Struggling Chapter
 

Hi everyone this is Brittany. I go to a school where there are only 2 other sororities. Each of these sororities has taken quota and is now at ceiling, while my sorority is still lagging behind. This past year we definitely busted some butt and got 16 girls through formal recruitment. But then during informal recruitment we only took two girls. We really need to get our numbers up and I am starting to run out of ideas. Has anyone out there helped to turn their chapter around. We did a great job of getting quality girls this past year but I want more and more of them to keep coming in. This is a hard job to have on your shoulders but I love it and I am planning on working my butt off to turn my sorority around, but I need help!!!! Please if you have any ideas I would appreciate the help!

You need to have a workshopt on informal recruitment. Teach your girls to always be on the look out for quality women. You may even want to re-emphasize certain things like women of color, non-traditional women and transfer students who may be a bit older but would make great members. Remember beauty is on the inside of a lot of great girls. Challenge your members to each bring in one girl. That puts the responsibility on each member. Tell them they have to at least invite one girl to the house for lunch or a social or something. Then actually keep track. Make a contest out of it. That will get your girls excited again. Also, do not forget to keep up all the good work you are already doing to keep your sisterhood strong. That will be your real selling point. Good luck!!!

Remember that numbers aren't everything. Obviously you have to ensure that your chapter will continue (you didn't mention if you are NPC or local or what) as successive pledge classes graduate. What would you do with more sisters? What is your "Goal" number of sisters? How many is TOO many. Another thing is that you have to make sure you have enough resources to pledge 50 girls if you got them. As a member of a local chapter that is the smallest on campus (last pledge class was 9, largest in the past few years) we have to be careful how many girls we take. We've been trying to grow slowly but steadily for many years, while still maintaining a small chapter. There's nothing wrong with being a small chapter, really. Even with only have 17 actives we manage to cover all of our philanthropic stuff, help with recruitment tables, hold Panhel seats, and generally have a great time. So take that for what it's worth, good luck.

(PS, my advice. Wear your letters CONSTANTLY. Make sure your sisters wear them to class and answer questions and raise their hands and participate. Many girls shy away from sororities because they think people will stereotype them as dumb, so do your best to shake that. Evaluate the "behind the back" talking too, that tends to drag you down when girls hear sisters talking about eachother...

Diamond Delta offers so many good ideas here. I totally agree that making it a contest to bring in girls would get a lot of new girls to come check you guys out, and make it a fun way to do it.

Also, talk to any freshmen or even sophomores (half of my pledge class of 31 were sophomores) and encourage them to join. Don't badger them, obviously, but whenever I ask someone why they've never thought about a sorority, they usually spout out a dumb stereotype, and then I give examples of how that isn't true in my chapter and other chapters around campus. Don't push DPhiE (I'm guessing thats your sorority!) on them, but just talk about how much fun you have with all the girls.

If your school has a daily newspaper like many larger schools do, or even a weekly newspaper, place an ad for your informal recruitment. Many sororities around my school do that, and I know our school newspaper is well read so it definitely gets the word out.

Also, if you have a house, hang a banner outside of it advertising informal recruitment. If you don't have a house, maybe try to seek permission from the school to hang your banner in your student union or another popular place on campus.

Just anything to get the DPhiE word out. Wearing your letters around campus prior to informal recruitment is another good idea! Trust me, if girls are interested in sororities, they're checking out anyone in a letter shirt.

Have you talked to your national recruitment team advisor?

