Starting soror from scratch??
 

Hey guys,
There is a lack of sororities here at my campus, so my friends and I wanna start (from scratch) a new sorority. Unfortunately, the sororities here won't help us, or give us any ideas how to start.

Can anyone give us guidance on how to start? Is it worthwhile to start one (from scratch) or to just bring an existing sorority on campus? Any help would be appreciated thanks!

i pmed you :)

I started a new sorority from scratch on my campus. We're a local, but we're here. My best friend and I got the idea, and we ran with it. If you need help or have any questions, feel free to contact me. Good luck!

also, look for the "Rush at UCSC" thread in the Rush forum. It's VERY detailed, it'll suck you in, it's very long so much sure you have time! I think it covers a lot of issues whether it's a local or a future NPC that you would like to start.

starting out
 

Do you have a similar thread on LiveJournal? Just curious, since I posted there.

Talk to your Greek Life office first to see if the campus can handle another sorority. The other sororities may not be willing to help because they're struggling themselves.

I would strongly suggest doing a lot of research on already existing sororities, national or local. They both have their benefits, and it just depends on what you want and what is the best fit for your group. Either way, starting a new group is a lot of work.

We have thought of just bringing another sorority here on campus, but we just have several concerns.

See we were pledging another sorority here on campus, and we had a very bad experience during our pledging process. It didn't stop us from wanting to be in a sorority, but it definitely made us rethink how we wanted to approach everything.

And so what we are just really concerned about is making sure that future pledges of our sorority don't go through the same thing that we went through with the other sorority. We wanna make being a sorority has fun as possible, so that more people on campus will think of turning greek.

Its just that our sororities here don't seem to have that mentality.

Thanks for y'all help, if you have any more suggestions please let me know, and i'll keep y'all posted!!

I think the problem would lie in what the issues are that you are talking about. I mean, say hazing. If hazing is the issue then i understand why you did not want that and how you would not want to be part of that nor future generations of sororities. However, any group, a group that you create from scratch or bringing an already established sorority can have this happen.

Does this make sence? I can understand your feelings. I did not want the future generations of my sorority to go through anything like that. Part of how you can avoid something like that from happening would be 1) recruiting strong women who would not participate in those activities

2) training women on how to act, whats right and wrong, what you can and can not do and also working with issues of self esteem

3) self esteem is an important element to teach women about. I know many girls that feel that they should act a certain way and not question authority. Well the founders of my sorority were all about questioning the "establishment" and how one can enact change in a positive way. I always tried to push the education of the new member in not just history or the sorority, but how we can learn from the founders efforts, ie the history of the sorority, and applie it to our lives. Proper education can create or develop some really great qualities in women. The more you educate and train your new members the more they will continue what values you set forth no matter if you start your own local sorority or restart an inert chapter or decide to open a new chapter of an alreay established national organization


let us know what you decide to do.
debbie

PS do read the UCSC its long but oh my god it is a great story and can be a very educational as to what to do and what not to do.

The Pledging Process I'm talking about didn't really include any hazing. It was supposed to be a minimum 8 weeks of pure pledging, but the way that the sisters treated us was bad. Even now that I dropped out, they can't look at you without giving you a dirty look.

That was just the main concern about bringing an already established sorority to our campus. Because if we start a new sorority, we can include information on the pledging process in our constitution, but we just don't know where to start (and I have started reading that UCSC thread).

Thanks again everyone.

Other people can correct me be even if you are part of a national org you can still have your own constitution. I was part of a service org and we had to write our own constitution. Plus i would still say that alot would depend on how you teach new members and teach by example how to act would be the best way of how to ensure that the problems you face would not happen in your organization.

Just my two cents, but i have meet a lot of people over the years and in my opinion again from my experience this is how to be in a good group of people. also, i think that part of your new member selection could weed people out.

good luck

Does that mean that if i start a chapter of an established sorority that we can change up the pledging process? Don't we have to keep the same pledging process? I'm confused.

Any (inter)national sorority is going to have certain guidelines that they want you to follow for the pledge/new member process. Most of them are for the new member's own safety and well-being. They are there to protect the new members. But from what it sounds, you would respect those rules because of your prior bad experience. However, most sororities' new member program is very similar, in that they teach the history of their sisterhood and what it means to be a sister of their organization. How you want to go about it is up to you (keeping in mind their safety and well-being, of course).

AstroAPhi is right. Stuff like time of pledge period is usually set in stone, more or less. But how new members are treated would be up to the women in the sorority. If you have a problem with the length that is one thing that is relatively set (but my pledge period was extended by 3 weeks plus xmas break, so nothing is absolute) Anyway. i am just trying to press the point that there will be many things that will be up to you as leadership of a sorority wheather you are local or associate with an exsisting organization. You can control how people are treated and set an example of how to treat people and possible set in your local constitution how to deal with people who treat new members in unsisterly ways.

i really don't mean to be rude, but if you problem is simply that the girls were mean would be simply taken care of by treating people like you want to be treated, setting examples and if needed setting rules on what can be done to regulate unsisterly behavior. Maybe I am misunderstanding what the problem was, but how i am understanding the problem can be resolved not simply starting your own org. but by how you set an example and treat people. if this is the case then you can only control peoples behavior so much and is best left to leading by example.

wish you the best of luck, i have said this before in other posts but i think it is super exciting to start your own org and how exciting it is to start your own traditions and what not.

