What’s it like to be in a Huge Chapter?

[Tom Earp]

I was suprised by now my chapter have @ 50 members which is the norm in my school. P S US Kansas.That is what I like about the size, we know ALL of our members.

That is why I love smaller schools where we are a name and not a number!

But, that is just me and Navane always gives great advice as usual, she has been there!

[ZTAngel]

I came from a large chapter. There were close to 80 women in my pledge class and around 250 women in the chapter. Looking back at my college years, I think a smaller chapter probably would've been a better experience for me. Here are the pros and cons of a big chapter. This is based on my personal opinions and experience.

Pros

• Always someone from your chapter in one of your classes.
• Socials were a blast.
• You never had a problem filling leaderships positions or committees.
• Participation in philanthropy events, socials, sisterhood events, etc. was never an issue.

Cons

• It was impossible to know or be friends with every girl in your sorority. Because of this, cliques were rampant and very closed-off. For someone more introverted and shy like me, it would break me and caused me to almost drop more than a handful of times. Ever feel completely alone in a room full of people? Yeah....there's that....and it sucked.
• You had to fight for a leadership position or committee spot since there were many other girls who would fight you tooth-and-nail for that role.
• Sorority recruitment "practices" were a week long process plus two summer meetings. It's difficult to corral 250 women and get them all to learn the same process, songs, entrances, exits, do and donts of rushing, etc. These practices started early in the morning and went to the wee hours with rush directly following. Everyone always ended up sick because they were so worn out.
• Too many chiefs, not enough Indians. Especially in a chapter that was as strong as mine. Every girl had a leadership role of some sort in high school. Every girl had a strong opinion. Every girl was used to having her leadership skills appreciated, and her opinions known. Imagine that times 250 women. It was a recipe for disaster, and it caused some major drama at times.
• We built an addition to our house while I was in college to accommodate our chapter. Our chapter room couldn't fit all of us. We were sitting two to a seat or on the floors during chapter. By the time our new chapter room came along, we had somewhat outgrown it (although not to the extent of our previous room). We all had to cuddle with each other during chapter. I imagine that with the addition of several sororities since my time there that pledge class sizes have been reduced leading to smaller chapter sizes. My guess is that the chapter room probably feels more comfortable now than when I was there.

[NWguy]

250? That's the size of a church congregation. You must've had to use a microphone for your chapter meetings.

Even in a fraternity chapter of about 70, it was a challenge to get to know everyone. As is typical, I assume, the upperclassmen hung out together a lot, but they never excluded anyone from hanging out with them; it was just hard to break into that group at the beginning.

We had a "first open seat" system for chapter meetings, where upon entering the chapter room we were encouraged to sit at the first available seat, rather than sitting next to the same guys all the time. There was never any real drama that I remember, except once when a brother borrowed someone else's car and wrecked it (at a Jack n' the Box drive-thru).