I agree with PhoenixAzul that you should wear your letters a lot. That's like free publicity. Your chapter should think about sponsoring an event on campus. A lot of sororities do that here, they'll advertise primarily in the freshmman and sophomore dorms. Do something like a finals study break with dessert and stuff or like a party in one of the lounges to watch the OC or any other popular tv show. Hang up flyers and posters and put on them "Sponsored by Delta Phi Epsilon." Make sure that everyone wears letters to that. Seeing your whole sorority together, in letters, being friendly, might get girls who come out to rush to think more about your chapter, or it might even encourage other girls to come to rush that otherwise weren't thinking about it.

also, if you do a campus event, talk to your favorite fraternity and see if they would want to pair up to sponsor it. This way, you not only get girls, but guys, and we all know what we like to look at ;). My chapter sponsored a movie night in one of the big classrooms here on campus with a fraternity that we really love to death, had tons of popcorn and chips and pop, time to sit around before the movie, time to talk to the girls and guys, it was great. We also do the "Egger" in spring quarter with the same fraternity where it is 1 dollar to smash an egg over the head of a member of either chapter. Granted a lot of that was just each group getting each other, but damned if it wasn't fun. People saw that, and saw that we had a good time doing it and that we were willing to be silly....

Not to be a party pooper, but i'd be wary of trying that egger idea... hazing-ish issues, people wacking each other on the head issues, and there's a lot of people that wouldn't think that getting an egg smashed on your head is fun.

There's been a lot of great ideas on this thread, and if you do some searches and look back through threads in the greek life and rush forums you'll find posts by other ladies whose chapters have been in a similar situation, there has been a TON of great advice on here over the years.

Good luck, and please talk to your HQ, they have a wealth of information, and staff that can hopefully help your chapter out!

I ditto the idea on an all campus event. But if you invite a fraternity, don't make it an official rush event. Also, don't rely on the reputation of a men's group to help yours. You cannot control what they do. (And its not really allowed by NPC) One thing that really helped my chapter get off the ground was 'must see tv' nights. It was more sisterhoody and they hung out and watched ally mcbeal at one point, and another show a different year. Letters are good, so are chalkings as a way to get out your name (though it is kinda late in the year for that). If you want to go more academic, do fireside chats, invite a prof each week or everyother week to discuss something they are into. Phi Psi did this and they had very provocative discussions. Great idea to get their name out. (it was, i believe, part of their agressive drive to change their rep)

The Egger was great, even got a couple of professors to smash us. Made everyone's hair nice and shiny. Lots of cleanup though.

A Kereoke (sp?) night could be fun too.

Just goes to show how an event may go over differently with different people.

To the original poster, as the saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures, so make sure you kick booty, but abide by the rules of your GLO and NPC (no men involved in recruitment events, no alcohol, etc). The last thing you need is a stressful situation!

Tips for a chapter struggling with numbers

1) Chapter Pride
* Hold a "How are we doing meeting?" Allow chapter members to express their opinions of how the chapter is being run, challenges the chapter is facing, etc. Exec board should allow the members to vent, and should not offer excuses or rebuttals. However, anyone that vents must offer a plausible solution to any problems/challenges that they mention. Keep track of these on a large sheet of easel paper and have the recording sec'y type them up and submit to all chapter members, advisers, and national officers who are regularly involved with your chapter
* Invite your alumnae to come to the chapter monthly for an inspirational chat. They can bring scrapbooks and memoribilia, and talk about their time as a collegian.
* Meet with your regional alumnae advisers and national officers. They can assist you in developing an action plan.
* Hold a "What kind of girl do we want and need?" meeting. Take out the easel paper again and list the attributes you are looking for in a member. Also, who will be graduating soon? What attributes has she contributed that you will now be lacking (IE: your star artist, singer, intramurals athlete, etc.). Look for girls to help fulfill those roles.
* With the help of those national officers, hold a recruitment and image building workshop that will be fun, interactive and helpful. Members should come away with a positive sense of the chapter, themselves and coversation as well as how to look better as a chapter, both inside and out.

2) Panhellenic Relations
* Hold a sisterhood supper or ice cream dessert with the other sororities. Get to know them. If they have super nice things to say about you, word spreads fast! And chances are they can refer women to you.
* Give incentives for members to attend Panhellenic meetings and give awards to the other sororties on campus's members for being "Greek of the Week," etc.

3) Fraternity Relations
* Hold an an event and invite the fraternities to participate-- IE: Lip Sync, Campus Clean-Up, Elementary School Buddy Day, Clothing Drive, etc. Be persistent with their social chairs and philanthropy chairs. Also, try to arrange for 4-way socials with the fraternities and sororities-- the more the merrier.

