Initiation only when colony is chartered?
 

Powder's post about chartering got me thinking - How many GLO's hold off on initiating anyone in a colony until that colony is chartered?

When my local sorority went national with AEPhi, we (the members of the local) were initiated before we were chartered. We pledged in February, were initiated in April, held fall rush in late August, those new members were initiated in early November, and we signed our charter that day.

If a GLO holds off on initiating anyone until the colony is chartered, what happens to members who graduate before the charter is granted? Do they ever get initiated? Or do they get initiated and immediately become alums? :confused:

Our founding members were initiated the day we were chartered. They had to wait over a year. No one graduated, though, so I'm not sure what they would have done...we did have people choose not to initiate, though.

My friend's fraternity was a colony for several years because of low numbers. The national revoked their colony status without ever having a charter, but all of the members (who wanted to be) were initiated.
When my roommate was a founding sister of her chapter, they were initiated when they received their charter.

Alumni in good standing take the trip back!! It was great, 36 people all there together, from the guy whose idea it was cuz he met a theta chis at tech, the guy who was his pledge brother from a different fraterntiy before the one guy quit and the other was balled. He came all the way from spain for the initiation. And even us, the second pledge class. Beta. Yeah. We pledged the semester we got installed. Our names will be on the charter. How cool is that?


Greek love,
BILLY O

For Alpha Xi Delta, installation and initiation happen the same day.

I may be wrong on this point - someone tell me if I am - but sororities and fraternities seem to colonize differently. A sorority, unless it was a local first, is created by the Nationals coming down to campus and basically picking a big chapter out of interested women. They usually are installed in less than a year and may or may not pick up more women along the way.

Fraternities seem to start with a smaller group of men, and one of the goals of the colony is to recruit to a certain size, and only then are they chartered/initiated. Their colony period seems to last longer, up to a couple of years.

Why would an organization wait before initiating members of the colony?

Fuzzie,
As a current colonization coordinator, you are correct about fraternities and sororities being different (NPC and NIC that is).

And Tri Sigma does the Installation and Initiation in the same weekend, they are initiated and then have their installation celebration that next day or that evening. Just depends on the schedule.

We waited as well. Alumnae were asked to attend the initiation and were intitated as alumna members(the only time KD initiates alum).

We colonized and were new members as one whole class, then elections, then installation.

It worked well b/c we had a live-in national officer who basically ran the chapter. KD has a great colonization program and it all worked well.

KD's sounds like Sigma's too. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the time of expansion, we expanded right before formal recruitment.

My chapter's founders had to wait until we got chartered to be initiated. It took about two and a half years.

We had the same situation as someone mentioned above -- a colony which was never chartered as a chapter. When it became clear that the colony wouldn't make it, we initiated the colony members as Alumni.

As a founding sister of my chapter we were initiated at the same time as receiving our charter. One alum chose not to come back and be initiated, but one other alum did come back.

It was a great day!

For Kappa Sigma, installation and initiation happen at the same time. You are not initiated until the colony reaches chapter status.

Collin

I already posted but maybe this time I can make more sense and not get cought up in the emotions of ritual. :) Its the same way with Theta Chi as what Collin says is with Kappa Sigma. Except for us we were all iniatiated together by another chapter, then had our installation ritual the following day, which includes the instillation of officers.

The reason they don't iniatite people who don't have a chapter is because they don't have a chapter to belong to. They have not yet proven themselves to be as strong as the national fraternity. Or at least, that it would be a good chapter. So you don't get the benefits of iniation untill you can be trusted to iniatiate others who would be good men of the fraternity, and share the ideals (not neccarily veiws and opions) of the founders. And also, getting a charter can take anywhere from on average of 3-10 years. People might get pissed and let it drop, and you don't want that many brothers at a campous that has never had a charter. Luckily in Theta Chi the membership minimum number (one of the requirements to getting a charter) has been changed back to the older version that says in order to be installed as a chapter, the colony in question must have more than the average number of members for other fraternities on campous.

When my local was colonized, all members in good standing were Initiated. We were a colony for 3 years and working under LXA guidelines

While Chartering was down the road until certain requirements were filled for chartering, we were all members of LXA!:)

I do not understan if you are working under the Banner of a certain Greek Org. that you are not a member! If not what are you?

We are currently going through the chartering process right now, and we have to wait before taking on any new members. The reason for that is because, being a brand new colony, we all are currently going through the new member education process ourselves through nationals. But we recieve our charter next month, so the chartering process isn't taking so long that waiting to take on new members is going to affect us much.