Your thoughts on AI: discussion goes here.

[Taualumna]

But Tom, you aren't answering KLPDaisy's question!

[tunatartare]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

It is in the eye of the beholder isnt it?

Since when is AI only a Sorority idea?

Granted, there are more Female AIs than Males on Site does not mean that We as Fraternitys do not.

Exactly. Let the NPC sororities run AI the way they want to without any input from you, and since you care so much about AI, work with your fraternity on improving/changing your AI policy.

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by KLPDaisy

Exactly. Let the NPC sororities run AI the way they want to without any input from you, and since you care so much about AI, work with your fraternity on improving/changing your AI policy.

It is not just that, but all of the things that have gone on considering the AI idea and some of the things taht have been said about them and the PNAI people which has belittled them.

They end up working harder than a bunch of women going through Formal Rush and are not given enough credit for what they are doing and why.

I have seen so many great women on GC who have gone through GC and working very hard to help their New Sisters and then are belittled and degraded by being AIs who just went shopping.

What is Formal Recruitment but just the same thing but easier.


Hi, I am Sally and I am really liking XYX and I want to be a Sister?

Yes, I can post on this thread with my oppinion as I can on any as a member of GC.

[tunatartare]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

It is not just that, but all of the things that have gone on considering the AI idea and some of the things taht have been said about them and the PNAI people which has belittled them.

You are not the PNAI's father. Blueangel is not their mother. It is neither of your jobs to stick up for and support every single PNAI that stumbles accross GC.

They end up working harder than a bunch of women going through Formal Rush and are not given enough credit for what they are doing and why.

again I have to ask- why do you care? they aren't trying to join your organization

I have seen so many great women on GC who have gone through GC and working very hard to help their New Sisters and then are belittled and degraded by being AIs who just went shopping.

again, none of your business

What is Formal Recruitment but just the same thing but easier.

I have neither the time nor the energy to pull up all of the quotes that prove that AI and Formal Recruitment ARE NOT THE SAME THING!!!! (There it's in big LXA colors. Maybe now you will get it.)

[UGAalum94]

I'm not part of the collective agreement that discussion of AI is discussion of membership selection, at least in the sense that it must be kept secret. There are open parts of the process as well as secret, at least in some GLOs. You may consider this point proved, but I don’t.

I have no strong feelings about AI as a process, but if a woman who joined through AI wanted to share her story, I would consider it as valid as a rush story or a COB story. She would be sharing her path to Alpha Gamma Delta as she experienced it, and as she went through through the process, she would be unlikely to know any secret information. After she went through it, she would be as bound by our ritual as any member not to share any secrets of AI membership selection.

But to be honest, I never much read the AI forum, and I don’t think I’d personally miss it if it were gone. I’m more concerned with the effort to suppress speech that you just don’t like, or you just don’t think should be out there.

I don’t think things should be deleted that don’t violate the TOS or the rules of the particular group being discussed. If you create the expectation that sub-forums or threads can be deleted if several very vocal people demand it, this site will be less helpful and less interesting.

If you represent your group, regulate the activity of your group, but don’t try to limit the discussion for others.

I just want to add: Had the idea of creating an AI forum for each group rather than one for all been the only focus of this thread, I probably would have been down with that. But because that idea has alternated with an "AI shouldn't even be discussed online ever" argument, it's a little suspicious to me now.

[SoCalGirl]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

I have seen so many great women on GC who have gone through GC and working very hard to help their New Sisters and then are belittled and degraded by being AIs who just went shopping.

Tom, help me out. I think you're trying to say that there are women on GC who degrade AIs. Can you to point me to these posts? I've certainly not seen that. Yes, AIs are also represented in the "not so popular" group of posters on GC but I don't believe I've seen a post that belittled or degraded a woman b/c she's an AI. Posters can earn that pleasure regardless of how they got their letters or even without letters. Just so were on the same page...an AI is an actual member of a sorority that was initiated after her collegiate years where as a PNAM is a woman who may or may not one day be asked to join a sorority.

Originally Posted by SoCalGirl

Tom, help me out. I think you're trying to say that there are women on GC who degrade AIs. Can you to point me to these posts? I've certainly not seen that. Yes, AIs are also represented in the "not so popular" group of posters on GC but I don't believe I've seen a post that belittled or degraded a woman b/c she's an AI. Posters can earn that pleasure regardless of how they got their letters or even without letters. Just so were on the same page...an AI is an actual member of a sorority that was initiated after her collegiate years where as a PNAM is a woman who may or may not one day be asked to join a sorority.

In the almost 6 years I've been here on GC, I don't think I've seen an instance where AIs were treated rudely just because she's an AI.

Now, there were a number of occasions where an AI was treated poorly because of reasons other than her membership into an organization via AI. Those are two separate things.

I think someone's just making stuff up again, just like how "AI is the wave of the future." (All future use of that line should be used in quotation marks because I still believe that no International Officer -- president or otherwise -- would ever dare say such a thing)

[SoCalGirl]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

SoCalGirl, some good points. But it is not that I said the AIing is something new did I?

You're right, it's not new. So why are we taking a new approach to the handling on GC? We did just fine for many many years with minimal to no info on here. We should continue that, imo.

[AlexMack]

Okay, here's what's bugging me. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out people who wake up one day and go 'something's missing in my life, I think I need to join a sorority,' long after college. I don't mean any offense to the ladies here who are members through AI. Obviously your GLO felt you would be a good fit for your organization, hence your letters.

