When I dated fraternity members, I made a point of getting to know some of the brothers and not just latch onto the guy I was dating. In the same vein, when dating an independent, I made a point of getting to know his friends.
My husband is an independent. It was late spring when we met, and I was a rho chi, so for the first 3 months of our relationship, the only demands on our time were our jobs - and honestly, I think it helped us establish our relationship and get through that phase where you're superglued to each other, before rush and fall semester. Of course, during rush I did have to tell him "just pretend I'm overseas for the next week"
After that, it was just an exercise in time management.