Quote:
Originally Posted by violetpretty
Sort of on the flipside to "what's it like to be in a huge chapter"...
I'm wondering, what's it like to be in an extremely small new member class? OR How did your chapter handle an extremely small new member class?
I am talking 3, 2 or 1 in a semester, not a growing COB effort throughout. I am not asking so much for curiosity, nor do I intend to start a thread along the lines of big/small "which is better". I am asking because it is likely that the chapter I advise will be just barely under total in the fall. By just barely, I mean if there are no withdrawals, we will have exactly one space to fill.
They don't seem particularly keen on taking a new member class of one. From a National perspective, you want to maximize your membership, especially since they worked so hard to get quota this spring. However, I can also understand the "but how can you have a NM class of one?" perspective.
I guess all I'm looking for is personal experiences, especially when such a tiny NM class is out of the norm for your chapter and/or your school's Greek Community. I'd like to be able to communicate perspectives the chapter may not have considered.
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I come from a chapter that was always small when I was active (the largest new member class we had being 9), so I'm used to small new member classes. They weren't "out of the ordinary" for me. However, we never had a class of just one new member. I would think that would be awkward and difficult for them to be the "odd man out".
One semester, one of the fraternities on my campus had given bids to a handful of guys, and many didn't accept for time/money reasons, and only one accepted his bid. They said to him that he could pledge that semester, or wait until the following semester when he could pledge with an actual class. He chose to wait. They realized it might be a strange situation, and they didn't want him to feel like he had to do it on his own.