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Originally Posted by ASTalumna06
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You were saying?
At least the rest of us can communicate in a way that proves we actually attended elememtary school. I can't say the same for you.
Oh, but I'm sorry, guys... I have a vagina, so I guess I should skedaddle.
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No, I disagree greatly with your statement. The maturity this board brings is incredibly questionable. That's great that most of the threads I see your posts in are basically sandboxes that have no structure, but almost everyone who comes on here looking for answers or for some help is going to have the **** scared out of them. You need to not just look at it from your own point of view. It's not just me you affect, but probably thousands of others.
If I knew nothing about Greek Life and this was my first impression, I would conclude that they are scum of the earth.
And no, I am not telling girls to lay off for no reason. Sororities have a lot more rules, formalities, politics, and other things involved with them that are a lot different than fraternities. Your perspective is not something I will be able to relate to easily.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin
You misread. I stated that we have a very successful chapter which is so successful because they are so very effective in summer recruitment. Summer recruitment is also treated very seriously within my much more modest (but respectable) chapter. I gave those examples to show you how much of an opportunity summer could be for you.
As far as expansion goes, we got started up when the University opened up to expansion. It sent out letters soliciting groups to come onto our campus and establish themselves with the blessings of IFC and campus life. Several groups presented and Sigma Nu was selected. Beginning in the Fall of 1999, HQ sent a paid consultant to recruit an initial group of guys to comprise the beginnings of the colony. I was a part of that group (but I didn't come on until the Fall of '00). The expansion consultant stayed for one semester, helped with the establishment of our candidate program, left a bunch of books and benchmarks to reach and then we had to figure out how to be a fraternity. It was mostly trial and error. Mostly error. We took three years to colonize. In that time, we fluctuated between single digits and finally got up to around 35 before we petitioned HQ for a charter. Maintaining a chapter once it's chartered is tough to do as well, but you haven't even been established as a colony yet.
Why I say what you are doing is a little suspect procedurally is that yes, I do understand that sometimes, organizations force their way into a campus and into an IFC by establishing colonies and working outside the system until they can force the system to embrace them, that's not really the way it's done in most places. Usually, the existing organizations have decided that in order to improve the quality of their Greek Life system, they want to add an additional organization. They then select one of those groups from a list of applicants. Then, that organization will then dedicate significant assets to getting that group off the ground. A group of 3-4 men calling themselves a chapter is going to be a money-losing proposition for a national organization, so there is significant reason why they invest heavily in creating a strong organization.
Maybe that gives some background into why I think your entire situation is a little suspect and that you seem to have gone about things a bit backasswardly.
Life lesson. Never say those words together. What comes after it or before it won't matter much. Also, I'm an adviser of a relatively successful chapter. I often inquire with NPC advisers as to their best practices because frankly, NPC groups have evolved as organizations far past what most NIC groups have been capable of in terms of membership development, property management, expansion, recruitment, etc. Sometimes, the smartest thing you can possibly do as a fraternity member is find out what the sororities are doing and then attempt to duplicate their success.
That is actually something you'll want to bring to the forefront of your discussions with possible organizations you're wanting to be a part of. It sounds like there's a market for expansion and that if they dedicate sufficient resources, they'll get a good return on investment.
Yeah, that's pretty much what recruitment is. You get to know different prospects, if they're of quality, and only after you've made friends with them, bring up the fraternity thing. It's pretty much dude dating. That's recruitment in a nutshell.
Try to see where we're coming from. You've been given a lot of good advice. I can say that because I have been very close to where you are right now (granted with quite a bit more organizational support, which is something you could fix if you found a group which wanted to dedicate actual resources to a colonization effort). I know exactly what you need to do to be successful. You have other ideas. What you do with that is up to you and unless you're a Sigma Nu colony, I really don't have a stake.
You need to listen to the advice that's given and be more gentlemanly about it. Many of the folks responding do have significant expansion experience and are extremely experienced in the operations of a fraternity or sorority. Finally, never doubt the wisdom of the ladies of GC.
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Again, everything you have said is pretty helpful. I appreciate the advice. My only thing with the ladies here is that fraternities and sororities operate in two different fashions. Their recruitment is different, their pledging is different, their interests are different, their operations are different, etc etc. To me, it doesn't really interest me what they have to say because they are talking about a different world. It's just not too applicable for this situation.