Improving Sorority Reputation?
 

Do you all have any ideas/advice on improving a sorority's reputation? We don't have a bad reputation, we actually don't really have any reputation at all...just kinda there. I'm the new social chair and I know we have the potential to move up in the tiers but how can we get "better" fraternities to mix with us? Any suggestions on this or making a good reputation in general would be appreciated. Our chapter used to be so strong and now we're slipping...I want to turn that around! Thanks in advance!

Keeping your campus and organization secret is a good idea for this post :)

I know you said you don't have a reputation . . but everyone does. What reputations are you up against?

Are the boys avoiding you? Or just not contacting you? Like if you call them to arrange something do they get back to you?

I think it all really depends on what the rep is and how it's leading you're chapter to be not as strong. Though I'd like to point out that a fraternity not socializing with you does not make your chapter weak.

It would be best to sit down as a chapter or at the very least your exec board and identify how your chapter is perceived. You want to identify how the sisters perceive the chapter as well as how other sororities, fraternities, and non greeks perceive the chapter. Identify the pros and cons. Accentuate the positive! If the cons are behaviors that the chapter can change then do so asap.

Next list what you want the perceptions to be and identify how to make that happen.

You need to create a chapter image statement that reflects what you want from your current and future members. This will also help you during recruitment because you can ask "does Polly PNM meet our image statement?". Just remember, it's not all about looks but behaviors and activities (clubs, etc) too.

I know I'm being vague but without knowing more specifics it can be difficult. Feel free to PM me if you'd like.

eta: I just reread your post. Lack of a rep usually has to do with lack of involvement. Not only does your chapter have to go all out to support chapter and greek events but they also have to get involved outside of greek life. Each sister should join a campus club that is unrelated to panhellenic/sorority life.

Re: Improving Sorority Reputation?
 

Like James said, you have a reputation, whether you choose to believe it or not!! Find out specifically what stereotypes or reputation your chapter has and combat those things specifically. If you're known for being nerds, be more social, in all areas....if you're known for partying too much, as much fun as it is, it's not necessasry to go to EVERY fraternity party that is offered. If they think you're ugly, make it a priority for your women to look their best when wearing letters on campus, and so on. It won't happen overnight but it's a good start.

If you just want to improve visibility, have a letters day once a week where everyone wears their letters, and make an effort more a lot of people to eat together in the school's dining areas while wearing their letters. We used to called it L Squared (get it?).

My chapter was in the same spot you guys are in about four years ago. We used to sit down and have brain storming parties about what we could do to get our name out on campus more.
Some things we did:
1. Bake cookies for all the fraternities and sororities during finals
2. Did a window wash in the school parking lot with notes that said "your windows were washed by KayDee!"
3. Constantly contacted other organizations for mixers, etc
4. Made sure we were out en masse for other groups philantrophies and such events.
5. We would have letter making parties where we would brain storm on cute letter designs. I firmly believe that by the time I graduated we had the cutest letters. Too often they're just put on a sweatshirt and noone really notices them. We would go to cheap but nicer stores and buy fitted tees in different colors and put letters on them. We also just worked to have different styles than the other sororites. I really believe this helped us stand out more and it especially helps during recruitment because even the freshman notice them more :)

Hope some of that helps.

Sponsor philanthropy events at bars, at good bars where fratty people hang out, make sure its at a big name bar on a friday or saturday night.

Next time you mix with a fraternity, offer to bear more of the financial burden (if that's not a huge incentive, I don't know what is) and make sure a lot of your girls show up, and make sure you cut loose and have a great time, and go out and hang out with guys from the mixer afterward to bars or fraternity parties.

Date guys in top fraternities.

Hey, sratty77 (and others), double-check your sorority's national policies before trying anything like this. It is a fact that some NPC sororities absolutely forbid philanthropy events or other fundraisers in bars.

I did not know that.

nevermind then

Thanks for the ideas...yeah, nationals won't let us do bar nights anymore, which sucks, because I know that definitely gets a sorority's name out there. As far as contacting fraternities, well, some get back and some don't. A lot are "busy." Somehow we've gained a reputation of being really conservative, even though a lot of us (including myself) go out all the time!

We just got our new pledge class, and I have to admit, although I love them and it's a HUGE class, which is good for numbers, several of the girls just don't fit in with the house. Even though our chapter advisor has talked incessantly with us about ratings and thinking about what's best for the house, sisters still consider what they personally are looking for in a PNM. As a result, we ended up with a mismatched pledge class with a lot of girls that I think have some loyalty issues with the sorority.

I really don't know what to do. I don't want our sorority to go down, I want to bring it back to the top!

That might be part of your problem. There was a sorority on my campus that was known as being almost "too diverse," and as a result they didn't really have a strong presence. The group events that everyone suggested are good, and doing more things together might even help your chapter become a little more cohesive.

As far as the "conservative" rep, all you can do is keep going out, and make an effort to hang out with fraternities other than the safe comfy ones that everyone knows.

