[naraht]

From dealing with some splits in my area, I feel that one of the characteristics that should kept in mind is the concept of a section as an identity. For this meaning, I think that *one* of the things that should be considered in making a section is a short description/easy concept of the section. In this regard, all other things being equal, I'd rather see South Dakota as a section rather than "Southwest South Dakota, Eastern Wyoming, Western Nebraska and Northwest Kansas". Even those both of those two may have the same number of chapters, the same population to draw staff from and same city distribution, the first is superior in identity to the second.

As best as I can tell, there was an effort to move *one* chapter from Georgia into the section previously equal to Alabama and *one* chapter from Georgia into the section previously equal to South Carolina. (among other changes)

Having said that, there are some cases where moving chapters into adjoining sections due to being part of a Metropolitan area seems to make sense to me. Southern Illinois University chapters into Section 49 with St. Louis and perhaps George Mason into Section 85 with the rest of the DC area. I could also see Section 97 picking up some of Northern New Jersey...

randy