How Common Now?
 

Many of us have been on GC for a long time now, so this question is mainly for you and others who have been in your orgs for over 10 years.

I was at an APO conference this weekend and discovered that one of the other volunteers was an AI for an NPC group. (I don't know her super-well, but it surprised me since she is so involved in APO)

In your opinion, for YOUR org, do you think AI has become more common, less common, or remained the same?

Has there been a greater push for AIs from your leadership? Or has there been a "Whoa whoa, let's slow down there" sort of conversation happening?

Do you think the public side of your website addresses AI more or less than it did over the past decade or so?

Feel free to share as much or as little as you feel comfortable with. I personally feel like GreekChat itself has influenced how organizations at least talk about AI on their websites.

PS: I know AI is different for every org, so feel free to stay within your own org's lane. :p

AI in my organization is near non-existent.

I do know that several organizations are looking into their potential AIs much more carefully. I know of several situations in which NPCs initiated local women to help with new chapters and regretted it for years, even having to drop some of them for the harm they did.

For us, I think it's about the same. Having sponsored an AI, I think our vetting process is quite rigorous. It still tends to be mostly close friends and relatives of current members.

I feel like we talk about AI far more than we actually follow through with AI. But, I'm a fairly recent alumna still, so that may be a part of it. I think I know 2 women who have been AI'd in the time I've been an Alpha Gam: one who is a mother of a woman in my chapter and another who worked at our IHQ and was incredibly dedicated.

I know that I often compared AI for this reason (either for new chapters or for regions that for whatever reason, had a dearth of volunteers) to having a baby to save a troubled marriage. Try to reinvigorate the interest of the Alumnae you have rather than initiating new people. I think social media and the growth of the Internet has been fabulous in this regard. Two of my chapter sisters are now chapter advisors, after going 20 plus years with no involvement at all. The new-old blood, as far as I'm concerned, is much more healthy for an organization than just going straight to AI.

Yikes. It's unfortunate that a well-meaning program would be abused and well-meaning sponsors essentially be taken advantage of/embarrassed by harmful AIs.

Gotcha. Thanks for responding.

You can't go wrong with moms!

Great thoughts.

The handful of AI that I have met were either - 1) already famous and recognized for some contribution to philanthropy 2) women who had pledged and then transferred to a school without a chapter before initiation or 3) outstanding women in the community when a new chapter was colonizing.

I know of two Tri Sigma alumnae initiates, both from my chapter (which coincidentally is AI). One was the mother of an active alum (she was in her 60s when I first started attending alumnae meetings in 1998) and the other was a woman that I personally sponsored a few years ago. She had pledged my chapter in college, but didn't get initiated due to grades. My friend group from the chapter has always included her, and one day, something made me think, "Hey, I wonder if we can initiate her as an alumna?" I remembered that she cried when I called her to ask if it would be something that she would be interested in! We held a special initiation for her after a baby shower that we all attended, and now she is on the chapter advisory board!

Phi Tau AI are either someone famous, known for their contribution to philanthropy (Rob Bironas or Shelley Berman) or a Phi Tau son where there's no PKT chapter on campus. A petition is submitted and must be approved by our National Council.

The two AIs of my own chapter that I know of: One was a pledge who didn't make grades, twice, back in the day when pledging was over a semester long and you have to make grades to be initiated. She remained close to the chapter, and helped with philanthropy, and when older, actually served as a financial advisor. That initiation was an excellent decision.

The other was the mother of someone in my pledge class who had a sister, daughter and two granddaughters in our KD chapter, was instrumental in establishing the Mom's club and supported the chapter spiritually, financially and practically over the course of decades. Again, a great decision to offer AI.

The, "I didn't get to be Greek in College because of money, time, got cut, didn't think of it, parents opposed and now my life won't be complete unless I can be Greek" is a crock of ridiculous.

I've only met one AI from my sorority. It sounds like she did a ton of amazing work with a specific chapter and they initiated her. She's still active--which is great!

My sorority seems to be supporting the idea (it's a point to be added for excellence at the alumnae chapter level), but the tactic seems to be going after those awesome women we know who are unaffiliated. I have a few friends who I think would be excellent additions. Explaining why they would want it (because these are not women who feel like they missed out on something in college) is a bit of a challenge. And one said, do they TAKE black women? HA! I felt the need to say "do you mean do they take highly accomplished engineers who have traveled the world and can make any candidate for any office win? Yes, we take those."

I've never walked through the entire process to see what the challenges are for the "applicant" but since our convention is relatively close next time I would like to get one in our ranks. For Alpha Xi Delta, the initiation itself has to happen at a collegiate chapter or at convention. None of us have a direct connection to our closest collegiate chapter so participating as an adult in a college initiation among strangers would probably be weird.

My alumnae chapter has several AIs, but each woman joined under different circumstances. Nationally, our organization has streamlined the process, and I feel good about the way in which AIs are approved, prepared, and guided to initiation. The AIs I know have felt truly welcome and respected. Alumnae Initiation is still not a common practice.