[blueangel]

Originally Posted by KunjaPrincess

NO that is a fact. Go ahead and report me. My skin is nice and thick!!!

Whether one had thick skin or thin skin is not the issue. Launching personal attacks in an attempt to derail a thread are.

Now.. back to our discussion on AI. Do you have any comments on my previous post? I'll repost it here for you. I'm interested in your opinions on this:

One point that bothers me is the assumption being made that women interested in becoming a member of a sorority following college automatically know the proper protocol.. they often don't.

Please keep in mind-- all of you posting your concerns about this forum are involved in the Greek system. Most of you understand what is proper and what isn't as far as AI in your individual GLOs.

The premise that someone who wishes to belong to a sorority should make friends with someone else in a sorority is not always realistic. In my geographical area, sororities are virtually unknown. I have no family members who have ever been involved in the Greek system, nor do I know anyone at all (except one D9 woman who I work with, and one friend who I recently discovered is an alumna from a local) who is in a GLO. So.. who would I ask my questions of? If I lived in the south where GLOs are more common than not.. sure.. no problem. But I don't. And neither do a good portion of the population.

That's why I came to Greek Chat. After my paperwork had begun.. and had stalled.. I searched and searched and searched on the internet for some info about the process. I was absolutely delighted to find somewhere I could read about other women's experiences.

From these posts, I learned it was not uncommon for AI to take a very long time after the paperwork had been submitted. I also felt comfortable enough to PM some of the women here who wrote about their journey. They were extremely friendly and helpful... and got me in touch with people who could help.

Further, I now know of two women who had connections with their GLOs in college (one had received a bid but had to turn it down for financial reasons, the other had more vague ties). Both women learned through reading about experiences of people here, that it was a possible to reconnect with their GLO and become an initiated member.. although that possibility was remote. Both pursued it, and both are initiated members today.

If women ask naive questions on this forum.. so what? Let's try to help answer them... If they are going about it the wrong way.. what's so wrong with telling them that in a kind way? And.. if they think AI is easy, again.. what's wrong with helping them understand how difficult and rare it is? I make those comments with the caveat that we have no right to judge who is or is not "right" for AI.. it is up to the GLO's headquarters and the local alumnae group to decide.

One worry that was expressed is that the existence of this forum would "cheapen" AI by leading women to believe it's an easy process. I disagree! I think it's the opposite! I think that anyone reading this forum, and the many stories.. would see how difficult it is. There are also many PNAIs who posted their stories and were unsuccessful. And, of course. .there have been warnings by GC members to PNAIs telling them how rare it is.

And finally, I want to reiterate my point that this board is not encouraging swarms of PNAIs. In the grand scheme of things.. there have only been a handful or so in the last year!

Sure, it would be great if everyone interested in joining a sorority later in life had a crystal ball. But the fact is, they don't.