question about smaller chapters...
 

since I didn't get an initial response in the original forum I posted in, I thought I'd bring it center stage for a bigger audience :)

I was just wondering...

How many of you are from smaller chapters, relative to other chapters on your campus?

The maximum number of women a house can have here is 85 and our chapter has *about* 40 women. We are one of the smallest chapters on campus and therefore not very well known around campus.

Some of my sisters are feeling...low about this but I rather like it. I feel I know the girls better (one of my friends from the largest chapter here doesn't even know all of the girls in her house!) and I just feel more of a bond.

What are some things you like/dislike about being in a smaller chapter (if you are in one!). I'm trying to cheer my sisters up about this and the whole "you know your sisters better" comment is losing its value (though it's still so true!)

And for those of you from larger chapters, what are you views on smaller chapters? If you even have a "view"...?

I've been in both one of the largest sororities on campus, and mid-to-smallest on campus. There are perks to both, but I think you need to hear the benefits of the smaller ones now.

-Once Recruitment is over, there's not as much drama. There's only 10 women screaming over computer problems or not enough bathroom space, instead of 60.

-You have a better choice of venues for Formals, because you don't need as much room.

-You'll go to every class, because there won't be a sister covering for you, whose notes you can use.

-You know exactly who wore your clothes without asking, because you know which sister has been coveting your new boots.

-Not as many arguments over what to watch on tv. You'll all have the same interests.

-You can use those buy one, get one free pizza coupons, because, hey, two pizzas is all you need!

-No bother sending someone to Panhel meetings; your ideas won't count for much, anyhow.

-Lastly, only the new Recruitment Chairman will have a nervous breakdown & drop out because she's afraid that she'll fail, not the entire chapter. I say that because the bottom line is, make all the excuses you'd like about preferring a smaller sorority, but the detriments will far outweigh the pluses. What you need is a way to build morale this term on in a different way, then come back in the fall with a PLAN to work on your numbers!

As a smaller sorority, you won't be considered for many Awards at your National Convention, nor will you be able to garner many locally. You will be continually outshined, and fall into the pity game. You'll be the sorority that has to be paired with one fraternity and the other small sorority for Homecoming, etc. Your Recruitment Returns will be small, and Bid Day will be similar to the Seventh Ring of Hell.

If I sound mean, it's because I've been there, once as a collegiate, once as an Advisor. I've been the sister who watched ONE PLEDGE destroy a chapter, and held the Recruitment Chairman who devoted six months to plans that went belly up due to lazy sisters as she sobbed uncontrollably. I've also been the sister who welcomed the largest pledge class on campus, and the Advisor who cried uncontrollably over just reaching Total for the first time in years.

Excuses, laziness, and selfishness will never, ever build up a chapter. When small chapters get out of their comfort zones and decide that they DO want to run with the wolves, they need to give each other every bit of extra time and play the same game that the bigger chapters do. Do you think they just spontaenously have a great skit, or great Greek Week, or whatever? NO! They WORK at it! And until the smaller chapters decide to do so, too, they will remain small chapters.

Both small chapters and large chapters have a 100% work load in the Greek system. In the large chapters, sisters can skate by on giving 50%, but in small chapters, every sister must give 100%, every day. How much are you willing to give?

My fraternity prides itself on having many smaller chapters. It allows the guys to have a more hands on experience. We all have a chance to take part in running the major chapter operations and thier is more of a chance in upward mobility. We are able to form close bonds and know the brothers really well.

My particular chapter has only 11 active members currently and we are as strong as ever. We are able to compete competitively with other Greeks on campus, and we are a well motivated strong group of people.

I think that sums it up very well. I was a member of a chapter with 80 girls, and while that doesn't seem small, when you're "competing" against chapters with 180, it is a lot of hard work. I remember in one week, I had to organize Derby Days, PUSH America, and Turtle Tug. By the end of the week, I was crying to the organizer of Derby Days (Sigma Chi's) about how exhausted I was.

Not to mention, when you're a member of a smaller chapter at a southern school where most of the chapters are 50-100 members larger, you tend to not have... uh.... "sorority" type girls. Now, I will tell you, I am not 100% "sorority" type myself, but I do still have some "sorority" thoughts (I won't leave my house without make-up on, for one). BUT a lot of our girls were almost anti-sorority, so they didn't understand why things like shaking your @$$ at Derby Days were important. OR, my favorite was when our recruitment chair asked me to lead cheers one day and show them how it was done, and I looked around and there was a girl just standing there and clapping... no smile, no jumping, etc...

