Expansion/Colony question

[FSUZeta]

members of a zta colony are "new members" or "pledges", just as if they had been recruited at an established chapter. the main difference would be that as colonists they have no "senior" members ahead of them, so while they are attending new member meetings, just as any other zta new member would, they are also learning how to conduct chapter meetings and some are holding executive office. they do not have big sisters for the same reason(no senior members), so they were paired up and were each others crown sisters. goals are set for the colony and after those goals are met, the girls are initiated and the colony is installed as a chapter.

while they are a colony, they are known as fgcu colony-after their chapter installation fgcu colony became kappa tau chapter.

[UGAalum94]

This is really interesting. I was just thinking about the difficulties of expansion rush but hearing about the colonies is fascinating too.

It seems like it would be much better to try to bid up to total in your expansion recruitment, so the group would be the right size for subsequent one, but that instead of having the whole pool of PNMs that other groups had at formal, you'd have to attract your own.

It also seems like it would be so much more important to attract a great group for that campus because they won't have the benefits of tradition, but in reality it would be hard to seeing as in most cases expansion recruitments are done after formal recruitment for the rest of campus and selections would be made by people who weren't that familiar with the standards for members on that campus.

AUDeltaGam, obviously your chapter did very well and selected a big, strong group who built the foundation to do well on a competitive campus. Who conducted the expansion recruitment for you and were most of your sisters girls who had gone through formal?

[AUDeltaGam]

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum

AUDeltaGam, obviously your chapter did very well and selected a big, strong group who built the foundation to do well on a competitive campus. Who conducted the expansion recruitment for you and were most of your sisters girls who had gone through formal?

Consultants came down and did recruitment. Day one was an informational meeting. Day two was interviews. Day three was preference (if you were invited) and the fourth day was Bid Day.

As far as most of my pledge class having gone through formal recruitment, I'm not really sure. I know some did, and some, obviously, did not (I was one of the ones who did not go through formal rush).

Being a part of a colony was a great experience. I'll be glad to answer any more questions ya'll might have

[epchick]

When a new group comes onto campus, do the other sororities have to "shut down" (in essence) to help the new sorority expand?

This is what I was told by one of my sisters, but i just wanted to know if it was true.

So lets say, for Example at State U there are 2 sororities--ABC and XYZ.

The school was open for expansion and DEF was chosen.

From what I was told ABC and XYZ could NOT recruit any new members until DEF reached their desired number (if i remember correctly my sister told me they had to reach total)

Once DEF reached that set number, THEN ABC & XYZ could recruit.

Is that true?

[UGAalum94]

Wow, I've never heard of that. Do you just mean no COB/COR for the rest of that year, or do you mean no formal either?

[AZ-AlphaXi]

Usually, the panhellenic has a moritorium on other chapters issuing COB bids for a period not to exceed 3 weeks for a new colony to have an exclusive time in which to offer bids to colony members.

[PeppyGPhiB]

It's forbidden for panhellenic to prohibit any chapter from recruiting new members during formal recruitment, but I don't know about COB...that seems like a courtesy.

[epchick]

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum

Wow, I've never heard of that. Do you just mean no COB/COR for the rest of that year, or do you mean no formal either?

Everything. From what I was told, if we brought a 3rd chapter to the school, neither sorority would be able to recruit for a whole year to help bring up the 3rd chapters number.

But not only that, we would have to be at total for several years to even think of bringing a 3rd chapter.

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

It's forbidden for panhellenic to prohibit any chapter from recruiting new members during formal recruitment, but I don't know about COB...that seems like a courtesy.

Thanks for clearing that up!! I know the sister that told me that has been in the sorority longer than me, but I had never heard of that here on GC so I just wanted to see the validity of her statement.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum

It seems like it would be much better to try to bid up to total in your expansion recruitment, so the group would be the right size for subsequent one, but that instead of having the whole pool of PNMs that other groups had at formal, you'd have to attract your own.

It also seems like it would be so much more important to attract a great group for that campus because they won't have the benefits of tradition, but in reality it would be hard to seeing as in most cases expansion recruitments are done after formal recruitment for the rest of campus and selections would be made by people who weren't that familiar with the standards for members on that campus.

It is my understanding that in addition to freshmen and sophomores, most sorority colonies actively recruit juniors and seniors (those who for what ever reason, did not pledge) for the colony's first new member classes. Thus the number of freshman and sophomores are similar to the numbers in the other chapters. And when possible, the same with juniors and seniors. And for what it is worth, juniors and seniors often have more campus experience (i.e. familiar with the campus) and may already hold leadership positions campus wide. So they can be quite desirable.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

In the year a group is colonizing on campus, are they included in quota calculations? For example, a campus has 5 chapters, and a 6th is colonizing in the fall. During FR, the new chapter is participating in open houses, and that is it. Is quota = PNM's/5 or PNM's/6?

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

In the year a group is colonizing on campus, are they included in quota calculations? For example, a campus has 5 chapters, and a 6th is colonizing in the fall. During FR, the new chapter is participating in open houses, and that is it. Is quota = PNM's/5 or PNM's/6?

It would be harsh to the PNMs in formal, but it would increase the pool of women interested in being Greek at the time of the expansion rush.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

In the year a group is colonizing on campus, are they included in quota calculations? For example, a campus has 5 chapters, and a 6th is colonizing in the fall. During FR, the new chapter is participating in open houses, and that is it. Is quota = PNM's/5 or PNM's/6?

To my knowledge, unless they participate in all rounds of recruitment, they are not figured into quota.

[bruinaphi]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

In the year a group is colonizing on campus, are they included in quota calculations? For example, a campus has 5 chapters, and a 6th is colonizing in the fall. During FR, the new chapter is participating in open houses, and that is it. Is quota = PNM's/5 or PNM's/6?

Usually the group is not taken into account when Quota is set. There are some campuses though where the group enters the system through formal recruitment (Washington & Lee is the best example I can think of). In those situations though, the group participates in all of formal recruitment.

Generally speaking, most campuses that have 5 or 6 groups have already implemented RFM, and use Quota Range, so the calculation is much more complicated that PNMs/x and is based only on who participates completely in formal recruitment.