starting a local
 

Hi Everybody!
Okay so here's the deal. Myself and five other girls (my sisters) are in the process of starting a local sorority. Our school is very diverse but Greek life doesn't show that. All of the Greek orgs are divided by race. Therefore we wanted to start a multicultural sorority. We first tried to start a chapter of another MC sorority but that didn't work out. We didn't really share the same beliefs and whatnot. We then decided to start our own from stratch. We have done pretty much everything. We have our name, colors, symbols, mascot, jewel, constitution, philanthropy, facutly advisor, everything! We've been to all of the required meetings for new student orgs and filled out all the forms. Now they're saying they don't recognized local sororities because they feel we need a national org to govern us so they don't have a "sorority life situation." They did say that we could keep our name and drop the sorority part and just register as a student organization. Is it advisable to just do that or should we (as some of the sisters suggest) just try to register ourselves nationally as some type of charity or women's organization? I really feel like that would have us posing as something we're not.

Also, on another note, the only things we haven't done are figure out dues, rituals, and the offical pledge process. Barring that, we are a local sorority not affiliated with any school yet. Would it be kosher or whatever for us to wear our letters and what not? Also what do other sororities generally due for dues, rituals, and pledging (if this can be shared even a little)?

Thanks so much for any help you can give.
Yours in Greekdom,
Virginia

There are LOTS AND LOTS of national multicultural sororities out there. Many schools nowadays will not let any new Greek group remain a local. I advise that you do further research into what is already out there and would be a good fit to affiliate with rather than pass yourself off as a women's club.

Which I think is a shame. How many of us come from all-local campuses?

all local campus
 

My alma mater, Lake Forest College (IL), was all local until 1990 when Kappa Sigma revived their chapter there after a nearly 30 year absence. My sorority was the last local there and this fall affiliated with Kappa Alpha Theta.

I had no idea there were so many local GLOs until I came to GC. Ahh, the wonders of the internet.

My undergrad school Ursinus College was all local until 2 years ago and they (the 6 local sororities and 7 local fraternities)have no desire whatsoever to merge into a national. I personally think it is very admirable. Many of the local groups have been around for over 30 years, 50 years, some 75 and one 98 years so I can totally understand their desire to remain local. They have such rich traditions that at this point it would be hard for them to become another group, and I doubt they would do so. Now, I totally understand locals that become nationals, I am just saying that for some locals it works better for them to remain local and thats the beauty of being greek :D

Just my thoughts :)

Our biggest concern with affiliating with another sorority is that we've basically done everything to become a sorority. We've got our own letters, colors, philanthropy, symbols, mascot, jewel, constitution, everything! We really are reluctant to lose all of that by joining up with another sorority. We're kind of wondering if we could be just a local sorority and not be affiliated with the school. Like hold all of our events off campus. I mean, if we're not doing anything on campus I don't see why it would be a problem.

Virginia

Not to bring up the main thing that makes each sorority really unique, but if you have no ritual as you mentioned in your first post, then what makes you so reluctant to join another organization that is already established nationally whether it be NPC, NPHC, or MC? I promise I am not being rude, but anyone can choose greek letters, colors, mascot, etc...to not have a ritual seems self defeating as ritual, and the members, make the organization what it is. Without ritual, isn't it more of a club?:confused:

it was my understanding that the group has not come up with their rituals yet. Not that they are not going to have rituals.

To the original poster. I think that not being a recognized organization is a bad idea. There are lots of risk management issues with not being a recognized org, One of the big things is that you can not participate in the fun greek events such as greek week, exchanges, stuff like that. There are lots of groups out there and i would try to look into more of the multicultural orgs that are out there, I can understand why after spending all that time creating something that you do not want to give it up, but if it means that you will be recognized and about the experience the greek activities i would do what needs to be done.

I really commend you for trying to create a group that goes beyond race and is more about sisterhood. I have worked a lot in the civil rights movement and am happy that there are people out there that want to see beyond catagories such as race and look to find friendship/sisterhood with everyone.

good luck,
debbie

I'm just curious as to what beliefs did the original sorority have that you tried to join that you didn't share? Did you start the "new member process" and then realize it wasn't for you?

I don't mean to rain on your parade but it might be hard for your organization to stand the test of time if the university in which it is founded does not recognize your organization.

