Rechartering AEPhi! Need advice!
 

Hey everyone....well me and my friend have decided to recharter Alpha Epsilon Phi back on our campus! We have contacted our Panhellenic offices and they told us to talk to nationals about it and that they will try to help us with what we need. We are in the process of doing it now. I know there has been a few people who have rechartered a sorority back on their campuses, is there any advice from anyone to get things moving more quickly? We were thinking of getting the girls (there are quite a few who are interested) involved with us in an interest group and start from there. Lets hope for the best!;)

Getting an interest group together is a good start. You could also start making documents such as bylaws and procedural documents that resemble the organization that you want to join.

I remember one interest group of ours called themselves Phi ____ Theta, reserving the Delta until the day they became a colony of PDT and then a chapter. It shows you are dedicated to the national organization.

I am not well-versed in the rechartering process, but I wanted to offer my encouragement! You've made a great decision!

That is great news! :) I'm happy to hear of your interest in AEPhi.

I can't help much with the re-chartering process, but I was a founding sister of my chapter. Long story short, my chapter started out as an AEPhi interest group, became a local sorority when Panhel decided not to open the campus for expansion, then two years later when Panhel did allow expansion, we became a colony and then a chapter of AEPhi.

If Panhel has given you its blessing, the next step is to contact NPC and indicate that your school is open for expansion and that there is an interest group with a preference for AEPhi. NPC will forward your info to every member sorority not already represented at your school. Interested sororities can then contact you (so you may be hearing from several orgs).

It wouldn't be wrong to contact AEPhi nationals too. There is contact info on the national website .

While you're doing that, get your interest group together. Having a bunch of interested women (rather than just two) will work in your favor. Start putting some organizational structure in place, elect some officers, and start doing things as a group (philanthropy work, social activities, etc).

Best of luck! :)

Thanks for the support, how do we write up the by-laws exactly?

Is the campus open for expansion? You don't want to go through all of this just to find out that the campus won't allow it.

RedFox, check some National Web Sites. Many should have ByLaws listed. You can work yours from those.

If you have not contact AEPhi and see if they will send you a copy so you can work from them.

Good luck from one who founded a Local to affiliate.

HI RedFox!

Best wishes on rechartering!!!!

Whatever you do - don't give up! It might be long, and sometimes the journey will not always smooth, but if you are persistant, you will definitely get to see the fruits of your labor :)

If I were you, I'd make friends with someone in your intended group and borrow their by-laws.

Or call their HQ to get a copy to work from. Either way.

We based our Constitution/bylaws off of the Student Government at our University.

Contact AEPhi nationals and request that they email you a template for chapter bylaws, so you can match your bylaws closely OR request a copy of the campus Panhellenic bylaws. Request assistance from the campus Panhellenic on drafting your bylaws. This will set a standard of your close relationship with campus Panhellenic. Depend on the support of the Greek Adviser to be your interim interest group adviser. Request s/he attend your meetings and advise you throughout this process.

Thanks for the advice! I'll keep ya'll updated :)

It's always awesome to hear of the possibilty of rechartering chapters!! I would have to agree with everyone else's sentiment: follow the lead of your panhellenic and then upon panhel's approval listen to national. But if you need absolutely any help just let us know!!

Everyone is giving some great advice but I just want to emphasize what kddani is saying. Make sure that before you contact AEPhi or NPC that you have "permission of the Proper Authority." This comes in the the form of Panhellenic minutes where an expansion vote was taken and approved. AEPhi and NPC will need to have this information in hand before they can proceed or it could be construed as unethical contact. If this has already been taken care of, well then you are good to go.

Good luck. I know that you have wanted this for some time!

i was just curious how panhel is doing there. how many chapters are at total and how many got quota this fall.

as far as I know...all of the chapters except maybe two made quota.

Updates!
 

Well, here are some updates if you all are interested. My friend and I had a meeting with the execs of the jewish community and Hillel and we have their full support 100%. Also, after a long game of phone tag and email tag, we finally got a hold of nationals and said that it will take a while but they will help us and agree that the area is a good place to recharter, but we need to send them a roster of girls interested first....I need to send out an email to the girls (i have the list of people) and I'm not exactly sure of what to say to them. I figure I would email everyone I had on my list, regardless if they are already in a sorority or grad student or whatever, since it's another name on the petition to get us going again. Also, I was thinking of starting off some history of what used to be here, the AEPhi chapter locally, a little bit about AEPhi nationally, and the benefits of having it back on campus, etc. Let me know some of your ideas so we can get this thing rolling! We're working hard and all advice and support is appriciated!! Thanks!