Now, I will say, one reason I did love, and still am reaping the benefits of, about being in a small chapter is the "big fish, small pond" thing. I was a vp, a director, on sorority council, etc.... and had a very impressive resume by the time I left school. I really don't know if I would have been able to do that if I had been in one of the powerhouse chapters, because I would have been competing (sorry to keep using that term) against many more girls, and girls that were heavily recruited.

Many many chapters have turned around from smaller to larger. It takes a lot of effort, a lot of alum support, and a lot of knowing what makes your chapter special. Good luck!

My sorority has historically been the smallest on campus, at less than half of the largest. We have no "total" so it is a bit different, and we're all local (just talking the locals here, not the NPHC ladies because they've got their own structure).

It does sometimes suck to be the smallest, because EVERYONE has a job to do. If one sister gets sick or can't go to x y or z meeting, someone else has to pick up the slack. There's no real room for "oh we've got 40 other girls who could go". At the same time, we get done with 23 what some people don't get done with 50+. The amount of responsibility on each sister is pretty equal, and even the rare case where a girl doesn't have an office, she chips in to help here and there. That was me, "gopher extraordinaire" because I was going abroad and would only be there for 1 quarter. I helped sit in on panhel meetings and UGGB hearings and run to the store or do whatever needed done.

You constantly feel like you have to validate yourselves to others. You've got to make up for what you lack in size by being first in grades or greek week or whatever. We made HUGE waves last year when we won Lip Sync and nearly won Greek Week overall, in addition to winning grades for Sororities and having a the highest Greek GPA overall. And even when you do these things, they rarely get recognized.

However, we have a real love for eachother. Since we have to work together so often , I feel there's less of a chance of division happening. Not to say we don't have a difference of opinion, but we're more inclined to listen because we HAVE to find compromise, we really have no choice. We have a relaxed, tight sisterhood. I honestly KNOW my sisters, deeply, personally, sometimes perhaps too well! because we spend so much time together and form a tight bond.

I don't think I would have done well in a chapter of 50 or 60. I joined Tau Delta when she had only 12 members, plus the 9 pledges. We're now well into the 20s, HUGE for us. But I would have been seriously intimidated by 50 or 60 girls plus new members. That's almost too much estrogen for me. Like the above poster said, we attract the "non sorority types", which can be a blessing and a curse. Blessing because we get some really kick ass girls, curse because we fail to pull in the more "mainstream" type of girls who could make a real contribution. It's something we've got to work on.

I love that we have the "circle of friends" ideal. A circle is not uneven on any side, and all points are considered equidistant from the center...meaning that all sisters are equal, all are important, and all are needed to form a perfect circle. It's awesome.

*sniff* I miss my sisters!!

I come from a small chapter and its not that bad being from a small chapter. I think we have a stronger bond. We know every single one of the sister, even their last names and something about every one of them. I'm proud that I can say that I'm from my chapter.

Although I am from a small chapter we are known on campus. We have girls that are involved in other clubs (good way to meet other people), in panhellenic, student government, and other things. We do all the events that the larger chapters do. We might not have as many alternates but we still do it. Just because you are small shouldn't keep you from representing you chapter in anyway. Its just a matter of how the girls feel. If they want to get their name out they will. Maybe make a suggestion that, be proud and stop worring about the number. It is a big deal but the every waking moment.

i'm in a chapter of 4, me included.

sacrifices made: YES.
work getting done: YES.

but we do have help from local chapters, which is definitely needed and appreciated.

I just had an epiphany...

If you are half the size of other chapters on campus, and the larger chapters have, say, 2 people in student government, than half that is 1, which is only 1 less than what they have. Therefore, you have almost as strong of a presence, people are noticing your chapter, but not your numbers... Wow. What a great PR move.

One thing is that smaller Chapters have to have more dedicated members than tose who have many more members who get a little lazy, let Sally do it, I am busy!

If the few and Proud become more visible, then it could help the Chapter grow by just showing what there is and what You are made of!:)

It Aint Easy, but, it aint over till it is over!:D

This semester, my chapter is currently consist of 10 members. after being the biggest back in the 1995-1996 academic year at 52 members, there was a drop in memebership. that didn't surprised me at all.

Even though we're small right now, we got a lot more done. I'm hoping we'll be back to that 40-50 man chapter size sometime soon.