Good Luck

Like alphaalpha said, if you're not recognized by the university, even if just as a student organization, you are missing out on some things like funding, office space, and ability to promote yourself on campus (here @ KSU, unrecognized student groups can't promote themselves at student org fairs or have a table in the student centner).

As a sorority you might want to do Greek Week, mix or social with another group, or something like that. And those are things you can't do without being recognized. Also, at some schools, unrecognized organizations are seen as "threats" by the university.

There's a ton of information on GreekChat that can help you. Do a search or three.

You will face a lot of challenges if you are the only unrecognized GLO on campus. As others have said, you won't be able to use campus facilities, advertise, participate in Greek Week, etc. depending on your school's rules. You'll face challenges during recruitment too - women will wonder why they should join an unrecognized GLO when they can join a recognized one.

There are lots of national/regional MCGLOs out there. Keep looking; you may find one that is a fit.

Can you be recognized as a local sorority if you state that your ultimate goal is to affiliate with a national within the next few years? It takes time for a local group to affiliate with a larger org.

If you do operate as a local for a while and then affiliate with a national, you won't necessarily lose everything. For example, I was a member of a local that became part of a national GLO. My chapter still supports the philanthropy we chose as a local. What you can and cannot keep will depend on the national.

As for dues, put together a budget. What do you want/need to spend on recruitment, ritual, sisterhood activities, formals, t-shirts, badges/pins, etc.? If you hold fundraisers for charity, keep in mind that you could lose money, so set aside a buffer for that. Then make sure your dues cover all your expenses. If you find that the dues would be prohibitively high, trim back the budget.

Good luck. :)

Going national - you won't lose all
 

I am very impressed that you have written a constitution!

As a member of an NPC sorority, I will tell you - our colony has a local philanthropy and service project (in addition to the national ones), a local mascot, and colony/chapter bylaws (perhaps you could modify your constitution to fit this criterium). I have seen other chapters of my sorority who also have a local color in addition to the national colors. Please don't think that you will lose all your hard work if you go national. There are many benefits to going national, including rich traditions and rituals.

One thing you might do is check to see what the incorporation statutes in your state require and also if incorporating would solve your schools worries. Just a thought.

The same thing happened with my sorority but I totally faught it like tooth and nail. And now after a year, we are being given a chance to go up for recognition by the school. Are there any other locals on your campus? If there are plead your case. Tell them why your sorority would be an asset to the school. If there arn't, there are soooo many reasons to have a local on campus.

How many ladies are in your sorority?

Your question about having things off campus may still be a liability to the school though you are not recognized by the school you are students that attend the school and the members are people that attend the school so therefore the name of the school would be brought in.

If you had in mind from the begining to be a sorority, go for what you want. Don't settle for being a club.

Any updates?

My 2 cents-- As others have mentioned, University relations are so important, especially when it comes to the longevity of your organization. You want their encouragement and support (funding, etc!).

Look at the big picture-- your university won't support locals, but they do support your goals. So they have come up with a compromise.

Your group has done fantastic work to establish a constitution and the extras-- your symbols and mission. So you have a choice to become a unisex campus club (there shouldn't be a problem having Greek letters and a ritual-- many of the Greek lettered honor societies, service orgs, pre-professional societies certainly have an initiation ritual, pins, letters, etc.) or to further research affiliation with a national sorority (NPC, NPHC or multi-cultural).

While going to a national sorority may feel like a disappointment after you've spent time creating a constitution and mission/symbols for your org and now facing the prospect of losing those, remember that your local mission can pave the way for discovering a national that meets your org's goals, mission and will encompass a ritual and symbols that match those goals. Local orgs are very fulfilling and can be very long-lived and successful orgs-- but if your campus doesn't support locals, then
please take advantage of the solutions they have provided! They recognize the need for this org on your campus, and want to help make it happen, all the while keeping their mission in mind. I hope you will talk with your fellow members about the options the university have provided and vote on a solution that matches your membership's interests.

PS, being absorbed by a national doesn't have to be your end goal. I'm from an all-local campus and our sororities are anywhere from 80 to 110 years old and still going strong. Don't be afraid to be local.

