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in defense
I wanted to say a few things:
first of all, phi sig is a compartively young national sorority. we were founded in 1913 for those of you who dont know - i think only SDT was founded after us, though i could be wrong. but the point is we're still learning - i mean, when was phi mu founded, 1850s? kappa, tri delt, dg etc etc all in the late 1800s... we have a lot of catching up to do.
bearing that in mind, i think nationals is doing its VERY best to get to the levels of the other strong national sororities. and as others have mentioned, we have a LOT of work to do. the administrative aspect is terrible - they're working on it. they just released Vision in 2001, to help with recruitment. and yes, i understand that the national officers are lacking in some areas -- but cut them some slack - they are still young, still learning, and i truly believe they are trying to do whats right for the national organization.
it is not unusual at all for a national organization to shut down a chapter that cannot get the numbers in recruitment. phisigsigchic, i agree that they set goals for the RU chapter that were perhaps unrealistic. but i've read PLENTY of threads from other sororities on here where their nationals come in, close the chapter for a few years and then reopen it again later when it can be a healthy and competetive chapter. i'm sorry it had to happen to you and my heart goes out to you, but please try to understand it from a national perspective.
and ivy, i believe you are correct that it was a numbers issue at penn. i know in my chapter we caught a lot of cr*p for nationals, and we were only TWO below quota - which was 90 some girls! i think nationals is taking a huge initiative to try and improve chapter reputation across the board, by shutting down and reopening chapters that are not able to get the numbers in recruitment. when an organization is lacking in so many areas, it's hard to say which ones to tackle first. i understand that the chapters that closed may have been strong in sisterhood - i'm sure the national officers understand that too. but there are other issues that they have to deal with as well.
i just wanted to write this because i think (as someone said earlier) that phi sig is a fairly progressive organization. they/we are doing their/our best to catch up to the stronger orgs AND stay up to speed on the latest trends (such as Vision type recruitment, for you phi sigs who know what i mean). and i think it WILL be a much better organization in 5-10 years. but we have to weed out the things that are holding us back as a national org and try to improve upon everything else.
so i'm sorry to the girls at penn, and i'm sorry for whatever drove them to disaffiliate. i knew some girls from that chapter, and they were wonderful. but for everyone else, please take the negativity about our national organization with a grain of salt, and keep in mind that our national officers are learning from their mistakes, and that learning is what will make phi sig stronger.
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