Question about AI

[nucutiepie]

It seems to me that many of the GCers who have gone through AI have disproportionately wound up in Alpha Phi or Gamma Phi Beta... both great organziations in my opinion! Do these two have more of an interest in alumni initiation then other sororities? I ask this in part because I know that Pi Phi does not do many alumni initiations at all!

[Jill1228]

Well the whole Syracuse Triad is pretty big on AI. Alpha Phi has been doing AI since 1875

[sageofages]

Phi Mu has had "special initiation" now known as alumna initiation, since its founding. That would be 152 years ago

[aopirose]

I would say that it is just a "snapshot" and not the "big picture". AOII does several AIs per year but many are not active internet users and certainly have never heard of GC.

[dakareng]

I would agree with aopirose. Just because the women participating in GC have clustered toward certain organizations, does not mean that other groups don't do AI. They may just not be on this board.

You'd be surprised how many Pi Phis are AI. Just because they aren't announcing it on GC doesn't mean they aren't out there (we have several in my alumnae group both here in Texas and in my former club in Ohio).

Ditto what aopirose and dakareng said.

In each issue of our Quarterly we publish the names of our AIs. There's a few each quarter, so I know for sure that AGD has a good number of AIs each year.

I haven't actually seen an alumna initiated since becoming a member myself, but I know from my own chapter's history that we've initiated a lot (especially at our chapter installation 12 years ago) of wonderful, amazing, and influential women in our community, and many of them continue to serve loyally as officers in the alumnae chapter.

[CutiePie2000]

I did know of one girl (about 3 years ago) who wanted to pursue Pi Phi. She hasn't been on GC in ages, and when I emailed her, no reply. I assume that she ceased pursuing it.

I have known of other(s) pursuing Pi Beta Phi, but again, because I am on GC very seldom now (my job is overtaking my life, ack!!), I am not sure how it is going.

As for the Gamma Phi Beta thing, I can tell you that Cele the Superstar is playing a big part in that! To answer the GC'ers who are AOII, Alpha Phi and Gamma Phi Beta these ladies have certainly been helpful in getting their groups mobilized to at least be open minded to MEET a prospective AI and see where it goes. I think that might be a part of it.

[navane]

Naturally, people's perceptions on the "disproportionate" number of AIs going to certain orgs is based off of observing GreekChat threads. As others have pointed out, GLOs initiate lots more AIs than this; they're just not registered and posting here.

CutiePie2000 has a comprehensive list of known AIs on her thread. If we take out what I call "my friend's mother's neighbor" AIs and only look at actual GC users, the breakdown is something like this:


1 - Alpha Gamma Delta

4 - Alpha Omicron Pi

1 - Alpha Delta Pi

11 - Alpha Phi

2 - Alpha Xi Delta

1 - Delta Delta Delta

4 - Delta Gamma

1 - Delta Phi Epsilon

5 - Gamma Phi Beta

1- Phi Sigma Sigma

1 - Sigma Kappa


Since the PNAMs sometimes PM each other for help and support, I can tell you that I know the inside scoop on several AIs. I can tell you that they are looking at a wide variety of GLOs and not just Alpha Phi or Gamma Phi Beta. I think CP2000 and I know some of the same people.

I believe it's all a combination of:

a) who is actually posting here or posting about people they know

b) the fact that some groups do not offer AI or have very strict guidelines which make it more of a challenge. That's why we don't see AIs from certain groups

c) potential AIs reading GreekChat and seeing that particular groups seem to have more AIs. Therefore they would naturally want to look into groups that seem to be more open to AI

d) some orgs have a lot fewer collegiate and alum chapters than others or have strong regional leanings. For example, if I wanted to be a Phi Mu, I'd have to think twice about it if I really wanted to work with the students. There is only one collegiate chapter in California and it's some 5 hours away from me.

Regarding point 'c', I don't advocate seeking out a group because it "looks easier to get into". I'll tell you this, in my 7 years of being a PNAM, there were a couple of occassions where people heard my story and offered to put me through in their group. Unfortunately, I didn't have a heart for those groups and I turned them down.

Some groups, like Alpha Phi, Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Omicron Pi have very public statements about their support of AI on their websites and such. If a group hides their AI info, then it stands to reason that they'll get less "hits".

If your org does AI, but never seems to "get attention" then perhaps the best route is to seek out qualified women, make them new alumnae initiate members and then celebrate them on your international website and magazine! Of course, you'll want to post them here too!

I'm looking forward to the day when we have an AI from each of the orgs which offer this opportunity, here on GC! At the moment I think we have about 11 GLOs represented out of a possible 21.


.....Kelly

than there is the point and i dont know if i t has been offered that there are some very active alums on here and in your very own community that do not even know that their GLO does alum initaitions.

I wanted to be Phi Mu ever since college and even pursued it many many yrs ago but this lady who was a pretty influential alum here in so. calif ( or maybe i thought at the time) said Phi Mu doesnt do AI. I took it as gospel and than coming to find out they did. At that time when i was trying to rediscover AI i came back home to Calif and back then i was unaware of Alpha Phi and i did a search of NPC site and somehow discovered this site and read more into A Phi and was initaited into Alpha Phi and very proud that i am a sister.

i feel somehow and somewhere it all comes out in the wash of where you should be

[LPIDelta]

We just initiated 5 AIs at our Convention--and I am fairly certain that none of them are on GC! Although I agree with the observation--maybe the Gamma Phis and Alpha Phis on GC are just really good recruiters???!

As an aside, one of those women that was initiated was my grandmother. She is probably very overwhelmed by all of it right now, but it is my honor to call her SISTER now! I could tell she had so many questions upon meeting everyone, but had no idea where to even start with them.

Best wishes to all our GC potential AIs as they continue their journey to sisterhood.