Sell Out or Die With Pride.... That is the Question.

[cosmoxnyc]

Although we enjoy staying small, My local organization has recently shrunk in size. We need a certain number of girls to be considered an organization and are seeing 2 huge classes graduate within the next two years, bringing our numbers to a much smaller thn desirabl number.

Recruitment this year gave us only 4 girls, and although we are hoping all cross, we are not positive that all 4 will. 2 definate... 2 unsure...

we do not want to lose the ideals for which the rest of us came into the organization for, as well as what we stand for as a whole.

we are in danger of dying out within the next year/2 and desperately need help.

recruitment usually goes better for us. well actually recuritment usually goes badly but we routinely do well through COB.

some ideas we have been toying with.

1. Leaving Panhell. - there are 3 local fraternities on campus where at least 2 have approached us about starting a local reek governin body. we think this will allow us more leeway but may make recruiting girls harder as we would no longer be allowed to participate in regular recruitment

2. Going national - i am not sure of the process, or what this would mean for our organization, but honestly the idea makes me and many others uneasy. we like being local and have always prided ourselves on those ideals.

3. Shortening our process. our process is longer than other sororities and typically viewed as tougher. all of our ceremonies and education nights have purpose and teach lessons we all highly value. some girls think cutting our program down would make us more appealing to girls, but i think it is just a start of us selling ourselves out.

i do not want us to die, but i do not want us to sell out.

if anyone has any ideas for conquering anything, any feedback on the aforementioned, or ideas for better ways or how to make anything work...
please please help us.

thanks.

cosmo

[LatinaAlumna]

I am really confused about your organization, mainly because you use the terms "cross" *and* "COB"...

[OPhiAGinger]

Just to underscore LatinaAlumna's point, your recruitment process seems like a hybrid of two different approaches to recruitment. If that's the case, you will always struggle going head to head with NPC sororities in formal recruitment. (I'm hearing the Sesame Street song in my head, "Which of these things... is not like the others?...") I have two pieces of advice.

1. Participate in the first round of FR only. Your point in doing this is to maintain visibility and plant a seed in the mind of the PNMs who go through. Put all your energy into this one round of parties so that if PNMs find themselves not "clicking" with any of the other chapters, they know that you will be COBing the next week. Acknowledge that you are not like the other chapters. In fact, embrace it. Turn it into an advantage for you. Sure, most of the girls who sign up for FR are looking for the more traditional NPC experience. But there are always some girls who will be attracted to the group that revels in their individuality, as long as they all genuinely care about each other.

2. Between now and when your two large group of graduates leaves the campus, every single member needs to understand that recruitment has to happen EVERY DAY. You may only give out bids twice a year, but every girl in every class has an opportunity to form an impression of your sorority based on the way the members interact with each other and with the rest of the campus. EVERY DAY. You've got to live recruitment every day, not just when you're hosting a party. You want all those girls to think, "Hey that's a really cool, tight-knit group. Maybe I should check out them out next semester."

Good luck!

[KSUViolet06]

My advice:

*I wouldn't leave Panhellenic if it is going to make it more difficult for you to recruit women. You have stated that you're already having problems, I wouldn't make it harder.

*Look at the experiences that other sororities offer and ask yourselves if what you are offering PNMs is comparable to that.

[panther123]

I think you all need to take a good hard look at your ideals and values and how you are fulfilling them.. Not at all to say you aren't fulfilling them, but this is the time to evaluate what exactly it is that you as a sorority are aiming to do.. If it boils down to creating a bond between women to advance yourselves educationally, socially, philanthropically, etc than you should most definitely not be disaffiliating with you local campus panhellenic as these are the exact goals of that group!!

As an alum of a local chapter that was in the exact same place as you are at one point, I can't even begin to express how much help being a part of our panhellenic was to us becoming stronger as a group and able to share our message and values with more women as members and the entire campus as an extension of them. Participating in formal recruitment with Panhel taught us how to come together as a group; how to organize an efficient and fluid event; how to interact with other people in a fast, stressful situation; and how to sell yourself and your organization. You don't get that kind of experience from COB (unless you do some crazy COB...)

If you think that one of the biggest things keeping women from joining your group is the length of and work involved with your new member period, I think that you should give shortening it some good long thought. Groups all over have been shortening new member periods for a millions different reasons and have all been moving important lessons from those original new member periods into initiatives that are introduced to sisters/brothers as a whole. It can't possibly hurt you to be having whole chapter sister education periods to remind women of the vows they take and the rituals they partake in. I'm not saying you should make 'instant sisters', but if you are recruiting right, you shouldn't have to weed out people during a new member period.

I'm also not against the idea of locals going national though and if you decide that you need to.. well.. It's a very personal decision for any local chapter, but at the end of the day, I think that the sisterhood of the women within a sorority is much more important than the letters on the front door. It's a choice that you as actives will need to make with input from alums but if the choice is die or go national, you as actives have more to share with future women as members of a new national on campus than as a failed local sorority that can be in some campus history book at some point in the future.

While I have developed opinions on all your options, out of the three choices, I would recommend you work on your new member period and figure out what else is discouraging women from joining your chapter vs. the other sororities on campus.