Pros/Cons of Being a Charter Member?
 

Hi all! My roommate is thinking of being a charter member of a Panhellenic sorority that is colonizing on our campus this spring. (Obviously she has to make it through all the rounds & get a bid, but that time is quickly approaching.)

There a lot of factors she is considering, but one of the major questions she has is what the benefits and drawbacks of being a charter member of a new sorority are?

I was going to set her up to have lunch with some members of my (sorority) family who were charter members, but their busy schedules are hard to sync! Any advice/comments/etc. are most appreciated!

There are some great threads here about colonies. I'd suggest you send her here to read. But my opinion of the good is you have an enhanced opportunity for leadership, the chance to be part of something new and exciting on campus, and the chance to develop traditions that could outlive you for 100 years. Plus all the benefits of sisterhood that any other sorority women enjoy.

The drawbacks include having a higher than normal expectation to lead, more commitment required because it takes more time to do something from scratch than to re-do what's been done before many times, a potential for stigma for being the "new girls" and the stress of having to meet goals in membership, philanthropy and other benchmarks headquarters will require in a very short period of time. And at some colonies it can take years to get on equal footing with the other sororities (although on some campuses this isn't a problem at all).

I think a colony is a great opportunity, but if she's not in it for the long haul and through thick and thin, she should probably wait and try during the next formal rush.

10 Years Ago (wow, it was really that long!), I was a colonizing member of the Delta Gamma chapter at North Carolina State University. Here is a list of pros and cons that I experienced (some of my pros could be considered cons and vice versa depending on your personality type, etc.):

PROS:

• Ability to join as an upper class(wo)man.
• Ability to immediately take on leadership roles.
• Ability to start new traditions that will last forever in your chapter.
• More diverse pledge class (you meet, become friends with, a lot of women totally different from you because you are all thrown together).
• No set stereotypes for your group already on campus.
• Fraternities are pretty excited to do social events with the "new girls on campus."
• You work closely with (inter)national officers, which is great for networking later (for example, I did my personal interview during recruitment with the future international President of DG and worked with many of the current DG Council members).
• Family lines start with you. Even if you don't have a "Big" -- everyone in the future will trace their family lines back to YOU!
• You are pretty much a celebrity when you come back to visit years and years later, "This is Carolyn, she was a FOUNDING sister of our chapter!"

Cons:

• New groups on campus get outward support from other NPC groups, but are always stigmatized as the "new girls" and sometimes looked down on as the girls who didn't get bids during formal recruitment (even if that's not true. Only 10% of my colonizing class ever went through formal recruitment).
• Officer drama (though I think that happens in any chapter) -- as girls are selected to fill leadership roles, but haven't had the model of past offices, there are always struggles and drama.
• No Bigs (some colonizing groups have them though...we had Twins, which was cool too).
• Colonies are highly supervised by (Inter)national leadership, which keeps programming and other activities VERY PC (not that I would want to be breaking a bunch of rules, but you are just followed SO closely, it's a little nerve-wracking).
• Divides between sisters (again, could happen with every chapter) - with so many different personalities in one large pledge class, cliques almost always form and drama ensues.

I'm sure there is more...that's just off the top of my head. It was TOTALLY worth joining a colonizing class. It's a lot of work (especially if you are one of the first officers), but it really is a special opportunity.

I'm a charter member of my chapter myself, though I'm now an alum.

DubaiSis and WhiteDaisy make some very good points. Charter membership isn't for everyone. While with an established chapter, there is generally "a place for everyone", when a colony is first getting off the ground, and often in its first few years as a chapter too, there is more work to be done, and depending on chapter size, a larger percentage of girls may have to take on leadership roles. Charter membership isn't for everyone. While it will vary widely from campus to campus (the campus Greek Life culture, chapter total, number of girls who participate in recruitment, etc.) a smaller colony especially may take some time to "catch up" to the other sororities.

WhiteDaisy posted while I was in the middle of writing this, so she's said a lot of what I wanted to (yay, less work for me! :p), but here are some of my personal pros and cons that weren't already said.

Pros

• Avoiding the hassle of formal recruitment. Though my colonizing experience was different (we were an interest group first) and I know that most colonizations generally have an involved process of events and interviews, colonization recruitment allows you to focus just on that single group--no long days traipsing from house to house!
• Forming traditions. Not just the cute and fun ones, but also being a part of creating your chapter culture in terms of expectations of excellence, priorities, etc.
• Experience for the future. While any sorority leadership experience is valuable for future employment, a charter member who holds a leadership role likely ends up dealing with more sticky situations and ends up developing excellent experience that appeals to employers.
• Personal feeling of accomplishment. 10 years after she graduates, when your friend sees her chapter growing and thriving, not only will she be a celebrity, but she will have a wonderful feeling of "I was part of creating that". Even one year after graduation, that feeling is pretty awesome :D

Cons

• Colony recruitment means you don't know who your future sisters will be. Sure, you meet other PNMs during the recruitment events, but there is no guarantee that the one you really connect with while waiting for your interview is going to be your sister. Obviously this is also the case with regular recruitment, but since you are not getting an advance view of the existing chapter, there's the potential for a higher number of girls you might not connect with.
• Depending on how well-publicized the colonization is, you may have people asking you for months and months "what's XYZ? I've never heard of it" and that can get annoying.
• Though this really depends on campus Greek culture, fraternities might not be interested in mixing with the new group because they are the new group, and they don't know them yet.

There is probably a lot more to be said, but I think the bottom line is this: If your friend is looking for something shiny and "perfect" and established, colony recruitment isn't for her. But if she handles setbacks well, likes a challenge, is interested in taking on a leadership role, and likes the idea of really being a part of creating something, then she should go for it! As stressful as chartering a chapter can be (and for me, it was...and I was our first VP so I ended up dealing with a lot of the bumps along the way) it is incredibly rewarding and really an amazing experience. I wouldn't have had it any other way!

I was a founding father of my chapter of my fraternity and the one thing I think was a con in starting a new chapter was the lack of alumni. Our school is located in a big city and we had alumni from lots of other chapters coming and going over the three year period we were a colony. Each alumnus who helped was nice, but they seemed to always want to bring their chapter to us. A lot of suggestions were good if we were at their respective schools, but most of the ideas wouldn't work at our school, and many of the alumni were transient due to their jobs.

Stories were good but we lacked our own alumni, which with the other houses on campus was a huge advantage especially during rush...

Another big issue we as a colony had was that many of the guys in the colony would never think "big picture" and many of the actions the did or didn't do was always based on our house alone, and had a real issue trying to think of our group as being part of a national organization.....

Maybe sororities are different, not sure, but that was my experience.

Thanks for all the advice! I'll be sure to show your (very thoughtful) responses to my roommate. I'm sure she'll find the info very helpful!

I'm a founding member of my chapter.

I think WhiteDaisy and sigmagirl summed up the pros and cons pretty well.

I'll add two cons.
- It's a LOT of work. If it's a from-the-ground-up colonization, you and your new sisters are building something brand new. Whether it's a from-the-ground-up colonization or absorption of a local, you have to get used to the idea of being answerable to a national organization.
- There's sometimes a problem with name recognition. My colony/chapter is at a campus where AEPi has had a chapter for decades, and we got a lot of "When did AEPi go coed?" and "Oh, is AEPhi some kind of little sister group for AEPi?"

And a huge pro - signing that charter was pretty darn special, and it's a great feeling to know that there is a sorority chapter on my campus that has been there for nearly 20 years - in part because of me.

I read this and said "OH MY GOSH, REALLY??!?!?!?"

It's so neat that so many of us have been on here so long.