Your second paragraph reminds me of what happened with my chapter - we took a large (for us) class, half the girls were the old conservative type of sister, half were partyers (to be blunt). They all bonded - unfortunately it was because they all disliked their pledge mom so much. Give it time and let them do some events ON THEIR OWN and maybe the "mismatched" people will find things in common. Once they have bonded with each other, their loyalty won't be questioned as much.

I am probably going to get kicked off on my first post for the bluntness, but here are my suggestions.

1) Eat more salad, don't be fat
2) don't be bitchy or snotty
3) Don't be hoes

If you follow these three, you will be pretty well off.



Frathole, is that you?
I didn't know what to do when the other site went down.
Did any of the other guys sign up on here?
Where is the LSU thread?

Get together with the chapter for a retreat to review your sorority policies and plan your goals for the year.

Have an officer stand in front of the group- with a large easel sized pad of paper and a fat marker. As a group-- new and old members alike, brainstorm goals you as a chapter would like to achieve. Some examples--

#1 GPA among sororities
Perfect Attendance at Chapter Meeting for the month of March
100% new members that joined initiated
Dues paid on time
New carpet for the chapter room
Wear letters every Friday!
At least 4 social events this quarter
First Place Intramural Basketball Champs
Make sure the other Greeks know we're here!

etc... Display this in a chapter common area where members can see it be inspired.

Next, develop an action plan to meet these goals!

Get together with your advisers and using this brainstorming exercise, develop a timeline and a plan to meet your goals. Go over it with the chapter members and get everyone on board-- form committees, and committee chairmen, and projects with deadlines.

For example: Make sure the other Greeks know we're here!

Why not go serenading one night to the fraternities? Drop off goody baskets to the other sororities for finals week. At Panhellenic meeting, recognize a "Greek of the Week" who is in another sorority or fraternity.

It's hard being a social chair-- if you're in a position of being part of a chapter that hasn't had a very active social calendar in the past, sometimes it can be hard to develop new relationships with the other Greek groups. Talk to your adviser and make sure you have good contact and follow-up as you set up your calendar.

Good luck!

The sit-down-and-outline-the-problem method does NOT work. The way to improve your chapter's reputation is by getting to know fraternities. Go to their crush parties, their open parties, late-nights, whatever. Even though its technically not allowed, encourage girls to become lil sis's...as long as they keep it classy. Do NOT try to contact too many fraternities about mixing, and definitely don't try again if they haven't said anything. This might make your chapter look pathetic. It's all about PR, and the best PR is the kind that comes from other people's mouths. If your girls are going out and meeting guys, people will notice, and when it comes time for a fraternity to mix...they'll say, "What about the Alpha Beta whatevers? They've been coming around a lot." Hope that helps.

I'm going to bump this thread because I think there are probably even more ideas out there, plus I had a question as well. We aren't having problems with numbers so much as we're almost "too diverse". We have some girls who are so sweet but shy and not too involved and other girls who only want to go to socials. Our recruitment is coming up, after reviewing some of the other threads about how to recruit good PNM's my question is how do you get your chapter as a whole to appeal to girls who fit your desired image?

QFP

Are you sure you're not trying to get girls to fit YOUR desired image? I would think the active members fit your chapter's image just fine. If they didn't, why were they offered bids?

I don't see a problem here, other than your adolescent compulsion to put everyone into a tidy box.

If girls are constantly blowing off events and not being involved, bring them before standards. If they don't change their ways, terminate them. If there are girls who only show up for social stuff and blow off meetings and rituals and philanthropies, bring them in front of standards. If they don't change their ways, terminate them. It's really pretty simple.

My post refers to future members, not current ones and it is not MY image, it's the chapters image of girls who have fun but are still involved in good activities like service. I'm not trying to put people into a "tidy box" also to what 33girl said. Our chapter just is soooo diverse in some aspects that it can create some tensions, and I guess I was just trying to find out how you guys have conversations with PNMs where you really figure out what they want out of a sorority without creeping them out.

I didn't mean to offend either of you, it just seems there are a lot of women with good experience and I am talking about FUTURE members being recruited, not forcing current ones to go out every night or keep in girls who like to go out.

Being the diverse chapter, is, in itself, a selling point if you're a functional group and not just accepting everyone to boost numbers.
You said you're wanting to get your chapter in line to recruit girls who fit your image. Get your chapter to agree on what that image is. If you can't, then you're back to "diversity" being your image.

I dislike the idea of recruiting toward some specific "image" beyond the ideals that your sorority upholds, but unless you're all on the same page, it's a chapter problem, not a PNM problem. If the chapter is actually in agreement, then those qualities you're looking for is what you'll base MS on.

I have no idea how you're creeping PNMs out by asking them, directly "why do you want to be in a sorority?" "What could you bring to a chapter?" and telling them what XYZ offers them.

Unless you're creepy people.

