Has anyone ever advised a chapter besides their own?
 

I work at small campus with only 1 NPC. I have been asked to advise for this chapter and was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this before?

You mean it's a sorority other than Sigma Kappa?

We had a Zeta housemom, an independant Standards advisor, and a Kappa Alpha Order financial advisor.

Yes, sorry if I did not make that clear.

About a year and half ago I moved to a state with no Sigma Kappa chapters and no Sigma Kappa alumnae chapters, so I am dying to get back involved (even if it is with another chapter). I was asked to advise this chapter and it sounds to me (with the responsibilities that were explained to me) like it is a regular advising position (What I mean to say is the responsibilities were the same responsibilities that I had while advising for sigma kappa).

Once when I was an undergrad, our campus advisor (who is a member) abruptly resigned due to personal issues and another advisor (who is an AKA) took over as our advisor. At first we thought it might be awkward but it wasn't. She was really nice and supported us by attending some of our events. Today, the same undergrad chapter is advised by a member of Kappa Alpha Psi (an NPHC fraternity), so it doesn't have to matter.

Bottom line, if you have respect for all the NPC organizations, you will have no trouble supporting them and being a good advisor.

We had an ADPi alumna from Ole Miss help advise at the AOII chapter at Ole Miss. Since ADPi is no longer on campus that is allowed. I would think it would be fun. Obviously you probably won't be privy to rituals and maybe Chapter Relation issues but helping in other ways is probably a great way to make a diverse advising team. I would totally do it.

Interesting topic. I serve on the House Corp of one of the chapters of my sorority and our House Director is a Kappa. She is wonderful and brings a lot of knowledge to the table. She even served as a chapter advisor for Kappa at one time in her life. However, our housing leadership is divided from the collegian end of things. We are two very different organizations with different agendas. How would a member of another group deal with the national organization, etc? Just asking.

Why would the campus advisor have to deal with the national organization? Probably NPHC and NPC orgs handle this differently since with us the campus advisor is just that, the campus advisor. They only exist because the campus requires that we have them and this person (usually a faculty member or administrator) doesn't have to be a member of our organization or any organization for that matter. The real advisement comes from the alumnae chapter responsible for advising a particular undergrad chapter. This advisor is the one that has to deal with Nationals and since she is a member of the sorority, there is no issue.

NPC groups don't always have an alumnae chapter that "corresponds" (for lack of a better word) to each undergrad chapter, so we wouldn't be able to do things in that way. (It would be nice, though.) Even if a group has a housing corporation for that chapter or a chapter association, they don't deal with day to day collegiate advising.

The chapter advisor often has to get involved with issues of standards, recruitment, etc. so he/she pretty much should be someone who's on campus (or really near) and easy for the members to access.

In answer to JI's question, she just has to use the parts of her sorority experience that make her a good advisor, and put aside the things that conflict with the national/local goals of the group she's advising. Maybe Annie ASA Alum is advising a Kappa chapter and she thinks it's ridiculous that (made up example) seniors can't take a little, because that rule doesn't exist in her sorority. It doesn't matter, she has to tell the collegians to follow it. She's not there to advance ASA goals, she's there to help the collegians achieve their goals in Kappa. If she can't do that, she shouldn't accept the advising position.

I thought she was going to be a CAB member. (That's what we call them) not just a faculty advisor. Totally different story then. I was confused.

Yes, this is a major difference. For NPHC groups, there has to be an alumnae chapter nearby to advise the undergrad chapter or the undergrad chapter cannot be active. Also our alumnae chapters do not comprise members of a particular school. Instead they represent cities/areas such as the alumnae chapter of Chicago. Another major difference is that our alumnae chapters are not a part of any alumni association but are actually voting chapters within the sorority and undergrad members are expected to transfer into an alumnae chapter once they graduate. Hence the idea that membership is for life.

I absolutely think that this is where most NPCs dropped the ball.

^^^^^Great explanation, thanks! :)

You mean you thought she was going to be a recruitment or ritual advisor or something like that?

She's not going to be a Greek advisor for the whole campus, she's going to be an advisor specifically for this chapter.

But if we did that, we would definitely have to make chartering an alum chapter more like chartering a collegiate chapter.

I'm not seeing the downside to that....;)

That's exactly how it is for us. Most alumnae chapters are chartered by undergrad members who graduated (not necessarily from the same school but living in the same area) and/or by transfers from another alumnae chapter(s). We also initiate new members at the alumnae level so alumnae chapters are comprised of members that initiated as undergrads and grads. Ofcourse all members must possess a bachelor's degree.

Be fair though, that would entirely change recruitment of members to bring them into alumna chapters. Not something that has a ton of support.

Honestly I'd like to see our organizations treat alum chapters much the same as NPHC chapters. More as fully functional chapters if you know what I mean.

Even though we induct new members at the alumnae level, the majority of alumnae members are transfers from undergrad chapters because our undergrad members know that they are expected and highly encouraged to stay active and honor their lifetime committment. Also our alumnae chapters don't actively recruit (neither do our undergrads). Instead most people that seek grad membership wanted to be a part of the organization as an undergrad or was interested but didn't pursue at that time for whatever reason.

Indeed, your entire style of recruiting is completely different, and I'm not suggesting "grown up rush" for NPC alum chapters. However, the current GC view of "AI should be offered not sought" would need to change if we were pushing our alum chapters into being more active. (IMO it should be sought as well as offered (or denied).)

Part of the reason, again IMO, there's such disconnect between NPC collegiate and alum chapters is the fact that they're too often a generation removed from the members who just graduated college. It's become systemic.

I see your point but I think the disconnect would not exist if you regarded your alumni chapters as regular chapters within the sorority, instead of viewing them as alumni associations. Then the undergrads would view alumni membership as the next level to aspire to within the sorority and some of the undergrads would want to transfer to an alumni chapter immediately following graduation. This way there would always be all ages in the chapters and believe it or not, this is a great benefit as long as everyone respects and values one another. In my alumnae chapter, the members range in age from 20 to 94. The older members let the younger members run things but they are there to provide their insight and wisdom. Although I have heard of chapters where the older members just don't want to "pass the torch" and then of course there are problems and disconnect. But overall it can work and it does. It's just about what you all want as a sorority.

Hence my desire for our alum chapters to be seen and treated in that way. It would require a great change in the way our orgs transition members and run the alum chapters.

I would be a CAB advisor (I am assuming that means what I think it means, in Sigma Kappa it's a ABC) not a faculty advisor.

ASA is set up to have several different adviser postions (if you have enough people willing to work with the chapter), and most of them say "ASA memeber prefered, but not required" - except I'm pretty sure the Ritual Adivser has to be an ASA, or you just don't have one.

I guess each NPC group is different. I know our faculty advisors don't have to be members but I am 99.9% certain our CAB or ABC as in Sigma Kappa do. It is however, possible, to AI a few women to work in a new colonization, especially in an area with no active alumnae association.