me back. Why would you want a girl after she has cut you twice?

Anywho - on a positive note, when they did informal recruitment, they picked up a lot of girls because it was much more relaxed and they didn't have to do the "rounds" and the structure of formal recruitment, so it ended up working out a lot better for them. They have a pretty good size group now. I know 1 or 2 girls in this sorority, and they said that the small group attracted them anyways.

Everything happens for a reason, keep your aggressive attitude about making the chapter better. As the saying goes, plan for the worst and hope for the best.

I think your main problem is getting your name out to the student community. PNM's may be interested in your group if they knew you existed, especially at such a big school.
If your greek advisor would let you, see if you can hold some other interest parties before recruitment begins. And its not as important to a have a house "per se", but if one of your sisters lives in an apartment, make that your designated spot to have things.
One thing I found is that pnm's don't like board games or anything that can be construed as competitive. They feel as if they are in an awkward position-"if i win, i will feel bad and maybe the sister won't like me for it"- I find it better to go to the movies together, go to someplace like Dairy Queen to get ice cream and chill out, or have girls over to watch TV shows- like "friends night" or "Real World" night or something like that and have pizza and soda and stuff. As long as this stuff isn't seen as hazing at your school. Just let the pnm's buy all their own share of stuff.
PM me if you have any other questions.

Update
 

I left a message for our Greek advisor explaining our situation and asking about becoming national (which is what we wanted to do in the first place). She hasn't responded to the message I left over a week ago so I'm calling her tomorrow morning.

As for our morale? I'm trying to get it up by talking to alum/former members and bouncing ideas off of them. One of our recent alum gave me a great idea. She said sisters of FGP used to eat lunch together in one of our main cafeterias located in our student center. Now I'm trying to organize a time when our current sisters can do that for lunch or dinner (both are times when many people are in that cafeteria).

You know, sometimes I sit here and think "Why bother?" and then I remember why I joined Phi Gam- because I loved the sisters so much and everything they represent. I'm truly making an effort put some work into this organization and if we sink, they we sink trying!

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

Just like you said, remember why you joined your chapter in the first place. Pass that idea on to others.

I helped my TBS chapter with recruitment this year, we are at 9 members when our brother org is at 23 or so. We only "compete" aganst eachother for numbers, so its sad to see that TBS is small.

We look at the fact that we are very close and we are very strong that way. Show people that your chapter isnt about letters on a sweatshrit and show them that you have TRUE sisterhood!

Have sisters bring their friends down, if there are only 4 of you then you all must have friends who arent in the chapter - why arent they?! Show people that with 4 sisters you can make traditions, not follow them, and the same goes for being a local - you are unique.

Look for non-traditional people. International students might be too afraid to look into greek life and they might be the best sisters you can get! Look into grad students who might have missed out before - ask any Phi Sig chapter that has grad students - they rock! Open yourself to people who wouldnt normally join an org. Go to meetings of other clubs and orgs, get involved. In Phi Sig we are nationally told we have to be in two other campus activities. I am in the band, and let me tell you we have got more members who were in band than any other org - we once made up almost the entire colorguard!

If you need any other ideas, please PM me or IM me @ StarletAngel521 -we can share ideas, seeing that I am the pres of my TBS chapter and also recruiting for my small 3 member Beta Sigma Phi chapter!

Loudchick--

Where are the alums from your chapter?? Get them to come and help you!! You were successful once, and with hard work, you can try to be again. Having only 4 women is a death sentence during formal recruitment, and unlike others, I respect your decision to not participate. It's just like a group starting a colony would do. BUT, the colonies then have a big push with alumnae and international volunteers to recruit women. You don't have the luxury of a HQs, but you do have alums, and if they care about your chapter and are in your area, they should be willing to come and help!! Showing commitment to your organization is a huge deal, and if the four of you do that, along with your alumnae, maybe that will help. As for getting an NPC group to come there, Kent's panhel would have to vote on that I'd think.

There are a lot of wonderful, quality women who don't join a sorority not because they don't want to belong to one, but because they can't stand the structure and (often) the fakiness of formal rush. Also, women may want to join a sorority but can't afford the dues - I am assuming yours are lowest on campus since you are local and unhoused. Those groups are the women you need to target. They will see what would be construed by some as negatives (no national affiliation, no house) as positives.

I agree w/ shadokat, tell the alums you need help!! No you don't have a national HQ that will close you because you are small - but with 4 members, you need to get more or you will die out.

If you have stayed around for 15 years, obviously a local group is something that Kent State wants and needs. Don't give up.

p.s. I've also heard of doing things like taking a block class - i.e. a whole group of women together. Ask the Greek advisor if anyone has approached her about adding a new group to campus - perhaps the two of you can get together.

