[adpiucf]

In general, we've seen a trend where there is a drop in retention the year following the first year of membership. I would attribute this to the time management balance, increasing pressures from school, personal realationships and that your new member class have been assimiliated fully into the chapter and there is no longer the rosy glow of being brand-new.

Burnout depends on the person and her limits. Some members can be chapter president two terms in a row; other members can barely get through one week of serving as a committee chair. Others who don't actively become leaders and sit in the background might be your best rushers... or they might just be there for the socials. Keeping everyone actively engaged for 4 years of college is tough.

I also think it is a good idea to promote leadership opportunities to members among the classes, and for various classes to make up chapter leadership so that it feels like all the years in school are actively represented. But I also think it is important to meet basic chapter needs like being at total to have a range of members to support leadership positions... and to recruit members who will benefit the chapter as rising leaders and/or strong team members.

Burnout and attitude clashes among members (which can lead to dropping numbers or lower levels of involvement) are inevitable. I think spreading the responsibilities around (committees, delegating work around, giving members different types of leadership opportunities) and keeping members personally engaged through programming that speaks to their needs and providing the right resources to support chapter development and prevent burnout are a good way to go-- in the past few years, ADPi has supplemented its Total Member Education program specifically to address this issue.

As far as waiting to initiate, that's an ongoing debate. I think... If you wait as long as possible to initiate them and then make it impossible for someone to be an inactive member (either you're active or you're out), you're going to cut the dead weight earlier on in the process, and more likely end up with a senior class who is really dedicated, as opposed to a group that may initiate in a few weeks' time and go out of their way to accomodate your lifestyle. But there are others who would disagree that we want to appeal to a broader base and need to engage them earlier on and accomodate their outside sorority lives.