My sorority is about to be non-existant! Help!

[sunshine2925]

I am the president of the oldest sorority at Lousiana College. It is not a nationally recognized sorority. My college is a baptist institution, so we have to meet certain stipulations concerning our activities, i.e. no drinking, no smoking, no dances, etc. 5 years ago our sorority had at least twenty members active. Now we are down to four actives. In the past 5 years, our sorority developed a reputation as the "party sorority", and therefore, began attracting girls who were more interested in getting drunk than performing the required pledging activities. Therefore, this year, I made it a requirement that activities which were not allowed on campus should not be discussed during the meetings. ((Last year, my sorority threw a huge halloween party... Did us a whole lot of good, huh?)) What can we do to attract more girls? The Rush night at my college attracted only -10- girls!! We got four of them, but it is rare that all of the initial pledges remain until the end.

Help! I do not want my sisterhood to die out as a joke!

[AOII Angel]

Sounds like you need to address your concerns with your sisters and any alumnae you may still have. The problem is that you can't save the chapter by yourself. If your sisters are not willing to change, you'll never be able to rebuild with the one person sisterhood. They may not realize that their lack of respect for your college's rules is hurting your chapter. Why are they at a religious school in the first place if they want to party?

[texas*princess]

I agree w/ what AOIIAngel said. - you can't save the chapter by yourself.

What were pledge classes like for the other groups? 4/10 is pretty good.

What sort of things is your sorority currently doing to attract new members?

[sunshine2925]

Two of the sisters who are currently active are not big party girls. One is pregnant, and the other just isn't that sociable. The college is big on parties, because it ends up being a lot of Baptist kids who were never able to get out from under the strict thumbs of their parents. Now they are "free" and go wild.

The sad part is that I don't think that the pregnant girl and the party girl really care that much about the sorority.

How can I get the help of the alumni??

[James]

Do you have a database call them?

Also, whats changed? Are you saying you used to NOT party at all and had a lot of members? And then when you started partying you lost them all?

Or are you saying you were bigger when you were more party oriented?

Originally Posted by sunshine2925

Two of the sisters who are currently active are not big party girls. One is pregnant, and the other just isn't that sociable. The college is big on parties, because it ends up being a lot of Baptist kids who were never able to get out from under the strict thumbs of their parents. Now they are "free" and go wild.

The sad part is that I don't think that the pregnant girl and the party girl really care that much about the sorority.

How can I get the help of the alumni??

[sunshine2925]

I am trying to begin decorating the locker rooms before the football games again. I also am restarting the pizza parties we threw for the athletes every semester. I am restarting the Yearly Luau, and beginning a clothing drive. The things I am restarting are the things that happened in previous years, but were allowed to die out by the former presidents

[sunshine2925]

Smaller when party oriented

[sunshine2925]

Don't have a database.

[James]

Try recruiting, and wave the normal pledge period. Just make sure you stay active with events.

When I say recruit . . you have friends right? If each of you got one friend to join who got one friend . . . you are much bigger.

Use your scheduled chapter events to judge participation, not artificial pledge events.

[James]

Get the contact information for your alumnae from your school . . . alumni affairs office or some such animal . . you have names of them don't you?

Originally Posted by James

Try recruiting, and wave the normal pledge period. Just make sure you stay active with events.

When I say recruit . . you have friends right? If each of you got one friend to join who got one friend . . . you are much bigger.

Use your scheduled chapter events to judge participation, not artificial pledge events.

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by James

Try recruiting, and wave the normal pledge period. Just make sure you stay active with events.

When I say recruit . . you have friends right? If each of you got one friend to join who got one friend . . . you are much bigger.

Use your scheduled chapter events to judge participation, not artificial pledge events.

Also -- invite unaffiliated women from your classes to informal rush events

[sunshine2925]

What do you mean by informal rush events?? We have 3 mandatory rush events: candlelight, informal, and formal. candlelight is going out to eat followed by a secret ceremony, informal is completely secret, and formal is dressing up and going out to eat followed by another secret ceremony.

What can the alumni do to help???

What do you mean by waive the traditional rush period?? Don't make them fulfil all of the pledging requirements?? I don't think so. That's how you get members who don't really care.

[James]

I think, with numbers as low as you have, you need to start thinking in terms of reorganizing, restarting versus just saving.

So bringing ina group of girls that like you, and like what you do, and give them fairly equal footing pretty quickly.

You are about a semester away from death. You need to stop thinking about what you have always done, and start thinking about what you need to do.

Originally Posted by sunshine2925

What do you mean by informal rush events?? We have 3 mandatory rush events: candlelight, informal, and formal. candlelight is going out to eat followed by a secret ceremony, informal is completely secret, and formal is dressing up and going out to eat followed by another secret ceremony.

What can the alumni do to help???

What do you mean by waive the traditional rush period?? Don't make them fulfil all of the pledging requirements?? I don't think so. That's how you get members who don't really care.

Originally Posted by sunshine2925

What do you mean by waive the traditional rush period?? Don't make them fulfil all of the pledging requirements?? I don't think so. That's how you get members who don't really care.

No one said anything about going away from your pledge process.

Modifying the time it usually takes for you guys to rush does not = not fulfilling your pledge requirements.

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by sunshine2925

What do you mean by informal rush events?? We have 3 mandatory rush events: candlelight, informal, and formal. candlelight is going out to eat followed by a secret ceremony, informal is completely secret, and formal is dressing up and going out to eat followed by another secret ceremony.

What can the alumni do to help???

What do you mean by waive the traditional rush period?? Don't make them fulfil all of the pledging requirements?? I don't think so. That's how you get members who don't really care.

Sorry I am unfamiliar with your terms since I'm speaking in NPC lingo.

Alumnae can be very helpful. They can work behind the scenes during your rush events/initation stuff, they can donate their time to help get your house in order, donate money to help the chapter financially (for your dinners out during recruitment).... the possibilities really are limitless.

I don't think time = members who care. There are plenty of members who go through normal new member periods and fulfill all the requirements and end up being deadweight on otherwise good chapters.

I think James might be suggesting expediting the pledge process. If you tell women they can make immediate impacts on your chapter, they may be excited that they can jump right in and start helping out without waiting however long your pledge period is.

If you expedite it, it doesn't necessarily mean they don't fulfill all their requirements, they just fill them really quickly.