Re: Update
 

National? I don't understand that part. You need to build up your numbers locally first. Someone correct me but I think you would need more substantial numbers of members.

You might try the Rush board and contact Corina of the Rush at USC thread (the monster thread). She started small and is growing her local a lot it seems.

33girl, GREAT POINT on the block group. We did this at a chapter, and they went from 16 to 46 in one year. There are options out there. And don't believe that girls don't want to be in a sorority. They do, it's just about how you approach and sell it. How many times do we hear that this chapter or that chapter is the "non-sorority" sorority?? Once you get your alumnae involved, I'd sit down with them and your current group and do a marketing/PR plan and work on attaining REAL goals...if your goal is to get 5 new women in a year, set out to do that, and once you've accomplished that, establish a new goal. It can be done...

Losing Hope
 

So I've talked to the Greek advisor (she called me back the day I was going to call her) and she told me everything Phi Gam needs in order to succeed as a sorority.

Here's What I remember:
1. 5 officers to put down on that piece of paper that says we are a recognized organization at Kent State University.
2. Pay IGPB dues from last fall (apparently we never did that).
3. Start going to Panhellenic Council meetings.

That's all I can remember we need. Unfortunately, nobody is helping me! I've gotten e-mails from 2 alum saying they'll help with rush as much as they can, but that's about it. I talked to a friend of mine in AXD and she seems insistent that we go national. She told me that some of our alum that she knows didn't feel they got the full sorority experience because we don't do anything. I hate to admit it, but I agree.

I feel like I'm the only one working this hard to get us back on our feet. I know I can't do it alone. ::sigh:: Maybe we should go national. I mean, maybe I'm trying to save something that's only relying on life support to live. I dunno.

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

That1LoudChick, I wish your sorority the best of luck!

I'm sorry to hear that you feel you're the only one trying to do something to save your sorority.

I don't want this to discourage you, but if you all intend to affiliate with a national sorority, it takes *a lot* of hard work from *everyone* involved.

Maybe you girls can have some kind of retreat or something... A way to get the members psyched up again and to remind them why they joined your sorority so the overall morale will be better and you all will be able to start the fall semester on a 'good foot'.

In retrospect, that would be a wonderful idea. I'm quite pessimistic right now so excuse me for saying this, but I nobody seems to have the time to care! I'm getting so frustrated trying to e-mail, call, and IM our active sisters and having them not respond to me at all! I think the last active sister I talked to was my Big and it wasn't for long. I heard what has happened with past sisters was that they got burned out. I am barely active and I know how they feel! When you have 3 or 4 other women stubbornly refusing to do anything or listen to you, you start to give up hope. Anyway, thank you for your encouragement.

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

P.S. I know of another thread on here that was of a girl who was trying to get her local have a national take over them so I'm gonna try to find that and see what she did.

I hate to admit it, but some of us in national groups tend to think that it's the only way to go. If you are not ready yet to go national, do not even worry about it. I think you are right to want to get your strength up. Everything your advisor told you is right... those are all things you need to do to succeed. I (personally... this may not apply to all) think that all groups should really be involved in whatever form a Greek Council exists on your campus in order to be successful. Definitely go to those meetings... you will get more respect from the Greek community as a whole that you are trying to be involved with them, and hopefully that will increase your Recruitment numbers (whether you do it on your own or through PHC or whatever group) when other girls see that you get along with and are part of the Greek community.

I won't kid you, it sounds like you have a hard task, and I really feel for you. It's not easy to motivate a group, especially when you think they've all given up. I think you might have to be flat out honest with them... if they're not willing to help, your sorority will die. One person can't run a sorority.

Good luck. I hope everything works out come this fall.

I completely agree.. one person can't run a sorority, and it is probably very hard for 4 active members to run a sorority if they have to take on multiple offices. Unfortunately this is probably what is contributing to burning everyone out :(

Loud--

I don't understand how going national is going to help your situation. I don't need to tell you this, but you all have to pull together and make Phi Gam successful and THEN ask campus to expand. Otherwise, campus will not see the need to add another national to your campus. Also, once Phi Gam expands, you may not WANT to go national, which is something to think about. I would seriously work on getting more women involved and getting new members. Get your 5 officers, pay your IGPB dues and get going to Panhel. :)

You're right that you can't do it alone, but you'd be surprised to see how many women you can get involved if you're all positive about the experience. Best of luck, and PM me for anything.