Here is the bigger is better mantra again! My chapter had 28-30 members when I graduated, which on our campus made us a middling sized fraternity. We had members serving as IFC President and two chairmen, eight student senate members,most of whom were senate committee chairs(including the two that controlled all funding:), the programming council security chief, five varsity lettermen. A campus DJ, a campus paper cartoonist and a columnist. BTW, 3rd best GPA on campus( out of 17). None of the three biggest chapters are even on campus any more. Quality and Quantity are not synonymous. I keep in touch with nearly every guy I graduated with. You don't necessarily have that closeness with 100 members.

Your fraternity is not the norm though. Even nationally you guys are not the norm. You guys are impressive nonetheless.

-Rudey

Thanks! We're small, but game as all get out! We added two new affiliates this year, and working on two others. That would be 13% growth. That would be 300 times our historical average:)

I come from a very small chapter, 15 active members to be exact. But nationally we are surprising not the smallest chapter. We have learned that recruiting QUALITY women is the key. Our Gamma Class which was just initiated on Sunday consisted of only 4 women. We believe in pledging women who we know are going to be energetic, dedicated, hard-working, goal oriented leaders.

We did learn the hard way...when we had bigger classes and were taking women just because 'they were fun', they 'fit in well' or 'we liked them', in many cases these women ended up being 'dead weight' in the chapter...and that can KILL a small chapter... when your numbers are low and a few members are dragging you down, you REALLY feel the impact.

But I really do enjoy how tight knit we are. Being in a small chapter allows us to really bond with and become realy friends with all of our sisters. We can ALL go out together and just chill- it's really great.

We also make a great impact on our community. Small as we are, we still attend a ton of community service and charitible events, walks, etc.

I like to say that my chapter is small in numbers, but not in spirit!

While I'm no longer in school, I can relate to having been a member of a smaller chapter. When I was an active member we were typically one of the smallest three or four chapters sororities on campus. However, they've managed to work pretty hard and become one of the more medium sized chapters, with somewhere between 70-75 members (total is now 85).

Benefits to being in a smaller chapter - like CarolinaDG said, there's lots of leadership opportunities, because bascially everyone has to do something. I held a lot of different offices, some of which I wouldn't have been considered for had we been at total.

We did have a great sisterhood when we had 45-50 members. I knew a lot about almost every single one of my sisters and I knew them well. HOWEVER, I noticed for the past two years as membership continued to grow that that sisterhood strength is still there. They might have to exert more effort to know each other well, but they still see the value in it and put the time into it.


Downsides - Recruitment is a constant thing - it never stopped. And it seems to wear members out because they've got that going on along with everything else.

Finances are a big part, especially when you have a facility. It's hard to stay in the black sometimes if your numbers are hurting. One of the things that helped my chapter was that we owned our facility. Unfortunately, while lots of chapters on campus, might be getting major renovations, you don't. Lack of money also puts a damper on your already hurting social situation. Bigger houses might have multiple big functions a semster - maybe you get one.

I never got to live out-of-house (other than the time I spent in the dorms). To me this wasn't a big deal, I really liked living in the house. My sorority was really close to campus and I liked being around all my sisters, but to some people they really want to be able to experience 'apartment living' before leaving college.

what's his org? i wanna know!

We've got 33 guys, and we started the year out with 17 active brothers. We only have 4 brothers graduating, so we'll start next year off wit 29, and we will be one of the BIGGER fraternities on my campus! The highest we've ever had for our chapter was around 42 actives and that was a while ago. A smaller chapter is great to get to know everyone, run for a position, have everyone get involved. The only thing that sucks is that you've GOT to do well for recruitment EVERY year. If you have an off year (we had a pledge class of 3 once), then you will be put behind the 8-ball against all of the other fraternities. Not that having more than another fraternity is a big thing, but when you were the smallest (when we had 17), our president got a few letters stating if our numbers didn't rise then our chapter could be put on a probation level. Thankfully, we had a great rush.

I believe he's an Alpha Delt.

And I thought part of the charm of his fraternity was being at older, established, more-elite schools so wouldn't expanding defeat that charm?

