[archangel689]

I'm a chapter founder. I'll give you the piece of advice I give everyone who wants to start a fraternity/Sorority: start a local, not a national chapter.

Why? Becauase at least at my school, locals have certain benifits:

1. You can vote how you like in IFC/Panhel without your national strong arming your vote on certain issues (we have had trouble with this in our IFC).
2. Dues are cheeper (all locals dues are 100-150% cheeper at duquesne). Overall it costs less.
3. No national convention bullshit to attend (which costs money).
4. You get the recogonition of a FOUNDER of an alpha chapter of a sorority/fraternity. This is probably the BIGGEST reason why.
5. Your national isnt trying to override the alumni board and tell it what to do...
6. You dont have consitutional limits placed on you (ie: you can write your consitution without having to worry about national clauses saying you cant do this or that).
7. It is a much more of a learning experience... you don't get the same amount of learning going on if you have national officers comin in and recruiting entire floors of dormitories for your group in like a week. (like one national on our campus did--our national made us do all the work by ourselves)

8. No Restrictions on Pledge programs... some nationals require that pledging be no less then 6 weeks... on average at duquesne, pledging is much shorter for the locals (and way more effecient, and less taxing on the group) then the nationals. One local's pledging is 7 days, one is four weeks.