Quality -vs- Quantity

[Finer Woman10-A-91]

I noticed on one of the boards, a post from a young lady asking what sorority was the largest. It really got me to thinking. Do people really put that much value in the size of the organization?

In my chapter, we chose not to have lines greater than 20. Typically, the frats follow a similiar philosophy. For those of you on lines smaller than that you understand the challenge and reason. For those of you on lines greater than 20...say 50-130 did you feel you had a fair opportunity to truly bond with your linesisters?

There was a line at my undergrad (Howard U) that took 128 girls one year and those poor ladies had the hardest time living that one down. As a matter of fact, one of my very dear friends was on that line. Another dear friend who did eventually go on to pledge membership in that organization in a graduate chapter confessed she would have been embarrassed to be on that line.

Do you think there should be a cap on the number of members chapters should take? Do you think it's possible to really get to know more than 20 other women or men who are on line or go through MIP with you?

I have 9 linesisters...RIP #8, and I know I have to work to keep up with them and it's been over 9 years since we crossed. How do you keep in touch with 80 linesisters?


------------------
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated...Every Woman's Dream!

[ZetaAce]

I have 4 line sisters and I have a hard enough time keeping up with them. (Thank goodness for email! LOL)


I too would be interested to know the challenges of having more.

Sometimes the chapters don't have a choice in regards to size. A friend of a mine that attends a predominantly black told me that a certain org. had almost 200 people attend their rush, but for whatever reason the chapter only accepted 30 girls. Either their regional office or national headquarters made them accept more, but the chapter resisted and now it is suspended for a year and a half.

[kammye]

How does a chapter determine how big a line will be? Does it depend on how many applies or what?

[33girl]

I was simply curious about size, believe me I am a strong proponent of quality over quantity and bigger is NOT always better!

Regarding c&c1913’s post, good for that chapter who refused to take more. I know there are some NPC sororities who if they do not take quota at rush, they are placed on probation, and they have to keep bidding women until they get up to quota, thereby throwing all the “high standards for selecting new members” out the window. We refer to them as “98.6” sororities – have a body temp, get a bid.

I think a lot of the nationals are only seeing $$$$ when they worry about numbers and forgetting that they don’t have to live, socialize, work with these people day in & day out, the collegians do. I know when you have a 150 person house you have to fill it, but not at the expense of chapter harmony if it means taking people you detest. And at small schools, let’s face it, there are going to be years where there’s just not a lot to choose from. Better to ride it out for a semester and work on the bonds between members rather than take people just to take people.

[12dn94dst]

regarding kammye's post: some chapters have the number of pledges they'll have in a given year set in their by-laws

as far as the size of a line and bonding among the pledges is concerned, I think it has a great deal to do with 1) the length of time there is to pledge and 2) the efforts of the current chapter members to create and environment suitable for bonding. I come from a line of 50. Policies that were in place concerning the initiation of new members made it impossible for us to bond before we became members. But I have heard and know of Sorors who pledged after me who were on lines bigger than mine that have EXTREMELY close relationships with all of their line sisters.

I don't agree with regional officers/advisors deciding to add to lines and forcing chapters to comply. The chapter's vote should stand.

[equeen]

I can't imagine being 1 out of 50 in a pledge class...like it's been said, where's the chance to bond and really commit yourself as part of a network to the goals and ideals of one's GLO? And I can't imagine making a committment, then walking the road in lonliness, when so many others around you have made the same committment. A.S.K.'s Beta Chapter (my chapter) had a founding class of 17; subsequent candidate classes have had no more than 4 or 5. I'd personally like to see larger candidate classes, but not to huge sizes, where it would be impossible for the candidates to bond with themselves as well as with the initiated sisters.

[BlondeChick]

I was part of the colonization of our Alpha Xi Delta chapter at our school.

We started with under 30 sisters in our colony, and, after a year, doubled in size with new pledges.

As long as you take the time to get to know your sisters, and make a true effort to really get involved, it shouldn't matter weather your sorority has 30 or 3000 sisters.



