Small vs. Large (chapter quota)
 

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I'm confused by your post. Do you mean formal recruitment quota or chapter total?

I'm assuming you mean total. There are lot of reasons to lower total. One might be to reflect the actual size of chapters on your campus.

For some schools/chapters, 45 is a large number! I think it's all relative. In any larger group, people will splinter off into "cliques" - for lack of a better word.

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It has always been my contention that if the size gets so big where you do not know your Brothers/Sisters, it is to big.

If this happens, then I also wonder why there is not expansion of sorts?

Granted, with todays economy, it would be hard for GLOs to expand against the old line and larger organizarions and house buildings.

But, it seems that there are many expansions going onto new campmi and I only hope they do well!

On my campus some chapters are at around 130. Some are at about 75. And some fall at 90. But our total remains at 70. The reason for this is that there aren't many rooms that can hold that many girls and so 70 is the ideal chapter size for maintainance at our campus. Because retention is so high in some chapters we recently invited Sigma Kappa to open a chapter. This will help to make chapter size lower in general and be better for all of the 6 current chapters in the future.

Panhellenic doesn't do this because "they feel like it", it's usually based on a general view of representatives from all chapters and their advisers in addition to a national representative. If you are lowering total, most likely it's not just because you need to have smaller chapters or would prefer that, it's probably just not realistic to stay at 50 anymore for many of your campus' groups.

Here's my take...

We were coming back from disaster when I was a new member. There were 10 of us and only one was an initiated member that fall. It was good and bad. With such a small number, we made a difference but wish we could have done more and felt as though we only could by recruiting our butts off.

Fast forward to now, almost 7 years later... I advise my chapter and there are 32 active members. For the school and the community, it is a good size. However, they are no where as close as the ten of us were. However, they are a great group of women who work hard. I can't imagine a chapter over 100 ladies... but I also don't think our school community would support it being that long.

I like both though. I don't think that there is a perfect size as there are too many factors. I definitely don't think I could handle walking around, seeing letters, and not knowing the person. However, I do think that if you go through recruitment at a campus with HUGE houses, you are always use to that way of greek life and it seems normal and perfect for you.

I don't really think the difference between 50 and 45 is all that much. I would hope that the "quality over quantity" was just a rumor and that chapter total (not quota) was lowered because most chapters were not at total and there seemed to be a downward trend in Panhellenic membership. I'd be concerned that efforts as a Panhellenic community are not being made to recruit unless there is a drastic shift in the student body (declining enrollment, increased % commuters, etc) that is not reflected in the Greek community. I don't buy "quality over quantity" excuse after reading I Heart Recruitment.

As far as ideal chapter size, most people will say their ideal is what they are familiar with. I liked my chapter of a little over 100. To some, 100 is huge and they could not imagine knowing everyone. To others, with pledge classes in the 70-80+ range, 100 is small.

I come from a *very* small chapter, on a campus where chapters are generally small (biggest was around 65 give or take). When I was initiated, the 9 of us in my pledge class brought us to 20 or so. And honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. It was great because we pretty much HAD to be committed and involved...but that's the down side as well. The stress of that commitment, and the need to have the positions filled meant that there was no room for one sister to be "at large" or just not have a position.

As we grow, it gets easier to delegate responsibilities and it takes the stress off of other sisters. But relative to our resources (house, etc), I don't know if we could/should ever grow into a 70+ person chapter. I don't know how that would effect the dynamics of the sisterhood. But I would welcome some upward growth, again just to secure the house and the future of the sisterhood, but as long as we have 1 member, we'll continue on (luxury of being local). Plus, more TD's means more awesome!

I can understand lowering total (total often isn't looked at enough and some campi are having to use totals from 10-15 years ago), but honestly, I think violetpretty is right - this didn't have to do w/ "quality over quantity", it has to do with the fact that the chapters are having a problem making total because interest is down. I don't think the decrease is a bad thing, because if it's been years of the majority of groups not making total and getting yelled at by their nationals for not doing so - they need to have a break. Keeping total too high for a campus results in dirty rush and lots of nasty competition among the different groups because everyone's under pressure.

Now if they wanted to lower it from 100 to say 30, I'd say they are wanting to go "quality over quantity" and they'll probably end up adding a couple new chapters - so the same amount of women will still be involved. Different campuses look at it differently and it's silly to say, well my campus has 3 sororities at 100 each, so every campus should do that.

I think you can have sisterhood in every size chapter, it's just a different kind of sisterhood. Some women can't fathom not knowing all their chapter sisters, and to some that concept is stifling.

It's very interesting to hear everyone's takes on the different campus sizes out there.

Our smallest chapter was about 20-30.
and largest was 60-70.

We had around 70 members most of my years, and I knew everyone in my house. I could be good friends with anyone I wanted to, but usually we were all a part of a big gang, but in that gang we had our little groups of best buds. Usually went by pledge class.