Frat decreasing in numbers...

33girl · #1 11-21-2006, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

Why is it your business? I mean, "sweetheart" means what exactly?

Many NIC fraternities choose a sweetheart as an honor. It's typically a girl who has given a lot of support to the fraternity. Not just a random girlfriend, not a random...whatever. There is no pledging or anything like that involved.

Does that answer your question?

DSTCHAOS · #2 11-21-2006, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

Does that answer your question?

No.

I know what a sweetheart is. I'm asking what it means in relation to her being the one to carry this task. If those dudes feel defeated then let them figure out what to do. If they don't figure it out then she'll be the sweetheart of a now defunct chapter or organization. No real sweat off of her back, right?

33girl · #3 11-21-2006, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

No.

I know what a sweetheart is. I'm asking what it means in relation to her being the one to carry this task. If those dudes feel defeated then let them figure out what to do. If they don't figure it out then she'll be the sweetheart of a now defunct chapter or organization. No real sweat off of her back, right?

Oh, OK. I agree it's not up to her to figure out how to motivate them. I can understand why she'd be asking or upset if they closed, though. As we have seen on GC girls are much more apt to come and ask for help than guys.

UGAalum94 · #4 11-21-2006, 06:13 PM

DSTCHAOS,

You've never been tempted to help out the people you were friends with, if you thought they were stuggling, and asked other people for advice about how to do it?

I mean, let's remember questions on a message board are a pretty low level of involvement, really.

DSTCHAOS · #5 11-21-2006, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

DSTCHAOS,

You've never been tempted to help out the people you were friends with, if you thought they were stuggling, and asked other people for advice about how to do it?

No and especially not when it comes to their organizations.

So if being a sweetheart means that their organization's problems are her own, which is why I asked the question in the first place, then okay. I still can't see why she may be more optimistic and actively seeking change than she communicated that the actual members are.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

I mean, let's remembers questions on a message board are a pretty low level of involvement, really.

She's asking what she can do to help. She's not just typing and reading.

UGAalum94 · #6 11-21-2006, 07:03 PM

Well, yeah, but we don't really know that she's contacting nationals and rallying the local alumni.

If I were a sweetheart, I'd prefer to be the sweetheart of an active, rather than defunct chapter, and I might ask for ideas of how to help them.

DSTCHAOS · #7 11-21-2006, 07:05 PM

Uh...okay......

UGAalum94 · #8 11-21-2006, 07:06 PM

It just doesn't seem like that big a deal.

TSteven · #9 11-21-2006, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

So if being a sweetheart means that their organization's problems are her own, which is why I asked the question in the first place, then okay. I still can't see why she may be more optimistic and actively seeking change than she communicated that the actual members are.

For what it is worth, some sweethearts do take on certain responsibilities when elected chapter sweetheart. These might include, and certainly may not be limited to, helping with the chapter's rush/recruitment/intake. My guess (hope) is that most of these women would know about these responsibilities prior to accepting the honor of chapter sweetheart.

As for the original poster, I do not know if this is a situation where she is simply doing this out of the kindness of her heart (perhaps with an enthusiastic touch of optimism) or part of some "official" responsibility as the chapter's sweetheart.

DSTCHAOS · #10 11-21-2006, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TSteven

For what it is worth, some sweethearts do take on certain responsibilities when elected chapter sweetheart. These might include, and certainly may not be limited to, helping with the chapter's rush/recruitment/intake. My guess (hope) is that most of these women would know about these responsibilities prior to accepting the honor of chapter sweetheart.

As for the original poster, I do not know if this is a situation where she is simply doing this out of the kindness of her heart (perhaps with an enthusiastic touch of optimism) or part of some "official" responsibility as the chapter's sweetheart.

Thanks.

Most importantly, I hope the guys give a damn.

emily0325 · #11 11-21-2006, 08:43 PM

Basically it's just out of the kindness of my heart and that I know the enthusiam they had before has to be in there somewhere. Just matter of getting out.. I dunno. Just wanted to know if any fraternity guys had any good ideas on how to get them motivated.

The biggest thing is.. these guys are some of my best friends and I hate seeing them so down about it.

lcalbdpzax · #12 11-28-2006, 12:35 PM

It is certainly not over. When I joined my glo there were 10 brothers on a campus where the all male average was about 40 or 50 or so. It takes hard work but it's easily doable. We are up to abotu 25 now with no graduating seniors this year. A problem with a lot of fraternities that go from big to small still expect rushees to knock on their doorstep. It doesn't work that way when you're small. you gotta go out and meet people. It's possible. If they still want to go on, they need ot keep their heads up and try.

Tom Earp · #13 11-29-2006, 05:01 PM

Agree with above poster, but we have to remember it works both ways.

Help coming from any direction should be good. If we do not help each other, it sure is not going to be the independents or the school.

This Soro, is asking for help. She needs help.

So, why not help instead of showing her how some Greeks can be?

jakyl · #14 12-30-2006, 03:18 PM

My organization was in a comparable spot two years ago. The key to being a success is to win the freshman. For the most part freshman have no clue how the greek system works so in there eyes they cannot discern between the biggest and the smallest fraternity if both can make themselves equally visible. Yes the smaller organization wont have as much exposure in terms of people wearing letters but its still possible to hide your numbers and appear bigger than you are. Since the organization had many guys graduate there should be an influx of recent alumni willing to come down and help. The next step is to throw big parties. Now this may vary in difficulty depending on where you go to school but it is the opportunity to show the freshman a good time. 10 guys can run a party but a good ammount of preparation is needed and chances are you will only break even cash wise unless you can support a massive rager which is hard with 10 guys.

If you throw a good party then the freshman will have a good opinion of you guys and with all the alumni it does not need to be known how big the organization active list is untill pledge season and at that point they are commited. The mixer scheme will probably disintigrate with only 10 guys but thats ok as long as you have a base of people which will come to all the "open parties" they can fill the void for mixers until you have more members.

Next is to put on a lot of stupid little programs that wont necessarily garner much attention (if they do then great) and thats fine because you will constantly have some sort of flyer with the organizations name on the boards of the residence halls. If you start at the beginning of the year and make some strong friends you can have a big pledge class by the spring.

Honestly now is the time when the organization has nothing to loose so it can go balls out and risk it all otherwise they are done.

Using this strategy we have been able to triple our organization size back to healthy numbers at a school which is not greek friendly and filled with giant tool box organizaitions who let anyone walk in there society.

GlickThetaTau · #15 02-09-2007, 10:37 AM

My fraternity is in a similiar problem as i have seen others describe. We are a national fraternity with good numbers but my chapter is now down to 8. My school is very antigreek and incredibly blind to the fact that all social life revolves around the greek community and their involvement. Despite this i know that recruitment for some organizations is not a problem, the sig pis, while all assholes here, get 15+ men pledge classes, while we get 2. Obvisously we are not rushing correctly. Our image on campus isn't huge outside of the greek system. The sororities love us and love to party with us.

so i have 2 questions: What have been the best things to attract perspective pledges. What drew you to your respective fraternity/sorority and why them over another?

AM