Concerned about my chapter
 

I'm a bit concerned about my chapter.

I haven't seen anyone else from my alma mater posting here, so hopefully this is safe. :)

I just received partial spring formal rush results from my alma mater. AEPhi matched four; two other sororities (out of five NPC orgs) matched 26 and 27. I don't know how the other two did.

This was their second year of deferred recruitment. Deferred rush means that all five sororities are under total (80) at the start of fall semester because the senior class graduates. AEPhi was the only sorority not to have a fall pledge class this year.

My chapter has always been on the wrong side of the numbers game, because of how we were colonized (from a small local - the previous two colonizations were done from the ground up).

I feel frustrated because there's not much I can do as an alum to help them out. I couldn't take time off work to help with recruitment. I feel like all I can do is get COB ideas from GC and elsewhere and present them to my chapter (and they'd better get to the COB'ing!)

I think the plain fact of the matter is that my school cannot support five sororities with deferred recruitment, and AEPhi, as the smallest chapter, is the most at risk to close.

And to think, just a few years ago we were talking about expanding to six sororities.

I just hate watching something I worked hard to bring to fruition, dying by pieces...

:(

Re: Concerned about my chapter
 

You said it right there...it is not the fault of deferred recruitment, it isn't the campus culture, it is because the girls aren't COBing. They need to know this isn't an option, they HAVE to do it the same as they have to go to meetings or ritual.

As soon as spring rush is over, they need to get a list of girls who didn't match, if there are any. Give them a couple weeks to get over formal - not everyone wants to jump back in after feeling rejected. If the sisters know any of these women, they should contact them personally and invite them to COB events throughout the semester. The key is making the rushees feel they are there because the sisters know and like them, not to increase numbers.

[blunt]Do you feel that AEPhi's history as a "Jewish sorority" is a factor in low numbers? Or is it the opposite, not being used enough? I have no idea of the religious makeup of your campus so I thought I would throw that out there. [/blunt]

I do ascribe some of the problems to deferred recruitment. When we had formal fall rush, the other four chapters would usually be over total as a result; maybe one chapter would be COBing to fill two or three spots. This gave AEPhi a certain amount of "protection" - we could COB freely all year. We got a number of women who were put off by FR but who shone in a more informal setting. Now we've lost that protection - come fall, everyone's under total.

I think the "Jewish sorority" history definitely plays into it. All the founding sisters of my chapter except one were Jewish. In some way, we fill a niche market. That's not to say that Jewish women might not be more comfortable elsewhere or that non-Jewish women might be happiest with AEPhi (I have a number of non-Jewish chapter sisters).

I just think about the four women we got this year, and while I'm very happy for them and proud of my chapter, if this becomes the pattern - 16 women does not a chapter make when total is 80.

Perhaps your chapter would benefit from a visit from national. They have suggestions that could help the chapter recruit new members.

It sounds like y'all might want to tear a page out of the fraternity rush book. Ask guys that are in houses to steer girls they know that aren't in houses your way. Talk to people in the dorms. Do any kind of PR that your PHC allows. Just get the word out that you do exist and you all have something very special.

I don't think that there's any campus out there that can change in such a way that it ever needs to contract in terms of the # of GLO's on campus. The only reason that ever happens is because the GLO's on campus do not adjust correctly to the changes in the types of people they need.

Whatever you do though, you have to change something :D

I'd be afraid to talk to your HQ though. How quick are they to shut down chapters that they claim to be 'defunct'?

The thing is their headquarters will find out sooner or later. I personally think sooner is better. I can't say for certain what AEPhi would do, but I think that they will send a rep who is trained to help with COB.

aephi alum, I wish your chapter the best. :)

Here's wishing the very best for your chapter!

If this year's sorority formal rush figures published in your school's student paper are reasonably correct, it looks like nearly 80 women who registered for rush dropped out (or were dropped) before bids were extended. Now, just how deeply interested they were in Greek life, I don't know. Nor do I know whether a fair number of them would fit with your chapter. However, just from numbers, with nothing more to go on, it looks like there are women at your school who had at least some interest in sorority life, and who _might_ be among the prospects for COBing.

Again, best wishes!

Why did your chapter not have a Fall NM Class?

