Defense of Alumni Initiation Sub Forum

[Tom Earp]

Is the viciousness over now?

We all have our opinions about who does and who doesnt.

If I was an IHQ member/director and looked at some of the Posts By GLO Members, I would be ashamed for the Name calling and in things that were being said by some GLO Members!

As I stated, LXA Did Not Have an AI Process Statement until I questioned them. They then came out with one.

So, Your GLO doesnt, that does not give anyone of you the right to climb onto some posters back and belittle them

You make Your GLO Proud and I hope some of Your National Officers look at what You Post. Mine do watch the Boards and ask questions.

This Site is Not a Panacea for wanting AI, it is just a conduit for people looking for many reasons.

As some have said, it is a small % and will always be.

Keep being a Cannot Understand Normal Thinking and I will either Edit or Delete a post.

Remember, I can Do it!

Good To Be The Co-King!

Leave the PNAIs alone and let them do their Thing. They will make it or they wont!

It is only Some Opinions.

And actually some dont mean anything but to be mean!

[jharb]

Originally posted by Tom Earp
Earp Speak

[Tom Earp]

[pixell]

Originally posted by GeekyPenguin
I find the fact that you have been a ZTA for about five minutes and yet you think you know everything there is to know about being in a sorority everywhere at any time disturbing. You have a lot to learn.

Thanks for saying this, I know that had been bugging me for some time now. I just didn't know how to phrase it. Yes, I'm a newer member of my sorority but I don't act like I know everything on here.

[kddani]

I honestly haven't seen anyone belittle anyone really for the most part in this thread, or belittle AI in general or say that they think AI sucks and shouldn't happen, etc.

Some posters are making it a point (hell, from all of the posts on here that happened today is seems that some are making a full time job out of it!) to try to get offended by something and to try to turn everything into an insult. It's not. So don't try to play victim b/c no one said the things you're twisting the posts into.

[ASUADPi]

Originally posted by ariesrising
Imagine you are an international officer, you're reading the AI forum here on GC and you're reading someone's story.

You have recently been contacted by someone (or your organization with someone's information) who is interested in AI and you've emailed them and they seem nice. You start thinking - hmm, maybe it's the same person.

You discover it is - then you read in their thread that they have contacted 5 groups at once.

So now you know that this woman is likely going to be meeting with 4 other sororities in your area. If she doesn't stand out in a big way after your first meeting or email contact - whatever - what in the world would consider you to continue meeting with her?

She obviously has other plans. Back up plans...or maybe your group IS her backup.

This woman might be a good person...she might be someone, that if she had contacted only your organization, you might want to put the time and energy into meeting. She isn't Mother Teresa, but she's nice and might be a good fit.

But when all these other groups come into the equation, there's a BIG chance she might go elsewhere, because obviously she isn't too clear on what kind of group she wants, she doesn't totally love YOUR group. Since she's just "good and nice", it may not be worth it to go through all the trouble - if she was super and amazing and loved your group, it might be. But with all these other groups in the mix, it might not be worth fighting for her.

So I think GC could have a negative impact on someone's AI process.

I guess it is just me but I would give her the benefit of the doubt. I would understand that she is looking at other groups "trying to find her home and where she fits".

Now this is not to say that later on in the relationship I wouldn't point blank ask her about it.

But in the intial stages I can understand that she is looking for the place she fits in the most. In that sense, it's like formal recruitment. First round girls go to a bunch of houses, they eliminate half of them. Does that mean we stop recruiting them and talking to them because they are interested in 5 or so other houses? No, in fact we recruit harder.

I get that AI is different but in some aspects (emphasis on some) it is the same.

But then again if I were reading her AI thread and she stated that she started talking to five groups and now she was only talking to one and I knew we were that one, cha-ching I know with almost 100% certainty that we are the one that she is interested in joining.

So GC can work both ways. Just like it can work for and against a PNM.

[SmartBlondeGPhB]

But the thing is that we, the GLO, don't NEED an AI (I am saying in general - don't flame me because you think I'm insulting AI's). Yes, AI's can be wonderful and they can add MUCH to a chapter (however not all of them do) but if a woman isn't 100% interested in only us then I have absolutely NO reason to be 100% interested in her. Tell me why I should be? She might be the greatest woman alive and able to add much to greek life, but if she's not interested enough in my chapter then it's irrelevant. I have over 2000 women in this area, who are already members of Gamma Phi Beta, my energy is better spent convincing THEM to get involved.

