A Very Untraditional Recruitment/Expansion Story

[OtterXO]

Originally Posted by OTW

That's right! I totally forgot about that!

Did I miss that part of the story or did you all know that randomly?

[alum]

Originally Posted by OtterXO

Did I miss that part of the story or did you all know that randomly?

Randomly! Chi O shut down a couple of years after I graduated.

The CMU expansion thread: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=72915

[klk112]

Originally Posted by alum

Randomly! Chi O shut down a couple of years after I graduated.

I never mentioned it in the story. ChiO actually sent us a letter back to tell us that they weren't interested, or else they would have gotten first dibs. The local's founders were the last class to initiate into ChiO in 1992, plus their pledge educator. Wanting to keep their newly found bonds of sisterhood alive, they formed a local sorority and wrote all of the rules and rituals. From what I have heard through the generations, our rituals were "very ChiO".

I think I knew that ChiO has a symphony, but just forgot it at the moment. Come to think of it, I must be forgetful in general because Alpha Chi has one too. Duh.

I will have to see if I can find my digital copy of the ZYS symphony. I have a printed one that is in hinged 5x7 frame with my AXO symphony on my desk at school.

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by alum

It would make sense that this local had a symphony since they were originally a Chi Omega chapter.

I know this. I'm just curious how "similar" the two might be!

[klk112]

Mayo presented to us on a Saturday afternoon. They made a presentation to us and the campus community at the same time, and then we all stayed afterwards to have a conversation more tailored to the chapter.

The presentation was general information about Mayo and its history. Nothing terribly exciting happened until the general community left. They had everyone move their chairs into a big circle so it would be less like a presentation and more like a conversation. They asked us questions about the campus, why we thought recruitment was difficult, and so on. We asked them our questions about alumnae initiation (and they said that they would take all of us, minus anyone already initiated into another NPC group, of course), the transition, the colonization process, and anything else that we wanted to know.

One unique thing about Mayo was that they brought two women with them. One woman was an alumna initiate from a long-standing local chapter that they had colonized some time ago, and the second woman was from that chapter now. They talked about how they preserved the history of the local and still displayed items with their letters on it. Our chapter advisor made them tear up when she asked if they would be okay with us having a "transition" ceremony to pass the baton.

We were impressed with Mayo, because they seemed to really care about the chapter and keeping our traditions and honoring what we had accomplished in 12 years. They did appeal a lot to our emotions, but we liked the women that we met. Mayo had been my favorite while we were doing our research in the previous semester.

We still had two more presentations to go, though. Mustard, our favorite, was up next...

[LucyKKG]

That's really cool that they incorporated those women from the formerly local chapter. I think it relates a lot more to you guys than the first group. (Relish?)

[ktbug10474]

ok so what happened with mustard and ketchup????

i don't want to read the cmu expansion thread because i agree it is like opening a christmas present early

[klk112]

Sorry for the delay... but I'm back and ready to talk about Mustard...

We had all been waiting impatiently for Mustard. We thought that they were going to be amazing!

They had set their materials up in our downstairs area, like Relish had, and we waited upstairs while they were getting ready. We came downstairs and sat in the chairs facing the projector screen set up at the back of the house. We settled in, and the presentation began. The first presenter introduced everyone, including her husband, who she had "brought along to operate the projector." You CANNOT say that to a room full of Carnegie Mellon women in any situation!

Each presenter read their presentation straight off of their note cards. There was hardly any enthusiasm or excitement at all. Time for questions came after that. They didn't seem to happy with some of our questions. The transition ceremony that we wanted to do was not a happy topic, and the members of Mustard instead said that we should invite everyone to come back for the chapter's installation. We also wouldn't get much input at all into the other women who would join us as the chartering members. They also said that in four or five years, most people wouldn't really be aware of the local that had existed, as all members would be only Mustards and not Zetas as well.

