A member of my chapter is a writer for the Tribune. She wanted to write this story about DG AI but felt it a conflict of interest. Instead, the articles focuses on Alpha Phi.
Enjoy!
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link to article
For some, there's no rush to join
Sororities boost ranks with older women who are seeking sisterhood
By Deborah Hallman
Special to the Tribune
Published March 5, 2003
Sharon Gaddo remembers the day in 1988 her youngest daughter, Andrea, was initiated into Phi Mu sorority at the University of Mississippi. Though as a non-member, Gaddo couldn't participate in the membership ceremony, she recalls it as "just a real exciting time for [my daughter] to join and be a part of that group."
Gaddo also has fond memories of the day she received her sorority badge--four years later, at Phi Mu's national convention in Naples, Fla.
"It was just nice to know that Andrea had such a great experience with it, that I was looking forward to having that same thing," she said. "That sister[hood] part just meant something."
Lest there be any confusion, Gaddo, 60, didn't receive the badge after going through what used to be called "rush"--that traditional series of meet-and-greet parties held on a college campus as part of sorority membership selection. Rather, her daughter's chapter invited her into the sorority as a thank-you for her tireless volunteer work, in forming a parents group and in overseeing the redecoration of the sorority house, among other efforts.
As an alumna initiate, Gaddo became part of a select group of women for whom Greek ties are formed not during the college years but later in adulthood. In many sororities, alumnae initiation is a little-known form of participation that is building the ranks of active alums and helping some collegiate chapters shore up their supporting cast of advisers and mentors.
For Gaddo and other women who've accepted the invitation, as well as others who've sought alumna initiate status, the prospect of becoming a sorority member often centers on the desire to form community with other women, or to participate in the philanthropic work associated with that particular group.
A lifetime commitment
Many sorority women are unaware their ranks are being bolstered by women who have come into the sorority by way of a different path--often because membership is so heavily associated with the collegiate experience.
But the Greek experience is much more than that, according to National Panhellenic Conference Chairman Sally Grant. In fact, it's designed to be a lifetime commitment, though levels of participation vary as women's life situations change.
"It's obviously not just an undergraduate experience," Grant said. "There's a lot to be done in terms of assisting collegiate chapters. They're very dependent on alumnae to work on house corporationboards and to work as advisers, and to work in national offices."
Most, if not all, of the 26 women's fraternal organizations in the National Panhellenic Conference have some form of alumnae initiation, though each group has the autonomy to structure the program as its members see fit. Unlike the college membership recruitment process, which is centered on a series of get-to-know-you parties, alumnae initiate programs are more low-key, and dependent more on the references of other sorority members. Most often, the women proposed for membership have some tie to the group they would be joining, perhaps as a friend or family member of someone in the sorority.
While some sororities have tapped alumnae initiates more as the exception than the rule, others, such as Alpha Phi, whose executive offices are in Evanston, have consciously beefed up their alumnae roster over the last few years. In fact, when a collegian is initiated into the sorority, Alpha Phi extends the invitation of membership to the young woman's mother--or another special woman in the new initiate's life--as long as she is not already a member of another NPC group.
Evolution of a philosophy
Such a philosophy evolved out of the sense that "Alpha Phi is great--let's try to get more people to be Alpha Phis," said Cindy Erwin, director of alumnae membership for Alpha Phi. One key benefit of issuing invitations to mothers or other relatives has been that it builds loyalty to the organization within a family, which can result in even more women in that family becoming active sorority members in the future, she said.
Alpha Delta Pi, with executive offices in Atlanta, also has revamped its alumnae initiate program, and is working to educate its members about it.
"I wouldn't say [the alumnae initiate program] is a trend," said Chris Dickey, international president of Alpha Delta Pi. "I would say that we're all taking a look at our alumnae programs, because since the '70s, when women started going back to work, all of us have experienced a decline in our alumnae involvement within our groups, saying, `Wait a minute; we're these lifetime organizations, we need our alumnae involved.' Since the greatest portion of our membership is the alumnae membership, we need to do more to try to get more people back [and] involved."
For Sharon Gaddo, joining a Greek organization was the right decision at the right time in her life. She now lives on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where she and her husband, Don, moved after coming out of retirement to become house directors for the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, respectively.
"When you initiate that older person, we're looking for things to do," she said. "We've basically raised our families, and we're out of PTA groups and those types of things. I think it's important for the alums to interact a lot with the collegians, because that builds the bridge, of them seeing what you can do when you are an older member.
"By them wanting me to become a part of their organization ... and the bond I made with them at that time meant, I think, a lot more to me even than maybe if I'd gone through it as a college student."
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
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