Does size necessarily equate quality?

[AXORissa]

I was reading a few threads, and I dont know if this was discussed before, but what does everyone think about size equating "quality" of the chapter? For instance, can a house be a "top chapter" and have outstanding women, but be lower in numbers than other houses? Or do you think a house that has the most women just has "better" women, and the other houses have less because there's something "wrong?"

Note: this isnt meant to be a flame thread, nor to disrespect houses that aren't a "top house." But obviously there is campus opinion on which houses are "better."

and I use quotes because i DONT think the quality of women is based on size-- i think the size is based more on reputation of the house on campus over the women who actually make up the house-- a reputation which may or may not be based on reality.

[sageofages]

Gosh after reading the "who has it rougher" thread...I gotta get my mind out of people's pants!!!!

LOL

[PhiPsiRuss]

Size does not equal quality, but there is, on most campuses, a strong correlation.

[Kevin]

Well, define quality and what sizes we're comparing and then we can talk

I think a small group has a lot to offer -- some folks find the atmosphere more appealing. Large groups in my opinion offer more opportunities and diversity.

There are pro's and cons either way.

In my personal opinion bigger is better to a point.

[Empress0105]

No, in my opinion, size doesn't matter.

Don't get me wrong, it's great to have a lot of members on campus to throw signs at, give calls to, and exchange 'naila with

but

when it comes to the real work, the serice, the paperwork, the programs, the actual business of the org, size doesn't matter.

I recently went to my national convention (my first seeing as I am still a neo), and my chapter recieved an award acknolwedging us for our leadership and such for the past biennium....and the chapter is only 15 members strong! I met sisters and brothers from schools with 20, 30, and in one school almost 40 members!

Maybe to some people 15 memebrs is a lot...but considering my school has 10,000 students in it, and other sororities have intake of 40, 50, 60 girls plus YEARLY, 15 members looks like a drop in the bucket!


Just handle yours, and do the d@mn thing!!

[hoosier]

Originally posted by russellwarshay
Size does not equal quality, but there is, on most campuses, a strong correlation.

Show me a campus where the largest chapter, over a five-year period, isn't the most successful?

A great fraternity leader said "there's no problem a good rush can't solve." If you have ten good rushes (fall and spring, for five years), you'll rule.

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by hoosier
Show me a campus where the largest chapter, over a five-year period, isn't the most successful?

A great fraternity leader said "there's no problem a good rush can't solve." If you have ten good rushes (fall and spring, for five years), you'll rule.

Success has to be defined. I can think of campuses where the most elite fraternity is large, but not the largest.

[zuzu575]

i wouldn't look at size as much as i would chapter retention - how many pledges make it to initiation, how many seniors still actively participate in chapter activities, etc. your strongest chapters are the ones with the highest retention - girls want to stick around. i would be weary of a chapter with a 55-60 member pledge class and 15-20 active seniors. that screams poor chapter programming and who wants to be a part of that?

[SiggieJilly403]

I think it also has to do with the greek system as a whole on campus. If the school has more commuters than residents, that may be a factor to recruitment turn out etc. It also depends on how many GLOs are on campus...there may be a small number of PNMs and a large selection...So does that mean that the 1, perhaps new, sorority or fraternity, is not as strong? Well, I don't think so. But it does take time to develop something like that too...

So, I don't think size matters because why does it always have to be a competition? If we're greek together, should that really even be a factor?

[Glitter650]

I don't think size has anything to do with quality... I'm going to attempt to define "quality" because we can't discuss this properly if we don't have a definition or at least what to look for in a "quality chapter"
I think quality should be based on how well a chapter does at working to attain it's ideals... I would look at the events they had over the year, member retention, attendance at events, % of active seniors, debt to national, money raised/philanthropy activities, Grades, etc....
I KNOW there are chapters out there who have TONS of members and make quota every year and haven't done a philanthropy event in over a year, or only have a quarter of their members show up for events etc.. and in my opinion that isn't a quality chapter.

[Kevin]

It'd be interesting to know how large the chapters are that the people posting on this thread belong to. Mine's mid-size but realistically will be growing by quite a bit soon. Right now we have 28. Hopefully, will be around 40-45 by the beginning of Spring Semester. It's tough to dominate a campus with a small chapter. In fact, it probably can't really be done.

But if that's not your goal... Small chapters may work for you.

[zuzu575]

with regard to my alma mater, we currently have an undergraduate enrollment of 23,595, 11 NPC sororities and 900-ish girls going through rush. after the dropouts, the crosscuts and the girls dropped by all 11 chapters, quota was usually between 51-55 with chapter ceiling hovering around 125. my chapter is currently at 145. it's all about retention, whether you've got 200 or 20.

[XOMichelle]

Originally posted by Diamond Delta
I *think* someone else said this in another thread and I liked it.
I think people should just focus on why their sorority is best for them not why it's better, bigger etc. than anyone elses. I really do not see the difference between a chapter of 130 and 160. But there is a BIG difference between a chapter of 30 and 60. I think we need to really just redefine "quality" as women. We need to stop judging each other based on society's and men's arbitrary standard of quality. We need to be looking at each other through different lenses. Instead of writing "OMG all the girls that were there were so sweet, cute, gorgeous etc." let's try to make an effort to only write things about them that are true personality characteristics-"They were so friendly, smart, funny ,interesting, caring, considerate, thoughtful, outgoing, ambitious, giving, generous". You NEVER see guys rush threads that say "well, all the guys were really hot, but I just didn't feel like I fit in." or "Everyone was so gorgeous! I just hope they liked me!" How idiotic would that sound?

I challenge each of you not write "beautiful, cute, pretty" when discussing up coming rush, PNM's, and the other girls on campus.

This is the most beautiful post I have ever read!

[XOMichelle]

Originally posted by Diamond Delta
...yes my nose is bleeding way up here on my highhorse

This is just a question-Those of you in BIG greek schools, when you have rush, do you just have the sign up table and girls interested sign up or do you really go out there and recruit, talk it up, and even if you don't want her as your sister, invite "that" girl out to rush any way? I have this theory that's why some campuses-with huge greek systems still lose chapters to small size. I think they need to be out there recruiting and not just signing people up that come their way. Many girls would probably love to join but need some encouragement. Just a theory of mine. All my sisters who have to really hustle out there to get new members know what I am talking about!

and this would be the second.
You hit it on the head!

[ChaosDST]

Size doesn't equate quality of a chapter or an organization (I know this thread is really about chapter size).

I come from a tiny chapter (where we ran the campus with as little as 3 members) within a large sorority, so I have an interesting frame of reference on both chapter and organization size.