Hey there, sister!
Quote:
Originally Posted by kt8319
Hey sisters,
I am a new member this year, and our chapter is quite small (17 members), and made up mostly of new members. I haven't been feeling a real connection to most of my sisters, and I feel that we are all very separated, even though we have sisterhoods at least once a week. We have already had four girls disaffiliate, and morale is low. Honestly, I feel quite disconnected to my chapter and I'm having a hard time staying motivated. I really want to feel like a true sister and I just don't feel like that's happening. Does anyone have any ideas on feeling more fulfilled in your sisterhood and unifying a somewhat disconnected chapter, especially a small one? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!  |
I was also in a small chapter, so hopefully I'll be able to help you out some.
Now, before I ask some of the questions I have...
..being in a smaller chapter is always a little challenging.. especially if most of you are new members. As you start to get more involved, you realize that there are A LOT of positions to fill. At one point, I was holding 3 positions - Secretary (there weren't enough people to separate the position into Corresponding and Recording), By-laws, Collegiate-Alum Liaison... and I was also the President of Panhellenic. Try to understand that the active sisters probably have a lot on their plate.
The good news for you - this gives you the perfect opportunity to get involved. While there may not be enough members to have committees, you can still help out with positions. Approach the President and ask if there are any sisters who might need some assistance. Maybe even the President herself could use an extra hand. Is there a huge event approaching that a sister needs help planning? Be the person to step up and offer to do whatever you can. You might even want to suggest to your fellow new members that all of you shadow an active sister and help them with their duties/projects/programming.
Have you made an effort to hang out with the other new members? Do you girls do things outside of these weekly sisterhood events? If social events ALWAYS feel forced, people will no longer find them fun. One day, ask some of the new members if they want to go out after one of your meetings.
I know that you're pretty new to the chapter, but you might want to throw this idea out to the group: Secret Sisters. If you don't do this already or know what it is, it's just like Secret Santa, except it lasts all semester. Everyone chooses a sister's name out of a hat, and throughout the semester, you randomly do something nice for your secret sister. It could be something as simple as sending them a card to brighten their day. We always had a limit on how much we could spend for the semester, and we each made Secret Sister info sheets (containing small pieces of information about ourselves.. for example, favorites: food, color, music) that were found in a central location online - they would provide everyone with some facts about their secret sister if they didn't know them that well. At the end of the semester we'd have a small get-together, and everyone would reveal their secret sisters and exchange small gifts.
Now, saying all of that, a few questions:
1) Why is morale low?
2) Why did the 4 girls disaffiliate (without going into too much detail)?
3) Why are you feeling disconnected? Is this causing you to feel apathetic, and in turn, unmotivated?