Involved sorority collegiate turns invisible alumna

[thetygerlily]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

i tried to make a connection with our local alumnae chapter, but they were mostly from the same college chapter and it was hard to break in. the first time, i gave up.

Originally Posted by DolphinChicaDDD

Sometimes I feel like Alumnae groups need to remember they had to work to get members as collegiate. While they are already half way there, heck we all are members, but it is still about wanting to join and belong. When I moved to across the country, the first thing I did was join the alumnae chapter. I went to the first meeting and aside from being recognized when they asked new members to stand, I was invisible. I walked in, no one welcomed me. I left, no one said good bye. I felt like the odd girl out. It completely turned me off to the chapter.

This is so important. Whether it's because they have been part of the group for years or all come from the same chapter, it's really hard to remember to be extra-welcoming to newcomers. I have never felt not-welcomed- and really the members of my local association have been very nice and interested in talking to me at events. However, the programming does not work for me. The business meetings are during the workday, many of the events are during the workday, etc. I started an evening group a few years ago but it's only had limited success. Most people from the closest school here join a different association, and there's a sort of stigma- one group is young, one is not. I just don't have the energy or desire to fight traffic to go further away from me to join an association where the majority of the members are from one specific chapter.

So welcoming should really encompass two things- personally welcoming, and programming/systematically welcoming.

Originally Posted by AGDAlum

I looked forward to helping with that chapter. Not so! They had two advisers (alumnae of that chapter) who didn't want anyone else involved.

Got that too. I'm looking at long-distance advising because of that.

[33girl]

This is one reason I've always said that NPC alum chapters should be much harder to charter. We need a very small amount of members to do so, and theoretically, they could all be from the same pledge class, let alone the same chapter. No matter how friendly and welcoming a person you are to women from other chapters, it's human nature to have inside jokes and such in that situation. If you restrain yourselves from it, the chapter's going to be very "clinical" and probably not much fun for anyone.

[LouisaMay]

At District Days (ASA's district-wide convention), I attended a session that brought alums and collegians together to discuss alum/collegian relations. It was an excellent session. Over and over again, we learned that the collegians had absolutely NO IDEA what an alumnae chapter was. Many of them believed that being involved in an alumnae chapter would be as time-consuming and business-oriented as operating a collegiate chapter (paperwork, deadlines, etc.). They were shocked to learn that our alum chapter gets together about once per month for social event like a happy hour, a pool party, or scrapbooking, and we do two major charity events each year. Blew their minds! Yes, many of these women are super-busy, active, overachievers, and the thought of doing MORE of that after graduation does not sound good at all but going to a movie with a few recent alums sounds fun!

Perhaps alumnae and HQ need to better communicate to collegians the realities of alumnae life. I've also been surprised and pleased at the wide variety of volunteer opportunities. Our volunteer cooridinators can find you a position that will keep you busy 5 to 7 days per week, or they can match you up with a once per year commitment.