Expansion/Colony question
 

When groups go onto a campus to start a new chapter, what determines the number of new members that the expansion team can select?

Is it recommended that they start with quota from the previous year and build up or would they try to get total if there were that many good PNMs?

It just seems like it would be a kind of strange situation since you could assume every PNM would accept a bid but you might not want every PNM.

In regular recruitment there are some limits built in that might help guide you, but in expansion, how would you know where to draw the line?

(I apologize if this has been asked and answered. It seems kind of familiar, but I can't remember the answer.)

ditto.

first NPC
 

I am on the Alumnae Advisory Board for a colony. The colony is the first NPC organization on campus. Our National Organization did an evaulation of the campus to determine the number. The colony is required to have 40 members for installation. During colonization weekend, 27 members were pinned.

ETA: The interest group had about 80. However when most of them realized the GPA and dues requirement, many dropped there interest.

I was a member of a Tri Sigma colony for 2 years before we were installed in February of last year. The expansion team held various interest meetings and PNMs went through the same membership selection process as they would in the sorority now. Some interested women did not receive an invitation to join.

I believe the team could not extend more than 50 invitations (or total). They actually did not extend that many. It was then up to the first group of new members to immediatley begin holding CORs/COBs to reach optimum membership.

I have a question about colonies and maybe this differs with each organization, but members of a colony are not initiated right? They are like a probationary chapter that has to achieve certain things before being installed, right?

I was just wondering because we had a colony a few years ago that would display the letters and I just wasn't sure. I thought that they weren't initiated yet, but are they?

I joined the DG colony at my school. The number of girls that bids were offered too was approximately the number that was the average/total number on campus. So, at the time, average chapter size at Auburn was 130, so 133 bids were offered. Yes, I had a large pledge class ;)

The way it worked with my chapter/colony was that we were new members during the colony period- around 2 months. The day we were initated, the colony became a chapter of DG. And we used letters, even before we were initiated.

This may vary by organization, so I can't claim to speak for all the NPC groups (nor would I ever try to) but my understanding and experience is that colony members are considered new members or pledge sisters (depending on the terminology of the group). Also, in some organizations not-yet-initiated members can wear/display letters. For colony members, this is probably especially true since there likely wouldn't be any intiated members on campus who could display/wear letters and it would be primarily colony members who are representing the org on campus. Sure, reps from HQ may be a presence as well, but it's the colony members themselves who are present on campus every day.

Yes, as a colony we were not initiated, and considered new members, but were allowed to wear letters (as all Tri Sigma new members are).

We had a sorority house on Greek Row as well, but were not allowed to have letters on it until we were installed.

I too was a member of a colony, as were all sorority women on my campus at the time, and we were considered new members of the sorority. We were referred to as a Gamma Phi Beta Colony, and the other sororities on campus were referred to in the same way. Since Gamma Phi Beta allows new members to wear letters, even our bid day shirts had our letters.

When it came time for initiation, we were all initiated together (the ceremony took FOREVER). The chapter at UC Riverside initiated us at the USC chapter house, and several international officers were present. It was very cool!

For what it is worth, Sigma Chi "assigns" a Greek letter to each colony / re-colonization which is added to the Greek letters SC. And because no Sigma Chi pledge may wear the Greek Letters, to "show letters on campus" (as it were), the colonies usually add the Greek letter designation to SC for shirts, websites etc. Some re-colorizations may decide to use a combination of their original chapter designation and/or campus name. As such, for their shirts etc., Sigma Chi would need to be spelled out.

As examples, here are a few current colonies/re-colonizations and their "current letters".

New Mexico State University - Psi Sigma Chi or YSC
Syracuse University - Sigma Chi Chi or SCC
University of West Florida - Sigma Chi Omega or SCW

Note that the additional Greek letter may not have anything to do with the chapter's letter designation. Once the colony receives it's charter, the chapter designation (now well into double letters) is assigned based on acceptance into the Fraternity. Re-colonized chapters receive the original chapter designation.

Also, any symbols etc. that any Sigma Chi pledge is allowed to wear, the colony members (as pledges to Sigma Chi) are encouraged to wear as well.

My guess is that something similar might apply to the NPCs that do not allow their new members (pledges) to wear Greek letters as well.

members of a zta colony are "new members" or "pledges", just as if they had been recruited at an established chapter. the main difference would be that as colonists they have no "senior" members ahead of them, so while they are attending new member meetings, just as any other zta new member would, they are also learning how to conduct chapter meetings and some are holding executive office. they do not have big sisters for the same reason(no senior members), so they were paired up and were each others crown sisters. goals are set for the colony and after those goals are met, the girls are initiated and the colony is installed as a chapter.

while they are a colony, they are known as fgcu colony-after their chapter installation fgcu colony became kappa tau chapter.