4) Grades
* Keep your grades up! Brag about your academic accomplishments. Get your girls to qualify for and join the honor societies. This is a great resume builder AND place to network with non-Greeks who could be great sorority members!
5) Campus organizations

6) Public Relations
* Set a day once a week where the entire chapter dresses in letters. If you want, dress to pin once a week, too! Meet on campus for lunch in groups when you are in letters. The more visible your chapter, the more people will notice you!
* Host an event with another campus organization, preferably a women's group, and put it on for the students in the residence halls. You can "rush" the members of the women's group and the dorm residents!
ETA: Also make sure all members are actively involved in at least one, if not 2 outside Greek campus activities and give them incentives to wear letters to those club meetings and be involved in those groups leaderships.
Also send in regular press releases to the university's school newspaper and put banners outside your house or hall to celebrate chapter and individual achievements, even birthdays!

Check in regularly with your chapter and keep everyone happy!

I don't know if you'd be allowed to do this by your campus Panhel, or if you'd want to, but last year, during informal recruitment, a chapter on my campus was struggling with numbers so what they did was invite EVERY SINGLE PNM to their pref, even the ones who didn't attend any of their events, anbd they just automatically gave bids to all of the girls who came to their pref. During informal recruitment, girls are allowed to get more than one bid, so there were several girls who went to their pref and got bids only to them and pledged them. It did work for them, because they got 14 NM's last year. A word of caution though, is that they got girls in the remaining 3 sororities to be bitter and mad about that. The PNM's were confused to. Some of them asked us during our pref if we knew why they got invited to XYZ's pref when they didn't go to a single XYZ event.

I would not recommend this! Numbers are not the be all, end all, and you don't want to give out bids to women who might not meet your chapter's standards just to raise your total! It's great to focus on the positive aspects that your chapter brings to the table and market like crazy, but you don't want to be known as the house that gives a bid to every woman with a pulse!

I agree with this. The other chapters on our campus all looked down on them when they did that. Getting high numbers worked out well for them though, none of the girls dropped, and a couple of them got their friends to pledge this semester. This chapter had some problems with their nationals, and so they may have just done that in order to prove to nationals that they could attract a lot of girls.

Definitely agree. I know I felt special and like I had achieved something when I got a bid from my chapter, and I'm sure many other girls felt the same way about other sororities. After a hectic, stressful week of rush (or a few visits during COB), a lot of girls like to feel a sense of achievement that they got the sorority they wanted. If they were to find out that every single girl recevied a bid from one sorority, it might be a blow to the ego. Not to mention, like APhi Diva said, you don't want the reputation as the house that takes anyone and everyone! Remember, it's quality, not quanity. And chances are, if you've got the quality, PNMs are going to realize that and want to be a part of your sisterhood.

This is what I would suggest...when I was pledging for Phi Sigma Sigma at Ferris this is what they did. They did not feel that they had enough girls yet, and technically we didn't cause we had like half of our quota. So they decided to have a BBQ at their house. What they did was made up some awesome flyers for sisters to pass out. They printed up maybe like a hundred of them and handed them out. They then provided food and beverages and asked girls to come that were interested. Well obviously...when it comes to free food, people will come. So I would say about 30 girls showed up that day. Now of course we could not take all of the girls...but we had a chance to talk to them, and get to know them, and I would say out of the 30 girls, we took 20 of them and made quota. It was nice. Maybe that is an idea. I know you can't really do that now since Winter is coming. But it is an idea I guess

CO SIGN! Do not do this! If you do, you WILL get to be known as THAT house. The idea may work on different campuses. If you do this, you will get LARGE numbers, but those women may just be there b/c they knew they could get a bid and some greek letters. These women will be the RUIN of your chapter.

Ok that might be a little harsh to say, that the women would RUIN the chapter.

I think you need to tone it down a tiny bit and be honest, you get a hit or miss situation. They could be your star siters, or they could all deactivate.

No matter which way it goes, it will be in the long term, harmful to your chapter's reputation. (Let's be honest, it matters) It takes away from the signifigance of the bid, but also creates that idea of "they'll take anyone" Yep, you might end up with all the rotten apples, but, to me, ruin is a little dramatic.

We've given a lot of good advice. Your chapter needs to be highly motivated and work their butts off. But never forget to let the sorority become ALL business, keep the fun, find ways for women to connect and encourage them to bring in their non-greek friends. That CampuSpeak guy told us that we need to replace ourselves twice over. So set the goal for each woman to bring in two more by their junior year. Plan ahead, replace your juniors, not your seniors so you don't scramble to replace the most amazing 15 women ever in a sorority, use the older ones to help show what DPhiE really is about.
Good luck!

That's more along the lines of what I meant to say. Sorry for the harshness. It could potentially be a disaster, but not in all cases. Oh- and the Campus Speak speaker was the SAVIOR of my chapter-that's a little dramatic, but it totally changed the way we go about Informal recruitment.:)

Maybe a better solution, too, is getting lots and lots of women to your events, so you have more to choose from. There's something to be said for having a larger pool of prospective talent from which to choose your membership.

I have to agree with what others have said... this is a very dangerous idea. With this approach, you may get a lot of warm dues-paying bodies, but they could be anyone... people who can't make grades, people who get drunk every Thursday and stay that way until Monday, the campus ho, or a group of people who don't fit in well with the sisters and don't uphold the sorority's ideals. Plus, you come across as desperate and willing to take anybody. In the case that KLPDaisy described, it looks like that didn't happen... if so, that chapter is very lucky.

I also agree that holding rush events with fraternities is a bad idea. You might find your PNMs (and your sisters!) treating it more like a mixer rather than a rush event. Plus I think there may be NPC unanimous agreements about that... certainly no men are allowed at formal recruitment, I'm not sure about informal. Plan some sisterhood-like events, like Must See TV, cookie baking, going out to a movie (chat on the way over to the theatre), etc.

As for getting women to come out, get your sisters out in the community and into various activities where they can meet unaffiliated women. Make sure your sisters are wearing letters. If there are women you want to encourage to rush, personally invite them - don't wait for them to see a flyer.

Good luck! :)

hijack

I know what they mean when they say "replacing yourself" in the chapter, but I wish there was a more delicate way to say it. I mean, I or the rushees am not a spark plug. If I would have been told that during rush or read it, I would have been totally turned off - I mean, I thought they wanted me because they liked me, not because I would fill an emptying hole.

/hijack

And I'm going to be harsh and say yes, in many cases where you take anything that moves, the women DO ruin the chapter. Get as many women as you possibly can to events, then the wheat will stand out from the chaff.

How about calling it a "chapter needs assessment"-- yes, you're still looking for people, but in these cases you are looking for specific skill sets and personality attributes that range widely... similiar to an employer recruiting a new project team that will work well together, and with individual's talents contributing to the group's success.

I agree with going the non-traditional route, and looking for "different" types of women. I've heard of chapters that got lotsa girls from mixers with fraternities, but then some of those girls turned out to be not too great for the chapter. I was a Junior when I joined and I met some of the girls because they were just hanging around the dining hall and came up and talked to me and my roommate. ALL of the girls in our class who ended up dropping said they wanted to join because they met some of the sisters at mixers with the frat boys, and they were big into the "party scene". Obviously partying is not what DPhiE is all about and if that is where you are looking all the time, it will reflect in the women you get. Also diversity is very important too. Some of the best and most dedicated girls are people that you probably never thought about hanging out with before.

A strategy I have seen work is this:

Each member/new member is encouraged to meet 2 women who they think would be an asset to the chapter and invite them to COB events. (perhaps this is the same concept as "replacing yourself" twice, but put in a more subtle manner). I think I would have been flattered if a sorority woman had said to me "Since I've met you, I've really thought that you would be a great asset to my sorority and I'd really like you to meet my sisters. Would you come to _____ to meet them and we'll see if my hunch is right?"

Dee

I agree. Maybe set the first two weeks of the semester as COR. Go ahead and put pledging on the calendar. After that-just have fun! I agree-COR every week for a whole semester is going to kill you. This is supposed to be fun! I also agree with wearing letters constantly-but make sure you are wearing them so you look nice. Do not overlook women because YOU think they wouldn't be interested. You can never tell someone else what they would be interested in. Some people are just shy and would never approach you (I was one of those people). But if you approach them, they are so gung-ho!

I TOTALLY agree with this. I remember in my rush workshops in undergrad we always talked about how some women are intimadated for whatever reason by women in a sorority. Also I remember that there were girls who joined who were tomboyish or not the Barbie-doll sorority girl stereotype but after they became sisters, had a huge boost to their confidence, and their true beauty began to shine through. A lot of them appearance-wise did a complete 180. Also always remember not to ever talk about negativity and pettiness of the chapter around your friends that are not in the sorority. I had a lot of really good girlfriends in undergrad that said they would have loved to join but knew about some drama and just didn't want to get involved because of that.

This can work if you know the pool of women that you're working with (meaning they aren't heinous) and if your chapter needs a revitalization (new ideas, new energy, etc.). There are times where you can get 10-20 women in a group that can help make some decisions for the group and turn it around...but you have to know who you're throwing those bids out to (don't do it blindly). It really depends on the campus as well...while this isn't always a stellar idea and isn't an idea that should be repeated (meaning do it once and don't do it again for many years so that you don't become THAT sorority), if planned and calculated right, it could work. DON'T do it without some thought (and the cajones to live with the consequences!). Be very cautious with this one, and discuss it with your National Staff...they may not like it too well.

Men are not allowed to participate in any sort of recruitment event....however, who says that you have to have a "recruitment event" in order to recruit? If you're doing a philanthropy with a fraternity, invite some unafilliated women along so they can see that side of sorority life. (Invite women that some members know, don't just put out an open invitation on campus...that makes it look more like a recruitment event). If you're having a TAME mixer (don't get wild with it!), invite a few girls that you are just about ready to give bids to, as long as the fraternity is OK with it. Are you having a paper (informal) meeting one night with an educational presentation afterwards? Bring a couple of PNMs (once again, ones that several people know so they don't feel so out of place) to show them the personal development style of sorority. Just make sure that they aren't going to hear things non-members shouldn't hear...planning ahead is key.

My chapter used to kill two birds with one stone...they would do a philanthropy event with a fraternity in the afternoon/early evening, then have a mixer to celebrate that night. It cut down on overprogramming, gave a better image than "we just party with fraternities", and allowed the members to build deeper friendships with the guys (instead of just the "party" type of relationships). PNMs could attend those as well.

The thing to do here is think outside the box. Look at what other groups are doing, what's working, what's not, and try some new ideas. Sometimes if you quit advertising on campus and get a little bit "mysterious" about your "selection process", it piques some interest...a little buzz on campus if you will. Once again, it depends on the campus culture you're dealing with, so brainstorm some ideas.

Good Luck and keep us updated!
PsychTau

I think it should be something that comes naturally, not that you set out to do. I mean, I might meet lots of people I like, but that does not necessarily mean my sisters will like them - in some cases I KNOW my sisters won't like them. We had one member who was great but continually invited her friends to open bid parties - and they were WEIRD. (I think she rather liked being queen of the dorks, to paraphrase Sixteen Candles) She knew the rest of the sisters didn't want them to join but kept inviting them to parties anyway. Needless to say the poor girls thought they had a chance to join.

If I invited a woman to an open bid party it was because I thought she was special and my sisters would like her too - and there weren't many that I put my neck on the line and did that for.

The "5 step model of rush" does not take and should not take 5 minutes and I'm afraid it's been marketed to make people think it should. You optimally want to get a friendship to the point where they feel so comfy with you and the bros/sisters that they ask YOU how to join.

You make a good point. Women would need to be encouraged to follow your model, not the other sister's model. I think that most of us, while in college, meet 2 women over the 4 years who would make great sisters but just didn't think about approaching them or exposing them to the whole greek atmosphere.

I encourage you to contact your Membership Recruitment Advisor or the International Director of Recruitment, both of whom you can get email addresses for at www.dphie.org. They will definitely be able to help.

I was in NO WAY suggesting that they just hand out bids to girls. I was suggesting that sometimes women are not approached in scenarios like this:
"Oh I know her-she wouldn't be interested. She's a "insert sterotype here" major".

"Oh she wouldn't have time, she's on the soccer team. You know how busy they are"

"Naw, she wouldn't be interested, she's from Japan. She wanted to know what triangle K meant on my jersey!"

" I hang out with her all the time. If she was interested she'd have said something by now"

"she's friends with all the XYZ's. She wouldn't want us"

"I think she'd prefer and NPHC group because she's friends with so and so and I know so and so is a Delta"

That's the kind of stuff I am talking about. I remember one day seeing a BEAUTIFUL girl sitting my herself in the quad one day and thinking I'd invite her to something and a sister of mine was all like "Oh I have class with her and all she talks about is her boyfriend and modeling.Like she's a real model!" It was obvious to me that my sister was intimidated by this girl. She had nothing nice to say about her. Another girl I wanted to invite was quite fat-but very nicely pout together and cute. They didn't want me to ask her either. Both girls ended up joining a different group on campus at formal the next year and were great girls. That's the stuff I am talking about.

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained!

Dumbest question is the one never asked!

Just because the outside package may project something, the thing is to try to find out about what is in the package.:)

Sometimes it may just surprise you and others.:cool:

Try doing this as I did, one person trying to start a Local full of National GLOs.:o :eek:

Well in Feb, We will be Celebrating 40 Years from Founding as a Local, Affiliation with LXA and loving every minute of it!

While We may have been a bunch of cast offs and rag a muffins as one Brother posted on GC, We are still thriving.

Some you may think are not availabe, could turn out to be the Gem in the rough and be a Star and Leader!:cool:

Never say Never!:)

I also wanted to add, that I find it quite interesting that many girls who were in my chapter who bad-mouthed potential members for whatever reason, as well as treating sisters who joined who weren't "stereotypical sorority girls" (or whatever other reason) as less-then them, are the ones who are now MIA and I never see or hear from anymore. Yes they are still my sisters and I don't really want to talk bad about them, that's not the point, but it just goes to show that from an alumna standpoint, you will see who the TRUE meat and potatoes of your chapter will be, who will not only support you in their time as actives of the chapter, but also down the road as alumnae of your chapter, and finally, in daily life. I think this ties into the discussion that while numbers are definately important, QUALITY is more important overall then QUANTITY.

Dear Brit,

My chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma began the 2001-2002 school year with four members. Yep, four. HQ never came right out and said it, but we knew that if we didn't have a stellar year, it would cost us our charter. I was the rush chair that year; I was a junior. When I graduated, the chapter was at twenty-five (campus total is sixty). Now my little grandsis tells me that everyone is certain that we'll take quota during formal recruitment this year. Kappa went from a dying ember to a roaring blaze in just a few years. I want to tell you, it can be done. The women just have to want it badly enough. As best as I can put it together right now, here's a list of ten things your chapter can do to turn itself around.

1. Make the decision. Put it in writing. Just saying, "Yeah, we wanna get bigger," isn't going to do it. You have to make it a priority. You have to commit. The ACTIVES have to do it. As much as alumnae might weep to see their chapter close, as much as they might prod and help and beg and plead, in the end, it's all about the actives. Make the decision, right now, that during the next formal recruitment, you are going to take quota. Do not allow anyone to say anything otherwise. I outlawed all such talk in my chapter. "We are going to have all three Pref parties and we are going to take quota. If anybody has a problem with that, she can leave right now."

2. Contact your HQ. They need to know about the situation. Demand whatever support they can give you. We got a CCD (Coordinator for Chapter Development), something which usually only new colonies get. In our case it was a chapter alumna. She was a hands-on advisor with tons of Kappa resources and even more ideas. Ask your HQ to waive whatever fees it can so that the chapter has more money to play with. Get their help rallying alumnae to support the chapter. HQ also hooked us up with other chapters, who gave us leftover rush shirts & letters, old theme party ideas, etc. One chapter even lent us bodies! It was great.

3. Use your alumnae. Get a list of your chapter alumnae who are still in the area. Contact them and let them know what's going on. It's impossible to sit there and watch something of yours, something that once thrived, wither away and die. That's exactly what our alumnae saw every time they looked at us, so when we asked for help, they were there to give us whatever we needed. And I'm here to tell you that we couldn't have done it without them. Our local alumnae association is nationally recognized for being exceptionally involved with our chapter. They assist in every aspect of our functioning. When we were down to our smallest, the alumnae were our committees for us. We delegated responsibilities to them, like going shopping and making decorations. They donated money, because our income from dues was barely enough to cover fraternity fees. They made all the food for our rush. They painted the window of our room (we're not housed). They were moral support, almost like surrogate mothers. And they wouldn't let us give up. We couldn't have done it without them.

4. Confront Panhel. Have an advisor come in if you can. We were fortunate that we have a ZE Kappa alumna who works on campus. She came into our Panhel and laid it out. If we folded, our sorority system would die. They knew it, even though they didn't want to admit it. The whispering and rumours didn't stop, and the dirty rush didn't end, but they all cut down a little bit. The Recruitment Counsellors actually encouraged people to think that they were Kappas (we didn't have any Kappa RCs 'cuz we couldn't spare the women). They did a decent job of running a Kappa whispering campaign. Make it clear to your Panhel that if you go, one of them is next. All the infighting HAS GOT TO STOP. Single out the chapter that only got 8 women where the others got 10. They're next. Ask the other groups to hold off on COBing for the rest of the year (if you can swing it) or the rest of the semester at least. There was a year of which we do not speak in which Kappa got NO pledge class. None. After that, the other two didn't COB. Instead they pushed all the unmatched women to go Kappa. It worked, sort of (a bunch of them wound up dropping out of school for personal reasons).

5. Strengthen Panhel. This year we're getting an NPC consulting team in to help us raise Greek spirit on campus. We need to get more women to go Greek, plain and simple. And the point is that, just as a chapter's obviously not healthy if it's low in numbers, Panhel is obviously not healthy if it's let a chapter get that low in numbers. Something is foul here, and it needs to be fixed. Again, make it clear to Panhel. If we go now, one of you is next. Who's going to be on the bottom then? Whom will you pick on? Whom will you gossip about? I'm assuming that there were a bunch of women who went unmatched at this past formal recruitment. That means that something is afoul with the system. The quota system is designed so that each chapter gets about the same number of women. If that doesn't happen, then structurally, something is wrong. Encourage them to evaluate and fix the broken parts.

6. Evaluate your weaknesses. Low numbers are not the problem. They're the most obvious symptom of a greater problem. In our case it was twofold: poor organization and poor rushing skills. Stop blaming others and acknowlege that you have changes to make. Figure out what your structural problems are and fix those. Your HQ can be a huge help there. We had a Travelling Consultant come in and help us train our officers. We now have a great Chapter Council and tons of our administrative issues are gone. It left us free to focus on rushing. We also recognized that we couldn't rush, so we had sisters from Chi Chapter at the University of MN come to help with our rush. We paired up a ZE with a Chi and worked PNMs that way, with the Chi to help with conversation and the ZE to get to know the PNM. (Then we went on a neat weekend trip out to visit them and stay in their house in the spring. It was great fun.)

7. Improve your rushing. Stop blaming dirty rushing and others' badmouthing you. Yes, dirty rushing happens. But you can help stave off its effects by presenting an even stronger case for your chapter. In our case we didn't know how to rush, plain and simple. I know I'd never been taught. We'd gotten to the point where the last member who joined through formal recruitment had graduated several years before. We were all COB, and we'd gotten defensive about the fact that we couldn't do a formal rush. The most common line I heard was, "Well, we just don't want the sort of girls that come through formal recruitment. They're looking for a sorority girl experience, and that's not what we are." HELLO? We're a sorority! The hard thing for us was admitting that we were a sorority and that it was not a bad thing. Sorority women are cool! They're strong and intelligent and independent and charismatic. Our reasoning wasn't true at all; we were just rationalizing the fact that we couldn't recruit to save our souls. Our practices were years out of date and our hearts weren't in it. We solicited ideas from other chapters and redid the way we ran recruitment. We ran conversation workshop after workshop. And it's not just enough to be able to sell "sorority." We practiced selling Kappa; you need to practice selling DPhiE. Every member should be able to articulate why she chose your organization over any of the others, and why she's staying.

8. Play to your strengths. This goes back to the rushing point. Why would a woman want to join DPhiE when she could easily be an ABC or an XYZ? Well, going DPhiE will give you a smaller, closer, more intimate sisterhood, and immediate leadership opportunities. You can be an officer right away. You can personally be involved in re-shaping a chapter. We talked about our chapter's founders and why they'd opted for the Kappa colony instead of DG, Theta, or Pi Phi (which were on campus at the time). Simple: they wanted to be a part of something new and different. They wanted to make a mark, a lasting impression, and be remembered. Everybody in chapter knows our chapter founders, and I'm sure that twenty years from now, sisters are going to remember us and say, "Yeah, ZE Chapter almost died then, but they worked their butts off and we're still here thanks to them." Even if they don't know our names, they'll know that our efforts are what made them able to have such an experience.

9. Get involved on campus (wearing your letters, of course). That's the best way to quash rumours. Just be out there and let people see for themselves that the stories aren't true. Have socials with other groups, both Greek and not. Hang out and study in the library. We have deferred recruitment, so we had an entire term to show PNMs that, even though we were only four women, we had an incredibly strong sisterhood and a fierce determination to succeed. We brought groups to campus. We studied together. We ate lunch together every week. We lived in our letters. We went to campus events and hung out all over the place in our letters. We were walking Kappa billboards. We networked our way through freshman women so that even if they didn't know us personally, they knew who we were. We put up a bathroom newsletter every week, just a single sheet of paper in the stalls of the girls bathrooms. It had a Calvin & Hobbes, a few inspirational quotes, random things like "Top Ten Reasons to Go Greek," a mind game or word puzzle (something that didn't require a pencil, obviously), random fun facts, and a riddle or trivia question (the answer to which could be found on our website). Most importantly, the bottom read, "Brought to you by the sisters of Kappa Kappa Gamma, www.lawrence.edu/sorg/kappa."

10. If you build it, they will come. In other words, don't forget to have fun. If people around campus see that you have a good time, they'll want to know what it's about. To quote a song we used to sing in chapter, "They'll know we are Kappas by our love." If you strive to live your lives by the ideals that Delta Phi Epsilon holds dear, others will want to follow your example.

I admire the energy and optimism you have. Just remember that your chapter sisters have to want a turnaround every bit as bad as you want it for them or it's not going to happen. Make them realize that they have to commit. For us it took having tons of members resign/transfer/drop out and having HQ threaten to pull the plug in order to realize that we needed to do something. It required a lot of effort and an entire mindset change, but it worked. We're well on our way to being a force to be reckoned with again, and I hope you will soon be following along with us. I wish you the best of luck and hope that you'll keep us posted.

Yours,
KKC

Diamond Delta - since you're a member of Delta Theta Tau - which I gather is not a collegiate sorority, how is it that you tried rushing women in the quads and then they joined other sororities on campus through formal recruitment?

KKC -- that's an awesome post!!!!! Kudos to you for taking the time to help and offer your experiences!

Woohoo! KappaKittyCat!! I wish my chapter had this back in F03 when we were struggling.