Contacting internationals etiquette
 

This might sound like an incredibly stupid question to some, but I wondered what the etiquette advice might be with regard to how often an interest group contacts their prospective internationals (one's they aspire to).

See you can't go contacting them [IMO] too much because a) they're a lot busier than you, with a potentiallly three figure number of actual chapters to deal with plus b) if you're contacting them v. often it can look like you run to them every five minutes there's a problem which wouldn't exactly inspire confidence in you as a potential chapter or leader of said potential chapter and which'd I should think hurt your chances when it came to them judging your petition for a charter.

On the other hand, if you don't contact them and a huge amount of time goes between the last time you did then it just looks like you've disappeared off the face of the earth to them I guess and they'd think you're not really interested or something.
Wondering how to strike a balance I suppose. Maybe it's really important to only speak when there's something really substantial to share with them but pivotal things don't happen every day?

Well thanks for any input :).

I'm a little confused: are you involved with a colony or a local who is trying to become a chapter? Has this sorority expressed an interest in your organization? What type of questions are you intending to ask?

Really, it's kinda hard to understand without knowing the whys.

I think he's asking in general. :)

dec, each colony is usually assigned a colony development director (or something like that) who is the person you go to w/ all your questions - this is their function and they expect you to be calling every 2.5 seconds. If you don't, they should be checking in with you regularly. They in turn go to the national officer who is best equipped to deal with your question - pledging, finances, housing, whatever.

By interest group I mean a group purely set up with the aim of ultimately becoming a chapter of said org. So we're not recognised as a colony. The group was set up after initially contacting them to see if they would be opening to our petitioning them and getting a positive answer. Since then obviously we've spoken to them, they've sent us info etc. It's a fraternity not a sorority, I'm a boy ;). (Co-ed fraternity to be precise). It's not like we're gonna petition tomorrow so it seems better maybe to contact them from time to time rather than out of nowhere hurl a petition for charter at them having spoken to them aeons ago or something. As for what questions, not necessarily any specific questions, just to keep them informed of any progress/developments and have them aware of our continued interest rather than dissapear off their radar.

I don't think you need to go to them with every little thing, but if I were the consultant working with you and didn't hear from you every week or two, I would wonder what was going on.

It makes some sense to me to try to keep a list of the smaller items and handle them in a weekly or bi-weekly call.

33girl: Thanks.

Wow they do? Often? I just didn't want to, well, annoy them. :o
Would that still apply to me though? I mean I don't think they have an actual designation of 'colony', I think of us as an interest group (they're the only international we'd petition and our group was set up to do so). I don't know if, if they did have colonies we'd be one or still an interest group since there's no way of knowing as there aren't any.
Ooh re-read your post, the person we dealt with in the past (not 100% sure if she's still there...) is based at the Internationals office herself, and in charge of the type of chapters we'd hope to become one of.

ETA: WEEK OR TWO?? :-o Damn, they must've wondered about me!!! Feeling stupid now. I spoke to them really briefly in September while I was in AL/FL to see if arranging to meet up with one of the regional people could be arranged; it couldn't be due to time in the end as I wasn't there long but prior to that I spoke to them in July/August I think. By letter as I recall.

Well I would just give them a call. You can't be expected to know what is required of you unless someone fills you in. What could it hurt? Most organizations enjoy the opportunity to expand. If your group is right for the larger group, they should extend every bit of help that they are able to.

Definitely send an email every few weeks to your contact person at the fraternity about how your group is doing and that you are still interested in working toward the colony/chapter status.

Remember the squeaky wheel get the oil! If the fraternity has several interest groups at the same time, you want to stay at the top of these groups. :)

Keep in mind that the group in question has very little actual staff working for it . I think it's like 3 paid staff members, the rest are ALL volunteers. There are no chapter development consultants or anything of the like. Once it's actual a "real" chapter, there's a system of districts and regions that have a chain ladder of volunteers for you to work with.
From my experiences, communication can be difficult with the IHQ of this group, both in getting back to you and in disseminating important information to you. My chapter has had some rather bad experiences with them this semester. Persistance is key, but at the same time, you're not in the place that you want to annoy anyone.
Also, the person at IHQ that you're speaking of having worked with before (at least the person that i'm thinking you mean), is no longer employed there, and i don't believe her position has been filled yet..

You could also ask if they have any chapter leadership materials/guides they could send you. That might answer a lot of your questions in there. Plus it would look like you were Johnny on the spot. Would be impressive to me...