saving my sorority?

[greekgirlie05]

hi, I've been reading the greekchat boards off and on since I decided to rush last year. anyways, I'm now in a sorority, and I love it, but I need some advice. here's the deal.

first of all, I love my GLO. and my pledge class is an awesome bunch of sweet, kind, funny girls. in fact, several older girls have told my friends and I that our pledge class is going to "save" the chapter.

you see, unfortunatly there are some not-so-good points about my chapter. -our house is one of the smallest, both the building and in numbers. there isn't much that can be done about the actual house right now (it's nice, just on the small side, relatively speaking). however, we have fewer members than the rest of the chapters (most chapter at my school have around 140-150, we have around 100, including 42 in my pledge class after formal recruitment and 2 informal rush periods [quota was 48 this year]), which even I admit made me wonder during recruitment, "gee, what's wrong with them that they are so small?".

-there is also an unfair, untrue stereotype that our chapter has a number of "larger" girls (and even if that were true, what's so bad about that? it's total prejudice). I know several friends dropped the house during rush for this reason.

-third, our gpa is on the lower side compared to other houses on campus. academics just aren't taken seriously. the "study room" is a joke. test files are ancient. we have mandatory study hours, but the proctors will often lie and sign off hours that people never actually did.

-four, there is a high drop out rate. I think we only have around 10-15 seniors because half their pledge class dropped out a few years ago after a silly fight. around 5-10 girls dropped out of my pledge class between bid day and initiation. unfortunately, several good girls dropped after the bid day party because they don't drink and didn't like the drunkenness (sp) of the older girls. which brings me to my last point...

-lastly, there is a certain group of girls that are giving the chapter a bad name. while only a small fraction of the group, they are very vocal, loud, "slutty" (i'm sorry to have to use this word, but it's true), drunken party-girls. they ARE the stereotype sorority girls portrayed in the media, and it's sad because they make all of us look bad.

I have spoken to many members of my pledge class, and we've agreed that it is our job to improve the chapter. I truly believe that we can do it, but I'm just not sure how. Our goal is to improve our sorority, both in image and reality, if that makes sense. I think if we pick quality girls during rush next fall (as was done with my class), a turnaround can occur. but this school year is far from over, and we want to start now. we want to give our sorority a good name. this is easier said than done, though.

so, my main reason for this post. I'm not just b*chin' about my sorority...in fact, it saddens me to have to say some of the things I said, but it's the truth. i'm looking for advice on how to improve a GLO. does anyone have an experience with this type of issue? any success stories? any insight would be much appreciated!!!

thank you for your time.

greekgirlie05
university freshman