Quote:
Originally Posted by NWguy
Our fraternity averaged 65-70 brothers when I was there, but it never felt crowded. The other two houses I considered joining during Rush were slightly bigger, and I took that into consideration.
I have a few questions pertaining to these very large sorority chapters.
1) Where does everyone sleep? Do the pledges sleep in one big room, or basement?
2) How do they feed everyone? That's a lot of food for 150+ women.
3) Are there weeknight curfews/lights out times?
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The chapter I advise isn't huge by some people's standards; but, 200 members isn't something to sneeze at. Here's how we check out:
1) The house itself sleeps 32. The 6 executive board members are required to live in. The rest of the members put in for room picks every year and are selected to live-in the spring prior based on merit points. Pledges don't typically ever live-in as they don't join until fall semester, after room picks are done. If we happen to have a space open up, and no one wants to live-in, we offer the space to the new members. The members all get to choose who they want to room with - we don't care about class standing.
2) We have a professional chef and an assistant who prepare the lunches and dinners during the weekdays. These meals are for the 30 live-ins only and are served buffet style. Members are welcome to pop by the dining room during meal service hours to help themselves to a plate. Any members not living in are always welcome to eat at the house as well. The live-outs are allowed a certain number of free meals per week (I think 2 dinners and 3 lunches) as a part of their dues. Any more than that and they can pay a modest $3-$5/plate to eat in on extra days. On Monday nights, when we have our meetings, the entire 200+ chapter comes to dinner and it's an event! We squeeze all of the members into the dining room and tables set up in the living room. The chef, her assistant and 4-5 hashers serve the plates and they get it done! We have a commercial kitchen; but, it is not open to members to cook in (it gets locked up after dinner). We do have a fridge, toaster oven, microwave, covered salad bar, coffee pot, juice machine and bread and snack pantry available to the members 24/7. Like someone else mentioned, the members who know that they will miss a meal can sign up for a "late plate" and their dinner will be left for them in the community fridge.
3) Nope. The live-in members are free to come and go as they please. The only "time certain" type of thing is that the House Director (House Mom) will go around to lock all exterior doors and set the house alarm before going to bed. Once the alarm is set, the members can come and go freely though one door only.