------------------
Http://www.geocities.com/hotformulab...o_my_world.htm – Michelle's World

[PositivelyAKA]

I don't think its a matter of trying to have more quantity i think its just plain old Demand. I know at Howard the AKA's and Delta's always have many more interested ladies than do Zeta's or Sgrho's. Therefore it is not susprising that their lines are larger and Zeta and Sgrho lines are extremely small even at a HBC. I do however agree with you on the cap issue, but that is not an easy task when so many qualified women are interested in these two prestigious organizations, particulary at HBC. Black Schools will always have larger lines then do White Schools for obivious reasons. There were over 300 girls that attended the rush for the line of 128 that came back to the yard after a 4 year suspension just "fyi". The final decision of how many are taken is at the discretion of the governing body and they take into consideration many factors (including money i hate to say). Deltas and AKA's at Howard always have huge lines because they always have over a hundred girls attending their interest meetings (not every sorority has that many interested women) and it is a predominantly black university vs a white university where blacks are not huge in attendance. It is possible however to bond as a larger line that is the responsibility of each line sister. These sororities have a greater demand for membership then do others so they must make it happen, no EXCUSES. I think all things are relative to the type of organization one is interested in. Some sororities will never have a need to limit their intake of members while others will always have a long line of interested ladies just waiting for the chance to gain membership. I'm glad so many women are interested in my organization i don't see that as a problem.

[Alumnus who cares]

It looks like this topic was started with regards to sororities, but I was wondering how it applies to fraternities as well. A couple of years ago, I heard from some actives that there were a couple of large fraternities on my campus that had 35 pledges in a fall semester. I was amazed and impressed (and yes, jealous) that these houses could get this kind of rush number, but it always seemed kind of high. I wonder if the big houses pledge 35 guys with the intention of keeping them all, or if they like to “whittle down” that group to 25 or so, to make sure they get the highest quality members.

Since my house was one of the smaller ones on our campus, we didn’t have the freedom to “pick and choose” like the bigger fraternities did. Our typical fall pledge class would have 10-12 members, and not all of them ended up being quality guys anyway; always one or two bad apples out of every group. But the bigger chapters would have hundreds of rushees come by their house, so they could give bids to 30-35 guys and still be assured of quality.

I also knew of a few houses that would go out and get a large pledge class and temporarily sacrifice quality, to get their numbers up and start attracting more rushees. Then, once they were established and more comfortable with their size, they could afford to be more choosy, and the following fall they might have a smaller, more “quality” pledge class.

I’d be interested in hearing some fraternity members’ takes on the whole quality vs. quantity argument, as it seemed to be a hot topic for our rush every semester.

[Ghostface-Killah]

FINER Woman10-A-91: I hear youon that one. I was a solo and had a hard time getting to know Big Sister. I agree with you, and even 20 wouyld force you to keep them on for a long time. As far as how many ladies national's wants youto put on, how would they now the # unless you tell them? My ex-, who happens to be one of your frats, told me he met a member of XYZ sorority - HER NUMBER : 201 CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!
I know a few men with high number- they had a line of 30, but that was back in 1991 and they were on for over a year. He can still run 10 things about each of his line brothers.

[awatters]

Fall 99 had 10, my Winter 2000 pledge class had 7 guys, and our spring pledge class has 3. 20 new members in one year is pretty good, I think. I was surprised when my Big Sis in DG told me that her fall class was 35. There's so much more interest in sororities, it seems. For example, in Spring 99 Theta sorority had 3 open spots because they were almost at capacity of 115 members. Here there are over 100 girls in each of the 11 sororities, and they don't really want to have activities with a fraternity that has fewer members. I think Lambda Chi is the biggest fraternity here, with around 100 actives. They have the biggest pledge class this spring also, at 19. But I would rather be in a group with 50 guys I like than 100 guys I don't. On the other hand, I would really like more guys in the group so we could be stronger. Size matters.

------------------
andrew watters
Theta Chi – ucla

[This message has been edited by awatters (edited May 23, 2000).]

[AKA2D '91]

There were 67 of us on our "line." Yet, that chapter had not had anything going on for almost two years. After we came through, we did not have another intake until two years later. That time, we brought in 72 girls. Our rushes had over 300 girls applying. After you "weed" out those who are not qualified (GPA check), normally you are left with about 150-200 women, then you are left to decide how many you will choose. Our "Graduate" sorors felt that our regional director would not find 20 or 30 girls enough (given the number of girls applying). We would have to justify as to why girls were not chosen. That was a bit disheartening, when you are "forced" to add. That's where you get many of the "bad seeds."

[Siobhan]

Our campus (U of British Columbia) has a ceiling which I think is a great idea. Our campus cap is 40, not to big, not to small. I think once you get above 50 or 60 it losses the idea of a sisterhood

[prettygyrl]

It would seem like over twenty girls are alot to get to know. I attend a small school and I am glad that whenevr I decided to try and pledge it will only be a few. I am not saying it does not work with alot on line I am just for me I would think a line of 20 or less would bridge more bonding. Although I do understand that at HBCUs the lines would of course be bigger.