Recruitment for local Latina Sorority

[Coquiporvida]

Sigma Alpha Chi is a local Latina Sorority out founded at Missouri State University in 1997. Since then we have grown and established a foundation at MSU and have had a sucessful 11 years. In recent years though, recruitment has been an issue for us. We are the first and the only Latina sorority on campus, and we stress that you do not have to be Latina to join. You just have to have an interest in the Hispanic culture. We dont partiscipate in rush, we have an intake process, so are there any suggestions for us to recruit new members?

[LatinaAlumna]

Have you tried working with the other Latina/o organizations on your campus (or are they not receptive to working with you)? Have you spoken to the Registrar's Office and asked how to send out a mass email about your upcoming events? Have you used tools like Facebook and Myspace to invite people to your activities? There are a lot of things you can do.

Side note: I am surprised to hear that MSU has only one Latina sorority at this point in time.

[Coquiporvida]

Yes. Sigma Alpha Chi is the first and only Latina sorority on MSU's campus. We have several other Latino/a organizations on campus, but the members of these organizations overlap into Sigma Alpha Chi and Omega Delta Phi (which just got at MSU last spring). There are a lot of the same people in these organizations, a majority of which happen to be Greek already.

As a sorority we are starting to learn how to market ourselves to potential members. We are stepping into the new world of Greek life, and working on how to talior our recruitment process to fit the changing times.

Facebook and Myspace are good ideas. I think that we should learn to utilize them much more than we do. Technology is a HUGE way to market your organization.

May I ask what Latina Sorority you were apart of?

[LatinaAlumna]

I am a member of Lambda Theta Nu Sorority, Inc. I say "am" instead of "was" because our membership is for life.

I would recommend hosting community service events and/or cultural events that are open to anyone who wants to participate. Also, make sure you have a table at every campus fair, especially at the beginning of each term. Good luck to you!

[Coquiporvida]

You are absolutely right about life membership and I apologize. It is the same for us as well. Una vez una Coqui.....siempre una Coqui!

We have already begun to plan for every campus event that we can show our faces at! Thank you so much for the suggestions.