Sorority in crisis, please help!!

[denimeans]

I go to a medium-sized Midwestern school and I’m in an NPC sorority. Our chapter is amazing. We’ve stayed at total for the entirety of my membership, we were sorority of the year at my campus last year, we are one of the top rated chapters of our sorority. We have one major problem. No one wants to live in the house, and for legitimate reasons.
We are 10 slots short of filling our house next year. That means we have about $20,000 our house corp isn’t getting, and this will be divided by the non-house girls (40 some) as empty-bed fees. That’s about $500 a cut, money none of these girls have. Girls won’t move in now because everyone is already leased somewhere else. I’m fearing massive drops, debt because even if we send credit agents after these girls we don’t get everything, and low morale. What have your chapters done in this situation? Any creative ideas for a fix? We need to get that money somehow.

[33girl]

What are the legitimate reasons for not living in the house?

Can you move to a smaller house?

Is there a live-in requirement in your bylaws? If not, one needs to be instituted and enforced ASAP (not that you can enforce it now).

I sympathize with you. This is a horrid situation to be in and one I'm guessing you inherited (i.e. it didn't happen overnight).

[alum]

What is the ratio of beds in the house as compared to the total number of girls? If it's 25-50%, can't you impose a mandatory live-in clause for the sophs and jrs?

Another chapter at my school actually took in boarders (only matriculated students who were not members of any sorority) to offset the costs. I don't know why anyone would want to live in a sorority house where she is not a member, but apparently it worked for all the involved parties.

[SmartBlondeGPhB]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Is there a live-in requirement in your bylaws? If not, one needs to be instituted and enforced ASAP (not that you can enforce it now).

Chances are your international org has one in theirs.

[adpiucf]

Sisters living in the house are preferable to boarders who may be inconvenienced by having to leave the house they pay rent at when you host ritual events.

The house corp, being made up of sorority alum, should also recognize there is a possible "danger" in housing non-members in the sorority house -- breach in ritual, other sororities on campus talking about you and starting rumors that inhibit your recruitment, etc.

Your house corp should pay to break leases for those sisters who have already signed with off-campus housing/on-campus residence halls, etc. This will cost them far less in the long-run.

First, make this offer to all chapter members. See how many spots you still have open. Next, require any chapter officers not currently living-in to live in. Again, house corp. will pay to break their leases. At best you fill the house this way. At worst, someone drops her office and refuses to live in-- in which case you fill the office when the school year begins. If there are any spots still open after these first two options have been exhausted, require your most recent pledge class to fill the remaining spots until they're gone.

Some people may drop b/c of this-- but if they're going to throw this kind of hissy fit, you probably don't want them around anyway.

You also need to amend your chapter bylaws once the school year begins to address what you should do if the house is not full and the order of priority for members to move-in. In fact, review your bylaws now-- the guide may already be in there!

[33girl]

alum - I can totally understand someone preferring to live in one of the sorority houses at your alma mater, rather than trying to look for an apartment and landlord who would be decent. That can be scary in a teeny college town let alone Squill/Oakland. I'm sure there were also parents who preferred that option immensely!

adpiucf - it depends on the size of your house - if you either 1) have a large enough space for rituals & such that's apart from the rest of the house (like a basement) or 2) have a teeny house and really don't have rituals or meetings there, it's not as bad as it sounds.

If you ever do get stuck and have to take in boarders, try to get grad students or seniors who have no interest in pledging whatsoever and just need a place to lay their heads. If you take in underclassmen who might want to be Greek, it can get dicey.

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by denimeans

I go to a medium-sized Midwestern school and I’m in an NPC sorority. Our chapter is amazing. We’ve stayed at total for the entirety of my membership, we were sorority of the year at my campus last year, we are one of the top rated chapters of our sorority. We have one major problem. No one wants to live in the house, and for legitimate reasons.
We are 10 slots short of filling our house next year. That means we have about $20,000 our house corp isn’t getting, and this will be divided by the non-house girls (40 some) as empty-bed fees. That’s about $500 a cut, money none of these girls have. Girls won’t move in now because everyone is already leased somewhere else. I’m fearing massive drops, debt because even if we send credit agents after these girls we don’t get everything, and low morale. What have your chapters done in this situation? Any creative ideas for a fix? We need to get that money somehow.