Also, think outside the box. Apparently what they are doing isn't working. Can they go visit a nearby chapter and "rush" them and then have that chapter give them some pointers? Also, let them know that they don't HAVE to have an organized COB party in order to offer bids. If the sisters know a few girls they would love to have as members, have those girls join you at a few events that the chapter is participating in on campus (going to a ball game, philanthropy, even a casual sisterhood get together), then vote to extend them a bid at the next meeting. Don't wait to organize an actual party if you know you already want these women.

Also, I don't know how this is on your campus, but talk with the four women they did get. See what they can tell you about recruitment and what they thought about it. They may each know 5 of the women who dropped from recruitment and why the dropped. Have those new members invite their friends to events. And don't be afraid to have that new class wait until some others join them. If it's OK with your campus and HQ (and the NM class), get them started on learning their info, but don't feel like you have to initiate them all by themselves. Add to their NM class and initate them all at once....even if it is 8 weeks into the NM program (once again, only if your campus and HQ allows that....they might give you an exception due to the situation).

These are just some ideas I've had working with chapters in a similar situation recently. Good Luck!!!

PsychTau

A few thoughts: Why didn't Panhel adjust total so that total was around what most chapters have in the fall?? That is what W&L Panhellenic does w/ our deferred rush--that way, the smallest chapters can still COB upperclass women in the fall.

Bottom line, they've got to COB. I know what campus we're discussing, and there's got to be tons and tons of qualified women out there! :) Maybe a visit from a consultant specializing in COB-type recruitment is in order? The fall is a great time to COB a lot of women because entering sophomore year many women are evaluating their lives or experiencing life changes that cause them to look for more social supports.

On the Jewish tradition:

Do you have Hillel or other such organizations on your campus? I'm sure you must. Members must go to these events with letters! Promote, promote, promote! I'm sure this would be a great way to get the word out. If you have attracted Jewish women in the past, use that to your advantage!

Go to other events with letters, too, religious or not.

I think a rush exchange sounds like a great idea.

The best option is one that people often don't want to hear.

Y'all really need to find a large group of women who may be looking to start their own sorority. There's legwork involved, but if you can get 20 or so women to join at once, noting that they will pretty much have control of the direction the org takes once they're initiated, the org will survive on campus.

The downside: the current members really need to be on board with this, because they are giving up their baby, and there are SERIOUS growing pains that go along with an action like this.

The upside: everyone will have somewhere to go for homecoming.

Edited to add: PS. Tried to PM you aephi_alum, but your inbox is full. :(

Unfortunately MIT hurt the whole system by going to deferred recruitment.

Quote:

A few thoughts: Why didn't Panhel adjust total so that total was around what most chapters have in the fall?? That is what W&L Panhellenic does w/ our deferred rush--that way, the smallest chapters can still COB upperclass women in the fall.

Some of the groups, A Phi included are housed. They need ceiling to stay where it is at to be able to fill their facilities. Additionally helping one smaller chapter would potentially shut women out of a greek system that is already shrinking.

Ideas: contact men's groups, student council, leadership orgs, sports team captains and ask for referrals. Then ask the student orientation leaders, people who work in student affairs and any other pro-greek segment you can think of for more names.

Make COB a continuous effort and if your chapter has restrictions on how people can receive bids (ie must meet x # of sisters y times) remove them. Form a COB team that is athorized to give bids.

Finally maybe some alums can go back for a weekend workshop?? I know people suggest consultants and depending on who your National office can send it could be helpful but in my experience I think alums helping their own chpater sometimes works better.

We recently switched from fall recruitment to deferred recruitment. The first thing that I can tell you is that even though you cannot rush freshman first semester, that doesn't mean that you should disappear on campus. Freshman are still interested in learning about Greek life and the more that they see organizations on campus, the more they will remember them come recruitment. We had a couple of philanthropic events on campus in the fall and had sisters eating together on campus in large groups at least twice a week. It's all about visibility.

Also, when sisters go to fraternity parties or campus events, by all means, get to know the women there!!! Make it a point to be friendly and approachable. COB is something that is a year round event. Even if a group is at total, they still need to get to know new women...and even though they cannot extend bids, getting their name out and putting on a good face is never a bad thing.

Some suggestions I have:

-Each member needs to make a list of women that they know who might make a good member. Each member knows at least one, despite what they might say. Just have them think about it. People often overlook great potential members who are right under our noses!

-Develop a plan to recruit these people. It doesn't have to be an all-out frontal "Do you want to COB our sorority?" assault. Let them get to know your sisters. Have some events and invite them without pressure.

