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bichonl,
Tri Delta does do alumnae initiation (they call it honor initiation), but it's definitely not a straight path to membership by any means. I was initiated into Tri Delta as an honor initiate last year. Prior to that I had made inquiries about it for nearly five years.
I went through formal fall "rush" (as it was called when I went through) as an undergrad and clicked with the Tri Deltas immediately. It sounds cliche to say that you just "know" which house is the one for you, but that's how I felt and Tri Delta was my top choice all that week. I went to Preference Night at Tri Delta, but freaked out at the last minute and ended up dropping out of rush. This was because at the time I had a lot going on (commuting to school, part-time job, full class schedule, boyfriend, general uncertainty about my future) and was worried I wouldn't be able to fully commit myself to sorority membership too. My Rho Chis (now I think they're called rush counselors) had stressed all week that sorority membership was for a lifetime and a big commitment, which of course it is, and I didn't want to make what I knew at the time would be a weak commitment. I did regret the decision almost immediately and always wondered "what if?" and second-guessed my decision, but figured it was a moot point post-college.
Flash forward about 10 years or so - I had often met people through the years who told me I was "like a Tri Delt" or reminded them of the Tri Delts they knew from their school if the topic of college came up. At one point this happened several times in the span of just a couple of months from different people. That got me thinking of Tri Delta again and I wondered if there was some way I could be involved as a volunteer, etc. A new Tri Delta chapter was being colonized where I was living at the time, but I found out you had to be an initiated member (collegiate or alum) to help out. I also found out about honor initiation, so I started writing letters to various Tri Delta officers at the national level and told my story. After five years and lots of starts and stops, I was finally invited to membership.
My point in telling you all this is that I knew without a doubt that Tri Delta (and only Tri Delta) was the one group for me, and when I was initiated, the values contained in the Ritual and the words spoken confirmed this for me. I swear I felt the Ritual could have been written for me personally! I think as an alum, if you're going to pursue AI, then choose a group because you have some prior relationship with the organization, or because you feel their values align with yours and you feel at home with the members you've met and talked to, rather than just pursuing sorority membership in general, but that's just my bias and I respect others' reasons for wanting to join.
GreekChat has an Alumnae/Alumni Initiation forum under Alumni Involvement where people share their stories about pursuing AI. You might want to check there. I know in the past year there have been a lot of people from various groups who've found their homes through AI. Many of them are simultaneously pursuing more than one group at the same time, and I guess I can't really relate to that since that's not how or why I wanted to become Greek, but again, to each her own.
Good luck with your pursuits and feel free to PM me and I'd be happy to share more of my experiences with you.
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Delta Delta Delta
Last edited by lake; 04-09-2006 at 05:20 AM.
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