IS THE CAMPUS OPEN FOR EXPANSION?

You can't bring AEPhi on without that.

Re: Rechartering AEPhi! Need advice!
 

Just highlighting what Redfox said. IF she talked to the Panhellenic offices and they told her to pursue it I"m sure they are open or at least wanting to hear more about what Redfox finds out. Redfox isn't stupid nor is she new to the sorority game. She's doing what she was told to do.

Good luck Pam! ;) I wish you the best of luck!!!

Re: Updates!
 

I'm confused by this statement. I don't think a "petition" is what they mean by a roster of interested girls...they mean girls who can actually join. They can't join if they're in another sorority. If I were you I would omit the women who are in another NPC group.

what i meant by this, is email everyone in hopes of getting people with replies back, and if they cant join, at least they are aware for what we are trying to do, and can help us and be supportive with us!;) I still need advice on what to say in the email

If it's an "are you interested in joining AEPhi" type email DON'T include women you KNOW are in other NPC groups. That could really offend some people.

Co-Sign. You can go speak with Panhellenic Council and the individual chapters to get their support. If you email everyone on campus (whether they are in an NPC or not), you're very likely to get the "rumor mill" started and get some negative feelings aimed at you...especially if the chapter Panhellenic Delegate hasn't been telling the chapter what's up.

Best to target your email to a select audience.

And about the campus being open for expansion....it's definitely true that you need that to bring AEPhi on. HOWEVER, there's nothing stopping you from creating a "campus organization" (notice I did not say local sorority) with the intention of bringing another NPC sorority on campus. You may not be able to be considered a local sorority, though. The campus I'm working at now has had a registered campus organization be in existance for 3 years now...their sole purpose was to bring on another National Sorority. Now, they did not have a Greek Letter Name, they did not operate as a "local" sorority, and they were not affiliated with Panhellenic. However, they finally got a vote to expand from CP, and we're on the way.

What has your Panhellenic/Greek Advisor told you? I would work closely with Panhellenic....from what I understand the group on my campus stepped on a few toes way back when...and it hurt them for a while. But it's all good now! :D

PsychTau

I agree. Also, don't include graduate students. Unless something has changed recently that I don't know about, grad students cannot become new members of AEPhi.

I'm acting under the assumption that "We have contacted our Panhellenic offices and they told us to talk to nationals about it and that they will try to help us with what we need" = "The campus is open for expansion." If that's the case, great. If not, you can still get your interest group together and approach Panhel again in the future. Whether you choose to organize as a local sorority or a campus organization is up to you.

Write your bylaws immediately. If someone gets in control that is power hungry the group will either die, or struggle for years. A good constitution protects that from happening.

Also be wary of faculty advisors, they need to remain advisors--they should not have any form of executive power and should be re-elected just like an officer (so you can remove them simply by not re-electing them).

As a small group you may have outside forces (university or national) which will try to mold your group into their design. It is important that the group be the design of those who compose it.

If you need some snippets... email me. I wrote our constitution and I was vice-president and chairman of the chapter when it was installed.


-Tony Destro
http://www.tonydestro.com/

Psychtau is absolutly right. Work closely with Panhell and get support from the other chapters and DO IT SOON if you haven't done it already. It is best they hear it from a small group and toes are not stepped on. Scorned women do not forgive easily. We still have tension with the newest local; the older one and AST now get along great, so it has really helped that relationship. Essentially, you need CP's support to charter, so get it early.

Go and meet with the Greek Adviser. Set a date where you and a few of the women in the interest group can attend a Panhellenic meeting. At some point in the meeting, the Greek Adviser will introduce you and you will explain to the chapter delegates and CPC your plans to recharter, some info about AEPhi and next steps for anyone interested in joining. Thank them for their support and encourage them to spread the word. Tell them you'll be sending out a mass mailing, email and marketing campaign once you've spoken at the meetings of the campus Greeks to introduce AEPhi recolonization to campus Greeks on a personal level, so they will be the first to know.

Next, call the sorority and fraternity chapter presidents. Arrange to talk to the chapters during their meeting night (usually at their dinner time or open forum time where other groups are allowed to come in and make announcements.) Go with a few of the women in the interest group and explain your plans to to recharter, some info about AEPhi and next steps for anyone interested in joining. Thank them for their support and encourage them to spread the word.

Next send out your mass email to campus women, and explain your plans to to recharter, some info about AEPhi and next steps for anyone interested in joining. Explain you will be sending out information to anyone interested, and to spread the word. Update with your events plans and continue to engage the campus Greeks and non Greek orgs in your social plans.

