Numbers Question

[SDTSarah]

Hello everyone,
I'm asking this question because of a pattern I've noticed at my University and others. If it has already been answered, I'm sure someone will point me to the right thread.

At what point does a National Office decide to close a chapter due to low numbers? For example, we had a strong national sorority come in 1993 and they were gone by 2000 or 2001. Our chapter sizes vary from 100 to 200 and quota is typically about 50. So my question is...how can a new chapter be expected to have numbers that size in 3, 4, even 5 years? I'm not saying it's impossible...but so many chapters close within 3-5 years of their opening.

It's really disheartening to think of some of the great sororities that have left my campus over the years. I know that chapters leave for many reasons, but low numbers seems to be a biggie. What can be done?

[Rose&WhiteGirl]

Originally posted by exlurker
PNMs can wrongly get the sense that smaller = "worse," and attracting and retaining new members gets tough.

i definately agree witht the idea that PNM think that the chapter with the lowest numbers is the "worse" house on campus. when it comes to shutting a chapter down,i think nationals also looks at rush number trends, retention rates, and other stats such as these. if they are declining then obviously you have less people and if you have a house you cant afford to keep it up and pay the bills. its also hard to ward off stigmas and reputations that may come with low numbers.

[33girl]

it TOTALLY depends on the national. Some will close a chapter if they are just a little under total, some will allow a chapter to keep operating even if they are considerably smaller. It also has a lot to with whether or not there is housing to deal with.

[Katey Alpha Gam]

has anyone else noticed lately that a lot of nationals have been cutting their losses a lot faster and closing out chapters w/out much of a fight to keep it going? I dunno, maybe I'm getting a skewed view, but I have seen that nationals will help for a semester and maybe a year but if things don't pick up they cut their losses or make a chapter dormant for a couple of years. Which is a tragic thing b/c I'm sure a lot of our orgs started out very small (I know AGD started w/11 and that is a pretty big number of founders comparatively). I dunno, maybe I'm all wet, but has anyone else seen that or has a hypotheseis about why?

[Kevin]

Once in a hole, it is a tough sale to prospective members to join the house that is not the biggest. I know of a house on a campus where some sororities don't even do Spring rush because of quota issues. This chapter has dipped as low as 20 members! It's a large national. They're actually holding up the entire expansion process. Girls choose to stay GDI rather than pledge them.

[sherbertlemons]

Originally posted by exlurker
As to #2, there have been some fairly recent threads about the establishment of new chapters at a couple of Florida schools (DZ and Kappa, I believe) and at the University of Kansas (ZTA). It seems as though when they colonized they made sure to get a group that was close to total or campus average. As nearly as I can tell, the idea was to have the new chapter "competitive" in terms of numbers from the very start, rather than have to build up from a position where the new kid on the block began with far fewer numbers than other NPC groups. From there, of course, numbers would depend on rush success, but again, threads mention live-in consultants and/or substantial National assistance in the early years of a new chapter, so I'd expect significant training in rush techniques via National, nearby chapters, and alumnae.

You're definitely right on target with that. When my chapter was established, we were given permission to recruit up to 151, which is the average size of a chapter on our campus. As I understand it, we were actually given permision by Panhellenic to recruit past total, which is 105. (The majority, if not all of the NPC sororities on campus are above that figure.)

During the initial colony recruitment, about 130 girls received bids. During our first semester on campus, we were also allowed to do a COB, that served the dual purpose of allowing us to learn what to do with a new member class, and allowed us to get our numbers up some more.

Quite frankly, I don't see how a chapter could survive if the colonizing members had to build up from a much smaller group on my campus! Two of the more recently opened chapters, that started out as smaller groups, still have a reputation for being smallish, but honestly I have no idea if that really is the case.

Last year, we had a live in chapter consultant, in addition to our chapter advisors. We also experienced 2 visits from traveling consultants. This year, we don't have our live in consultant (My understanding is we were supposed to, but it was decided that we were doing so well it wasn't neccesary.) but we do have substantial support from headquarters, including 2 traveling consultants visiting for formal recruitment.

I also think an impportant factor is making plans for getting comparable housing as soon as possible. (More a factor for Delta Zeta than us right now.) On my campus, 4 of the ten sororites are unhoused- the existing Greek Park on campus just has absolutely no more room left. So we're currently in a position where we can't get a house and are only minimally hurt by it, considering how half of Panhellenic is also unhoused. However, our House Board is busy trying to make sure that when we can go ahead with a house, the finances are there.

I would assume Delta Zeta at UF has had similar support, but I'm not really in the know on that one.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by 33girl
it TOTALLY depends on the national. Some will close a chapter if they are just a little under total, some will allow a chapter to keep operating even if they are considerably smaller. It also has a lot to with whether or not there is housing to deal with.

It really does - I have friends in chapters that were much bigger than mine that got shut down. We were down to 11 last year (average on campus is probably 24 or so?) and we didn't even hear a peep about being shut down for size.

I think there's a lot of pressure for this on the fraternity end though - SigEp HQ expects the chapter to have 50 guys consistently, on a campus where average for guys is maybe 30.

[sugar and spice]

I think people are right when they say it depends on the national -- but it also depends on the school. If a chapter's not making quota but it's at an Ivy League/Big 10/Big 12/SEC/PAC 10/big name school, it's going to be given more of a chance to get its act together than a school with similar numbers at Hicksville State. I know there have been chapters here that have gotten done to below 50 members (on a campus where total is 120ish), but their nationals don't close them down because they know it would be almost impossible to ever come back.