[adpiucf]

This is a perfect example of airing your chapter's dirty laundry in public. Number one "Don't" on your list of "Do's and Don'ts."

Secondly, quit taking everything so darned personally. Will you ever meet any of these people in your life? No. So don't worry about making sure the story is "straight" in their heads.

Thirdly, and this is a question journalists must ask themselves when pitching a new story and considering if that story is worth telling to the faceless masses: Who Cares? Not us. We're not PNMs on your campus, members of your campus Panhellenic or your campus community.

While I can't say I believe that a collegiate member with, at the most, 2 years of in-chapter experience, would knowingly sabotage a local for the sake of going national and manage to pull the wool over the eyes of the innocent local members, nor that she would have total control in the formation of a local's rituals and symbols and piss off her HQ, I'm sure it is possible and it sounds like some major miscommunication... I just don't think she'd know enough about colonization to make that happen under the ok of a Greek Adviser who is well versed in sorority expansion practices. And it sounds more like a series of miscommunications and gossip that became cold hard facts than any deep, dark deception to rule the world.

As far as your chapter or self being judged based on the actions of other chapters or from other chapter members, yes it happens all the time. It's called stereotyping and everyone does it. I can say all people from Philadephia wear mullets if I've only ever seen one person from Philly with a mullet. And I can assume that all members of DZO act the way that the chapter members I've seen on TV portray it. I can also say that all Scientologists jump on couches and are crazy, because I've seen one do it on TV. It's called human nature. If you belong to a group and a member or a group of members do something to embarrass/bring honor to the group it reflects back on everyone, positive and negative. That is a very important lesson to impart to your fellow sisters.

Good luck.