-Rude

Please don't say that quality and quantity are incompatible. Picking one over the other is a fool's choice; you might as well choose between air and water.
The highest quality guys - however you want to measure that - are generally attracted to the most successful fraternity chapters becasue that's where they find the greatest number of other guys like themselves. Too often, fraternities that are not popular and are not able to draw the numbers necessery to sustain themselves or even compete, tell themselves that they are "exclusive". It's not exclusive if nobody wants to join.
The concept of "large" is relative to the individual campus. If the most highy regarded chapters have around 50 men more or less, then that becomes the standard. But if the top houses have 100 and yours has only 50, you will never be able to sustain effective competition against them, for sports, for girls, for the top rushees, for anything. You might have an exceptional group of 50 and they may defeat all the 100-man fraternities. But you can't do it for long. You have no bench strength. Every man has to do everything, and that wears everyone out. If you stop to take a breath, or slow down, or make one mistake - one bad pledge class - you will fall into a lower tier.
In that scenario, 50 is "small" and 100 is "large". On another campus, 50 is large and 10 is small. I come from a campus where everyone who is decent has 100 members, and if that's all you have you're probably not competitive, or "small".
Some chapters choose not to compete, and that's fine. When I pledged we were small and uncompetitive. When I finally graduated we were on top. I can tell you that brotherhood is enhanced when you're a member of the winning team.
And another thing as long as I'm on a rant. It's fantasy to think that the large chapters have little brotherhood compared to the small, and that their alumni are not active or supportive. I raise money for a living, and I can assure you that the most successful undergraduate chapters produce the most successful and generous alumni.
End of rant.

I think comparing fraternities to sororities is NOT comparing apples to apples. There are fraternities out there that can be smaller and not be looked down upon, just because of their stature.

A couple of years ago, KA took 5 new members during spring recruitment while other fraternities were taking 20-30.... Did anyone bat an eye?! NO!!! Because the fact of the matter is, KA could have 5 members TOTAL and people (at least in the south) would think of them as this exclusive power that is "The Order."

Anyway, I can't seem to think of a single sorority that could do the same thing. If a "top" sorority takes 50 girls and everyone else is taking 55, people start talking. Sad, but true.

Re: question about smaller chapters...
 

I think the issue of chapter size is a little different for sororities than it is for fraternities. I came from a chapter that was medium size when I first joined, but after a huge graduating class and internal issues we became the smallest chapter on campus. Now I advise a chapter that is a larger one and while there are certain advantages to a smaller chapter, they are far outweighed by the detriments.

A smaller chapter does generally allow you to get to know your sisters better and give your members more leadership opportunities within the chapter than they would have in a larger chapter. But particularly with sororities, there tends to be a lot of pressure from the National to be at a competitive size for the chapter and that can mean you're stuck recruiting 24/7 and that grows tiring. Not to mention that you don't have the budget of the larger chapters and don't have nearly the same ability to plan events.

I'm not trying to be discouraging, and I think it's admirable that you're trying to cheer up your sisters, but I wouldn't try to do it for the purpose of maintaining your current size. You absolutely should focus on the great things that you have in your smaller chapter, and then when your members have a good feeling about your chapter, it will be easier to recruit new members. I'm not saying you need to get up to the same size as all of the other chapters on campus (although your National org. might have a different opinion on that) but operating at half the size just isn't feasible in the long term.

I'm obsessed with recruitment, so I get to see all sorts of numbers and hear everything about every other chapter's numbers on campus due to my position. Here, if a sorority doesn't take a high number of girls, it's usually looked at negatively. If a fraternity takes a low number of guys one quater, it's usually looked at as a smart move because they want to rebuild... so comparing sororities to fraternities just doesn't work in my opinion.

Also, I agree that you can't say you either have quality or quantity. Theta here is one of the largest sororities and we have amazing women. We always place top three in Greek Week. We've had the Best All-Greek or PHA Grades for every quater for the past three years. We have smaller groups too that don't do as well as we do. But that doesn't mean they're a worse organization than us. You can't make generalizations because every chapter on every campus is different.

Sorry, but Fraternities do have Membership recruiments!:)

For LXA. it cost the same for an ELC to travel to a 50+ Man Chapter as it does for a 3-4-5-6 Man Chapter.

In todays econmics is that worth teh $$$s?

No!

We cant afford it either!

Oh, no, I wasn't saying that... But the view from the outside isn't the same for fraternities as sororities. Let's face it, if a sorority misses quota by one, people are talking (what's wrong? Are they closing?), but fraternities don't even have quotas in the first place, and they are judged more on quality of guys and how difficult it is to get in, than size.

However, seeing what I've seen at USC with the houses being built, OF COURSE the smaller fraternities are going to suffer financially. That's why the biggest fraternities with the most alum support built first, and everyone else followed in line after.