Local Pride
 

Hey everyone. I am a founder of a local sorority at The University of Texas at Dallas. We are looking into going national but I have too much pride in my organization to turn us into a colony for someone else. Any ideas/suggestions?

Someone suggested to me when I asked how to still honor my local if we went national that we have a day or week where traditions were still taught, teach the history of your local, etc. We would keep our symbols as local symbols, etc. Maybe these are some ways that you can hang onto your pride in your local yet still go national.

That sounds great:)

Another thing that your sorority could do is maybe try to go national but establishing more chapters and joining the NPC. This is a long process that's going to take many years but it's one way of retaining your traditions. Good luck on whatever you decide to do and keep us updated.
-Masha:)

Why go national?
 

AS a local sorority you have the right to make your own rules and keep your own tradtitions... maybe you can't say you have "sisters" at another school... but who cares? As a senior and president of my local sorority I am so happy we are not national... it gives us the right to do what we want to do, and make our own memories without worrying about what rituals we have to do or what the other chapters are doing. We are small but close, and I truly do love each of my sisters individually... how can you say that with 150 members? Stay local, it's worth it.

If going national is important to you for networking reasons, sisters at other schools, knowing you share something with other people, etc, then pursue that, whether it is expanding to other schools or affiliating. You can maintain pride in your organization and your heritage and still fulfill your dream in going national.

Just a warning if you think that you can become part of a national colony and still treat your "local" ideals as part of your chapter education . . . NPC will tell you that you can. Reality is -you can't. Pi Delta was a strong local at my school who got impatient and allowed KD to colonize them on the basis that the chapter could still teach local history. After the paperwork was signed, they were told they could not, and one elder sister actually said that saing "Pi Delt" was like a bad word in her sorority. They went from a huge fall pledge class, to very small ones, and began a very embarassing reputation. Other Greeks did not give the elder sisters the respect that they previously had as a local. I don't know your chapter situation, but if you really cherish the ideals of your sorority, i would say that you should just start expanding to other schools and try to go national that way.

It depends on the level that you want your local to be a part of the new national's (hypothetically speaking) chapter. Your new members would have to learn about the founding of your local and things about it since it is a part of your chapter's history. If the sorority doesn't have a national mascot, and your local does, they may even let you use your local's mascot as the chapters mascot. When an NPC sorority tried to colonize my local about 8 or so years ago, they were going to let us do that. Some nationals might even let you use the name as part of the chapter name. A group of guys wanted to start a local fraternity at my school that they called SND, when the school told them they had to affiliate with a national, they became ZY and they are the ND in order to assimilate the original local's name.

It depends on the level that you want your local to be a part of the new national's (hypothetically speaking) chapter. Your new members would have to learn about the founding of your local and things about it since it is a part of your chapter's history. If the sorority doesn't have a national mascot, and your local does, they may even let you use your local's mascot as the chapters mascot. When an NPC sorority tried to colonize my local about 8 or so years ago, they were going to let us do that. Some nationals might even let you use the name as part of the chapter name. A group of guys wanted to start a local fraternity at my school that they called SND, when the school told them they had to affiliate with a national, they became ZY and they are the ND in order to assimilate the original local's name.

The best way to go National is 1) Establishing a National Executive Board. 2) Start an Exapnsion Process to establish more chapters of your organization. 3) Get your GLO Incorparated.

i think this really depends on which organization a local affiliates with. While we don't have many traditions to pass down b/c the locals that preceded us was short lived we have taught the history of our locals from before our original charter and re-charter without any problem.

I think it really depends on how far you want to take it. If you basically want to use your locals symbol mainly and national symbols secondary that may cause issues but I am sure there are many other ways some nationals will let your incorporate things. Teach the history of your local and incorporate as part of the reason you went to your national. Have a set of chapter letters everyone gets in the local's colors. Use the local mascot as unofficial mascot to use alongside the nationals mascot or at chapter events. I can see no reason local traditions for philanthropy events, big/little revealing, cob events, sisterhood activities would have to be abandoned since most nationals do not have uniform traditions for these things.