This is really interesting. I was just thinking about the difficulties of expansion rush but hearing about the colonies is fascinating too.

It seems like it would be much better to try to bid up to total in your expansion recruitment, so the group would be the right size for subsequent one, but that instead of having the whole pool of PNMs that other groups had at formal, you'd have to attract your own.

It also seems like it would be so much more important to attract a great group for that campus because they won't have the benefits of tradition, but in reality it would be hard to seeing as in most cases expansion recruitments are done after formal recruitment for the rest of campus and selections would be made by people who weren't that familiar with the standards for members on that campus.

AUDeltaGam, obviously your chapter did very well and selected a big, strong group who built the foundation to do well on a competitive campus. Who conducted the expansion recruitment for you and were most of your sisters girls who had gone through formal?

Consultants came down and did recruitment. Day one was an informational meeting. Day two was interviews. Day three was preference (if you were invited) and the fourth day was Bid Day.

As far as most of my pledge class having gone through formal recruitment, I'm not really sure. I know some did, and some, obviously, did not (I was one of the ones who did not go through formal rush).

Being a part of a colony was a great experience. I'll be glad to answer any more questions ya'll might have :)

It is my understanding that in addition to freshmen and sophomores, most sorority colonies actively recruit juniors and seniors (those who for what ever reason, did not pledge) for the colony's first new member classes. Thus the number of freshman and sophomores are similar to the numbers in the other chapters. And when possible, the same with juniors and seniors. And for what it is worth, juniors and seniors often have more campus experience (i.e. familiar with the campus) and may already hold leadership positions campus wide. So they can be quite desirable.

In the year a group is colonizing on campus, are they included in quota calculations? For example, a campus has 5 chapters, and a 6th is colonizing in the fall. During FR, the new chapter is participating in open houses, and that is it. Is quota = PNM's/5 or PNM's/6?

It would be harsh to the PNMs in formal, but it would increase the pool of women interested in being Greek at the time of the expansion rush.

To my knowledge, unless they participate in all rounds of recruitment, they are not figured into quota.

Usually the group is not taken into account when Quota is set. There are some campuses though where the group enters the system through formal recruitment (Washington & Lee is the best example I can think of). In those situations though, the group participates in all of formal recruitment.

Generally speaking, most campuses that have 5 or 6 groups have already implemented RFM, and use Quota Range, so the calculation is much more complicated that PNMs/x and is based only on who participates completely in formal recruitment.

When a new group comes onto campus, do the other sororities have to "shut down" (in essence) to help the new sorority expand?

This is what I was told by one of my sisters, but i just wanted to know if it was true.

So lets say, for Example at State U there are 2 sororities--ABC and XYZ.

The school was open for expansion and DEF was chosen.

From what I was told ABC and XYZ could NOT recruit any new members until DEF reached their desired number (if i remember correctly my sister told me they had to reach total)

Once DEF reached that set number, THEN ABC & XYZ could recruit.

Is that true?

Wow, I've never heard of that. Do you just mean no COB/COR for the rest of that year, or do you mean no formal either?

Usually, the panhellenic has a moritorium on other chapters issuing COB bids for a period not to exceed 3 weeks for a new colony to have an exclusive time in which to offer bids to colony members.

It's forbidden for panhellenic to prohibit any chapter from recruiting new members during formal recruitment, but I don't know about COB...that seems like a courtesy.

Everything. From what I was told, if we brought a 3rd chapter to the school, neither sorority would be able to recruit for a whole year to help bring up the 3rd chapters number.

But not only that, we would have to be at total for several years to even think of bringing a 3rd chapter.

Thanks for clearing that up!! I know the sister that told me that has been in the sorority longer than me, but I had never heard of that here on GC so I just wanted to see the validity of her statement.

As stated before, that is not necessarily true. Your current chapters would still do FR but their COR efforts would be suspended for 3-6 weeks, whichever was agreed upon.


Being at or above Total for a few years is a factor when determining a campus is right for expansion. If chapters are not at Total and no one has been near it for ages, the panhellenic would need to either decrease Total or attract more women to FR.

This sounds like something she was told by someone who was paranoid of losing members to a new group.