An Update

Hey everyone, first of all I just want to say thanks from the bottom of the hearts of every Delta Psi Upsilon sister. We have reached a compromise with our school. We can be a local sorority under the special interest umbrella, not the greek umbrella. We're allowed to use our letters and everything. They are allowing us to function as a sorority but administrative purposes (they said) we are not allowed to use the word "sorority" in our name officailly. We have to refer to ourselves as a society or a sisterhood. Which to me is pretty much the same thing so I just don't get it but whatever. I guess it's better than nothing.

~Virginia

Dear MissVirginia,

I am so glad that things worked out for you and your sisters. Good luck as you continue ot work towards your goal of being a recognized sorority. Maybe to give more legitimacy to your efforts to be recognized (at some point in the future) you and your sisters will look at expanding to other campuses in other states. Again, good luck.

Adualdi/Harriet

That's the plan. Next semester our goal is to launch a full out expansion project with other schools in the area.

~Virginia

Why not find another Local sorority with similarities and join up in efforts to expand? Just a thought.

Local LoVe!

I'm from an all local campus with 5 sorors 4 fraternities and 2 co-ed fraternities *(ones very old the other is very new) that are petitioning for recognition at this time. All of our groups here are Societies and as we've been around for 80+ years with our younged (not counting the two un recognized) is 65 years old. I don't even think it would be possible for us to affiliate with a national, especially considering the whole getting your societies logo tattooed on you thing that's been going on for quite a while.

But anyway i guess that was somewhat of a hijack, Sounds like youve got a good plan

My alma mater
 

well my alma mater has all locals and will never ever let any nationals onto the campus ever. I will put it to you like this. It will be a cold day in hell if there's ever nationals on our campus. So Olivet College will remain local until the end of time... yeahhhhh

Re: My alma mater
 

I have a feeling that Otterbein will be to. I think the system would die before becoming national...or die shortly thereafter. ATO had a short stint here, 5 or 6 years maybe? and died out. Alpha Sig has a smaller membership than most of the other orgs and has for the past couple of years. On the girl's side...6 of 7 original sororities exist today, with one in the works to be refounded. None have ever merged with national (however there have been local group mergers), nor do I think there has ever been a move to merge/absorb by either party. Don't know why, all the chapters are financially and membershipwise strong...but the resistence would be HUUUUUGGEEE. I think in order for it to work, that ALL groups would have to ALL go national at the SAME time, otherwise, the one national would probably have a hard time keeping up with the dues of the other chapters. Just a thought.

edited

edited

A group of women and myself and currently trying to start a local. We've done a lot of work; we have a constitution, risk management policy, colors, etc (we really just haven't decided on our letters). The rest of the Greeks on campus are really unhappy about it. They've been spreading some really nasty rumors, and they want us to join their sororities and not start our own. I'm not going to share what school I'm from or even some of the rumors that are out there because I don't know if any of the Greeks from my school are here.. But does anyone know any way that we can ease the tension? None of us have a problem with any of the other sororities and fraternities on campus, we just want to start something fresh. I really want some ways that we can make it be known that we're not bad like they think, and that we're not trying to do whatever they think we want to do. It's a lot of added and unnecessary stress to walk around campus and know what pretty much the entire school is saying about us. :(

To Miss Virginia:

I want to commend you on all of your hard work! And also ask a question-the entire goal in the end was to become a recognized sorority, but you are not able to use the term sorority on your campus at all?

Also I would focus on getting established on your campus first, eventually become recognized as a sorority, and then move on to expansion with other schools. After all it might be a bit odd to expand a sorority to other campuses when you're not yet recognized as a sorority on your own campus?

It takes a lot of time and hard work to get established, TNX was an interest group for 2 years before becoming a chapter, and a full 4 years after we had been established did we gain a 2nd Florida undergrad chapter at UF.

Have any of the women in your group gone through sorority rush with the existing groups? Sometimes people can get offended when you say (in effect) "I don't like what you're offering" when you haven't actually checked it out for yourself.

Are all the sororities on your campus at total, or are some of them way below it? If it's the latter, understand that those groups are feeling immense pressure from their HQ, their alums and from themselves to increase their numbers. An additional group could make it harder for them to do that. It may not be anything personal toward you guys, they're just worried about themselves.

I would agree with 33girl. I am not saying you should justify why you've decided to start something new to us here on GC, but often on campuses where there is a large Greek presence competition is really high.