Aside from medical or scholastic issues, there is no "legitimate" excuse for not living in a chapter facility if there is a requirement to do so. And if women do have medical or scholastic issues, a letter from their physician or student advisor needs to accompany their request to live out and even then, it should be decided on by the House Corp or Advisory Board whether or not to grant live out status.

I dealt with this at the chapter I advised. We eventually had to be extremely firm with chapter members. Members were informed during their new member period that they basically had to live in the house for two years (usually soph-jr year). That way they knew from the very beginning what the expectations were for living in. We also did not grant live out status unless it was a serious medical issue. If girls wanted to live out, they had to resign membership. No exceptions. The first year was difficult - they had about 10% of the chapter resign. But after the expectation was made known, that number decreased the following years. These provisions were in the chapter bylaws, but almost noone, aside from the chapter officers, knew that - even after a chapter reading of the bylaws.

In order to recoup the money lost, you can try and work out a payment plan for the women who need to pay the extra money, or you can cut areas from other parts of the budget. We found cutting the social budget made the biggest impact. Or tell the women that because of the shortage of funds, there cannot be any updates to the chapter facility.

No matter what, the House Corp needs to be paid.

[alum]

Originally Posted by 33girl

alum - I can totally understand someone preferring to live in one of the sorority houses at your alma mater, rather than trying to look for an apartment and landlord who would be decent. That can be scary in a teeny college town let alone Squill/Oakland. I'm sure there were also parents who preferred that option immensely!

But CMU Housing has more than enough for undergrads with no social restrictions as the sorority houses had. Housing had a lottery:rising srs picked rooms the first night, jrs the 2nd, sophs the 3rd.

I liked being in a dorm but wouldn't have minded parts of Squirrel Hill. After all, a lot of our professors and students came from there. Oakland and Shadyside? Not so sure.

[FuzzieAlum]

I have to disagree that there aren't legitimate reasons to live out. "Legitimate" reasons are determined by chapter bylaws, and there is no one standard for what those should be. For example, most chapters on my campus allowed RAs to live out, waiving the out-of-house fee. The reasoning was with deferred rush, RAs were a great way of marketing your chapter. But I can totally see where another chapter might have a different rule.

I don't know what your chapter's policy has been in the past, but it is going to be difficult to change the rules now - assuming that the out-of-house sisters are in fact following current policy. (I'm not saying it shouldn't be done - just prepare for resistance.) For the future, it may be beneficial to revise your bylaws to allow flexibility. For example, "All active members are required to live in the house. If the number of active members exceeds the available space, the following groups of members will be given the choice to live out, in the following order ..."

For now, buying sisters out of leases sounds like the best option; the difficult part is deciding which sisters have to move in.

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by FuzzieAlum

I have to disagree that there aren't legitimate reasons to live out. "Legitimate" reasons are determined by chapter bylaws, and there is no one standard for what those should be. For example, most chapters on my campus allowed RAs to live out, waiving the out-of-house fee. The reasoning was with deferred rush, RAs were a great way of marketing your chapter. But I can totally see where another chapter might have a different rule.

If you're referring to me, a situation such as being an RA would be considered a "scholastic" excuse. Yes, they will vary from chapter to chapter, but the definitely need to be set out in the chapter bylaws and explained thoroughly to chapter members, otherwise, IME, women will try to take advantage of them.

That is also why requests for live out go through the House Corp or Advisory Board. If a situation falls in a somewhat grey area, they can ascertain whether it's "legitimate" or not.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by alum

But CMU Housing has more than enough for undergrads with no social restrictions as the sorority houses had. Housing had a lottery:rising srs picked rooms the first night, jrs the 2nd, sophs the 3rd.

I liked being in a dorm but wouldn't have minded parts of Squirrel Hill. After all, a lot of our professors and students came from there. Oakland and Shadyside? Not so sure.

Ah OK. I'm not saying Squill itself is scary, rather the prospect of being from Pigsknuckle PA and trying to find an apartment is.

[adpiucf]

Is Pigsknuckle a real place? I know there are a few cities in PA with weird names... LOL.

[33girl]

No, Pigsknuckle is a reference from Animal House. We do however have Slippery Rock, Scalp Level and Blue Ball.

[adpiucf]

Ah thank you! LOL

And let's not forget Intercourse, PA.

I lived in Philly through elementary school. I remember the map of PA hanging in the classroom... I don't think all those town founders had intended for those names to sound as silly as we find them today.... but they do make for a good laugh.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Slippery Rock

SLIMEY PEBBLE!!!

*Ghost GLO*

Sorry, I'm done.