YAY!!! New local sorority in the works here :)
 

Hi everyone!!!! My name is Mary and I'm from Rhode Island. :) I currently attend Rhode Island College which has hardly any Greek life (1 fraternity, 1 sorority that we're not even sure exists anymore!) so I decided to do something about it :) Myself and a few other girls were going to re-activate a dormant chapter of a national sorority but their wasn't a great response (mainly due to the amount of dues that would have to be paid) so I decided, after visiting this site, to start a local one!! I met with the activities director today and it seems like it is going to be a LOT easier, not to mention cheaper because they do not require college recognized organizations to purchase separate insurance (imagine...a college that actually trusts its students to behave appropriately! lol). So, needless to say, I'm SUPER excited! I have the name picked out: Sigma Iota Theta and did many google searches where I did not find any other orgs with that name (Let me know if any of you know of any!), as well as the colors, motto, symbol, jewel, and flower. I just have to type up the constitution and submit it to the college for ratification!! I was wondering if anyone could help me with the rituals...I've never done this before and I don't know anyone who has, soooo I'm lacking ideas because I'm not sure exactly what rituals consist of. Don't worry, I'm not asking anyone to tell me specifics of their rituals, just asking for a little guidance! :)

Thanks!!!:D :D :D :D :D
Mary

Well, pledging would be a promise to learn more about the sorority and to hold up the ideals. Initiation is basically when you learn about all the ritual information and again promise to uphold the ideals (including those you've just learned)

Thanks!

I have a couple of questions:

1.) Do the founders of a local sorority (or any new sorority for that matter) initiate themselves or do they begin initiating only when they have a new class?

2.) Do local sororities needs charters?

Those are both up to you. It's your group so you make the rules! I would suggest initiating yourselves (so to speak) before you bring in a new class. But I'm not in a local so perhaps someone else can speak to this.

I seem to recall that our founders initiated each other. But I do also seem to recall that at least one founder of another national sorority was never initiated at all.

ooooh...i like the idea of initiating eachother!!! :D

From a practical standpoint it would allow you to practice the ritual and work out any kinks before initiating new members.

very true.

now, what about charters? do locals usually have those?

Mine did. It was a nice framed certificate with the signatures of the founders. Each founder got a copy of it and another copy was kept in the President's binder.

Cool. What goes on it? The Sorority name and the date it was founded?

This is very exciting having founded a local myself.

We started with the idea to affiliate but did have the following that I designed: Coat of Arms, Active Badge, Pledge Pin, and Banner.

We never had a Charter as we were affiliated within the school year with LXA. All members Active and Pledge were Initiated then.

For a Charter:
1. Organization name.
2. Coat of Arms under it.
3. Date of Founding.
4. School of Founding.
5. List of Founders.

I found that by founding a local, we were all pretty new to this and made many mistakes, but the rewards were even sweeter.

I also found that I learned more by doing this than the years of college as we all did.

Good luck and I wish you the very best!

Thank you Tom! We are VERY excited. We are going to work on our desing tomorrow for the coat of arms. Where did you order your active badges and pledge pins from? I've looked around on some greek websites but they all seem to only do those for national sororities. I was thinking we could use a lavalier (sp?) with our mascot instead of pins. Also, thanks for the information for the charter :D

For right now, a lavalier might be your best option. If you have a pin designed, you are going to have to pay a few hundred dollars (one-time fee)to have the die made and you are probably going to have a minimum order on the pins that might be 300-500 pins. PM PhoenixAzul and ask her about having pins made--her local sorority at Otterbein College just had some active pins made. Since you are just getting established, you might not need 300 pins or have the funds to pay the set-up fees right now. As far as pledge pins, some sororities use ribbons of their colors on a safety pin for the pledges. (I think there was a thread recently in the Local forum about ideas for making pledge pins--you might want to search and see.) If any of your symbols are somewhat common, you may be able to order lapel pins as pledge pins. For example, one of my sorority's symbols is the star. We used star lapel pins ordered off of a lapel pin website (there are several to choose from!) for recent pledge classes.

Ours were done many years ago 41 to be exact. The number of pins were not that high but because I designed them, there was a fee for set up. But times and costs change of course.

About the only one who makes pins now is Herff Jones who has bought Burr Patterson and Auld who bought Masters of Design.

Their # is 800-422-4348 for inquiries. Ask about a new Badge set up fee and amount needed. You may think of doing letters only which could be cheaper for you starting up.

But check on both design or just letters.

One thing to think about is to create your constitution. My sorority, a local, doesn't have a charter, but we do have a rather extensive constitution.

Remember to create the leadership functions in your sorority, i.e. officers and their roles.

Good luck with the creation of a new sorority! My boyfriend gave guidance (designed a constitution) for a fraternity that was created on campus here a couple of years ago. He said it was hard work, but rewarding to help out those guys.