Now, as AI's on this board can attest to, I will bend over backward and attempt to walk on water for them if they prove they are committed. I am actually probably one of the easiest people to get on the side of a committed AI and I am very pro-AI but I also think that it's the responsibility of the PAI to convince me, not the other way around.

[valkyrie]

It would be awesome if a woman was pursuing, say, five organizations in her search for a lifetime of joy that only sorority membership can provide, and attended an event with a local alumnae chapter and the women meeting with her said, "Okay, well, it's been swell, but we're going to go hang out with four other women to see if they're better than you KTHXBI."

[honeychile]

Originally posted by SmartBlondeGPhB
But the thing is that we, the GLO, don't NEED an AI (I am saying in general - don't flame me because you think I'm insulting AI's). Yes, AI's can be wonderful and they can add MUCH to a chapter (however not all of them do) but if a woman isn't 100% interested in only us then I have absolutely NO reason to be 100% interested in her. Tell me why I should be? She might be the greatest woman alive and able to add much to greek life, but if she's not interested enough in my chapter then it's irrelevant. I have over 2000 women in this area, who are already members of Gamma Phi Beta, my energy is better spent convincing THEM to get involved.

Now, as AI's on this board can attest to, I will bend over backward and attempt to walk on water for them if they prove they are committed. I am actually probably one of the easiest people to get on the side of a committed AI and I am very pro-AI but I also think that it's the responsibility of the PAI to convince me, not the other way around.

This bears repeating. I think the majority of GLOs have a niche for the Honorary Member - the Housemother who spent her life taking care of her boys, the Dean or Professor who made the path to a colonization easier, etc. Alumnae Initiation becomes somewhat controversial due to many people thinking that either their GLO still ONLY does the Honorary Membership thing, or when the members feel that many other WORTHY organizations can fill the same void.

What I would like to see (picture me in a Miss America pagent, with my sash, "Mah platform is...") is a LIST such as:

1) ABC GLO: AI by Alumnae Invitation only. Do NOT contact HQ! Make a contact through GC or through a Real Life Alumnae Association.

2) DEF GLO: Contact HQ (address), and ask the following questions: 1/2/3.

3) HI GLO: Make a contact with an alumnae in good standing, then contact HQ.

etc.

Does that make sense to anyone else?



ETA: If a list such as the above is made, and it's unknown how one GLO or another does AI, then SAY "Unknown"!! That is SO much kinder than letting someone make a fool of themselves by making a wild guess as to which method to use!

[AGDee]

I don't think it's that cut and dried (at least in Alpha Gamma Delta it isn't), so it's hard to say the best way. When we colonize a new chapter we always install an alumnae chapter too, if there isn't already one in the area. We frequently find women in the area to initiate when the chapter is initiated. When we re-colonized at the University of Michigan, there were a handful of alumna initiates and they had all come to us in different ways. One was a mother of the president of a nearby collegiate chapter, for example. For our chapters in remote areas, where they have a hard time getting alumnae advisors (like the upper peninsula of Michigan), the collegians often seek out women who can help them in an advisory capacity and we end up making those women alumna initiates. We also have special alumna initiates who are initiated at Convention. They are usually sought out by alumnae. And we have women like TauAlumna, who was going to grad school at that University and was going to go through Recruitment but they suggested AI instead because of policies.

There are so many roads to AI and it's usually a very individual situation.

[AOIIalum]

Originally posted by AGDee
There are so many roads to AI and it's usually a very individual situation.

Well said. It's not necessarily a "one size fits all" process.

Bumping this thread because a lot of great things were posted here. I feel that they need repeating.

[adpiucf]

I think this sub forum should go away and the AI's should go and post in their respective sorority forums and enjoy the nice people of GC in the other forums. They are our sorority sisters, not second class citizens. Those pursuing AI, good luck-- post in the right forum once you get initiated. This isn't a place to journal your 30 year search for membership in ABC. Try LiveJournal.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

Those pursuing AI, good luck-- post in the right forum once you get initiated. This isn't a place to journal your 30 year search for membership in ABC. Try LiveJournal.

Worth repeating.

[LouisaMay]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

Those pursuing AI, good luck-- post in the right forum once you get initiated. This isn't a place to journal your 30 year search for membership in ABC. Try LiveJournal.

I understand your sentiment, but the feedback and general support that I got while journaling in my thread was quite valuable to me. That wouldn't have happened on LiveJournal. I kept my own personal journal (pen 'n paper style), but that is totally different than the interaction of a live thread. But anyway...I agree with what you are saying. I just know I'm glad that I handled my experience exactly as I did.