Local in Trouble

#1 05-31-2003, 01:24 PM

Since Phi Gamma Pi is the ONLY local at my college, it's difficult for us to get new members. To quote my Big, "our novelty wore off." It's kind of sad because not only do we lack sisters, we lack morale. I love each and every one of my sisters and it's absolutely wonderful to be a part of such a wonderful group of girls, but I don't know what the future will bring. We have been in a "rebuilding phase" for at least a year and I just fear our chapter dying.

Calling out to everyone- got any tips to help us?!

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

AchtungBaby80 · #2 05-31-2003, 01:28 PM

Are you the ONLY sorority, period, or are you the only local?

#3 05-31-2003, 01:29 PM

The only local GLO.

astroAPhi · #4 05-31-2003, 01:36 PM

Just out of curiousity, how many members do you have? And how many do the other sororities have? Is Greek Life as a whole "losing its novelty", or is it just Phi Gamma Pi? That might help us be able to answer your question.

My sorority got one girl through formal recruitment last year, and quota was 3. We were at 75% of total. We had 16 juniors out of 30 girls. We thought we were totally screwed.

What did we do? We learned to COB. Freshmen especially are a wonderful resource for this. They can just drag their roommate out to dinner with us or half their floor (as the one girl we got through formal recruitment did). Spring semester, I got my roommate, my former roommate, and a friend from my pre-college years to join. At the end of the year, we were one under total, and we have 3 girls that we wanted to give bids to, but they wanted to wait until next semester. We had girls where it took an entire semester to rush them, but we didn't give up.

I won't kid you, you have to be gung-ho, and you have to be determined. We invited PNMs to every single event that wasn't sisters only. I can proudly say that we are definitely better rushers than we were before, and a stronger sisterhood because we made sure we found quality girls. Only 2 seniors graduated, so we are looking forward to possibly going above total for the first time ever. We'll need to too, with 20 people graduating in the next year and a half.

It took a long time. We had some ups and downs. We initiated 20 women the year I was initiated, and only 8 the next year. We had lots of girls transfer schools. The most important thing though is that you have to retain your image as a strong sisterhood. No one will want to join if they don't see that.

I'll be waiting for your other updates to see if I can help anymore. I hope this did.

AchtungBaby80 · #5 05-31-2003, 01:41 PM

Hmmm. Well, we didn't have any locals on my campus so I can't really give the best advice, but if you think it's a situation of more girls being attracted to a national group, maybe you should look at affiliating. I realize you might not want to do that, though, since being in a local can be neat (from what I've heard), so maybe you should stress to PNMs that your chapter is very unique in that it's the only one out there, and play up all the cool things you do and how much you love being a sister of Phi Gamma Pi. And be aggressive (but not scary!)--wear your letters a lot to "advertise," and participate in activities that will get your name out. Anyone else have any good ideas?

texas*princess · #6 05-31-2003, 01:52 PM

I agree w/ AstroAPhi & Achtung Baby.

Without knowing much about Greek life as a whole on your campus and in your sorority, it can be hard to give specific advice.

Like AstroAPhi said COB is always a good idea! and good PR could help you out!

Go to the library with a bunch of sisters and all wear your letters, or have a day out of the week where sisters get together and eat in the campus dining hall.

#7 05-31-2003, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by astroAPhi
Just out of curiousity, how many members do you have? And how many do the other sororities have? Is Greek Life as a whole "losing its novelty", or is it just Phi Gamma Pi? That might help us be able to answer your question.

What did we do? We learned to COB. Freshmen especially are a wonderful resource for this. They can just drag their roommate out to dinner with us or half their floor (as the one girl we got through formal recruitment did). Spring semester, I got my roommate, my former roommate, and a friend from my pre-college years to join. At the end of the year, we were one under total, and we have 3 girls that we wanted to give bids to, but they wanted to wait until next semester. We had girls where it took an entire semester to rush them, but we didn't give up.

I won't kid you, you have to be gung-ho, and you have to be determined. We invited PNMs to every single event that wasn't sisters only. I can proudly say that we are definitely better rushers than we were before, and a stronger sisterhood because we made sure we found quality girls. Only 2 seniors graduated, so we are looking forward to possibly going above total for the first time ever. We'll need to too, with 20 people graduating in the next year and a half.

