National Reputations

[Aphigal]

Sorry 33girl but I have to disagree with you about consultants telling chapters just to "get more girls" as I have neverr seen that happen. I do know, however, that we are in different orgs.

My experience is more like consultants go in and try to help, make lots of suggestions and the chapter, which is already sick, resists at every turn. Makes me believe that you can lead the chapter to water but....

[pinkyphimu]

Originally posted by 33girl
fire and pinky, I agree that the chapter needs to do the work, but the national also needs to offer concrete, realistic help to the chapters that need it. it's a two way street.

for example, if a chapter is having a numbers problem and all the consultant does is say "get more girls" without working on strategies that will work on the campus or helping the chapter work out internal stuff, how can you fault the chapter sisters for that? that is what we pay dues for. I don't think we are out of line to expect competent help from the people who govern and guide us.

i agree 100%. i have been on the receiving end of the "get more girls" without the individualized stuff, like campus-specific strategies, or help the semester before formal rush, etc.

[OUlioness01]

Originally posted by Aphigal
Sorry 33girl but I have to disagree with you about consultants telling chapters just to "get more girls" as I have neverr seen that happen. I do know, however, that we are in different orgs.

My experience is more like consultants go in and try to help, make lots of suggestions and the chapter, which is already sick, resists at every turn. Makes me believe that you can lead the chapter to water but....

I've been in the situation where the consultant comes and tries to help. Let me just tell you, the techniques that work in Lousiana are not going to work in Ohio. My chapter was not taught techniques that would work, especially since it was too late by the time I saw us getting help. We had people who didn't want to do the work as well, unfortunately they were graduated or deactivated by the time it came to be serious need of growth. I've had experience with this situation, and let me tell you, generalizations about how many girls are needed and COB techniques cannot be focused on. It will hurt more than help.

[honeychile]

Originally posted by OUlioness01
I've been in the situation where the consultant comes and tries to help. Let me just tell you, the techniques that work in Lousiana are not going to work in Ohio.

I think you summed it up nicely right here, OUlioness! We had Traveling Consultants from time to time (I'm almost positive that every chapter has to have one at least every 2 years). Some of them were little more than EO spies, while others really got down in the trenches and helped out the chapter. Oh, the horror stories I could tell!!

I detailed on another thread how, with one rotten pledge, we went from the second largest sorority on campus to one of the smallest. It is only through the grace of God and EO's refusal to give up on our chapter that they are now pushing their way back up towards the top!

[33girl]

AMEN honeychile and OUlioness! I don't want anyone to think I am bashing consultants, but just because they are in that position does not make all their suggestions or methods perfect. they are human, just like any other sister, and at the end of the day that's what they are, just another sister. we've had wonderful consultants, terrible consultants, and in betwen.

sorry to semi-hijack this thread, but I get tired of hearing that any weaknesses in the chapter are all the chapter's fault because they are resistant to change or whatever. They are on that campus 24/7, the consultant is there for 4 days. I mean, we had one who harped on the fact that we dressed in jeans & sweatshirts all the time. If we had started doing pin attire 5 days a week, everyone would have thought we were in some freaky religious cult. maybe it worked for her campus, it didn't work for ours. that's a small thing, there were bigger things, but the consultants and national volunteers need to do a little more research before telling the chapter what to do. kinda like the pharmacy making sure your new prescription won't interact badly w/ your exisiting ones.

anyway, to get back to the topic, another thing that I think makes a sorority nationally strong is that even if they have all different types of chapters, they support them all equally. not just the campus leaders chapter or the southern belle chapter. These are your sisters, part of your family. Love and appreciate them for what they are, not what you wish they would be.