Ideal Chapter Size?
 

This was brought up by a poster in the thread we had but...
What is the ideal candidate class and chapter size?. We're getting a lot of interest and we're getting our name out there seem and we expect to be getting bigger. (also does anyone know who the largest A.O.E. chapter is?)

in FLP,
Jess

I believe the largest chapter is either Rho (Texas Tech) or Gamma (NCSU).

My chapter fluctuated around 35 women when I was there. I would have preferred 60, but the closest we ever got was 49.

I would like our chapter to hit 60-70, because we can then participate in formal recruitment and become full PHA members. :)

I think you Mean VT. We're Beta Alpha :)

I think we're going for 50 or so.If we have a candidate class like last fall we should be able to hit it in a year or two.

*bump*

As we wind down one semester and look to a new recruitment season, any new thoughts on this?

i could have sworn i replied to you.... guess not :(
we have a net gain of 4 (after all the Fall/Spring grads and transfers are factored) and our president wants at least a net gain of 10 (so at least 6 more people) which would put or chapter at 32. i want to grow it to at least 35+ (i like things in 5's :P)

A net gain of 10 would be awesome! Any plans on how to get it there?

Bump for recruitment time.

Since my chapter is at a small liberal arts school, we can only have up to 50 members and I feel like that is a high number, but when I heard of a chapter (at another school) having almost 300 members, I freaaaked out!

Idealy though, I feel as if 50 is fine (for our school at least). I still haven't gotten to know some people as well as I have others, but I have three more years for that. (:

Any suggestions on how many candidates is a good number for recruitment? We don't have many girls on campus this semester who are currently active (two have transferred, one graduated, and one is out on co-op) and since we just recently became a chapter in March, we will only have 7 of us.

We've had a lot of girls show interest to getting involved this year and recruitment has been going great so far. This sort of makes me wonder though, does anyone have an ideal size of a candidate class? Is there a certain thing as it being too large?

Too large is simply what ever you feel is too large for your chapter (and, if you are a member of Panhellenic, what ever is over Campus Total).

When you are looking at taking a large candidate class, some people are always concerned that the girls may band together as a pledge class and "take over" the chapter. It is simply not true.

Also, people always have panic attacks about Big/Little, for whatever reason. Have willing girls take twins or even triples. I took twins one year and it was fabulous. It was also nice because I graduated shortly after so the twins still had each other in chapter.

If your Mem Ed is concerned about having a large number of girls, there are several things you can do. For one, have an interested Active become Mem Fellow. In addition, there is no reason you can't have Candidate Class Officers. Have the Candidate Class elect an Exec Board to assist the Mem Ed. They can take care of grading completed quizzes; organizing the times for meetings, philanthropies, etc.; and they can help the Mem Ed with whatever (non-ritual) things needed. Also, it cultivates leadership within the candidate class and allows them to bond together as a tight group.

The most important thing to remember is DO NOT TAKE A WOMAN WHO DOESN'T MEET THE CRITERIA FOR BOTH THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND YOUR CHAPTER.

Quality is 9,000,000,000,000x more important than quantity, and quality begets quantity. I would rather you take 1 high quality woman than 30 mediocre girls.

Sit down as a chapter and decide what size you would like the chapter to be by what time. From that information, decide your own personal "quota" and "total" from that. Our Campus Total is 120, but our chapter set our "personal" total much lower than that (50 members) and determined our modified quota each year based on that.

If you have many interested women, make sure to take advantage of that. They will also have interested friends, so pull them in as well.

Good luck. :D

Thank you so much for the advice! :)