-Get as much exposure as possible on your campus, or better yet where there are the highest concentrations of women. If you can eat as a group in the campus dining halls- do it. Wear letters and get your names out.

-Network. Ask your guy friends for assistance. Get them to talk you up to their female friends etc. Get them to introduce you to any unaffiliated women they know. The bigger the network the more contacts you will make.

-Most importantly, the entire chapter has to know that recruitment is the #1 priority for EVERYONE. Too often we leave it up to the "COB Chair" or the "Rush Committee". The most successful recruitment stems from high levels of participation at the individual level.

Good Luck. It will be hard work, but I know your chapter can do it!

Why is deferred rush so bad?

It gives time for the New Frosh to get settled in to College Life without Mom and Dad! They get to look around and see what is going on! Give the new fish a break so to speak! Oh Yes, that is a prison term!

I just wonder if your Soroity is not up to rush? I know My Chapter isnt, that is why We as Alums are trying to work with them! What are yours doing? :confused:

You want to sound Harsh, I reccommended shutting our Chapter Done and starting anew! How hard is that? I am the god damn founder that is how hard it is!

But, we are doing what we can from a Core Group that I started and it has been growing! We Will Do It ourselves, come hell or High Water!:)

Sorry, has been a tuff week for me in many ways, not female but My Love for My Brothers!:cool:

Thank you for all the kind words and suggestions. :)

I'm undecided as to whether to contact nationals. When a chapter is in this situation, from what I've seen, nationals (I'm talking generally, not specifically about AEPhi) either steps in and tries to save the chapter, or shuts it down. I hope AEPhi would fight to keep a chapter open at my alma mater, but you can never tell. I would hate it if I put them on to the fact that my chapter is hurting and then find out they gave it up as a lost cause. :(

I like the idea of "borrowing" some fraternity rush techniques. I think that could lead my chapter to some great new members.

AEPhi did have a fall informal rush... but so did the other 4 sororities. I guess my chapter just couldn't compete.

On the Jewish tradition, yes we have Hillel. I remember that when I was an active (especially around rush), sisters would try to sit together at Hillel's Friday night dinners and wear their badges, but I have no idea if that still goes on.

On housing, 3 out of 5 sororities have houses. Alpha Phi has a huge (68 +/- beds) house, and (as APhigal pointed out) has to stay at total to keep it full, especially since freshmen must now live on campus. AXO and Sigma Kappa have smaller houses (~25-28 beds). Theta has a wing in a graduate dorm. AEPhi is unhoused. Actually, I think being totally unhoused is hurting AEPhi too.

You've made some great suggestions; I'm going to pass them along. Thanks again!

oh, I cleaned out my PM box :)

:( I'm so sorry that your chapter is going through this...

The same thing happened to my chapter a few years ago. We are the oldest house on campus and all the PMN's wanted to be part of the new houses. Along with COB'ing, we realized we needed to make Sigma Delta Tau a more recognized name. We decided to hold a huge philanthropy event that involved pretty much everyone on campus. It was a "Mr./Ms. University" Pagent. A representative from each GLO, ROTC, sports teams, clubs, etc would participate in a "beauty" pagent. We hung up pictures of the contestants all over campus and allowed people to vote for their favorite person for $0.50 a vote. On pagent night, the group was narrowed down to the top 10 from the campus-wide vote. Then, after a talent portion and the eveningwear competition, the winner is selected by the judges. The event was HUGE!!! Our first year we raised $15,000 (half goes to SDT's philanthropy, 25% to the charity of the winners choice, 15% to the charity of the 1st runner up, and 10% for the winner to keep). All of a sudden, everyone on campus was talking about SDT (in a positive light!!!) and women were interested in rushing us! After 3 years, our numbers are as good as everyone elses.

I hope you guys could do something like this to help get your name out. And I hope you have the same happy ending that we had!!!!!!!!

Since Theta has a graduate wing, do you think MIT would let AEPhi have a wing as well? That might help things out.

AEPhi was offered a wing, but turned it down. Most of the chapter would have had to live in the wing to make it worthwhile, and there just wasn't enough interest.

Do you know if AEPhi is close to AEPi? I ask not because of the supposed brother/sister relationship, but because one of my good friends from high school is a brother, and he's an amazingly sweet and fun guy. If his brothers are anything like him, they must know a ton of quality girls who probably aren't in the greek system, and could help your chapter out.