You won't be able to start a chapter of an existing (inter)national organization. You will have to go through a rather long process of starting your own local group. You will need to name it, give it colors, mottos, bylaws, set dues, have meetings, etc. You will definitely have to discuss it with Greek Life at your school. Greek Life may tell you that the University is not interested in expansion and your local may be put on the back burner to simmer until the school is ready for another NPC organization. Becoming a junior member of your school's Panhellenic Council is paramount, you will not be allowed to vote, but can get an idea of what is involved. If the school is looking to expand, there is a rather formal courting process between the organizations interested in your group, and the school. It is most likely that if you engage in this process, you won't be initiated until long after graduation (provided the organization allows for alumna initiates). I'll be happy to discuss further, if you're interested.

This post isn't entirely true.

I didn't realize that. It was the experience that I had at the school I went to. I figured it was the same for all campuses.

every campus has it's idiosyncracies, and every person's experience is different. While what you said may be true on your campus and some other campuses, it's not true on all campuses. It's great to share your own experiences, but you really shouldn't make such an absolute statement :) Next time maybe preface it by saying "this was my experiences on my campus...." :)

It's all good. Just didn't want the post to be taken as gospel.

Welcome to GC, JenDG:)

I will be more careful next time, thanks (an obvious newbie mistake).

I PMed you! G'luck!

I finished reading that rush at UCSC that everyone told me to read, but that is NOT what I want to do at my campus. I really am not interested in going through the NPC and getting a sorority started here, I was just wondering if it would be more beneficial to start a new sorority (a local one...of course), or to bring in one sorority (that has everything we want) on campus.

Our campus already has a lot of NPC sororities, but I was just not interested in joining one.

I thank all of you for your input and ideas...it really means a lot to me. Take care all.

Why not? What is it about them that is making you rule them all out? What do you want to be different? What do you want to do? Are you judging all NPC sororities by those on your campus? Keep in mind that they're all not alike, and that chapters vary so much. NPC groups can offer a lot of assistance and make the whole process much much easier and much more likely to be successful than starting from scratch. I don't know if you realize that, and I have no idea what your campus is like or your views or anything, so i'm just putting that out there.

What need is missing on your campus that your group can fill?

Those are probably the most important questions that you need to figure out answers to before you can do anything.

While you may not want to bring a new NPC group to campus, a lot of the issues in the Rush at UCSC would still apply, no matter what kind of group you start. That thread shows so many of the perils and heartache and HARD WORK it takes to start any sort of new group.

I'm not saying that I would be total adament about not joining an NPC sorority, but i'm not interesting joining the ones that are established at my campus. I am not judging all NPC sororites based on the ones here at my school, because that would be just be insane. I know all NPC sororities are different.

I went through fall 2004 rush, so i got to know about the NPC sororities (as well as some other national ones that I don't think are NPC), and the only one that stood out was the one (not gonna reveal the name) that i ended up deciding to pledge. Unfortunately, things didn't work out with that sorority, things were said (things that were said by sisters to the pledges) that I didn't appreciate, that were pretty much demeaning, and I didn't appreciate it, so I left. I have friends in the other NPC sororites that participated in rush, but i want something that is lacking at my school.

The only other 2 sororities that I didnt not look into were two historically african-american sororites, which didn't interest me since I'm not african-american (i'm mexican-american).

What I want is a sorority where people don't feel like they are different. The sororites I saw at rush were either mostly hispanic, mostly african-american, or mostly white. There was not a sorority that had a mixture. Now, I'm not saying that if I do start a sorority that mine will be a mixture, because that is absolutely not my main focus. I just want something where girls can come and feel welcome, feel like they are part of the crowd, and not just someone who was there for the diversity.

I want a sorority that will reach out to community. I want to start a sorority that will go out and help young girls reach their full potential, and help them realize that they could be whatever they want to be.

Again, I'm not totally adament about not starting a NPC sorority here, that is why I came, to get opinions and suggestions from people who have a higher understanding of greek life and of their sororites than I do. I also know that starting a sorority from scratch is very time consuming, but we also do have the help of a local fraternity here. My friend (the one who wants to help found a sorority here) is friends with the founders of the local fraternity here, and they said if we wish to start a local sorority here, they would be more than willing to help us out.

Thanks for your concern, I really appreciate it. I sincerely hope I answered all your questions.

No problem. You didn't have to answer them so much to me, but I think that they're really important that you answer and develop yourself, because those are the principles upon which your group, if you choose to start one, should be based on. :) Good luck

I believe most national organizations have anti-hazing policies, as well as some schools have their own hazing policies. If one is not listed in your national charter, i believe your individual chapter can choose to make an anti-hazing policy. Our national g.p.a. minimum is 2.5 but our chapter made it 2.6 for new members a few years back.

