Expansion Experience
 

As some of you know the University that I help advise at is in the process of expansion. It is a really interesting process and one that I have never seen written about here so I thought I would share it. When I started to think about the process it is a lot like recruitment and the stakes are high. There are 2 "bids" available. They want to bring a GLO on in 2012 and 2016. The reason why there is a 4 year break between the two groups coming on is there is a group who had their Charter pulled this fall for hazing (apparently hazing is making a comeback) and they have requested to come back on in 2014. Here is how the process works:

There is a bulletin that is sent out from NPC to every GLO letting them know that there is an expansion opportunity. There are currently 11 groups on campus so a lot of GLO's could have responded. I'm not sure what the GLO's use to determine if they will submit a booklet, but I imagine they do research that involves how many local alumni are in an area and if there are existing Chapters in close proximity and if they feel a colony would be a success. We had 6 groups respond and send booklets. I'm going to call them Sorority A, B, C, D, E, F. The expansion group is made up of Advisors, collegians and University people. I would say there are approximately 20-25 people involved in the process. Our group has 2 Advisors and 1 collegian representing them. After all the GLO's respond we were each sent their booklets and extension criteria sheets. The sheet had 17 questions that each GLO was supposed to answer and then we ranked them 1-5 with 5 being excellent and 1 being poor. It is a lot of work to go through 6 packets. It probably took me 2 hours to read through them and score them. The scores are then compiled and 4 GLO's were picked to come and present to the extension committee.

Booklets/Expansion Packets

These varied a lot by each GLO. Some were very easy to read and follow and find the answers to the extension criteria. Some were not so easy. Some looked like they had a generic packet that was sent for each expansion opportunity and the specific questions were never addressed. Some had a lot of information on 1 or 2 aspects of their GLO's, but didn't relate to the criteria. After looking through each booklet I scored mine as follows:

Group A 53/85
Group B 46/85
Group C 45/85
Group D 45/85
Group E 31/85
Group F 28/85

My scores did line up well with the entire extension committee:

Group A 893
Group B 889
Group C 895
Group D 895
Group E 810
Group F 655

Groups A-D were picked to come do presentations.

Group A's presentation.

I was very impressed with Group A's booklet. They were my front runner after scoring the booklets. I have two nieces who are A's so I'm pretty familiar with this group. The biggest advantage this group has is that they have a successful Chapter at a university located within 100 miles of the expansion university. The two universities are very similar in the type of girls that go through recruitment and they are similar in size.

The group representing this GLO was impressive. A diverse group of women both young and old that included the National President, Expansion, Recruitment, Housing, collegians and a traveling consultant. Very put together women (they all had pearls on which I loved) and all had an article of clothing on that represented their color (dumb, I know, but it is that first impression thing). The speaker was excellent and they did a very thorough presentation. The presentations have a lot of information in them that are in the booklets. The presentation allows them to expand on each individual topic and then you can ask specific questions. One thing this group does with their colonies is that they will initiate mothers along with the colony members if they are not currently in a GLO. That just really impressed me and I think it is smart. It is an instant way to get parent support and buy in. I was impressed and they are currently my "rush crush"

More to follow.....I have to go be a Mom.

Now here's a perspective I don't remember seeing before!
Looking forward to this thread.:)

Oooh, this sounds interesting. Can't wait to read :)

I like... keep going

Interesting! Keep going :D

*jealous*

If only real estate wasn't so ridiculously out of sight, maybe I'd have a chance to write an expansion story. A snowball has a better chance in hell than the University of Arizona Panhellenic has of expanding the sorority system.

Looking forward to reading your story!

Thanks for relating your experience. Looking forward to reading the rest.

This is exactly like the process we use at my company to select vendors of different services. We send them a Request for Proposal, they send us a giant proposal, I spend hours pouring over them and scoring. Then, the top two or three get invited to come present, and we pick one.

So, collegians who get to participate in expansion decisions, you are preparing yourself for the real world!

Question: it's the collegians on Panhellenic who actually vote, correct? The expansion presentations are open to all (so to speak). Please correct me or clarify, thanks much.

I'm pretty sure each chapter gets a vote, but that's not to say that people like the Greek Adviser don't have very strong pull in some cases.

I love expansion stories, having never experienced an expansion they sound so interesting. Keep it up... and if anyone else out there goes to expansion presentations or is on some sort of committee where you aren't bound to secrecy, share your story too!

I think that just depends on your chapter and how you generally guide your Panhellenic delegate on important votes.

(It's kinda chicken-and-egg, though, because the Panhellenic delegate is the one telling the chapter about the presentations, and then the chapter is voting on which one to tell the delegate to vote for)

We always make it clear at my school that the delegates are to take it back to their chapters for a vote. So the delegate is voting the way the chapter tells them.