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The student seems to think that her sorority is neither relevant for helping collegiate members with their career goals nor alumnae with their careers, family, etc. Relevance is a function of both the national and local organizations. I would guess that most Executive Offices work similarly to my GLO.
Collegians probably receive programming ideas and materials from the EO. Then it is really up to them (with guidance from local advisors and alumnae) to create programming that is relevant to the needs of their membership. If the chapter members want advice on interviewing techniques or writing essays for graduate school then they can do it. For eg at Duke there must have 100s of successful alumnae who might even be willing to travel back to campus for a workshop. My very successful cousin is a Duke alumna and MBA student at HBS. I am sure she would be flattered if students asked her advice.
At the alumnae level, relevance is a function of the local environment and EO too. In general I do not think EO has developed many programs for alumnae geared towards the challenges we face today: career, work family balance, etc. On the other hand, when I lived and worked in the south, my sorority membership was instrumental in business networking with both men and women. It opened many doors. Sometimes I felt is was more helpful than my MBA! Now that I live in the NE, where my sorority is much smaller, and I work in academia, where most profs look down on GLOs, my membership has not had career impact except for the fellowship for graduate school. But it has provided me with a group of friends and lots of support from other moms (and grandmothers) with young children. We have a lot of teachers and retired teachers in our alumnae group so I think they find the sorority career link helpful.
So, I do think that GLOs could do much more in the way of creating value for alumnae even with technology - job postings on the website, discussion groups, etc - than they do now. But we all have the opportunity to enact our environment. So if collegians want more career oriented programming - do it. If alumnae want more activities then do it.
ciao.
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