(As a side note, I find it interesting that AEPhi doesn't have a house, as they don't have a house out at UMass either. Is this merely coincidence?)

co-sign. My chapter did this with the help of nationals and it really helped. The problem is that there will be conflict between the "new" and "old sisters unless the chapter supports this move 100% before they implement it.

I was at pref for my sorority at MIT a few years ago, and talking to the sisters, it sounded like each sorority had a few fraternities that they hung out with and were really close to, but the others they never really did anything with. And I remember that there was a huge number of fraternities compared to sororities, something like 30+. I think it might be a good idea to work with the fraternities that AEPhi are closest to, and maybe do their best to expand their circle of fraternities a bit (I know they can't do this too much, only so many sisters!), so that some men are talking about AEPhi. If a pnm hears at a party that the guys like AEPhi, and the pnm likes that fraternity, it could certainly help out.

Now, for some reason I thought that deferred rush was ending, and they were going to go back to the way that things were before. Is that true, or am I just making it up?

Good luck!

lauralaylin, that's very true. There are about 25 NIC fraternities, 5 NPC sororities, 6 independent living groups (sort of like local fraternities - one all-women, the rest coed), and 3 NPHC groups. In my day, AEPhi was very close with a couple of fraternities and relatively close to maybe 3 or 4 more; if that's still the case, definitely the guys can talk us up! :)

I haven't heard anything about deferred rush ending, but when they moved from fall to spring formal rush, quota went from 30-32 down to low-to-mid 20's, so I think it would be a good idea to go back to fall FR from a numbers perspective (for everyone, not just AEPhi).

i think that ktsnake's suggestion
 

about asking the fraternities to send girls your way is good. when zta expands to a new campus, one of the first things done is to visit each sorority and fraternity with gift bags full of candy and let them know that we are going to colonize on their campus and would appreciate them sending any interested young women to our sign up tables. from what i understand, it has been very successful, with both sorority and fraternity bringing their non-greek friends to sign up. maybe a version of this approach could work for your chapter.

At my chapter of initiation we had deferred recruitment. We had separate totals for fall and spring so that way only the smallest chapters could do COB in the fall. Seems like that is only fair.

As You have seen by some of My Posts, We, My Chapter, was in very dire straits.

A lot depends on the School where the Troubled Chapter is. Is this silly, not at all. School Prestige is over built. A School is so big a one that is wanted is wrong in My estimation.

I know, that it cost @ $7,000.00. to Colonize a New Chapter. It also may be a little Higher.

I also know about what it cost to work with My Chapter and it was higher. But it seems to be paying off.

The thing That GLOs need to remember is that it is can be easier when there is Alums who are willing to work to Keep The Chapter viable. That is a big Key!

There are many variations that come into play here. GLO acceptence, size of GLOs being the main two in My mind.

Hope for the best and work with Your GLO!:cool:

PM Me if I can be a little clearer.

Yours,

Well I hope that after two years, the original poster's chapter is doing better.

I and all who have responded to this thread. It is insightful isnt it?

It can go along way in helping others in the same stuation cant it?:)

Are there any actual updates for this?

Things certainly have gotten better in the past two years. Thanks for asking. :)

- The chapter's numbers are still on the low side, but sustainable.
- My school is going back to fall formal recruitment as of 2007. I think that will help all the NPC chapters.
- My chapter has a house now. They wouldn't invest in a house if they weren't expecting to be around for the long haul.

So I am no longer quite so worried. The chapter just celebrated 10 years last fall and hopefully they will be around for many more years to come.

Well congratulations! :)

Congratulations! I'm sure the turn around wouldn't have been possible without passionate members to lead it. :)

AEPhi alum
 

Dear aephi alum,

I am a current sister at your alma mater, and I am very concerned about how the chapter is doing. I tried to pm you about this, but it says your box is full. I didn't think this could wait, though. We still need your help. I think we are in real danger of losing our house soon. And the fact that we've lost a lot of members already has been a real blow to morale. Some other very serious issues have also come up that I can't mention on this public forum. I talked to Kaya, the Sororities and Fraternities advisor, and she did mention that there is the possibilitiy that they would close the chapter. Please get involved. We need our alums and advisors now more than ever. National has been getting very involved recently, but they haven't been helpful. Please contact me at narnia_m@mit.edu. Please note it's narnia(underscore)m@mit.edu.

lml,
Nara

Hm, strange how things still come back around.

I hope that this Chapter can get things re turned around and survive.

The very best of luck.