Rather, it's the shopping around. It's all well and good to do that in college, it's encouraged there. It's after college and shopping around for a sorority that will AI that I don't get. What are you going to get from joining a sorority now that you can't get somewhere else?

A good friend of mine is the house director for one of the sororities on my campus. This GLO (from what I understand) AIs under special circumstances. Those women love my friend and she loves them back. She does a lot for that sorority and should they offer to sponsor her for AI (which is a definite possibility), I think she'll accept.
Another example: one of my best friends is an XYZ. She was the one that made me want to go greek. Through her I met her sisters and got as close a look at greek life as any outsider can get. Let's say I didn't join my organization and I've graduated. Because I had a personal connection with those sisters and their GLO, I think it would be appropriate to discuss AI at that point.

I am for AI within the right circumstances. Deciding that you missed out in college and now you want to join a sorority, any sorority that will take you-that I'm against.

Tom-AI is not the wave of the future. It's a discreet and meaningful process not to be taken lightly. People who don't want this forum feel that it misrepresents what AI actually is. AI is not a recruitment process for people who missed out in college and want letters, any letters.
It's also rare. The reason there are so many AIs on GC? Well, look at the age demographic. I'm still in college at 22. I am in the minority here. Most of you are alumnae, you're older, you miss your college years/enjoy being greek and you converge here to talk about it. That's why there seem to be so many AIs, even though there truly aren't that many. It's a skewed statistical sample.
If this forum did not exist, AI would go back to sorority members recommending women to join their organization, which is what it was originally designated for.
I'm not personally arguing for or against the existence of this forum, I merely understand people who do not want it to exist.

[EE-BO]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

Some of you who want this forum deleted seem really comfortable speaking for everyone.

Some seem to think that because they don't like the direction of some of the threads that they should be able to eliminate the possibility of posting.


Why can't the forum exist and you request that the posts the violate the wishes of your whole organization get deleted?


Why should your desires on the issue trump the wishes of other people to post, as long as they are not violating the rules of their groups?

You raise a fair point.

For my part, my statement a few pages back that AI forums should not be on the internet is not my way of saying that I am going to actively campaign against such a thing- or make it a personal cause to get AI removed from GC. It is not my place to get involved in that.

Adpiucf has made some brilliant posts today, and I largely agree with what she has said.

The issue is not whether GC members have a right to say if a given forum should exist- that is for the mods and the owner to say.

Rather the issue is the basic fact that- as has already been well stated by others- AI is NOT an alternate form of recruitment. It is an honor bestowed by GLOs in their own time and by their own decision process.

Somewhere up above someone made a comment that it appeared to her Gamma Phi Beta was one of the easiest places to AI.

That is a tremendously disrespectful statement that implies sisterhood is for sale and that the great honor of AI can be had for a little aggressive campaigning on one's own behalf.

Ultimately there is just not much to say. You either "get it" or you don't.

Anyone seeking to AI is well advised to undertake this process privately- preferably with the assistance of a chapter you have worked with in the past.

Frankly, I think coming to an internet forum to get help to AI without having any past connection to a GLO chapter has the potential to do more harm than good.

[SoCalGirl]

Originally Posted by EE-BO

Somewhere up above someone made a comment that it appeared to her Gamma Phi Beta was one of the easiest places to AI.

That is a tremendously disrespectful statement that implies sisterhood is for sale and that the great honor of AI can be had for a little aggressive campaigning on one's own behalf.

Am I the only one that interpreted that earlier post as a person can come on GC and make inaccurate assesments based on what's already on here so why not have a place to post accurate info regarding AI??? Seriously? Am I the only one?

Originally Posted by Adelphean

My question is, what does it matter if there is a sub forum or not?

Anyone can come on this site and do a quick search to find that there are several GCers who are AIs.

Even without the AI forum, which I never read until all bickering started, I could deduct that ASA, ZTA, GPhiB, APhi, and ADPi ALL have some sort of AI as their are AI members from those sororities on this board. I would also think that GPhiB would be the easiest one to AI into because there are several members of GPhiB who are AIs. This may not be true, but this is what I would gather if I knew nothing a/b any of the sororities.

Originally Posted by EE-BO

Somewhere up above someone made a comment that it appeared to her Gamma Phi Beta was one of the easiest places to AI.

That is a tremendously disrespectful statement that implies sisterhood is for sale and that the great honor of AI can be had for a little aggressive campaigning on one's own behalf.

Two reasons why the AI subforum is a bad idea.

[EE-BO]

Originally Posted by OTW

Two reasons why the AI subforum is a bad idea.

Exactly, and thank you for quoting the original post- I was too lazy to go back and do it myself.

From what I have seen there have been many great stories and posts on AI, but when shopping for AI becomes accepted practice- comments like the one made about Gamma Phi Beta are inevitable.

My fraternity has a few AIs, but it is never really discussed. They are not AIs- they are brothers, pure and simple. And the selfless work they did without seeking reward gives a pretty hard perspective on those who just want to get in a GLO as an adult.

When I first came to GC, I was surprised to see any AI discussion- but was pretty cool with it, and content to just read about it and offer a thought here and there. But over time it has made me kind of sick to see what some people are willing to do in order to get in.

But at least GLO members are giving out honest advice when people ask. As long as the forum exists, people who post wanting help with sorority shopping should be prepared to face the same kind of hard questions and tough reactions they will get when they start contacting chapters.