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If your chapter has been out of touch with alums for a long time, try reaching out through email and letters. You have nothing to lose. -33 girl
this is a great idea, but what if it doesn't help? i recently attended an event at my collegiate chapter and met some of the women there. i graduated 5 years ago, and i live 6 hrs away, and i have managed to get to 1 rush and 1 initation. so some of the women confide in me that things are not ok. i offer to do what i can to help....our alums had already been discussing some things. i get back home and send info to these ladies right away....and i hear NOTHING!!! none of the alums who offered their help that night have heard anything either! so, how many times do you email before you give up? my chapter has meant a lot to me. i want to help, but it is hard to help people who don't want help.
what i have seen so far is that alums are very involved right after college, and as they get further away from graduation, they become less interested. i think some of it has to do with feeling like they don't know anyone, but i know some people who feel like being in a fraternity or a sorority was just something they did in college. now, they are busy with jobs, marriages and families and are "too grown up" for being in a greek group. i remember hearing that being in my sorority would be for life, but i guess that i didn't see too many alums who had graduated from my chapter (i became a member in the 3rd year of its existance on my campus), so i don't think that we understood that concept. i guess my point is that we need to impress upon memebers that it is for a lifetime and find ways for them to want to be involved after graduation, catch young alums and help them to stay in touch....and finally, get those older alums to want to be a part of the fraternity/sorority even tho they are "grown up."
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