high turnover rates?
 

Question... any of the locals (or even nationals) have high turnover rates? I guess what I mean is does it seem like you have a large amount of sisters/brothers at one point and then all of a sudden, they start quitting/going innactive?

A lot of girls have suddenly dropped this semester due to various things: stress, school work, family issues, jobs, etc.

How do you recover from something like that? I don't think the sorority occupies too much of peoples' time as long as you manage it. I could be wrong. Maybe I could just chalk it up to a bad semester. But is there something you look for when you recruit new members? Any way to tell that they won't suddenly drop out?

To add... what do locals do for NM programs? I know our program is a lot of work and it's all worth it in the end. We have tried a few different things but girls still feel either stressed out until the end or uncomfortable because they don't know the house well enough yet (we have done a 10-12 week program and an 8 week program).

I am actually a member of a national sorority, but I do know what you mean about a high turnover rate. My school lots of people transfer out of, and we have seemed to have a run of fianacial and family problems. But to say, there isnt a great way to predict this. All you can really do is find those girls who really fit in and feel like they fit it too. Also, I just have to say that our new member program is only 5 weeks, so 8 and 10 just sounds really odd to me. But that is also just my experience.

Several things here.. The mistake I see many groups make is that they have a tough new member program (or one that involves a lot of activity). After the member is initiated there is just weekly meetings to go to and parties...

Solution: Some kind of continuing education program. Sigma Nu actually has a program that can be given over 4 years. The main thing is that you don't let your older members feel disenfranchised and you keep your newer members in the loop about what's going on... why it's going on, etc.

Sometimes there is just a run of members transferring, flunking out, terminating for personal reasons etc. And often it really is for the best. If you have a lot of "jacket sisters" who contribute nothing to the group and who joined just to join something, it's better that the dead weight leaves. Especially at a small campus.

I think that it could be a combination of new member education and recruitment.

Maybe the members that you're recruiting arent taking their membership in your organiztion seriously enough. I understand that people have problems with money, and family and grades, but unless they're severe, I dont necessarily think that they should contribute to a high dropout rate. If anything, you should use the support of your sisters/brothers to help you get through your tough time.

You might be able to overcome this by
A) Screening out the girls/guys in recruitment who may potentially be not as committed as your chapter would desire.

B) Incorporate into your new member education program something that teaches/stresses the value of preserverance and commitment, and how strong your chapter can become in the process.

these are just my thoughts.

WOW

That was my 100th post!!!!

...a milestone for me!!!

sorry...back to the topic at hand...

Wow Sheila, spoken like a true Clarionite...

People at other schools do not understand the jacket thing here! Some of my sisters went to another school and the guys called them the "Bowling Association"! I guess to non-Clarionites, they do look kind of dumb...

interesting... i went thru about a 10 week program... i can't imagine being initiated after only 5 weeks... but that's just me i suppose.

don't get me wrong... trying to keep a local house organized is enough work and stress for all the active members. So while being a new member can consist of a lot of activity... so can being an active. What we try to do is make the class work together as a team. That way when they eventually take over the house, they will have already known how everyone functions, how to plan events, discover that money for events doesn't grow on trees, and basically just get to know each other in the process. We don't pile on the work load for new members and then it suddenly drops after they become initiated. My question is that if girls are already complaining about the stress of going to events and planning things for their class to do, how are they going to handle planning things as an active when they hold an exec position? (Why do I get the feeling I am going to get attacked by the hazing police any minute now :confused: )

Sorry, I have lots of questions on how to maybe shoot out ideas on how to modify our NM program. I would rather do it all in one post than have 50 different ones at once...y'know.

Well I think with any chapter you are going to have people that just HAVE to go inactive for whatever the reason. I know in my chapter when we came back to school this semester, the job market was really tight and some of the jobs that we held last semester were no longer available and some of us went several months without any income other than mom and dad. Even though many of us are very dedicated to our organizations/chapters, we have to keep our priorities straight.