I just wanted to mention that there are already existing multicultural sororities that promote all cultures and women feeling welcome. There are a LOT of multicultural sororities that open their doors to women of all backgrounds and promote community service. I myself am a member of a multicultural sorority so if you have questions about them in general or specifically about mine, just ask! There are a lot of other people on here who are in multicultural sororities as well...

I think your ambitions are admirable. Look for an organization that will work with your needs. There is diversity within NPC, NPHC, Latino orgs, and multi-cultural orgs. The biggest factor to keep the mindset you are looking for is the women you recruit, not the letters (in my opinion). A group of women who as people strive to make everyone feel welcome can wear the letters ABC just as well as XYZ. The support of a National and what they can offer you can help that cause. I'm not an expert, but those are my thoughts.

Good Luck

I went to the Student development center today to talk to the head of Greek Life, and we talked a lot about different routes to take to create a sorority.

I did as you said kddani, and I did a great deal of researching and I actually saw a sorority....a NPC sorority, that I think matched everything my group of girls wants. I even found out that there is a chapter of this sorority that WAS at my school, but we (the head of greek life and I) think it must have been deactivated, or inactive soon after it became a chapter (in the 60s). I think i'm going to be contacting that sorority (AEPhi) and see if we would have to go through NPC to reactivate that chapter.

My greek life offcier also said, that it might just be easier to start a local sorority, because our campus isn't an ideal place to bring another NPC sorority. We already have two...AXiD and ZTA and they are way under quota (50 girls). The head of the greek life also told me that there is already a local sorority that has been waiting 2 years to see if the NPC will expand a national sorority here. But i'm not giving up.

If AEPhi won't come back to our campus, then i'll keep loooking or just start a local, then go national with that local, only because I do like everything that being "national" comes with.

Anyone have any ideas where I can go from here? Do y'all think that AEPhi would be allowed to reactivate our chapter without going through NPC??

No, they can't do that.

Start an interest group and see where that goes.

Oh, and just to clarify, are you saying you have 2 sororities or those are the 2 that are under total?

Here at my campus, there are 2 NPC sororities,
2 national sororites (that aren't affiliated with NPC)
1 NPHC sorority,
and a few local sororities.

I'm not sure how many local sororities we have. I know there is 1 local, that just wants to remain local, and there is 1 that is waiting for NPC to expand to our campus.

Starting soro from scratch??
 

Hi, This is my first time weighing in here. I spent a few moments reading the previous posts and I will say this. I am a founder of a multicultural sorority and we were founded two years ago. I know that for us, how our women were inducted into the organization was really important to us and being able to pretty consistently have new initiates go through our process and have a similar and positive pledge process was really important. One thing we have is what we call a discipline book. That way, members don't get"bored and creative" when a pledge does something they are not supposed to do. These are responses that are accepted and approved by the 'national' board. Secondly, if a soror treats an aspirant in a way that is not allowed in the pledge do's and dont's or the constitution, they can be charged and put on trial by nationals. This would lead to someone potentially being suspended or stripped of their letters. We really take this seriously and sorors tend to respect the rules.

I hope this is helful to you and if you need any other advice, you can let me know and I wll try to help. Been where you are and I know how challenging this process is.
Good luck in your process!!

Aduladi
Omicron Lambda Pi Multicultural Sorority, Incorporated
www.omicronlambdapi.org

From what I've read you seem to know what you want as far as the type of rules, so I will just go on to other aspects of the process. One thing you should consider is checking with your schools History Department. Find someone well versed in Greek humanities. They can help to some degree forming the small stuff that people cherish long after they have graduated and forgotten the RULES, such a motto, crest, RITUAL, etc. They can also help better set in stone these IDEALS that you and you friends are looking for. Don't be afraid to seek help even from a male professor for help with the Ritual. It's not uncommon for a sorority to have a Honorary Member that's male that helped with their founding. I suggest the later as making them an Honorary member will give them a thank you and also the right prospective of keeping the Ritual secret for your sorority. My fraternity's second Honorary member was the ROTC Colonel(this was 1919) that helped create our ritual, coat-of-arms(crest, COFA) and motto. Above all remember this is definately a big step. I know just recolonizing our chapter for us was a big step back in 2001.

Ok, I've done a lot of soul-searching, and a lot...and i mean a lot of research on everything that everyone has told me, and I have essentually come to a conclusion.

Although starting my own sorority would be fabulous, I do see the endless possibilities joining an NPC sorority. I have always wanted to join a sorority and always dreamed of being able to go all over the country and find a sorority sister there. Although maybe one day (in the very distant future) I might have that if my local ever went national, I don't know how much my heart would be into it.

Although my sorority only has 2 NPC sorority (not counting the other national that I dropped out of, that was not NPC or NPHC) I think I'll be able to find my home there. I was hoping that the local that was here waiting to be affiliated would be affiliated by Fall, but I dont think that will happen, so I hope everything works out because by Spring 2006, I might be part of a NPC sorority.

Thank you everyone for all your praise and all your advice...it was great...made me think of my intentions and my priorities! Thanks.