Active Alumnae Question
 

I was talking with some of my sisters today, and we were wondering if different chapters have various policies concerning alumnae. For instance, if you (as an alum) attend a meeting, does the chapter have to vote you in? Are you invited to all the events, or only selected "alum" events?

Just curious ;)

Thanks,

Jadey

our chapter has no specific policy.
although technically (i think) a chapter has to vote an alum in(since by allowing her in she has voice - no vote of course) but our chapter never does it.
communication between alum and actives isn't the greatest so it is somewhat selective what they are invited to - as advisor i send emails out to the more acctive alum almost weekly, and maybe monthly/bi monthly to those further away.
the archon does send emails to all the alum emails she has for things like pref and pinning.
but, yeah, basically its just the recent alum who are invited to mixers and other events that aren't as important as the ceremonies.

they're also really bad with phoning ppl - me too actually, so we often neglect alum who don't have email.

they do try to have one specific alum event per semester and there they do make a much stronger effort to contact the alum.

I've never heard of voting alum in to meetings. All our alum are more then welcome to attend the meetings at any time. We definitely invite the alum to all fundraisers, philanthropy, recruitment parties, prefs, pinnings and initiations. They are usually invited to all sisterhoods as well. Pretty much the only time we don't invite them is to the chapter retreats since we are planning so much for the next year.

Also, we started the tradition last year of just after finals inviting all the Alum to an Alum Appreciation Potluck/End of Semester celebration. We do a gift exchange where anyone who wants to participate brings a gift and then numbers are drawn to choose a gift.

Carolyn

I am the alum advisor for York and I read in the volunteer manual that alum are supposed to be voted into meetings. I'll have to double check on that though.

that's exactly where i read it in the mentor manual

Thanks guys. If it came from a manual, I guess it's acceptable. But don't you think it's funny that alum have to be voted into a meeting, whether formal or not, and new members are completely welcome? I don't have a problem with it, I just kind-of think of it as reverse hazing. LOL And I also think it's funny because when you were active, you openly welcomed these sisters into the pyramid and sometimes they don't do the same with you. Oh well. :p

Jadey

I dont really see why you would have to vote an alum in. I mean I understand that it is in a manual, but seriously. They know what goes on in meetings, so why not welcome them without havng to vote.

i think it's just to safeguard against those alum who are overly influential...you know that ones "in my day..." or " you should..."

like i wrote, by allowing alum in the meeting she has complete right to voice, and some of those women, while they usually mean well, just get too involved in chapter operations and let thier personal opinions override whats best for the chapter.

this can particularly happen if a chapter has had grudge matches with other groups on campus and sumthin comes up....

My chapter doesn't vote alum in, but they do know about this clause in case it is ever needed....

i don't think they can vote to keep advisors out though...this is just with regards to "regular" alumnae.

good point, moose

i know that there was one fraternity on our campus that we had an... incident with what, four years ago? both groups got in a little trouble, but in the long run nothing bad happened to either group, yet their upper classmen and our upper classmen (this would be me included) held some serious grudges.

but now we're all graduated and the younger brothers and sisters are trying to make amends. the process would be a lot smoother if the older alums would just butt out... but nooooooooo. it's almost kind of a joke now, but I can see how things can get hairy.

we always just let alum in....I mean I can see how maybe recent alum can be a little overly "influential" but, Personally I think that people should respect alum and the time and effort it took them to get that status.... telling them to "butt out" so to speak is rather disrespectful... honestly they do sometimes see stuff actives can't see and have the experience to know better and are making the effort to help the chapter thrive... not many women actually come back to help.... :D

While I agree that alum are a very important part of chapter existance, I do believe that there should be some type of separation between active collegiate members and alumnae members.

Alumnae members' opinions and views are valuable, but sometimes they are expected to be followed even though the active membership sees things differently. The comments about "we never did that before" or "you should do it THIS way" are sometimes not necessary. Alumnae sometimes forget that with each new member group the chapter dynamic changes to some extent. Inclusiveness and diversity are the goals...Right? Well that means that you will have people from all walks of life with their own opinions and beliefs in the active collegiate membership.

One of my personal beliefs is that just because something is different that doesn't make it wrong. This is not the impression that some alumnae members give.

