Collegiate chapter advisors

[pbear19]

For those of you who are alumnae and advise collegiate chapters, I was just wondering if you could tell me what that entails. I'm curious about the postition, and any information would be really helpful.

The reason I'm asking, is because I'm graduating from a local service sorority that is probably going to be expanding. I'll be staying here in town for the next couple of years, and therefore I'll be overseeing a lot of the potential national stuff as an alum. (This is a small town that nobody stays in after they graduate, so I'll be the only alumna around.) I didn't know if I would be doing some of the stuff that a collegiate chapter advisor in the already national sororities would do, and I'm just curious.

Thanks!

[imsohappythatiama]

Hi pbear:

I'm an alumna advisor to the New Member chair and the Membership chair at the local chapter of my sorority, so I mostly work with the Rush process and pledging process--making sure that my advisees understand the rules and options, helping them come up with new ideas, helping them remain true to the goals, standards and rules set by their chapter and by the National HQ, etc.

As an advisor, I have a dual purpose of trying to protect the best interests of the chapter, while at the same time trying to protect the best interests of the National organization at a whole, which do not always jibe with each other (although most often, they do).

In your case, since your service sorority has not yet gone national, and you therefore don't have set down guidelines for the roles of alumna advisors, your first task as an alumna advisor is to write up some rules/standards/roles for what an alumna advisor should and should not do. Then you can work from there. Be sure to involve the chapter in this process.

One caveat: it can be hard to be an advisor at the chapter in which you were active, especially if you are advising girls with whom you were active. Many girls will resent you "bossing" them around now that you aren't active any longer, and will feel like you need to "get a life" and "get on with things beyond the sorority." So advising takes A LOT of tact and self-restraint, especially in a situation like yours.

I have found advising to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and as a young alumna, I LOVE working with girls who are just exploring college and the real world for the first time. It really is a great activity, and I wish you the best of luck!!!

------------------
Oh, Kappa Kappa Kappa Gamma,
I'm so happy that I am a
Kappa Kappa Kappa Gamma,
Nobody knows . . . how
happy I am!

[pbear19]

Thanks so much for your advice! It looks like my sorority is really going to try to go national, so I was thinking about hosting a workshop for current alumnae and letting them know all they need about helping with the expansion. I'm sure that some of them would be interested in helping to start a collegiate chapter or alumnae chapter in their area, so I guess we'll definately need to set some guidelines for advising.

I'm hoping that it won't be an issue with me to advise my own chapter. The reason I say this is because I've been an active member for 10 semesters now. I've been the oldest active member for the past two semesters, and over the years I've become somewhat of the resident expert on our history and bylaws. All my sisters always come to me already for advice and questions pertaining to our history, and I feel like an advisor now. So I hope that they won't resent me continuing in this role. But we'll see! Right now the whole national thing is really my baby, so I don't think I'll be asked to go away. At least not until they get all of the info out of me!

Thanks again, and if anyone else has info or advice for me, I'd love to hear it!