And the story continues...
The worst did happen. We went to Bid Night and watched as the PNM's unzipped their sweatshirts to reveal their bid night t-shirts underneath and ran to all of the other houses. We went home empty-handed, upset, and sad.
The next night at meeting, our president came to chapter with a proposal that we petition the Panhellenic Council to open the campus for expansion. Many of the older sisters said that the possibility for adoption had been mentioned before, but was never pursued because the chapter recruited enough members informally and no one saw the need to be adopted by a national organization.
We voted to make this request of Panhel, and they agreed and opened the campus for expansion. We spent that fall semester doing tons of research and sending letters to the 22 NPC groups that weren't on campus. Some groups were very interested in colonizing at Carnegie Mellon. Other groups wondered why a local with 12 years of history would want to be adopted. With just a few weeks left in the fall semester, 11 NPC groups had met with our campus Greek advisor and confirmed that they would like to present to us. The chapter voted on a list of the top three that we wanted to present, based on our research and the materials that they gave to us. Panhel agreed with our list and invited them to present at the beginning of the spring semester. A fourth group, whose visit occurred after our ranking meeting, was also invited at the urging of our campus Greek advisor.
The four groups, code named with condiments were:
Mustard - This group was definitely the top group in our minds. From all of the research that we did, we found that they were big, well-known, and at many schools similar to Carnegie Mellon. We even had a few alums who are legacies. They absolutely blew us away on paper and we were sure that they would be a good match for us.
Ketchup - This group was also a favorite of many people in the chapter. They have a chapter at MIT, which is a big deal for us because Carnegie Mellon is very similar in many different ways--from academic culture to recruitment styles. They also have chapters at Ivy and New Ivy schools, and had a large alumnae network.
Mayonnaise - This group was a top choice for some people but not others. We thought that the presentation would give us a better feel for them. They also had a chapter at MIT and other technical schools, and had a pretty solid national presence.
Relish - This group was the fourth group that was added after our ranking. They had a strong national presence and our Greek advisor highly suggested that we invite them. What could it hurt? Plus, there were a lot of chapters nearby that could help us out if we chose them.
When we came back in the spring, Relish would be presenting first, followed by Mayo, Mustard, and finally Ketchup.
Stay tuned...
Hybrid Mode
