The phrase "membership selection" is private...
 

I just have a question that I have always been curious about. For sororities, when you say, "membership selection is private and is ritual" does EVERY chapter of XYZ follow the same voting/rating procedures or does each chapter of XYX have their own system which they keep private? I know for fraternities it's very flexible how your chapter can decide to make cuts/votes that differ from the "national standard" but I've always been curious how it works on the sorority side.

We have guidelines in the Membership Handbook as far as Membership Selection goes that each chapter is expected to follow.

Whether or not they do, it's hard to say. I've never had to contact my sisters at [insert name here] University to see if they're following IHQ's standards, but I assume they are. I know my chapter does.

I know you're curious and you mean no harm by this thread, but I already get the feeling that people may dip their toes in waters they're not supposed to just by replying to this and it worries me a little.

Some of this is probably a reflection of how long ago it was that I participated in MS, but I also tend to think that you wouldn't know how anything other than how your chapter did it, unless someone else blabbed about their chapter.

I could be wrong, but as a regular non-officer member, I don't think I even saw any written guidelines from IHQ. I just did what I was directed to by the chapter. If we had renegade officers or advisers, I wouldn't know how it was actually supposed to be done, nor do I know exactly how it's done today. Weird, huh?

Not weird at all.

In the time I served as a member of Executive Council (both as Collegiate VP and later on an advisor), I've seen and possessed the various officer/advisor handbooks. As far as the Membership one goes...I think I've taken a look at it a total of 3 times because of the sensitivity of its contents. :cool: If I needed clarification on something, I would have to go through the proper channels of authority to get my answer. I couldn't directly reference it myself.

I would assume that since the sororities are more standardized than the fraternities in matters of rush and pledging programs, it would follow that they would be the same as far as membership selection.

2 different chapters might not come up with the same assessment of the same girl, but you probably already figured that out.

Also... generally, what goes on in a particular membership selection session is not discussed outside the room.

To make up an example, let's say that a sorority requires a simple majority vote of all the sisters to issue a bid to a given PNM. Say there are 50 sisters. Once a PNM is initiated, she'll learn the process of membership selection, but she'll never know if she herself was voted in unanimously or if she got in on a 26-24 vote.

Exactly, with one exception: we are proud to state that Alpha Delta Pi was the first to ban the Black Ball system in Membership Selection.

I would feel comfortable in saying that most chapters follow the membership handbook pretty closely - given that advisors, any recruitment consultants from IHQ, etc might be present during recruitment/MS, if an individual chapter strayed too far from the official policies, someone would figure it out and call it to their attention eventually.

OTW - I'm technically supposed to have a copy of the Membership Handbook as a Chapter Advisor, but I don't even have one yet! (A little frustrating b/c there have been a few times I would have needed to reference it, but they're working on getting me a copy...)

A comment on another aspect of membership, I find it ironic how members and new members want to leave a group because "they don't feel like they belong there,, they hate everything about it, etc.' but they keep joining Facebook groups associated with the glo.