Hmm, my advise would be just to let it go, there's not really much you can do, being a local sorority and all....maybe you could try recolonizing in a few years

sleazydz - I have to respectfully disagree. Local or not, it is obvious that that1loudchick loves her house. A house closing is not less important "just because it's a local"!!

That1loudchick: I'm not an alum, but let me know if I can help in any way!!!!

Don't lose hope. I know it seems like an uphill battle - but just take it one step at a time. Pull your sisters together, bring in a few enthusiastic new members, fulfill those requirements you mentioned, and go from there.

Take care. :)

Gaining Hope, but Staying Grounded
 

After posting that thread I decided to call 2 out of my 3 sisters because I don't have the 3rd's number. Honestly, I was surprised. I first called my Big (our VP) who ended up talking with me for an hour and getting my enthusiasm back. I guess that's what Bigs are for! :cool: Anyway, she is glad to see someone having such enthusiasm and we talked a lot about different ideas we may have for the chapter. She agreed that we need to meet before classes start up so I'm trying to arrange that as well.

I also called my pledge sister. She and I are pretty much opposites so I was pleasantly surprised when she said that she would love to be put down as an officer for that stupid piece of paper. :D

I am obviously not losing hope knowing that most of my sisters are willing to put in the hard work to keep us going, but an e-mail from our Greek advisor has kept me grounded. She explained that if we cannot find a 5th sisters to take the responsibilities of an officer position than we must appeal to the Associate Dean of Students & Director of Campus Life seeking permission to go on as an organization. The ultimate decision is up to that dean and quite frankly, I'm scared. Our Greek advisor also explained that maybe we should take some time to strengthen our chapter as it currently exists instead of going through formal recruitment. I honestly think that is a great idea. By the time formal is over, I would hope that our chapter is strong enough to COB and get some new girls initiated by the end of Fall semester. Anyway, there's my update. Thank you all for your support!

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

Just to clarify, you will have time to do this when you get back to school, won't you? I mean, I hope your Greek advisor is not expecting you to complete all this over summer when school isn't even in session.

A crazy idea...

Do all 5 people have to be current students? If not, maybe one of your alums can sign?

At my school, a group could be recognized as a student organization as long as at least half the group were students - undergrad or grad.

I know it's a long shot...

That's a great question! I just e-mailed our Greek advisor asking her that so I should get a reply in about a day. I'll keep you all posted on our status!

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

P.S. Thanks again for all of your support- it means a lot to me as well as my sisters.

Chilling Out This Summer
 

I e-mailed our Greek advisor and she said the a sister must have at least 3 credit hours to be put on that piece of paper. The sister who came back from studying abroad still has yet to e-mail me concerning whether or not she will be active next semester. Our president finally responded to an e-mail I sent and said she wanted me to bring these things up at our first chapter meeting so I'm going to take the rest of the summer off to just chill out. All of us will be back in a month and I have a lot of things I need to take care of at home so I'm going to do that. Thank you all once again for your support! I'll update you as soon as I find out any new news!

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

E-mail me if you guys need help with anything. I'm really close. :)

Ideas from a Local's standpoint
 

Hey LoudChick, I'm gonna bump this thread for ya. I'm in a local sorority at my school and so we usually have smaller numbers, but not by much. This year we have about 22 members because around 13 or 14 graduated last year. (My school really isn't big on Greek Life, our largest sorority has maybe 45 girls.) One thing that we and some of the other sororities on campus do to spread our name around campus is hold non-rush events for freshmen. For instance, in the winter, we will have a finals study break in the lounge of one of the freshmen dorms where we'll bring pizza, soda, etc there and we can talk to the girls about anything (including being in a sorority). That way, when they come back to rush in the Spring, they're going to be more likely to remember us and will know us more personally outside of the rush room. If you have any other questions or whatnot, feel free to pm me.
-Masha:)

Has been 2 months since Louds last post. :( Maybe the ship sank. It would be a very tuff road to hoe for sure.

Have to have #s to stay a Local, and must have #s to try to affiliate with a National!

After having seen what happened to ZTA at the U. Of Kansas, I sometimes wonder what the hell is going on!:confused:

Having Founded a Local, and being lucky enuff to have affiliated with LXA by the end of the school year, it still took 3 years before we met the requirments to get our Charter.

Somewhat Indifferent
 

I tried to post this really long message on here, but GreekChat got mad cuz I took too long so I'm gonna give everyone the basics. We are FINALLY having a chapter meeting this coming Wednesday to figure out what will happen next. In the past few months I have been leaving it all up to our president because I've been scolded for doing otherwise and now I'm just burnt out. Please understand my position here. I thank you all for your loving support and will post after the meeting on Wednesday.

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick