Former Sisters Forming a New Group
 

So we had a couple of sisters for different reasons drop out of our chapter. Now a year later, they are starting a chapter of a latina sorority. They were intiated members of our chapter. Our greek advisor is suporting them in this new effort even though she knows they were former members of our group. I know there is no rule on this because the new group they are trying to form is not panhellenic but it just seems shady. What do ya'll think?

I think it really depends on the reasons why they left... which is probably something only they *really* know. I say this, because unless there was some huge falling out and everyone witnessed something that made them want to leave, all you really have to go off of was why they *told* you they left. It could be they left because they wanted something from a sisterhood that they didn't see ... or because something bad happened...

I was once a member of a local sorority, as were many of my close friends from the first university I went to. A lot of baaaaaaad stuff happened, and about half of the local sorority deactivated... myself included.

Some went on to join the new KDChi colony that was forming (which I believe is predominately a latina sorority), and the others (myself included) started another local with the intent of going national. I transferred before they colonized with a NPC group and found my home in ADPi up here. They are now all happily initiated members of another NPC at my old university.

The school was not a very big greek school... at the time all this happened there were only 2 local sororities, and the KDChi colony. One of the local sororities went national w/ a NPC group, the other local (that had many members leave) stayed local, and the group that broke off to form the new local eventually went on to becoming another NPC.... so maybe your perspective depends on the school atmosphere....

Personally, I think it's sad to see members leave, but ultimately, everyone -- the local, the new local-turned-NPC group, and myself are all happy with the way things turned out. Sometimes things happen for the best. :) All you can do is wish them well and move on with your own chapter.

How did you go from being in a local to a national. I thought that no matter what, even if you quit and turn in your letters and everyhing else, you can NEVER join a national after being in another sorority

Those rules dont apply to local orgs. only to national. I did the same thing. I was in a local then transferred and now in a national.
And on the topic of Local orgs the founders of my local org. did the same thing. 3 of them were initiated members of a national sorority. During their time one was having problems with her grades and rather then her sisters (not the other 2 girls) helping her they didnt want her to be apart of the organization anymore. So the 3 of them dropped and formed thier own group along with 5 other women. The sorority is only 4 1/2 years old but when i was there it was amazing to see how 8 women created a wonderful org and i wish them all the best.

I dont think its shady. some people realize that certain things arent for them. And exactly what texas-princess said just wish them well and continue with your own group.

A) If you were initiated into a local, it is possible to be initiated into an NPC sorority should you decide to disaffiliate from your local.

B) If you are intiated into an NPC sorority, you cannot be initiated into *ANOTHER* NPC sorority.

C) If you are initiated into an NPC sorority, it is possible to initiate into a local sorority should you decide to disaffiliate from the NPC sorority.

People have their own reasons why they'd do A or C. It's up to them to do what they want so that they feel comfortable in their home.

Also too think about it this way.

Some females might find that they long for sisterhood and to have a connection with other members but have been initiated into an NPC organization.

Some new members go to certain chapters for the wrong reasons (IE best friend was rushing that chapter, its the "best chapter on campus", mom was a member of that chapter, etc) because they did not examine what they needed as a person. Sometimes they realize that a year later. SO without being able to join the "right" NPC organization they form their own local.

I dont think that it is fishy. I think if we would ever be able to see their ritual it would look a lot like the ritual of their previous organization and that could be taken as a compliment.

:)

She could join an NPC if she disaffiliated with a local. If she transferred from her old school to her new school, being a new member of the colony, but not initiated, she could also rush and join a new sorority at her new school.

As for these other women forming their own sorority after disaffiliating from your chapter, I don't think it's a bad thing. Maybe they didn't find the fit with your chapter that they thought they would, and so they decided a Latina sorority would be better.

Although I can understand that your chapter may be disappointed or have some hurt feelings that these ladies chose to deactivate and are now starting a new org, it may simply be a better fit for them. I would think it would be better to have a few girls who are happy in their new org and are strengthening the Greek community as a whole rather than a few unhappy girls who aren't adding anything to either their org or the community.

And they're not starting a local from scratch and blatantly appropriating things from your chapter or ritual, right? So it could be worse.

We had this unreal rush one year and ended up w/a pledge class the size of our entire sorority, 25 women. We didn't know what to do, so to be honest we have to take some blame. However, kinda spured by one woman, a few of them felt that AST wasn't 'national' enough for them. They really wanted to be members of a VERY large national organization. So they dropped formed a local and are trying to get picked up by an NPC. However the other local is currently fighting them tooth and nail, because they don't want to be changed. Anyhow, long story, short, in the long run, it was better for us to lose the women who wanted Greek looking letters. I'd cut your losses and move on, you don't want the drama of being upset. Be the bigger women.

If someone disaffiliates from an NPC sorority, helps to establish a local, and the local decides to try to be picked up by...

1. that person's former NPC, or
2. another NPC

... would that former NPC member have to quit the local? Seems so, but what a sad and difficult situation that would be.

Regarding locals whose intention from the start is to be picked up by an NPC sorority... How are they different from a local that (at least in the beginning) intends to be just a local? How can you create and have faith in your traditions, symbols and rituals if you hope/intend to someday give them up for that of an NPC? And the new traditions/symbols/rituals/etc. might be so different from that of the original local... would you risk losing the sisterhood and togetherness that you already had?

PGHLady

There's a crazy shady group on our campus lol. Remind me sometime, i'll tell you about them.

shady!
 

I think it's shady that this Latina sorority would accept ladies who were already initiated into another organization, period. I hear about this frequently, and I'll never understand why some groups allow it. I would not want "sorority hoppers" in my organization. I also don't agree with people leaving their organization especially if the sorority is national, because the sorority is bigger than just the chapter someone is initiated at. They probably could have found other ways to be involved if they were not getting along with members of their local chapter.

Like people have already explained, it's possible as long as they are disaffiliated. I never joined the colony that started.. the colony started after I left.... I just helped my friends start the local interest group that eventually became the colony. :)

Okay so its actually like a Latina sorority that is national but not panhellenic ... maybe that explains it better ... I am alum now but I know that some of the girls are upset because they didn't think this could happen and as I tried to explain to them why it could it was upsetting that this Latina national org wouldnt care that at one point they were in a national panhellenic sorority.

I guess My Question would be, why did they leave and Join another Sorority? Okay, so it is Latino. I take it They may have been Latino or another Culture.

Maybe it is time to look unto yourselves to see what the problem is, not at them?:(

Wow. There are lots of reasons a woman would disaffiliate from her national GLO, finances being one of the top ones from what I understand. Also, it may have nothing to do with the women in the chapter, often times you wind up with "malcontents" in any group. I've seen this sort of thing happen at UCF a few times, and in all honesty, I've never seen the organization's actions to be at fault. I'm not saying that's always the case, just more often then not.

If someone is unhappy in their GLO, and they choose to leave, that's not necessaraly a reflection on the GLO, or even the chapter.

Thank you! :)

I don't really see a difference. Some national groups (whether they are Latina, NPC, whatever) don't get upset that some potential members were formally local members... and sometimes it even works backwards. I'm almost certain there may have been instances somewhere where a member of a national sorority disaffiliates and joins a local that takes them in knowing that they were former members of another organization.

It even works in the fraternity world (in a somewhat different way)... some IFC men may disaffiliate and even join another IFC even though the new group knows they were former members of another IFC org.

I'm not trying to say that it is always right.. sometimes people will leave because it turns out to not be a fit.. sometimes it's the finances... sometimes they want "more greek looking letters" (like someone posted earlier)... for whatever reason it didn't work out... why would you want to prevent them from finding happiness in another organization of a different type? (i.e. national NPC to national Latina or whatever) That's why NPC has rules stating that if a member decided to not initiate, she may pursue membership with another NPC organization... she has to wait a while, but they allow her to find a place where she will be an asset to her chapter... that way everyone is happy.

Someone earlier in the thread said they don't want anyone "sorority hopping" to be members of *their* sorority, but unless their national or local org. has very explicit rules about it, chances are in reality it has probably happened. Are they any less of a sister to you if you knew they once belonged to another sorority whether it be local, national, regional? I would hope not.

This girls were intiated and in some cases were members for more than a year of our group.

I realize that.. but in some cases initated members of NPC (or locals or Latina groups) disaffiliate... and after awhile they may join another sorority - whether it's on that campus, another campus, an existing sorority, or they may start a new one.

My question was basically why is it different if they are former members of locals or nationals?

I just ask because I've seen several times that people seem more passionate about it if they were members of nationals in a different conference and are joining a national in another conference. I don't really see a difference (if they were national or local former members).

What if a former member of a national Latina organization disaffiliated for whatever reasons and pursued membership into your sorority? While it is up to the chapter to extend bids, the national organization does not have rules against extending bids to former members of national Latina (or local or regional) sorority members. Please correct me if I'm wrong, because obviously I am not an AXiD, but my general guess would be that they do not. If the national had a big problem with it(on either side -- the national Latina org. or the NPC org), I am sure they would have thought about it and have some kind of rule against it.

Both Hispanic Based Fraterities and Sororities do have a national conference: NALFO (National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations )

azdtaxi
 

That was the reason that I asked the question and made the statement that I did.

A girl leaving doesnt sound bad at all, it can and does happen.

But in reading this it was several and some who had been members for at least a year.

Again, where does the problem lay? Was it just them or the Chapter?

Welcome to GC! It's always good to see another Pittsburgher :) what part of the burgh are you from?

Hope to see you around GC more! Us Pgh GCers get together every once in awhile, maybe you could join us sometime!

Hail to Pitt!

pm_mama, did they dissafiliate?

Carol9A, what do you mean by no regulations over recruitment? Lost me there.

ariesrising, I would think it would depend on what each National has in their bylaws. Usually, if it is a Social Group No. If honory or service type Org. then it is welcomed.

Basically, I think it comes down to Social Groups.

Guess it lays on their head and not Phi Mu Chapter. There will always be some of that type who can run a Good Chapter into the ground. To bad so sad, they are gone, Not.

Can relate even though I was not in college at the Time.

Had a President who would place people on Suspension. He had NO RIGHT, but many did not know this. I am still trying to find these Brothers to get them back in good standing when actually they were not in bad standing except for a Jerk Brother!

Cosign!!! You certainly don't have to have gone to Pitt to get together with us (right, 33Girl? :) ); it would be great to meet you!!

carol9a, maybe it is because the M and L GLOs are so new and not recognized by the existing Groups?

But, remember, it is nice to work within a frame work.

Well, in thinking on this for a few, maybe it is better to not be held down by restrictinons where Sororitys cannot expand because of said Rules.:(

I have Brothers not only in My Chapter that I have met and they were Black, White Yellow or Red and would tell me that.

My Response was, :Oh excuse Me, I thought you are a LXA:! Color, what is your color except Purple Green and Gold, our Colors.

That has been the key point to me.:)


If an idividual does not feel comfortable with any Current GLOs, they will look for something else. True?

Re: Former Sisters Forming a New Group
 

Let them go.

If the school and the other sorority's nationals are OK with it, there's really nothing you can do about it. Wish them well. Trying to hold them back or complaining about it will just make whatever made them disaffiliate 100 times worse.

PGH lady, if someone is for example a DZ at Pitt, transfers to CMU and joins the local there, and then the local decides to go national with ZTA, she cannot join ZTA. If the local decides to go DZ, she could be an active member again.

Actually, I did go to Pitt! :) We live in Pittsburgh but are planning to move outside of Allegheny County - in part due to the taxes here. Thanks for the invitation, and maybe something could work out before we leave!

PGHLady

I am in Kappa Delta Chi and I know for a fact that we do not allow any former member of a sorority to rush us. Meaning if you have been initiated by another sorority we will not take you.

Can you tell us what organization they are trying to form? If you don't want to post you can send it to me personally:)


Another thing to look at is that maybe this Latina Sorority doesn't know that these ladies are former members and that is why they are allowing them to start a colony.

:)

By the way this is my first post... Blue is my fave color can you tell!!

I'm sorry that you guys are hurt, but your chapter just has to let it go. It is the responsibility of the Latina Nat'l to check our the women. Not yours to go running to them unless they ask you. The situation sucks, but getting to hung up on figuring out if they are allowed gets no one anywhere. Get your sisters to move on and hold no anomosity toward this group. If more diversity is needed work on that, if sisterhood needs to be strengthened, work on that. But honestly, they don't want to be part of your group, the chapter really needs to let that go and move on. I'm sure you are all very wonderful women, let that shine through, not the insecurity.

LITTL E, good go on that.!

About says it all in a nut shell.

Dont dwell on the past, grow to the future!:)

They left for a reason!

That was me, and yes, we have explicit rules about it, and you might be surprised at just how easy it is to discover something like this :)

Even if NALFO were to become a governing council and had guidelines for various things, I doubt they would have a specific guideline about disafilliating from one NALFO sorority to join another NALFO sorority...because...well...people just don't do that. I'm not saying that no woman EVER has, but usually if a Latina sorority member decides to leave, she just walks away from greek life and goes her own way. In the majority of cases that I know of, the woman just went inactive. I've only heard of one case in which someone actually turned in her letters.

Side note: NALFO is about unifying its member organizations. It is up to each individual LGLO to strengthen itself. Also, not every LGLO is a member of NALFO.

That's good... then your organzation should have no problems with former members of other local, regional or NPC national organizations seeking membership into your sorority. If other types of sororities (like locals or NPCs) don't have explicit rules about it, and it is something they need to prevent from happening for whatever reasons, it is up to them to make those regulations just like NPC did when they decided women cannot pursue membership into another NPC sorority if they are already an initiated member of another NPC sorority.

I probably wouldn't be surprised as to how easy it is to discover things like that, because it happens all the time -- some sororities find that pnm's embellished their recruitment application forms.... that they were members of other NPC organizations... and other things like that. The neat thing about GLOs is our networks, so I'm sure it wouldn't be hard at all to discover something to see if they were members of a previous organization.

Looking back at your first post in the thread you posted: "I also don't agree with people leaving their organization especially if the sorority is national, because the sorority is bigger than just the chapter someone is initiated at. They probably could have found other ways to be involved if they were not getting along with members of their local chapter."

I asked this earlier in the thread, but I guess it got buried -- why does it matter if the organization the person was previously a member of was national (like a different national conference like NPC) or local? You said "especially if the sorority is national"... I can understand that it might be different because there are obviously more chapters than the few that a local or regional might have, but what is the real difference? Locals have everything nationals do - except some rules and the obvious lack of a national HQ and multiple chapters.


Do they have policies on members disaffiliated barring them from joining another type of organization? NPC? locals? I'm just curious so I thought I would ask. A KDChi member posted (a few posts ago) that they do not accept anyone who has previously been a member of another GLO which I thought was interesting because some of the women who left the same local I left joined KDChi.

Also - going "inactive" ranges from group to group. I can't speak for any other NPC or any local organizations, but in ADPi, you need extremely special circumstances in order to file for inactive status and that status is good for only 1 year. So sometimes women turn in their pins because there is no other way... we can't just go inactive whenever we can't put forth the time committment or when something isn't going right in the chapter and we just want a break.. or any other random situations like that. Any ADPi's please correct me if this is not correct, that is just the way I always understood it. This policy varies from group to group - whether they are national, latina, local, whatever, so sometimes when things aren't working out.. or some members are unhappy or they don't have the time to commit to it, sometimes the option is only to deactivate. If members left just because they didn't have the time committment for it, or something like that, it is highly unlikely (IMHO) that those women would go out to start another sorority or join another one. Usually the women (IMHO and experience) who either join other organzations or start new ones is because they saw something in the organization (the one they are either joining or starting up) that they didn't have in their previous GLO that meant enough to them to move forward and join or begin the building process.

We have no problems with them seeking membership? I did mention that we don't allow it, so in that sense, you are correct-it is not a problem for us.

Quote:

Looking back at your first post in the thread you posted: "I also don't agree with people leaving their organization especially if the sorority is national, because the sorority is bigger than just the chapter someone is initiated at. They probably could have found other ways to be involved if they were not getting along with members of their local chapter." I asked this earlier in the thread, but I guess it got buried -- why does it matter if the organization the person was previously a member of was national (like a different national conference like NPC) or local? You said "especially if the sorority is national"... I can understand that it might be different because there are obviously more chapters than the few that a local or regional might have, but what is the real difference? Locals have everything nationals do - except some rules and the obvious lack of a national HQ and multiple chapters.

My comment was made exactly because (in your words), "there are obviously more chapters than the few that a local or regional might have." Are you attempting to turn my words into a "national vs. local vs. regional" debate? Please don't--I'm "not the one" for that, as when I joined my sorority, there were only 9 chapters, pretty much confined to one area. Now we are national.

Quote:

Do they have policies on members disaffiliated barring them from joining another type of organization? NPC? locals? I'm just curious so I thought I would ask. A KDChi member posted (a few posts ago) that they do not accept anyone who has previously been a member of another GLO which I thought was interesting because some of the women who left the same local I left joined KDChi.

Some of the individual LGLOs in NALFO may or may not allow disaffiliated women/men to pursue membership. It is up to each organization.

That's just what I meant - like if they were already an initated member, deactivated, and tried joining your GLO, they obviously couldn't b/c of your rules against it. So in a hypothetical world if the women who disaffiliated from the original poster's chapter tried forming a colony of your sorority it wouldn't work out b/c of your rules against it. That's the only real circumstance that another national organization would have a problem with women who want to colonize the sorority. (The original poster said "...as I tried to explain to them why it could it was upsetting that this Latina national org wouldnt care that at one point they were in a national panhellenic sorority.) So basically it wouldn't be a big deal to the Latina national org unless they had rules against it... I hope that makes sense. I wasn't trying to single you out or anything, just thought that might help the original poster understand that the Latina national org might not have rules about it and have already accepted the women who want to help with the founding of the organization.

Quote:

My comment was made exactly because (in your words), "there are obviously more chapters than the few that a local or regional might have." Are you attempting to turn my words into a "national vs. local vs. regional" debate? Please don't--I'm "not the one" for that, as when I joined my sorority, there were only 9 chapters, pretty much confined to one area. Now we are national.

I had no intentions of turning this into a national/local debate. I was just curious as to why you (and the original poster) felt it meant more if it was national vs. regional or local. They cherish their history and ritual as much as the rest of the GLOs, so I didn't know if it was just a "size" issue which was why I asked.

Thanks for your insight...it's always great to hear perspectives from other GLOs.

As for if I think it is just national to go local I say no ... I think I would feel the same if I was in a local and one of our girls quit and eventually went national.

I was just trying to figure it if the non NPC orgs had rules being in one sorority and joining another. I understand that this is a basic NPC rule and only says that you cant go from one NPC to another. But then it almost seems weird that NPC has these rules but other orgs don't have rules like it.