This was extremely depressing for us to hear. We were all very upset that our favorite on paper hadn't come through. Our chapter advisor compared the situation to an episode in season 6 of Friends, where the character of Richard Burke tells Monica that he would be willing to have children if it meant he could be with Monica--Mustard would be willing to take us if it meant that they could have a chapter at Carnegie Mellon. We could tell that they did really want to have this colony... they even had an advisory board and a housing board all set up and ready to go for when we chose Mustard!

We still had one more presentation to go, though, and many people really liked Ketchup...

[violetpretty]

Originally Posted by klk112

Sorry for the delay... but I'm back and ready to talk about Mustard...

We had all been waiting impatiently for Mustard. We thought that they were going to be amazing!

They had set their materials up in our downstairs area, like Relish had, and we waited upstairs while they were getting ready. We came downstairs and sat in the chairs facing the projector screen set up at the back of the house. We settled in, and the presentation began. The first presenter introduced everyone, including her husband, who she had "brought along to operate the projector." You CANNOT say that to a room full of Carnegie Mellon women in any situation!

Each presenter read their presentation straight off of their note cards. There was hardly any enthusiasm or excitement at all. Time for questions came after that. They didn't seem to happy with some of our questions. The transition ceremony that we wanted to do was not a happy topic, and the members of Mustard instead said that we should invite everyone to come back for the chapter's installation. We also wouldn't get much input at all into the other women who would join us as the chartering members. They also said that in four or five years, most people wouldn't really be aware of the local that had existed, as all members would be only Mustards and not Zetas as well.

This was extremely depressing for us to hear. We were all very upset that our favorite on paper hadn't come through. Our chapter advisor compared the situation to an episode in season 6 of Friends, where the character of Richard Burke tells Monica that he would be willing to have children if it meant he could be with Monica--Mustard would be willing to take us if it meant that they could have a chapter at Carnegie Mellon.

We still had one more presentation to go, though, and many people really liked Ketchup...

Wow. Somebody didn't do their research as to the campus culture or the fact that maybe this is a local that has been around for a substantial amount of time. I can't believe they'd present like that at CMU! It definitely sounds like they just wanted a chapter at CMU because of the academic prestige!

I'm not sure what you mean by "transition ceremony". Would it be before, and separate from, the installation initiation? Would it be just actives or any Zeta Psi Sigma alumnae that want to come too?

It is true that in four or five years, once the last Zeta Psi Sigma graduates that the members would only be the national that you ended up choosing (obviously not mustard and pretty sure not relish), because they would only have experienced the national ritual. Or were you campaigning for all members to be initiated with both rituals? In 4-5 years, I can see that the general population wouldn't be aware of Zeta Psi Sigma--unless the history were outwardly honored, but it'd probably still be limited to the CMU Greek Community. That totally came out wrong, unless they were completely against honoring the history of Zeta Psi Sigma.

[klk112]

Originally Posted by violetpretty

I'm not sure what you mean by "transition ceremony". Would it be before, and separate from, the installation initiation? Would it be just actives or any Zeta Psi Sigma alumnae that want to come too?

What we had in mind (and what we did) was like a modified preference ceremony. We wanted to honor what our founders had made and "pass it on" to the chartering members and the chapter advisors of the national organization that would adopt us. We had it during Carnival (which is like a spring homecoming) and had over 75 alumnae come back to the chapter, plus the 26 collegiate sisters. (Zeta initiated about 155 people in 12 years.)

Originally Posted by violetpretty

It is true that in four or five years, once the last Zeta Psi Sigma graduates that the members would only be the national that you ended up choosing (obviously not mustard and pretty sure not relish), because they would only have experienced the national ritual. Or were you campaigning for all members to be initiated with both rituals? In 4-5 years, I can see that the general population wouldn't be aware of Zeta Psi Sigma--unless the history were outwardly honored, but it'd probably still be limited to the CMU Greek Community. That totally came out wrong, unless they were completely against honoring the history of Zeta Psi Sigma.

We knew that our ritual would sadly stop, but we wanted to continue some of our non-ritual traditions. They told us that they had colonized a "local" in the past decade, and that they taught about the chapter's founding and history. However, the local chapter's history was only about 4 years long, so the founders of the local were seniors when they were colonized. 12 years is a lot more history than 4. We asked them other questions about family trees, chapter traditions, and so on, and their favorite phrase was, "We'll talk about it."

[AlwaysSAI]

Originally Posted by klk112

We asked them other questions about family trees, chapter traditions, and so on, and their favorite phrase was, "We'll talk about it."

What a cop out. That whole presentation just sounds sketchy to me. Note cards...no enthusiasm...unwilling to really answer questions.

There is a post on here somewhere. There was a local that was colonized by Omega Phi Alpha. The OP was a national officer or something and was officially pledging the colony. It was at some sort of camp retreat or something and come time for the ceremony a bunch of the girls were wearing the local's letters. She could tell the girls were getting emotional about "leaving" the local and she allowed them to wear the letters during the pinning ceremony. A lot of the girls said that was the first time they really felt a connection to OPhiA.

I mean really, when you have an established local that has traditions, rituals, and bonds under the 'old' letters, you really have to be willing to honor that at least for some amount of time.

[klk112]

Originally Posted by AlwaysSAI

I mean really, when you have an established local that has traditions, rituals, and bonds under the 'old' letters, you really have to be willing to honor that at least for some amount of time.

It is definitely a different kind of challenge. I don't know how many locals older than four years seek national adoption. I would think that most orgs speak to interest groups, but I don't know any statistics on this.

Originally Posted by alum

Mustard couldn't be Chi O. However, in light of the WFU/Fidelis issue occurring only a few years before and the fact that the WF chapter was holding on to local rituals over a decade after they had been absorbed by a National, was Mustard concerned that the same thing might happen at Carnegie Mellon?

This is the first I've heard of that situation, but it is completely possible that they were worried about this.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by klk112

Sorry for the delay... but I'm back and ready to talk about Mustard...

We had all been waiting impatiently for Mustard. We thought that they were going to be amazing!

They had set their materials up in our downstairs area, like Relish had, and we waited upstairs while they were getting ready. We came downstairs and sat in the chairs facing the projector screen set up at the back of the house. We settled in, and the presentation began. The first presenter introduced everyone, including her husband, who she had "brought along to operate the projector." You CANNOT say that to a room full of Carnegie Mellon women in any situation!

Each presenter read their presentation straight off of their note cards. There was hardly any enthusiasm or excitement at all. Time for questions came after that. They didn't seem to happy with some of our questions. The transition ceremony that we wanted to do was not a happy topic, and the members of Mustard instead said that we should invite everyone to come back for the chapter's installation. We also wouldn't get much input at all into the other women who would join us as the chartering members. They also said that in four or five years, most people wouldn't really be aware of the local that had existed, as all members would be only Mustards and not Zetas as well.

This was extremely depressing for us to hear. We were all very upset that our favorite on paper hadn't come through. Our chapter advisor compared the situation to an episode in season 6 of Friends, where the character of Richard Burke tells Monica that he would be willing to have children if it meant he could be with Monica--Mustard would be willing to take us if it meant that they could have a chapter at Carnegie Mellon. We could tell that they did really want to have this colony... they even had an advisory board and a housing board all set up and ready to go for when we chose Mustard!

We still had one more presentation to go, though, and many people really liked Ketchup...

I guess I kind of understand what Mustard was trying to put across...there was a thread on here about a campus whose longstanding locals all went national and after being allowed to do "local" things for years, one of the groups got into a giant brouhaha for not doing things the national way. Mustard is starting as they mean to go on - they intend for anyplace they colonize to be 100% Mustard and not looking back at the past. However, I think that you can honor your history without violating national procedures.

It does sound, though, like Mustard just wanted a CMU chapter, and not necessarily the women who were in front of them.

This is SO well written...and I love to see that. Keep going!

[alum]

^^^^I think that was Wake Forest and the group formerly known as Fidelis in the early 2000s. Again, another nationally ranked school with very driven students....



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This is a really interesting story. Do the rejected groups ever get or ask for feedback as to why they weren't chosen? I think it would be very eyeopening for Directors of Expansion of the 3 groups that weren't eventually chosen to read this.