I would say we aren't diverse in a selling way only because we have tensions of some girls wanting to be more involved and some that i think want to but are just very shy. I know asking "so why do you want to be in a sorority" isn't a creepy question, my only fear is that every chapter asks that so it's going to be a preprogrammed response. We basically just want this years recruitment to fulfill the image that does correspond to our sororities values: service, sisterhood, and campus involvement. We're not even looking for a PHYSICAL image (however, we want girls to know how to present themselves well) as much as an ideal 'image' that our chapter is a group of fun girls that like to get involved with all aspects of greek life. I just am looking for suggestions of how to sit down as a chapter and discuss what our "ideal pnm" is so that we have a more common foundation if that makes sense?

During your recruitment workshop... sit down as a chapter and discuss your ideal PNM. Seriously. Put up characteristics on a white board. Make those traits what you're looking for during recruitment. And don't talk about it outside of your chapter.

I think you're trying to make this harder than it is and your posts are running around in circles talking about diversity and being creepy and not wanting preprogrammed responses when your question was something different.


And if you don't want pre-programmed responses, don't ask pre-programmed questions. Or don't assume that the PNMs are trying to... deceive you or something.

Check out your inter/national recruitment/membership selection materials. If you are not the recruitment chairman, you may not know that your organization actually has a way for your chapter to go through this type of discussion. Organizations aren't as willy-nilly about membership selection as you seem to think. Use the resources that your organization has provided you.

Doesn't DZ have a policy that every member must be involved in at least one other activity on campus? If this isn't being enforced, start doing so ASAP - and make sure that women know working at McDonald's off campus DOESN'T count.

I agree w/ Drolefille...you're making this a lot more difficult than it is. Do I think it's ridiculous when women pay tons of $$ to be in a sorority and then don't go to anything other than chapter meetings and rituals? Yes. But that doesn't mean they aren't making connections, aren't a great big sister to their little (who may be a one woman party and appreciates her big's calmness) and don't have areas in which they could shine IF someone looked further than "oh, Erica who never goes to mixers."

The "ideal PNM" concept can be good, but it can also be a gateway for cliquiness and backbiting so I'd tread really lightly and use it as a guideline rather than a hard and fast rule. So many reasons of why you choose one woman over another are intangible - and there can be girls who look great on paper but will be horrible members.

That's great advice. I apologize for going in circles, I just didn't want to sound blunt but concise probably would have been better.

I agree that some of girls that do not go to mixers are great members. We have some members who don't get into socials but love helping out with academics. My only problem is when girls aren't going to service projects other greeks host. I think we're gonna try to emphasize that service projects are part of the greek community and our chapter has to be involved in those. Otherwise, perhaps make them mandatory. And I agree that we don't want to stick so much to an ideal that we have a "if you don't fit it, you're out" attitude. I basically just want our sisters to have a basic idea of characteristics we need/want from PNMs (that we agree on as a chapter) so that while every girl in our chapter doesn't meet each girl, we're all finding girls that we've agreed we would enjoy in our chapter

Those kind of specifics are impossible to ferret out during recruitment. Those are the kind of things you address during the new member education program so that members know what is expected of them before they get initiated.

I totally understand this. It makes you look so bad when you don't show up at these things. We actually didn't do Greek Olympics one year because so many of the senior (and other) sisters were on a band trip and the rest of the seniors were just "over all that." We didn't have enough women for all the events so we just didn't participate. It was so embarassing.

re: other greeks philanthropy events.

Several groups on my campus operate on a point system, and that seems to be really effective. Depending on your bylaws, etc. you could assign a point value for attending and or participating in each type of event. Assign a monthly or semesterly minimum and have either a reward for achievement or a punishment for members who don't meet the minimum (social probation, cannot attend formal, etc.)
Point systems are nice because members still have some choice in which events they attend, and it prevents making everything mandatory, but still encourages participation.

If you want to improve your rep, tell your girls to get involved. I know you are only Social chair, but see about teaming up with a Fartenity to go tail-gating. Fallows the rules that you soroity/ school have for events like that and HAVE FUN!!.

I think the bigest part of geting you name out there is wining. My chaper has been doing really well with Greek Week the past few years and homecoming. Its help us as far as geting our name out there and during recrument alot of girls had told us that people had said we were really nice and won ...like everything :) Its a really awsome thing.

Try to stay away from trying to be the party soroity. People may want to party with you but they may not want to help you with fundrasing or anything like that. The most important thing is to go out and have fun and build a really close sisterhood. Others will want to be around something like that!

TEITY?

I stopped reading here.

I saw that typo and started laughing hysterically. In my cube. I don't know, maybe I have the sense of humor of a 9-year-old.

That reminds me of something from undergrad.

Our chapter decided to do DVD rush fliers one year, and the title of the DVD had the word "frat" in it. When it was completed, one person happened to stumble across an obscure page that spelled it "fart." We handed out DVDs to chapter members and alumni and all combed through each page looking for typos.

I think that's the most involved I've seen anyone lol