It took a long time. We had some ups and downs. We initiated 20 women the year I was initiated, and only 8 the next year. We had lots of girls transfer schools. The most important thing though is that you have to retain your image as a strong sisterhood. No one will want to join if they don't see that.

Thank you for your insipring story and to answer your question, Greek Life at Kent seems to be at an all-time high. At least, it is according to my Rho Chi from formal. She said there hadn't been that many girls going through formal rush in quite some time.

We have 6 national sororities whose numbers are an average of about 75 to 80 girls per chapter. As for Phi Gam, we only have 5 active sisters and one sister has to deactivate because she is transferring schools so I guess that brings us down to 4. I've already told her to try to start a colony at her new school, if Penn Culinary can permit it.

I'm so afraid that we're gonna die! Our president isn't the "partier type," but most of my ideas are related to philanthropy and just getting our name out there! I guess it's all a matter of talking to the right sisters as well as approaching our president the right way. Thank you for your advice.

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

astroAPhi · #8 05-31-2003, 03:16 PM

At your peak, how many sisters did you have? And just for curiousity's sake, how long since your founding?

I won't kid you, 5 girls is not a lot. It is extremely difficult to make any organization function when people have to take on several offices. That's probably why a lot of your girls don't have the highest morale... they're stressed.

My suggestion would be to work your butt off at Formal Recruitment (if you participate), and then go crazy with COB... inviting girls out to all your events, even ones that aren't deemed "Rush Events". We invite girls to our meetings so they can see how we function and how much work we actually get done. If your meetings aren't closed, maybe that would be another good rush tool.

Another thing, the nice thing about not having deemed "Rush Events" but just inviting girls to everything you do saves you money on those darn expensive rush events.

#9 05-31-2003, 03:37 PM

At our peak, I believe we had about 25 to 30 girls. We've been around for almost 15 years and this is the first year we are not participating in formal rush, fully. We are only going through "first party" to introduce ourselves and then having our own informal right after that.

Our informal rush events are pretty simple. So far it's been kind of an informal "meet and greet" and I believe we played board games when I rushed last spring.

I have already talked to our former treasurer and I want us to at least double by the end of next semester. I am all too willing to take on more than 1 little (if need be). It's just a matter of getting the rest of the sisters to want to do it.

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

P.S. The chapter doesn't do very much in the first place and I'm trying to change that.

P.P.S. Another disadvantage we have is that we do not have a house.

astroAPhi · #10 05-31-2003, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by That1LoudChick
P.S. The chapter doesn't do very much in the first place and I'm trying to change that.

That in itself sounds like it could be the majority of your problem. You have the right idea in mind to work on that... don't give up!

I hate to say it, but not participating in Formal Rush might be a mistake. I know that I at least like to keep all of my options open, and eliminating 6 other sororities for one is scary, especially for new students. It took me all of Recruitment to decide that I wanted to join Alpha Phi as opposed to the other national sorority on campus.

Another thing, a house isn't everything. We had just gotten a house when we went through Formal Recruitment and only got one girl. Quota was 3, but XYZ got 5 girls total because they were smart in making their bid list, and at least 3 girls suicided them. They didn't have a house. It's all about presentation. They did a better job of that last year, apparently.

SapphireSphinx9 · #11 05-31-2003, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by That1LoudChick
At our peak, I believe we had about 25 to 30 girls. We've been around for almost 15 years and this is the first year we are not participating in formal rush, fully. We are only going through "first party" to introduce ourselves and then having our own informal right after that.

Our informal rush events are pretty simple. So far it's been kind of an informal "meet and greet" and I believe we played board games when I rushed last spring.

I have already talked to our former treasurer and I want us to at least double by the end of next semester. I am all too willing to take on more than 1 little (if need be). It's just a matter of getting the rest of the sisters to want to do it.

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

P.S. The chapter doesn't do very much in the first place and I'm trying to change that.

P.P.S. Another disadvantage we have is that we do not have a house.

Don't get discouraged. It sounds to me like you're the backbone for your sorority... Which is what you all need.

I have a quick question for you: Why aren't you participating in rush? I agree with astroAPhi about it being a mistake. I think it would help you out a lot more by being part of rush, than just putting on your own informationals.

