Attracting potential co-founders?
 

I am in the process of trying to bring a Christian sorority to my campus. The sorority is fairly new but doing very well compared to other sororities of its nature. The problem is that I am not the most out-going person and I don't know anyone who will help me bring this sorority to our campus. The campus has a very big Christian base and I know that there are people who would want this, its just that I don't know them. I thought of advertising on campus but I don't know if I can legally use the organizations name without being and authorize colony. Any help would be most appreciated!!!:)

If I were in your shoes.....

I would approach whoever is in charge of your campus ministry and tell them your intentions to bring a Christian sorority to campus. Then ask them if they could help you identify other potential members. You could then ask the Campus ministries person to send an email to said students saying something like "This young lady is interested in bringing _______ sorority to campus. If you're interested, please contact her at: ______"

I dunno.... good luck!

Unless your campus ministry frowns upon GLOs.... in which case I wouldn't know what to do.

Thank you for your idea! They don't frown on GLOs, but our school has, I believe, 8 other Christain organizations (non of them GLOs) and while if we had the everything we needed to be a RSO, no one would try to stop us, I don't think we would be particularly welcomed by the administration. Still, is worth a shot, and maybe that could help in getting an advisor as well.

Are there any other chapters of the sorority in the area? Or do they have an official expansion chair or regional director that you know of?

I ask because my university has had several organizations come on in the past few years. They'd either bring in current members from other chapters to recruit (during the all-university "meet and greet") or they'd have the expansion chair work with Greek life to be the official contact for the organization.

I also agree that you should contact the campus ministries. There are bound to be some people who are interested.

That's what I was thinking. Where is the expansion chair? Are you trying to trying to do this by yourself? (I've read the original post but I'm still a little unclear) Don't most groups require that you have a group of 5 or more interested girls before they expand to a new campus?

Why not start with going to your campus ministry's women's bible study?-to try and recruit interested members.

They do have other chapters that are in the same state. I believe the alpha chapter is like an hour away. I have the regional director's phone number its just that I am under the impression that we are supposed to have the people before we go on to the next step so I dont want to bother her unless I can at least show and interest besides me.

They require at least 3 but we would need ten according to having an RSO at the school and they go by whatever you would need for the school. I guess the problem is I feel like I should have the interested girls before I get back in contact with the organization. And I am trying to figure out the best way to do that without misleading people. I want to say something like we are trying to charter blank organization but I dont know if I can use there letters since we arent official, I just have an interest packet...

I am actually apart of 2 campus ministries. One is so big that, although I know there are probably potential interest there, there really isn't a venue to advertise. As for the other one, I am suppose to be trying to recruit new members for it, so I don't think it would be appropriate to try to seek people there. And we are just getting off the ground so it wouldn't work anyway, at least not right now. But thank you everyone who responded. If anyone has any other advice please post or pm me. Thanks!!!

No, you can not say you are a colony of XYZ if you have not been formally invited . Have you talked to your rommate/floor mate/best friend? Are they interested? No, then maybe they know people who are. Does this org have a website? Maybe you can direct people to the website and tell them that this is the org you would like to see on campus. Explain to them why you feel this org would be a good fit.

I am currently working on bringing a chapter of one of my orgs to a new campus. Setting up a facebook group has been marginally helpful. (Only marginally because I am not in this school's network, so it's hard to recruit) You could start one that says "I'd like to see a Christian sorority at ______!"

That way, you can invite all your friends to opt in to the group without committing to join a specific org. (You could even invite guys) You're basically trying to expand your network so people are introduced to the notion. Then you set up meetings to discuss things further.

There may not be a "next step" if the organization isn't aware of your interest. They may not be up for expansion. Contact the RD (e-mail her if you don't want to just up and call her) for assistance -- that's what she's there for.

No, you can't use their letters. In my organization (and I'm sure it's similar in many other GLOs), you register using an interest group name. For example, if you're interested in Tau Sigma Alpha (just throwing letters out there), you can register as "True Sisterhood Always" or something. The organization may have a name that they want you to register under.

You won't know any of this, though, if you don't contact the organization.

No, I have been in contact with them, and they are aware of my interest and I have an info pack from them as well as the rd's number. I just want to bring back something solid first. And I know I cant use their letters I was saying to literally to say ---- Christian sorrity but I like the idea of using the letters as if their were acronyms. Thank you though.

And i just wanted to thank everyone for the great suggestions, it is very helpful.

This is a little late, but I had a thought
 

I was part of a very large christian minustry on campus and would often try to get community service groups projects going. This is different, but similar because there was not a venue to really advertise and maybe my experience can be applied to this situation.

What I did was started talking to people that I knew as friends. i would talk about what I wanted to do and invite people. Something like hey I am doing a service project this weekend, yeah it it going to be fun, Would you be interested in joining me? This did not always work, but I would not get discurrages and would casually bring it up. After a while I got a number of people involved on a regular basis that one of them had a connection with the person who did announcements and we finally got the projects in the announcements. Strenght comes in number, but you have to have interest first. it takes some time to build that up and it can be really frustrating if you are not finding it.

To the OP, Pm me if you want me to go into further details as I also started a chapter of Alpha Phi Omega at my school and tried to start one at my friends school.

Good luck and I am curious to know how things are turning out.
couggirl

NewBee,

I've sent you a PM.