As far as voting the alumnae members in a meeting, that isn't always necessary; however, some ground rules should be established. I do think the chapter should be notified if they are coming so that the chapter can prepare for them. The chapter may be participating in an activity and the alumnae member needs some supplies. Well if the chapter isn't aware that she is coming, they won't know to bring enough of whatever it is that is needed. Or on the other side, if the chapter has been asked to bring whatever to a meeting, the alumnae should be notified of the activity so that she can prepare and be an active part of the meeting rather than watching over and passing judgement.

An earlier post stated that if the alumnae member attends a meeting she has "voice." Well sometimes the "voice" of the alumnae can be too influential to other members. This can put newer members at a disadvantage. Her voice may not be as loud anymore since the more veteran members may feel obligated to side with the alumnae out of some since of duty or obligation because "she's an alum."

Collegiates should run the chapter and make the decisions. The collegiates are obligated to attend meetings and philanthropies and fundraisers and be in two extra curricular activities and maintain academic excellence and most of all collegiates pay dues. Is it fair for the alumnae to reap all of the same benifits without the same obligations all of the time? There should be some things that make being active, attractive. I suppose I feel this way because my chapter is slightly different from most. Many of the women in my chapter can initiate today and apply for alumnae status tomorrow. Many of the women are married, have children, are graduate students, etc.

Alumnae support is always welcome as well as their advice. But that's what it is...advice - not do this because this is how we did it when...

Events to enhance the relationship between the alumnae and the actives should be scheduled. All chapter celebrations should be open to alumnae. Actives should show off all of the good things that they are doing to the alumnae.

Sorry for the long post, but I suppose I'm passionate about this and wanted to express a slightly different point of view.

Scooby

I personally think this is the most ASINEINE thing any Phi Sig could do another sister! :mad:

Who gives any one chapter the right to not let an initiated sister into their meeting? It doesn't matter if she's from that chapter or not, she should be allowed in, without any questions. I can guarantee that when we were founding the Iota Gamma chapter, we never would have done something so utterly DISRESPECTFUL!!! And now, as an Alumna of Iota Gamma, I have to call=ask permission and then be voted in if I want to attend a chapter meeting? To a chapter that I FOUNDED?!

I understand not wanting to have the Alum influence active sisters... but quite honestly, what are you so worried about??? Who gives a rat's ass if the Alumnae say something?

Would you tell your grandfather on Thanksgiving that he can't come to dinner? Or if you did vote him in... Would you tell him that he can't talk at the dinner table???


I donno, but pretty much every valuable thing that I've ever learned in life was by someone that's older/gone through it before.

But you don't have to listen to me, because I'm only an Alum.

~Beth Moody
Iota Gamma Alumna

We have never done that either. It just doesn't make sense. There is no power of vote, then we really can't influence things too greatly. If you can, then maybe there is another problem. Some separation occurs anyway - and that is the way it should be. You are no longer a collegiate member... but still, I have to agree that voting in can become an issue if overused. It can make an alumna not feel like a "sister" and respect can also be an issue too. But respect is something that everyone should give and get regardless of their status.

Actually, with our chapter, we have been trying to have 1 alumnae event per month, we invite them to philanthropies, our formal, and anything else that we,as a chapter, decide to invite them to. We have guidelines set up with our local alumnae chapter (we have a REALLY strong alum chapter by us) and the alum don't come to our meetings or other events. If we invite alumnae, we have to invite ALL alumnae and, not to be rude, but why would they want to come to a meeting? As the alum chapter, they have their own meetings. We ran into problems a few years back with alum not joining the alum chapter but attending all of our events, but it's like, we're paying for them, they aren't paying dues, and they aren't supporting Phi Sig by not joining the alumnae chapter. I guess if we didn't have an alumnae chapter organized in our city, we probably would invite them to many more events. Another big thing is that we have a community college on the same campus as our university, so we had some sisters go alum because they transferred to the community college-- so we have young alumnae, like 21/22 who want to come to all of our events and it just seems like it's more trouble than it's worth. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to be alumnae next year-- i'm graduating in April, but I just think that the collegians should be able to do their thing without alumnae at everything telling us what we're doing wrong, what we could do better, or what they did when they were in!

Back from the dead, adding my 2 pennies