Some chapters, especially sororities, may also have received threats of their charters being pulled if they don't reach numbers because it is really expensive for most nationals to exist if they are not able to perpetuate themselves on their campus.

If there is something about your sorority that sets your group apart from the others (for example a cultural, religious or academic purpose) it might be a way to explain why you want to start something new.

One way to help ease some of that tension is to host socials with them or to co-sponsor a program or community service event. When my sorority first came onto my campus, there was a great deal of tension. I know that the other sororities did not understand why we felt the need to start a new organization (even though we were fundamentally different). But a year later we had a completely different relationship with them. They no longer see us as a threat to their recruitment at all and we have socials and teas together several times a year. (You may want to start with the fraternities. In my experience, they are often friendler unfortunately than the sororities)

I think that those socials are the first opportunity that you have to become "human" and not "those people who are messing it up for the rest of us".

If none of this works, you should talk with your campus' Greek Director. They often have really good insight into what is going on with each chapter and may be able to provide you with some advice about working with the other organizations. Good luck-it is hard work, but not impossible.

One girl did go through rushing with another sorority, but she wasn't well-recieved there.

It's hard to explain how we want ours to be different. Like your GPA would have to be higher to even consider us. So I guess you could consider it academically-based. None of us want to have a fraternity associated with us (there's a word I want, but I can't remember), and I'm pretty sure all of the sororities here have that.

As far as I know, the numbers of the other sororities and fraternities are all relatively high and pledging starts soon and I know a lot of people are interested.

I'm going to throw out the idea of the social to the other women in the group; see what they think. Thanks for that idea.

Well if you give more information, maybe someone can help. I have to ask what, if you don't mind me asking have you set as your constitution, and philanthropy. If you are thinking about a charity, maybe looking into a national or international womens organization. I do have a little advice on the whole just wearing the letters. If you do that, you should also brace yourself for some problems with established sororities on campus. As a little background, I attend a small college with 4 fraternities, and 4 sororities. When there was a rumor on our campus of an underground sorority being started on campus, all of the sororities, including mine felt that it was not right for them to walk around and call themselves a sorority, and not even be recognized on campus. There is also another problem is that if you don't have pledging procedures all in order you will not be able to really function, or put supposed pledges through. But give me some more info, and maybe I can help you out more.

Hi Virginia,

Congrats on the success with moving forward with your sisterhood. While you guys are pioneers on your campus, you may be opening it up for others to bring their organizations to the campus. Greek life can add so much to the college experience, so I wish you and your sisters all the best on your journey.

I was just thinking about it all, and I thought that it might make things more understandable if you knew the main rumor going around. I'm hoping that if you're from my school and you read this, maybe you can realize that we are not bad like you think and you can help us stop some of these rumors. Just by saying, "hey, that's not true".

The biggest rumor going around about my group is that we worship Hitler. Why? The Hitler Youth wore brown shirts. Our colors are brown and orange, and so we will wear brown shirts. This is why we're having such a hard time getting credibility on campus. We first just laughed it off but it's getting very serious. We really can't just have a social with a sorority or fraternity because of this. It's not just that they don't like us because we don't want to join one of their sororities (I know a few women that are pledging now or are already in some of the sororities and I really like them, they're good people) and want our own, but because of that. Telling everyone that we do not want to be affiliated whatsoever with Hitler doesn't seem to be working. We picked our colors for a good reason so we don't want to change them unless absolutely necessary (such as some administration telling us that we have to). We want them to be synonymous (sorry if I spelled that wrong) with community service and strong academics. But we can't do that when everybody thinks we want to be like Hitler. Is there anything that anybody can suggest that will maybe help put a stop to the rumors? Something we can do, something that can be said, whatever. Because I'm thinking (hoping) that if we can end the stories, it will help us gain credibility and allow people to be more open-minded and if we're lucky, accepting.

Holy crap. Do you go to Bob Jones U or something? That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard.

G Phi B's colors are brown and mode....maybe they should change their motto to "worshiping Hitler since 1874."

Excuse me, our colors are brown and mode because we worship chocolate of both the light and dark variety. ;)

as it should be!

I was thinking the same thing. What is WRONG with people? :rolleyes: