[silverpearls]

I'm sorry to keep you all in suspense!! I want to know as much as you do!!

Things have been going pretty well with the New Members we have. It's crazy this year trying to keep track of them all... we've never had so many and we're about to get a lot more, so we're struggling with trying to have everybody get to know each other. This has never been a problem for our chapter before since we've always been so teeny!

Our chapter right now is the biggest we've ever been. We're having a lot of sister/NM socials to try to get everybody to get to know each other, but obviously there are still a lot of New Members (and some sisters!) who don't know everybody's names. I know we'll get there as the semester progresses, but right now it feels really weird.

One of my fears for our chapter is that we'll someday end up too big - I know that's the least of our worries right now, but there are some chapters on my campus with nearly 200 girls, and none of them know each other! PNMs want to get in because 1) the chapter has a huge presence and they see the sisters around a lot, and 2) because they want the prestige of wearing the letters. But after they join a lot of times they're unhappy with how impersonal it is. In fact, several girls in our new pledge class pledged one of the big top chapters last year and dropped out because they didn't like it. I really don't want Venus to go that route. We've always been known as the small chapter with friendly, approachable girls who are all friends with each other. Granted, we've been called a lot of bad things, too (ugly, fat, awkward, loser-ish, etc.). But we've always been a close-knit chapter and now that our growth is starting to take off, I worry that we'll lose that sense of community as sisters form groups.

Bottom line, I guess, is that I don't want us to lose our identity and our sisterhood in the quest for numbers, or the pressure to make quota and chapter total. It never seemed like a possibility before, but if we get 14 girls tomorrow and make quota, we'll be very close to making chapter total. How crazy is that?? To the other chapters it isn't a huge deal - they've all been wayyy over chapter total (by like 50ish people) for years. But we've never even gotten close.

Ok, well, I'll be back tomorrow to let you know how things go! Fingers crossed for a great batch of baby Venuses!