IS AI A revenue raiser for groups?
 

I see groups that seem more partial to getting post-graduate memebrs to join than others. I was wondering if there was a financial advantage to this?

I don't see a financial incentive, but rather a volunteer resource. I would say that many, if not most, AI members of AOII become advisers to collegiate chapters.

I absolutely agree. A lot of times, when a new chapter is being installed in an area w/o a large alumnae base, several women will be initiated as alumna members for the purpose of becoming their advisors.

Do you really think it's a good plan to initiate a woman who may or may not have collegiate sorority experience (i.e. she was in a local) to advise a brand new chapter that has a lot of questions?

I mean, I know that groups want advisors for the chapters that live near the chapters, but why does a collegian have to wait x number of years after graduating to do so, and an alumna initiate can jump right into advising?

I think part of the waiting period is to put some distance in time between her collegiate years and alum service. It helps redirect the "collegiate" mindset. It is really really hard to advise a chapter when you were "party buddies" with current members. A person's experience and advise just will not carry the same weight as advise from a sister a few years removed from that phase of GLO life.

I understand that - but what would be the difference between (example) a girl who went to a non-Greek school and initiates as an alum at 22? If she could advise, why couldn't a 22 year old graduate who moved to a completely new area?

I was in a service GLO in undergraduate. So I do have some experience with the Greek letters, secret rituals, purpose, philanthropy, and the sort.

However, I got my Bachelors degree in 1999. In graduate school I was not involved in this service GLO due to logistics (classes at the same time, working nearly 30 hours a week, activities directly involved to my field). I may get involved again with them now that I got my Masters degree a year ago and have finished my foreign language class.

Hence I can say that I have been removed from the collegiate experience several years now.

I've known many women who became advisers after AI. There are pros/ cons to having someone advise who never was a collegiate member. First, they don't have a personal relationship with the collegiate members (that is the primary reason not to be an adviser immediately after graduation. Pi Phi does allow new grads to advise chapters with permission but in general, it is preferred that they not advise their own chapter) Secondly, things change. Pi Phi recently went to a new officer structure and had revised the undergraduate program last year. It is vastly different from the experience and expectation I had as an undergrad. Equating a collegiate experience from even 5 years ago won't help you answer questions. A willingness to listen, mature problem-solving ability and attending fraternity training sessions can help anyone be a better adviser and that does not require having lived in the house 10 years ago. Besides, AI advisers don't fall into the trap of "we've always done it this way" or "my chapter did it this way" pitfalls of advising.

Of the 3 AI's we've had, our youngest was 27/28 (I forget how old).

And we've had a chapter advisor at my alma mater who moved from another area and was allowed to be an advisor without the waiting time (but she had also been a CLC).

And I haven't seen them jump right into being THE chapter advisor, just AN advisor.

Agreed.

OK, I think everyone's completely missing my point - which was asking about the wisdom of a brand new AI advising a BRAND NEW chapter. It doesn't matter if she's not the main advisor, I would think that helping a new chapter that is going to have tons of questions would be best done by those with SOME sort of experience under their belt - alum or collegiate - just so the chapter doesn't get off on the wrong foot.

I think a woman should become an AI and that the sorority should invite her to do so because of what she can give overall, not because of "holy crap, we've got a new chapter in Pig's Knuckle Arkansas with no alums around, we need to AI some people." If having a strong alum base nearby is that important to the sorority and they don't have it, they shouldn't have put in a bid to colonize there in the first place.

I can think of some pretty big schools - both of my undergrad schools for example, that no NPC group would have a huge alumnae base, because they are rinky-dink towns with major universities. (Champaign-Urbana, IL and Stillwater, OK) Both are significantly removed frome the major urban areas in their respective states, so although you would have a handful of alumnae, you wouldn't necessarily have enough to staff an AAC and a CB.

Also, my earlier post about AIs becoming advisers did not say anything about the AI being 22 years old.

