Expansion/Colony question
 

When groups go onto a campus to start a new chapter, what determines the number of new members that the expansion team can select?

Is it recommended that they start with quota from the previous year and build up or would they try to get total if there were that many good PNMs?

It just seems like it would be a kind of strange situation since you could assume every PNM would accept a bid but you might not want every PNM.

In regular recruitment there are some limits built in that might help guide you, but in expansion, how would you know where to draw the line?

(I apologize if this has been asked and answered. It seems kind of familiar, but I can't remember the answer.)

ditto.

first NPC
 

I am on the Alumnae Advisory Board for a colony. The colony is the first NPC organization on campus. Our National Organization did an evaulation of the campus to determine the number. The colony is required to have 40 members for installation. During colonization weekend, 27 members were pinned.

ETA: The interest group had about 80. However when most of them realized the GPA and dues requirement, many dropped there interest.

I was a member of a Tri Sigma colony for 2 years before we were installed in February of last year. The expansion team held various interest meetings and PNMs went through the same membership selection process as they would in the sorority now. Some interested women did not receive an invitation to join.

I believe the team could not extend more than 50 invitations (or total). They actually did not extend that many. It was then up to the first group of new members to immediatley begin holding CORs/COBs to reach optimum membership.

I have a question about colonies and maybe this differs with each organization, but members of a colony are not initiated right? They are like a probationary chapter that has to achieve certain things before being installed, right?

I was just wondering because we had a colony a few years ago that would display the letters and I just wasn't sure. I thought that they weren't initiated yet, but are they?

I joined the DG colony at my school. The number of girls that bids were offered too was approximately the number that was the average/total number on campus. So, at the time, average chapter size at Auburn was 130, so 133 bids were offered. Yes, I had a large pledge class ;)

The way it worked with my chapter/colony was that we were new members during the colony period- around 2 months. The day we were initated, the colony became a chapter of DG. And we used letters, even before we were initiated.

This may vary by organization, so I can't claim to speak for all the NPC groups (nor would I ever try to) but my understanding and experience is that colony members are considered new members or pledge sisters (depending on the terminology of the group). Also, in some organizations not-yet-initiated members can wear/display letters. For colony members, this is probably especially true since there likely wouldn't be any intiated members on campus who could display/wear letters and it would be primarily colony members who are representing the org on campus. Sure, reps from HQ may be a presence as well, but it's the colony members themselves who are present on campus every day.

Yes, as a colony we were not initiated, and considered new members, but were allowed to wear letters (as all Tri Sigma new members are).

We had a sorority house on Greek Row as well, but were not allowed to have letters on it until we were installed.

I too was a member of a colony, as were all sorority women on my campus at the time, and we were considered new members of the sorority. We were referred to as a Gamma Phi Beta Colony, and the other sororities on campus were referred to in the same way. Since Gamma Phi Beta allows new members to wear letters, even our bid day shirts had our letters.

When it came time for initiation, we were all initiated together (the ceremony took FOREVER). The chapter at UC Riverside initiated us at the USC chapter house, and several international officers were present. It was very cool!

For what it is worth, Sigma Chi "assigns" a Greek letter to each colony / re-colonization which is added to the Greek letters SC. And because no Sigma Chi pledge may wear the Greek Letters, to "show letters on campus" (as it were), the colonies usually add the Greek letter designation to SC for shirts, websites etc. Some re-colorizations may decide to use a combination of their original chapter designation and/or campus name. As such, for their shirts etc., Sigma Chi would need to be spelled out.

As examples, here are a few current colonies/re-colonizations and their "current letters".

New Mexico State University - Psi Sigma Chi or YSC
Syracuse University - Sigma Chi Chi or SCC
University of West Florida - Sigma Chi Omega or SCW

Note that the additional Greek letter may not have anything to do with the chapter's letter designation. Once the colony receives it's charter, the chapter designation (now well into double letters) is assigned based on acceptance into the Fraternity. Re-colonized chapters receive the original chapter designation.

Also, any symbols etc. that any Sigma Chi pledge is allowed to wear, the colony members (as pledges to Sigma Chi) are encouraged to wear as well.

My guess is that something similar might apply to the NPCs that do not allow their new members (pledges) to wear Greek letters as well.

members of a zta colony are "new members" or "pledges", just as if they had been recruited at an established chapter. the main difference would be that as colonists they have no "senior" members ahead of them, so while they are attending new member meetings, just as any other zta new member would, they are also learning how to conduct chapter meetings and some are holding executive office. they do not have big sisters for the same reason(no senior members), so they were paired up and were each others crown sisters. goals are set for the colony and after those goals are met, the girls are initiated and the colony is installed as a chapter.

while they are a colony, they are known as fgcu colony-after their chapter installation fgcu colony became kappa tau chapter.

This is really interesting. I was just thinking about the difficulties of expansion rush but hearing about the colonies is fascinating too.

It seems like it would be much better to try to bid up to total in your expansion recruitment, so the group would be the right size for subsequent one, but that instead of having the whole pool of PNMs that other groups had at formal, you'd have to attract your own.

It also seems like it would be so much more important to attract a great group for that campus because they won't have the benefits of tradition, but in reality it would be hard to seeing as in most cases expansion recruitments are done after formal recruitment for the rest of campus and selections would be made by people who weren't that familiar with the standards for members on that campus.

AUDeltaGam, obviously your chapter did very well and selected a big, strong group who built the foundation to do well on a competitive campus. Who conducted the expansion recruitment for you and were most of your sisters girls who had gone through formal?

Consultants came down and did recruitment. Day one was an informational meeting. Day two was interviews. Day three was preference (if you were invited) and the fourth day was Bid Day.

As far as most of my pledge class having gone through formal recruitment, I'm not really sure. I know some did, and some, obviously, did not (I was one of the ones who did not go through formal rush).

Being a part of a colony was a great experience. I'll be glad to answer any more questions ya'll might have :)