[phisigduchesscv]

Corina,

Don't give up. As someone just wrote take some time and go out and do fun activities (party, etc) and just relax. Afterwards have a retreat to really plan and see if everyone is where they should be in their roles in the sorority. Maybe someone isn't happy as New Member Educator but is better at being the Secretary etc. Do some switching around then.

A new term is coming up right. Look forward to that. Don't look back at how hard you've worked without the results you're hoping for, Look forward to a new term and just think of it as your starting point. The past term doesn't exist in terms of numbers and recruitment.

Speaking of numbers I know that most Nationals are really concerned about "numbers" but above all they want the quality women who will stick around for life. As someone else just wrote look for the quality women. If you have the quality women soon numbers will follow without seeming to try as hard.

Finally, when Phi Sigma Sigma tried to originally colonize at CSU Dominguez Hills in Spring 2000 it failed dismally (I don't even remember hearing them at all). They thought about just giving up but decided to take one more chance in Fall 2000 to colonize. This time there was some more interest with about 10 women really, really interested in what Phi Sig was about. we started the group going but quickly got discouraged when we heard they wanted to have 30-35 women before they would really start us on the road to colonization, installation, and initiation. We all sat back thought about whether we truly wanted to do it and said yes. Then some of the 10 women started to write a list of women they knew in classes, clubs, etc and started talking to them about Phi Sig, especially the opportunity to leave a lasting mark on campus. that 10 women finally grew to 33 and the colonization process started. From that time to initiation we did lose 4 women due to various family and school pressures. That was finally when we understood why Phi Sig had wanted to have what to us was high numbers to start. They knew that statistically its been shown some women drop before initiation and they wanted to make sure that we could still exist and succeed with the numbers we did. 29 sisters were initiated on March 24, 2001 and it was well worth the hard work and discouragement when we were pinned with our badges for the first time.

Anyway, moral of that story was that sometimes one semester can make the difference. I hope this semester is different for you.

Carolyn