Houses aren't everything... My chapter doesn't have a house either---actually none of the Phi Sig chapters in California have houses. PM me if you need some advice on what to do, or where to have your events.

I think with the ambition and drive that you have, you should possibly consider running for Chapter President or Recruitment Chair.

Just keep your head up, it'll get better... And we all have PLENTY of ideas to help you out.

~Beth

texas*princess · #12 05-31-2003, 05:05 PM

That1LoudChick, I think astroAPhi might have a point when it comes to recruitment.

Can women participate in formal recruitment and go to your 'open' recruitment events at the same time? If they can't, maybe that could be a problem as to why recruiting may be a problem.

#13 05-31-2003, 05:12 PM

I seem to have confused you all. We are dropping out of formal after first party (which I think is lame as well) because we fear nobody will accept a bid from us like last fall. In turn, we will have our own informal rush after formal rush is over. Many of the details are kind of shady to me, but that seems like the just of it. I personally don't agree with this, either, but it has already been decdied by the chapter that we do this.

Thank you all for your support and I am considerring running for president in the spring (when we have our elections). Hopefully our chapter will double by that time.

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

polarpi · #14 05-31-2003, 05:22 PM

Coming from a small chapter myself, I understand what you are going through. Total at my campus was 53, and quota was usually around 10 or 11. The year I joined, 8 of us joined through formal recruitment, and we were able to COR (recruit instead of bid) an additional 3 women, bringing us up to quota. Let me tell you, that's the BEST our chapter has ever done in formal recruitment, "numbers" wise. Every year, however, we are consistently the smallest chapter on campus, with usually around 20-25 members. It is tough, as others have said, to keep the morale up when women are taking on more than one position. I personally think it depends on the chapter. If your chapter is good at formal recruitment, then go for it. If you're better at COR (which is the case with my chapter), focus most of your energy that way.

As an example, my senior year, we had the most wonderful, well put-together and stunning formal recruitment, to find on bid day that we didn't bid ANY women. That was a crushing blow, and it took that type of incident to help our chapter join together as a sisterhood and work our tails off for COR. (Quota from formal that year was 11). By the end of the semester, we had picked up 10 women, and it started with just one woman around Valentine's Day...the other nine joined over the course of the next two months. It is possible to recuit wonderful women, it takes a lot of desire and hard work in order to accomplish it.....best of luck to you and your chapter! Please keep us updated!

meridionaleDG · #15 05-31-2003, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by That1LoudChick
I seem to have confused you all. We are dropping out of formal after first party (which I think is lame as well) because we fear nobody will accept a bid from us like last fall. In turn, we will have our own informal rush after formal rush is over. Many of the details are kind of shady to me, but that seems like the just of it. I personally don't agree with this, either, but it has already been decdied by the chapter that we do this.

Thank you all for your support and I am considerring running for president in the spring (when we have our elections). Hopefully our chapter will double by that time.

Greek to Greek,
That1LoudChick

Well, you might not be able to have a proper recruitment with only 4 girls. I know in our rounds at my school, there were about 26 girls in a party. The smallest sorority at my school had to ask other sisters from schools to come help them, and they had to double rush EVERYONE. This is a national sorority, and since yours is local, there might not be people to call on to help you with recruitment. No one got one on one time with a member.

They did something pretty shady though (which is why I am not mentioning which sorority) - they kept inviting every pnm back to parties, even after the pnm had cut them. The reason is, if for example, they get cut by 2 sororities - they don't have the opportunity to cut the ones they didn't like, so if by chance the next day the pnm doesn't have the opportunity to cut, then if this particular sorority invites them back anyways - they have to keep going back day after day.

Anyways, to make a long story short, not many girls went this sorority during recruitment because of the way they presented themseleves. When I went through, I cut them twice and they STILL kept inviting me back. Why would you want a girl after she has cut you twice?

Anywho - on a positive note, when they did informal recruitment, they picked up a lot of girls because it was much more relaxed and they didn't have to do the "rounds" and the structure of formal recruitment, so it ended up working out a lot better for them. They have a pretty good size group now. I know 1 or 2 girls in this sorority, and they said that the small group attracted them anyways.

Everything happens for a reason, keep your aggressive attitude about making the chapter better. As the saying goes, plan for the worst and hope for the best.