Disaffiliating from my colony
 

I have been a member of my colony for a year now and have decided to disaffiliate due to various reasons. I am positive about my decision. My questions are what do I have to do to go about the process of disaffiliating, what will happen once I have gone through with this, and will I no longer be able to be a part of any greek organization or is it different because my colony hasnt been initiated as a chapter yet? I'm sort of in the dark about all this. While i have gone to my sisters who know more about all of this more than I do, it's still very awkward due to their bitterness about my decision. Thanks for all the help you can offer.

I'm in a local so I don't know much about how colonies work. I also don't know if you're in an NPC or what. Have you been formally initiated yet? If you have and you're NPC, then once you disaffiliate you can no longer join another organization because it's an NPC rule that you can't see the initiation of more than one sorority even if you weren't initiated. If you're in an NIC fraternity, then as long as you get a letter from your first fraternity that you disaffiliated from, you're eligible for membership in a different one. You could join a service GLO like APO or Gamma Sigma Sigma or a non-collegiate like Beta Sigma Phi if you wanted to. Once you disaffiliate from the organization, you are no longer a member, it's like you've pretty much severed all ties with the organization.

Thanks for responding...

What about when it comes to things like turning in letters once i disaffiliate? And do you know what I personally have to do to disaffiliate?

You would have to turn in things like your membership badge, card, certificate, etc. As far as turning in letters, I don't know if you would have to necessarily turn them, but you would be asked to not wear them. If you disaffiliate, you should give all of your lettered stuff to someone in the sorority. I don't know what you would have to do to disaffiliate, you should contact your advisor or someone from nationals, I guess.

To fully answer your questions about joining another GLO, we'd need to know (a) if this is an NPC sorority and (b) if you've been initiated. Like KLPDaisy said, if you've been initiated into an NPC sorority, you can never join another NPC sorority even if you've disaffiliated from the first one. If you haven't been initiated, you can depledge and join another NPC sorority. You have to wait one year from the date you pledged - not the date you depledged.

You can join a service sorority or fraternity like Alpha Phi Omega, a non-collegiate group like Beta Sigma Phi, or a professional GLO at any time. You can even have concurrent memberships in one (or more) of these GLOs and an NPC sorority. There are also local, regional, and national sororities that are not part of NPC or NPHC, that you can look into.

Depledging and disaffiliating are fairly straightforward. There's most likely some additional paperwork associated with disaffiliating if you've been initiated. Your colony's advisor can tell you exactly what you need to do. You would be asked to turn in your new member/pledge pin or your badge. You would no longer be entitled to wear letters - you can't be forced to turn them in, but why would you want them around?

Take care. :)

Yellow -- I was once a colonist. Don't know if my group is anything like yours, but essentially, for the 3 years we were colonists we were pledges.

Just like a pledge, most groups (NIC, NPC) allow a pledge to drop one place and sign somewhere else. Sometimes there's a waiting period involved. I recall one kid who dropped our colony in its beginning days to sign with a more established house -- it occured over a period of days.

I think some groups require a year "cooling off" period, but I'm not positive.

disaffiliating
 

i won't reiterate what others have said except to say that the member serving as your recruitment officer should be notified that you are dropping your membership. she probably has a form she fills out and sends in to your national headquarters.

as for your letters, i don't know why you would want to keep them if you are dropping your membership, but if you bought them they are yours. the pin/badge belongs to the national organization and should be returned along with any pledge materials(history book, new member manual, etc.). if you keep your letters, please don't wear them while in college. i am the general advisor to a newly installed chapter and a few girls dropped their membership and have taken to wearing their letters to class. it is upsetting to the members and i think insensitive on the part of the former members. take the high road and be the classy lady you sound like and don't wear letters if you drop your membership.

Thanks everyone for responding. The reason I asked about what I would need to do with my letters is simply because I did pay a decent amount of money for them. I was thinking of selling them either on ebay like suggested or to other members. Don't worry, it wouldnt even cross my mind to wear them again :)

Not sure why you are leaving said GLO. Your decision is the main factor. If it is amiable, then see if anyone wants to buy your Letter Items.

I have been through this and never wanted any thing to do with them to show I was affiliated in any way.

If there are none of the members who would be interested at the right price, then just bite the bullet and get rid of them! Wont do you any good anyway will they?

Good luck in future persuits in GreekDom!:)

we had two initiated members leave last year, and their letter shirts were just donated to the house and given to other members at Senior Recognition (Where the sr.s give away their letter shirts/event shirts/paraphanalia to the active chapter). Most of the shirts they had had been handed down anyways. But if you just bought them and they're nice and new...ask your chapter to buy them first and then if you've got no offers, do it e-bay.