No Letters on Sorority House
 

Hello all!
I am new to greekchat but i just wanted to ask you all for some advice.
My sorority chapter was recently re-established on campus about 5 years ago. 3 years ago we got our very first house. Although we are still the smallest chapter on campus we are growing rapidly (last year we had a pledge class of over 30 and am hoping to double that this fall!) The only problem we are having is getting letters on our house. Our nationals won't let us put letters up. Not only is this preventing our house from growing because pnms don't consider us a "real sorority" because we don't have letters, it also upsets our members and alumni because we have worked so hard to re-establish our chapter. On top of that nationals has told parents of legacies as well as alumni that we are allowed to put up our letters, but continuously tells our chapter that we are not allowed to.
Is there anyone that has heard of a situation like this or has advice on how to resolve the situation??
Thanks so much!

It might help if you could tell us why you cannot display letters on your home.

Is it because the house is not official, and only official homes can display letters? Is it a result of your HQ allowing chapters but the school not recognizing? Landlords won't allow anything attached to the house? Something else entirely?

Can you find out the actual reasons why, straight from your officials? Then correctly share that information with your collegian and alumnae members to find a solution that works with your official office, or have some GC members share ideas of a way to work with both sides.

Is your house on or off campus?

I know that for years, the only fraternity right across the street from the college wasn't allow to put up letters because of city governmental policy.

Definitely get something in writing from HQ to explain why not allowed letters, especially if they are telling "outsiders", i.e., parents, that you can.

There may be several reasons behind this, so you should definitely get the official word on why.

In the meantime, keep in mind that although letters look cool, their physical presence on a house (or even the house itself), usually does not make or break a Greek organization.

Figure out what's blocking the letters, and then take the situation further once you have more information. However, if you think the letters on your house are truly the source of all problems, to put it bluntly, there are much deeper issues that need to be resolved.

It depends on where you are.

For example, our house doesn't have letters either, but that is because of the city and/or landlord not allowing anyone to have signage hanging or being on the house.

Could you get lawn ornamentation or something similar to signify which house is yours?

This just does not make any sense to me.

I like the idea of letters on garden/lawn stakes

Before we moved into our larger on campus house, our official house had the cutest wooden sign staked in the flower bed next the the front steps. :) It was a white oval trimmed in black and had raised black letters on it. No need to put giant letters actually on the house. :) Maybe you guys could do something like that?

Well, if it's an issue of not having hanging things on the house, what about painting the door? Or putting letters in the windows that face the street?

How in the world would your national office know if you put letters on your dwelling, or not? Do HQ staff or the alumnae volunteers spend their time searching online photos for Use Of Letter Violations? But, in the event that they have found out, I would ask the national office for a definitive decision. In writing. There may be a specific policy. If cutout Greek letters are not allowed, what about the written letters? ("Gamma Gamma Tau," rather than "GGT.")

I'm sure they have leadership consultants (or whatever her group calls it) who come regularly to visit. It would be a little harder to un-nail the letters from the house than it is to hide the stray beer or two.

Even if the leadership consultant visits they may not know that they are not allowed to have letters on their house. As most greek houses have letters on them and they don't think twice about it.

As much as she's saying that her nationals is against this, I'd assume it would be something the LC would know before she sets out on her travels...or if it's specific to this chapter, she would have it in her file.

Frankly, this sounds like a communication mix-up to me -- a massive game of telephone, if you will. HQ telling the chapter no letters on the house but telling alumnae and parents of legacies that the chapter can put letters on the house? I just have to think that something has gotten garbled in translation.

All that said, I notice the OP posted the question two months ago -- she made three posts that one day and hasn't posted since, so we may all be talking to ourselves.

Maybe they've resolved the communication mix-up.

The OP probably has not looked at this thread since her last post but that won't stop us from debating. Don't we generally always end up talking amongst ourselves? ;)