Question about Inactive Sisters

[AOX81]

First of all I have to explain the way my sorority works before I can ask my question.

In my sorority a sister who is attending school, has dues paid, has completed community service, and meets our attendance policy for meetings and events is considered an active sister.

If she fails to do any of the acts above she is considered inactive. She cannot attend closed events such as Rush events, Pledge/Members Party, Sisterhood events, etc. until all of the criteria has been met.

A handful of my sisters have went inactive over the years due to heavy school work loads or because they quit school. I know that in some organizations inactive means that you are no longer affilated with the sorority in any shape or form. We still consider them sisters but with no benefits.

My question is do any organizations out there have rules about inactive sisters becoming alumni after they graduate even if they were not active during their entire time that they were in school. And also, are special exceptions made for sisters who have quit school?

I hope I was clear on what I was trying to ask...sometimes I know I babble too much

Thanks

Have a nice day

[The1calledTKE]

Well my chapter lets guys go alumni even if they are inactive as long as they paid up the debt they may have owed and if they are in general good terms with the fraternity.

its funny cuz at UM, it seemed like inactive just meant you werent living in the house that year.

[MenaceKiller]

Special circumstances call for special rules. If you're a national chapter, it should have rules for this. If not, then setting up SOMETHING in the bylaws as a minimum guideline for your members to reach to get alumni status and with what benefits would help a lot in curbing people from taking advantage of alumni status without the work involved in getting there.

My fraternity has these current guidelines:


1)You must be active and have no debt from dues up until you graduate to become alumni;

2)If you become inactive, you must be active for one full semester again before graduating or petitioning to become alumni;

3)Special requests are honored by requesting a minimum 3/4 special assembly of all actives. At the meeting, the requestor gives a speech arguing his case, questions are asked to the alumnus requestor, then the requestor leaves while the actives debate and vote. Cases are decided immediately and the decision is irreversible, early alumni requests that are denied means denied.

Only situation #1 cannot be denied. #2 just means that if I take a break for a short time but become active again before I graduate, #1 is in effect. #3 can be an early request to become alumni or if someone leaves school for whatever reason, they can petition to become alumni.

-MK

[Tom Earp]

In LXA, if you do not pay dues or have other infractions, you are on suspension until either ths suspension is up or you dues/bills are paid.
If suspended you cannot attend any functions.

If you leave school before graduation, you can apply for Alum status. If you do not then you are considered inactive. While you are a member, you are3 not in good standing.

[33girl]

Ours was pretty similar to what Tom said. We had something called Special Status, which was for sisters who were student teaching or on internship and really not on campus. They paid a fraction of dues I believe, and could come to formals, mixers etc if they were able.

If you did not make grades or didn't pay dues you could not go to mixers, hold office or vote.

Then we had inactive status, where you were not paying dues but were still a sister. You weren't allowed to come to sorority events unless it was by special invitation (i.e. if a sister asked you to be her "date" for the formal). Going inactive is only supposed to be for things like financial hardship and family problems, although there were a couple instances where people with only 1-2 semesters to go went inactive rather than disaffiliate. Often because our national would not terminate a senior.

We really don't have rules about becoming alum...once you leave school, unless you have disaffiliated you are an alumna. We have a sister who pledged and then left school the next semester. Wherever she is she's still considered an alumna. As far as paying off debt, if someone has really been a butt-head where $$$ is concerned, they generally know not to come around.

[LeslieAGD]

Our girls cannot go alum directly after an inactive semester.