Success Stories
 

I am interested in what ways you have seen sororities and fraternities change their image and sucess on campus. Have you seen a small sorority chapter finally make quota? A fraternity that has gone from 5 to 60 men? How did they do it? Please, share your success story.

-Michelle

http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmili...ty/yelclap.gif EXCELLENT IDEA! JUST EXCELLENT!

Thanks, JAM! We'll see if we get any hits.....

ETA: I would nominate Phi Kappa Psi on Stanford's campus as one of the success stories. My freshman year (5 years ago) they had about 10 men. Today, they have 50-60 members and occupy a house on Mayfield Ave. They worked really hard at cultivating their brotherhood, and had very supportive alumni who helped them out with finances when the going got rough. They are true gentelmen, and run two of the most popular charity events on campus: The Phi Psi 500 (mud tug of war) and Battle of the Bands.

My freshman year Phi Sigma Kappa at Stetson had 5 members (so of course they were knows and the 5 sigs...lol jk). Then they rushed about 20 guys and now they're are one of the largest and best fraternities on campus.

Come on you guys!!!

I know there are examples out there. Does anyone dare to be positive?

CONGRATS on the great work and keep it up! :D

I'm bumping this thread to see it continue. I just got initiated to Theta Delta Chi and we currently stand at a stable 20 guys, (only one is graduating this semester, but a lot are graduating next year) but we need to start recruiting like mad -- cuz there seems to be a "big 5" who suck up all the PNMs. I'd love to see a success story and the details -- might be a good place to start a frame work for a fantastic rush. :D

My chapter of Alpha Sigma Tau was only at 11 girls when I pledged in fall 2002, and now we are up to 34 girls, 4 of us will be either transferring somewhere (1) or graduating (4), but we're pulling in new member classes of about 15-20, and ending with about 15 girls each fall now.

I'll post my own chapter's success story, because it's something I'm really proud of :) When I graduated in 1996, I left my chapter with 40 women, a bit above the average size for the university, even though total is 52. As the years passed, they seemed to have more and more trouble recruiting women, while other sororities were growing. There were three sororities that had trouble getting NMs, my chapter being one, and we didn't know why. 2 years ago, the chapter was at their lowest membership ever, with only 16 women, and we realized something drastic needed to happen. We caught wind that an interest group was on campus who wanted to form their own national sorority, and affiliate with KD, but KD wasn't interested, and the campus couldn't expand with only 2 chapters close to total. SO, we proposed a merger of the groups. The merger came with consequences of course, for the 16 active members. With such a large group of women (26) joining, there was no way the chapter could sustain a normal NM program, nor were we interested in that. We knew we needed to re-educate our women on how to effectively run the sorority, while teaching new members about history and values, etc. So we did a reorganization with a modified colony program. The current chapter members all gave up their offices, and committees were formed for recruitment, membership development, academic affairs, operations, etc., and 6 weeks later, we held nominations for positions, based on how the teams were run. All women were eligible to hold any position. The elections went very well, and the chapter completed their modified colony program in about 5 months. The chapter was returned to good standing about 9 months after the reorganization began, with 41 active members. The chapter has since took new member classes of 10, 3 (second NM class of semester), 9 and 14. They are currently one below total, 51, and one of the largest chapters on campus.

This story means a lot to me, because I was very involved in the process to reorganize this group, and it makes me incredibly proud to see how hard these women worked to regain their good standing and be a viable chapter. They are such amazing girls and deserve all of the commendation!!

On a side note, the Greek Advisor at the school, during the presentation to the interest group, said to me, "I don't see why these women don't go through recruitment...there are plenty of good sororities on our campus.", as if our chapter wasn't "good"! :eek: Needless to say, she was not instrumental in our reorganization!

keep this thread going!
-M

I'll toot my chapter's horn... :D

2 years ago, I wasn't sure where this house was gonna go. Lot of internal issues and problems with the new member program and a lot of anti local setiment with Panhellenic council on campus. We didn't do well with philanthropies, we struggled for participation, and the morale was just... eh.

Well one semester, things changed. Things weren't going well and we figured we needed a facelift. So we did.

That next semester we recruited 10 hardworking girls. That class was the start of a turn of events. That spring we placed 2nd in greek week, which is something we hadn't done since 1995. That following fall, we recruited 30 young ladies; which was more than any NPC sorority had as quota that semester. Those 30 girls recruited all their friends to come on board and now we have just under 50 girls total when we used to average about 25 actives. We had placed 2nd in Greek Week again the following spring and second place overall in Derby days last fall. And for the first time ever, Chi Delta took the sorority superbowl title this spring. That was huge because it's never happened and the same two sororities had been champions for a number of years. We started a sweetheart program, co sponsor self defense classes, and I have gotten word that we are trying to start a school wide GAMMA program (drug and alcohol awareness program).
And the sisterhood is incredible. It was very rare to see a large group of us do anything outside of sorority events. Now the girls go line dancing every Monday, just because; hang out in between classes and have expanded friendships with other members of different greek organziations. Our social calendar is packed. And we have a joint IM soccer team with Kappa Sigma.

I couldn't be more proud of the house as an alumna.

What a great thread!!

My chapter started the year with 7 active members...and we just initiated *11 NEW GIRLS!!!* :D We did it by wearing our letters often, doing public service projects, and talking up SAI to all the girls in the music department. We expect to continue growing! :cool:

Also I know that Phi Mu on my campus got quota last semester, which is EXCELLENT for them! They have a strong chapter, but have been quite small for some years. I was excited to know they finally got quota, and I believe they picked up some more girls this spring.

Well...I don't have a success story yet as ours is just beginning. We currently have about 50 girls which is good for our campus. The problem is that morale has been pretty low and involvement is poor. We have implemented many new programs and are working hard to involve everyone including the girls who you never seem to see as much after initiation.

Also, unlike other sororities, we welcome all ladies who are interested. We do not cut our PNM's because they are not freshman or sophomores. We also don't care about age. Our current active members ages range from 18-25. I am the 25 yr. old active. We hope to boost our #'s in the fall and show everyone that we have come together and are a great sorority!