Alumnae associations
 

Have any of the alumnae here ever gotten involved with alumnae associations/chapters that weren't your home chapter?

I'm living in a new area and there are two chapters that are relatively local to me, that I'm thinking of trying to get involved with.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experiences with this that they can share?

FWIW, my local alumnae chapter was not just for local grads, although the majority of members were form the local collegiate chapter. Most non-local alumnae did not feel welcomed or comfortable. I blithely ignored it, honestly and pressed forward.

When I became an officer, one of my goals was to make sure non-local alumnae felt welcome. End result? 75% of our executive board is non-local, membership is up overall and the local alumnae are grateful that they don't have to shoulder the burden 100% of the time anymore! We've consistenly been awarded Crown Chapter for the past several years, have increased our donations to our Foundation and have even one 'big silver' awards at Convention 2000 and 2002 for our chapters Alumnae Panhellenic activity.

I say visit both alumnae chapters, see where you feel comfortable, join and get involved!

Yes Stacy! I belong to the Delaware Valley Alumnae Association, which is based out of Philadelphia. We have about 15 members and really growing right now. If there isn't one in your area, I'd see how much interest you would have. Nearly all of our alumnae associations are based on geographical and not chapter basis, unless of course, a chapter has enough alumnae to do so. If you need any information at all, I helped start our alumnae association, so maybe I can help :)

Heather

Stacy, If you are interested in getting involved I say go for it! The bonds of sisterhood last forever and include women of all ages and all chapters. :) BTW, Where are you?

I'm right outside of Washington D.C. - I haven't heard back from anyone I've written to yet though!

I am interested in getting involved in one way or another, I'm going to be living here for about a year, I think that while I'm here this is definetely something that I"d like to do, when I'm in Los Angeles I don't have these opportunities as there are no chapters in that area, so I"d like tomake the most of my time here.

Cream--

There is an NYC Alumnae Association, if you're at all interested! Check out www.dphie.org.

Stacey--

I know that Baltimore/Towson had something, but I don't know if it's stilly active or not. I know there are D Phi E alums in the DC area, and if you contact HQs, they'll get you contact information for sisters in the area. E-mail Shannon Seko at sseko@dphie.org to try to get the list, if you want to.

Hope this helps!
Heather

I'm actually on the mailing list for the phi chi alum group, that's tied to the University of Maryland in Baltimore. I haven't gotten involved though, it's kind of weird for me because they all are from the same chapter and I don't know anyone.

I did send emails to the two chapters in my area about possibly getting involved with their organizations, although I haven't heard anything definitive back yet.

Well, it is summer, so be patient with collegiate chapters :) But if you really want a DC based alumnae association, call Shannon!!

I say get involved in an alum association/chapter. We've just started one in Vancouver, which is open to all DPhiE alum living in SW BC or NW Wash, not just girls from UBC.

We've had a few events over the summer and it is a lot of fun.

Have any of you started an alumnae group?

It turns out that there are indeed a group of sisters in this area as I just found out.

Any thoughts as to what is involved with the process?