Iota Omega -- University of Maryland
 

Congratulations to Iota Omega (University of Maryland chapter) for making quota two years in a row!!! That is great.

I would really very much like to hear how they were able to be so successful. Please don't say "hard work" because I feel that implies the previous pledge classes weren't working hard.

I am very much interested in hearing how they turned the chapter around. What steps, no matter how small, they took that obviously are beginning to pay off.

Thank you.

dear aabby, how sweet of you to ask-especially since you aren't even a member of zta. you are a kappa delta aren't you?

i would guess that it was hard work, and maybe approaching recruitment differently than had been done in the past, but i speculate. no matter what, it is always nice to hear when any chapter-zeta or otherwise-gets back on track and all their hard work and planning pays off.

FSUZeta, yes I am a Kappa Delta. And my biological younger sister is a Zeta from University of Maryland so I have always been interested in how they are doing. And I'm very interested in learning how they turned their chapter around which I think is very hard to do but also fantastic. I didn't/don't mean to pry. I am genuinly interested and I didn't mean to offend you or anyone else.

I am an alumna from Iota Omega. I graduated May 2002. I think the excellent recruitment results for Iota Omega, at least last year, can be attributed to the incredibly hard work of the membership, as well as a change in attitude by the panhellenic community. When I was a collegian, there was really no sense of Panhellenic unity. There was a definite "us against them" mentality that all sororities had against eachother. As a result, the big chapters kept on getting bigger and the smaller chapters kept on getting smaller. I think once Panhel as a whole realized that this sort of attitude was pretty deterimental to greek life in general, things really changed for the better. For example, When I was a collegian, there were really only 3 chapters out 14 that were consistantly at total every year. A majority of houses would not make quota in formal recruitment. As I understand, almost every single house made quota both last year and this year, which I think is incredible. I also know that this year, there was lots of buzz going around the community about how wonderful our house looked specifically, how great our skit was, and also the fact that the chapter members decided to wear brown instead of the traditional black for preference was what made them stand out specifically. I also think panhel as a whole is doing a lot better job at increasing retention from the beginning of formal recruitment and the fact that quota was 27 this year (WOW! That is a HUGE number for UMD) means that there is definitely a lot more interest in Greek Life than there ever has been before.

That's awesome to hear, ZetaGirl! I am an alumna from GMU, so we always felt close ties to Iota Omega since we held our initiation there a few times while I was a collegiate. I know Theta Chi was having some issues with FR, maybe the recruitment chairs from Iota Omega and Theta Chi should talk... :)

Oh yay! GMU WAS super close to us. Dont know if I ever had a chance to meet any of your sisters. I think there was maybe one year you guys used our house for initiation and I think I went home that weekend. Its kind of funny that we were in MD, yet a VA chapter was probably the closest in proximity to us. I saw MANY concerts at the Patriot Center. My DH took me to Weezer there for my 21st b-day. That was a show that I will never forget :)

I would agree with this sentiment, that there is much more of a feeling of Panhellenic unity than there was just 5 years ago.