Finally, we train our advisers, as I am sure every other NPC group does. The chapter is run by the girls in it, not the advisers. Our advisers have plenty of resources available to them, especially in this day and age with technology. Unless we are AI-ing morons, a competent, educated woman with the qualities we look for in all of our members, should be able to do a fine job as an adviser. By your standards, it would seem that only a former recruitment chair would be a good recruitment adviser, and a former Chapter President would be a CA, etc.

Collegians frequently get annoyed when their advisers talk about, "well back when I was in school we did it this way." That is a non-issue for an AI. Ha ha. Seriously though, should only members from housed chapters be allowed to serve on Corp Boards? They have NO collegiate experience in sorority housing. A lot of it is just good people skills, some business sense, and a lot of life experience. Oh, and a good manual.

This is not at all what I meant. I'll PM you.

Frankly I know a number of volunteer leaders (not advisors in this case) who didn't have a clue (some still don't) what they were doing when they started and those are women who joined as collegians.....

Besides, as has already been said, things are MUCH different now than they were when I was a collegian so my collegiate experience would be irrelevant to advising a chapter.

You don't have to have all of the answers, you just need to know where to get the answers to the ones you don't know.........

But I don't know how everyone else works, but our NEW collegiate chapters get special leaders from the international level that help out for at least the first year. They get a ton of help from people who aren't the advisors.

OK, let me try AGAIN.

For what it's worth, I don't think ANYONE - whether they were active for 4 years as a collegian or AIed 2.5 seconds ago or is a 40 year old volunteering for the first time - should be an advisor to a brand new chapter if that's the first thing they've ever done. I've seen new chapters get off on the wrong foot and never recover because while the advisor had good intentions, she did things wrong. Better to have someone who's got some volunteer service under their belt and knows how the national org works who can be accessed by email and phone, than to have someone who might live down the street but doesn't know the first thing about volunteering. New chapters are so fragile, they need all the care they can get. That's my opinion.

On the other point, when I hear that someone's being initiated "because the local chapter needs an advisor" that just sends up all sorts of red flags IMO. To me, it sounds like giving a bid to the girl in rush that people didn't really like, but well, she's on the volleyball team and will help us do well in intramurals. And no, I don't mean the colonizing members who graduated or the women who have been advisors to the local sorority since Nixon was in office. I don't consider either of those situations "alumna initiation" as we've discussed it on here.

Everyone has different qualifications as to what advisors have to do when, and if your group requires a full advisory board at every meeting and are looking to colonize somewhere that you have to look under the trees to find a Greek let alone a member of your org, well, maybe you should rethink that opportunity. Or rethink your requirements for advisor attendance.

If we're having so much trouble getting women to serve as volunteers that we have to AI to fill the ranks, maybe we should take a look in the mirror and figure out why the alumnae we already have aren't stepping up in the first place.

33, I see what you are saying and I agree to a point. If a suitable AAC cannot be filled with either AOIIs or the majority AOIIs then the opportunity needs further thought. However, let me give you an example. My collegiate chapter has 17 active advisers. A rarity I know. Some of these positions are extremely low key. I don't see why a recent AI couldn't hold one of those positions. It will get her feet wet as far as advising is concerned and she will definitely learn more about the Fraternity.

ETA: I also agree that we need to engage more of our alumnae members. It's not just for AACs but ACs as well. They don't know what they are missing!

I can see the point that no, you would not want the advisory board for a newly colonized chapter to be mainly AI members or members who haven't been around the fraternity since they graduated. On the other hand, how much is the AAC relied upon for the first year? I can't speak for other groups but having been on an AAC for a new chapter, I know that we were basically in the shadows, learning just as the new chapter learned. The chapter was advised by their resident graduate consultant and International officers. It is at least a year, if not two before new Pi Phi chapters are advised by local AACs.

It is one thing to AI the alumnae of that local which is being colonized or one or two local women known as quality volunteers to the others who will serve on housing or advisory boards but if there are not enough alumnae to support a chapter, why would you colonize there?

From what I've seen, the bigger issue is not in NEW chapters but rather the older chapters in small towns. 90 years ago, they didn't worry about how much alumnae support would remain in that small town or that the one alum who remained on faculty would tire of being the adviser after 20 years. Those are the chapters that benefit from having someone AI'd to be an adviser.