Sorority Shopping?

[LPIDelta]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

NPC and its member organizations werefounded for the benefit of undergraduate membership. Alumnae membership is a completely separate bag and more of a way to keep members connected through friendship, community service and keeping the collegiate arm running through long-term strategic planning and programming.

Further, many groups realize that it is a saavy business move to get their alumnae involved and connected, because that is where the money is in terms of funding programming for collegiate members.

That said, there is a move in several NPC groups, just from my observation and information I have read, to focus more on alumnae membership because you will spend most of your "lifetime of sisterhood" as an alumna member. I went to a Panhellenic luncheon for a group that has more than 350 alumnae chapters versus 125 collegiate chapters--there is obviously a great focus on services for alumnae in an organization like that, and it requires an immense amount of support and infrastructure to keep it going.

So I don't wonder if, as others have suggested, that AI is becoming less rare and potentially more of a business opportunity. I know that ruffles feathers--and it ruffles mine as well because I think there have to be good, solid reasons for why you would choose a sorority over another kind of social organization--but I think is naive to think that some groups may not have considered AI as a way to improve their bottom line.

[adpiucf]

Originally Posted by Heather17

So I don't wonder if, as others have suggested, that AI is becoming less rare and potentially more of a business opportunity.

Of course--I personally see huge business potential and revenues (and leadership/involvement!) in making huge changes in alumnae membership, including recruitment of members post-college. There are greater gains and opportunities to be made. However, the focus would need to drastically shift from collegiate and undergraduate programming to lifetime membership-- making us similiar to organizations like the Junior League. (Some leagues allow you to join at age 18. Others at age 21-- you have a few years of required active membership before moving into voluntary "sustainer" level where you have limited membership obligations-- but these are still obligations nontheless! You don't just coast on your lifetime membership.)

However, it seems that a good deal of research has gone into identifying membership trends, and we've observed that most collegiate members are likely to drop after their first year. I think right now there is much focus on improving collegiate programming to address why women aren't actively involved for all 4 years of college as they used to be (I think that has a lot to do with changes in the ways students learn, women's lib, what is considered a "traditional" student and general social change). Until the programming goes away from a primarily collegiate focus and more big-picture lifetime membership outside of "lifetime member in name only," I don't think this will be an across-the-board shift. Change is slow-- it takes a long time to implement policy changes that have such wide-scale impact (even if it is for the better), changing the members' perceptions of membership, changing the way we do recruitment, etc. The possibilities are endless.