Sensing a pattern here? Get the buy-off and support of the Greeks on campus and then approach the campus at large. This way, you will have already ingratiated yourself with the Greek Community and they will be looking out for you and interested in your efforts, rather than fighting you every step of the way.

RedFox,
first off, As many said, contact PanHel and local Adm.

This is second only to having a Group of women who are members/interested, and it is just interested. If that is all it is, dont even think about it.

You may try, depending on the College. IF it is just you trying to affiliate with a Jewish GLO, that may be something different, but if it is, It will be part of Pan Hel. Learn one thing very quickly, the cross overs among races and religion has become very vast. We as GLOs are not just a sterotype anymore.

A lot depends on the Campus, is it ready for a New GLO?

If you think you can have a GLO for a small segiment of Campus, then check GLOs from all of Greekdom. Try greekpages.com and search what GLOs arte all about.

A person does not start a GlO like I did many years back and make it happen. You will need a good group,(#) of women who show and give support from the group you are trying to start and affiliate with.

If you can make it happen, more power to you!

PM me so I can check the school and check some things out for you if I can!:)

Having been there, I know what you are talking about!

more updates
 

Hi all..i thought i'd update on whats new with the process...I am hesitant on mentioning anything because I don't want to get yelled at by a few of you like I did last time, over just trying to help bring a GLO back to our campus.

but we FINALLY got in touch with nationals just to verify...and yep they are open for expansion, nationally..now we are currently in the process of getting in touch wiht our local panhel to see if the university is open for expansion...baby steps....and it's hard playing phone tag and getting in touch with people..but it's working in our favor...just taking a while, just wanted to give an update! We have appointments set up, but not til after thanksgiving because things are so hectic. Lets wish for the best...and supportive advice this time please!!

Re: more updates
 

No one is "yelling" at you. We're simply trying to make sure you're taking all the proper steps so your attempt isn't over before it begins.

Re: Re: more updates
 

and thats fine....but i was getting yelled at by some of you...who shall remain nameless...such things as: "you don't know what your doing" "your stupid, and there are too many chapters to even think about doing it", "who do you think you are", etc etc. it really downs my hopes to make this thing work

I should edit and say these jaunts were said privately to me in a PM, not on a thread.

Re: Re: Re: more updates
 

I'm sorry, but I reread the thread and I can't see where anyone said any of these things to you.

The only thing some people were kind of forceful with was asking if the campus was open for expansion, which you never answered. That's the first step, and the most important, before you do any of this work. If it's not open for expansion, a new group can't come onto campus.

No one even criticized you. As an aside, if you can't handle criticism, starting a new group may not be a good idea for you. A new group will be open to criticism.

You have received a TON of very helpful, straightforward advice in this thread and saying everyone has been SO rude to you isn't a good way to get any more advice.

redfox,
 

you might start out your email, by stating that an interest group is forming with the intention of becoming a chapter of a e phi. you then might give a little bit of a e phi history, share some information about their philanthropy, and announce a date, time and place for your first meeting.i think that this is very exciting! if you send out a mass email, you might word it in such a way so that you could send it out to everyone, men and women. something such as "if you are interested in joining or know someone who might be interested, please contact ......". best wishes to you, pam!!lisa

Re: Re: Re: Re: more updates
 

Redfox was not referring to the thread, but to several PM's that she got informing her that her idea was "stupid" and "would never work - dont' even try". ***Big note - I only know what the pm's said, not who wrote them*** So she has been hesitate to post in the thread due to the fact that she'll prolly get more PM's.

I can not imagine how completely excited, yet stressed and worried you*Redfox* are at this point. Congrats on your *huge* babysteps!!!

I hope that everyone here stays positive, yet informative and helpful on this thread. Everyone has given her great info and starting points!

What you and the girls need right now is positive inspiration! So let's keep it coming!

Best of luck to you RedFox :)

I am so excited to hear that you have made some progress! And don't worry about what other negative people might say - you're working with panhel and AEPhi National so you should be fine.

Best of luck and hopefully I'll have some new sisters in Knoxville soon!

Redfox,

I'm so glad to hear things are moving forward! Please don't be discouraged by negativity expressed in PMs, and keep in contact with your Panhellenic. I'm so very excited for you as you move through this journey; the AEPhi experience has been incredibly fulfilling for me, and it's wonderful to think about more women having similar opportunities.

All the best!

I'm glad to hear things are moving forward. Ignore the negativity, and keep on trucking! Good luck! :)