The situation I referred to in my previous post is what I was talking about. As for what you mean James, 33girl is right. I did help my own chapter through a recolonization, and yes, it was hard, but it was the best move we could make for that chapter. The active members were told upfront how the program would work, and were all offered early alumnae status if they weren't on board. Only 3 took it. IMHO, you can only let a chapter sit out there and flounder for so long before you take the reins and say, hey, we need to help steer this ship the right way. I have never done a recolonization of a chapter that involved MAKING women take alumnae status, although it does happen. If I had my choice, I probably WOULD have done that, but it wasn't my option to say.
As a national/international organization, all of the chapters are ultimately responsible to their HQs for paying their fees, following the required standards, etc. If the international/national sorority isn't getting what is expected from the chapter, I believe they have the right to try to make realistic changes to the group to help them become successful.
I know a lot of people won't agree with me on this, but basically, without your national organization, you aren't a member of a national sorority. If you look at your chapter of XYZ as all there is of that group, then you're making a big mistake. National/International organizations have the obligation to make their collegiate chapters aware that they are all members of the same national organization, and their chapter is just one part of the whole. If chapters don't like that, they should've gone local.
OK, off my soapbox, because I've gone WAAAAAAAY off target here
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Originally posted by 33girl
I can assure you that isn't what Heather meant. You're talking about a recolonization - she means the members of a smaller chapter and an interest group reaching out to each other. It takes a lot of respect and work but it can be done. It all depends on the campus how well this works.
However there are times it might not work - i.e. if the group of women is looking for a sorority with a Jewish background and the group in question has oodles o' Christian references.
It seems that fewer and fewer recolonizations are being done while the "old" members are still on campus. No matter how delicately it's handled, there are people with hurt feelings and with all the new venues out there for people to voice their displeasure, it's just not worth it. Even if you lose your spot in Panhel and can't get back in.
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