New member wanting their money back
 

Hi there ladies,
What is your sororities policy on reimbursing new members their dues, initiation fees etc. if they change their minds?A lovely girl I know said she wanted to join my sorority and we bid her and she accepted and she paid the new member fee and initiation fee up front. Now she says she can not join right now because she is ultra swamped with work and her dad is having some health problems so she has to be with him and just can't do it right now. I feel we should give her the money back. Others think its too late. What is your policy?

You say she paid in advance.
 

I won't ask how much... but I will ask: how long has it been since she paid? And has she received the regular benefits of that or are they not due to begin yet?

I would say that dues are not reimbursable-- If you're paying monthly. If you've paid the entire semester in advance, I'd say that the unused months could be reimbursed.

Any new member fees are not reimbursable. And the initiation fee is not reimbursable. (unless you haven't sent in the initation fee to your Inter/nationals yet nor initiated your new members ... in which case, yes I would say you could reimburse.)

Contact your exec office for clarification.

If she hasn't been initiated yet then we would reimburse her for the initiation fee.

As chapter president I know it is ALWAYS a good idea to ask nationals first before you make ANY financial decision you're unsure of! They can tell you in a snap and save you any worry.

My guess is that she cannot get her payments refunded.

Just out of curiosity, if a pledge decides not to join, but decides to at a later point in time, do you let them? Or what if they want to join another group, is that okay in the land of greeks?

I'm confused...

Yes, you may join a GLO and cancel your membership at any time. If you were not initiated, you may join another GLO, or you may re-join the original GLO, if you have been offered a bid.

Just because you dropped out of one an uninitiated member doesn't mean you can't rejoin it, nor does it mean you can't join another.

And yes, there have been women who dropped ABC sorority as new members, and later came back and were offered a bid to ABC. Or were given a bid to XYZ.

And I know plenty of fraternity men who started off at one fraternity, dropped out, and joined another, or were given another shot at joining the one they dropped from. AND I know of fraternity new members who joined one fraternity, were blackballed and were given bids by other fraternities at the next recruitment.

However, if you dropped out of one/were blackballed from a fraternity, there may be some gossip, or another group might shun you. Ignore it and do what is right for you.

What is being initiated? Is that signing the bid, or is that completing your pledgeship?

After this, I will stop taking over y'alls thread

Initiation marks the end of the new member period (some groups refer to this new member period as pledging). Initiation is a ceremony where you learn the group's secrets.

It is when you become a full fledged member, with all the rights & privileges of membership. The organization's secrets and symbols are fully explained. You are then permitted to wear the Greek letters of your organization.

I would call your HQ. I know we don't do refunds. It is mandated by National.

Why give her money back?

As I understand the way sororities generally work, she's taking up the place of another girl if you all hit quota. So by depledging, she's actually taking money out of your pockets.

Any money she's paid is rightfully yours.

We had a similar situation last semester. Our nationals would not let us refund the dues.

I would definitly contact your HQ about this. They will be able to give you all the information you need. As I am assuming every organization will have a different policy regarding this matter.

Also, once you find out your policy, during your recruitment period when you discuss dues and the like, you should also make mention of this policy to PNM's.

SMUbear, the others hit the initiation thing on the head. Once you intiate, you can't join another national fraternity or sorority. You can drop out your junior year, but you can't go join another org. That's why the pledge peroid exists, to give the new members a time to see what greek likfe is like, without all the responsibility.