A Very Untraditional Recruitment/Expansion Story

[klk112]

Originally Posted by violetpretty

I'm not sure what you mean by "transition ceremony". Would it be before, and separate from, the installation initiation? Would it be just actives or any Zeta Psi Sigma alumnae that want to come too?

What we had in mind (and what we did) was like a modified preference ceremony. We wanted to honor what our founders had made and "pass it on" to the chartering members and the chapter advisors of the national organization that would adopt us. We had it during Carnival (which is like a spring homecoming) and had over 75 alumnae come back to the chapter, plus the 26 collegiate sisters. (Zeta initiated about 155 people in 12 years.)

Originally Posted by violetpretty

It is true that in four or five years, once the last Zeta Psi Sigma graduates that the members would only be the national that you ended up choosing (obviously not mustard and pretty sure not relish), because they would only have experienced the national ritual. Or were you campaigning for all members to be initiated with both rituals? In 4-5 years, I can see that the general population wouldn't be aware of Zeta Psi Sigma--unless the history were outwardly honored, but it'd probably still be limited to the CMU Greek Community. That totally came out wrong, unless they were completely against honoring the history of Zeta Psi Sigma.

We knew that our ritual would sadly stop, but we wanted to continue some of our non-ritual traditions. They told us that they had colonized a "local" in the past decade, and that they taught about the chapter's founding and history. However, the local chapter's history was only about 4 years long, so the founders of the local were seniors when they were colonized. 12 years is a lot more history than 4. We asked them other questions about family trees, chapter traditions, and so on, and their favorite phrase was, "We'll talk about it."

[AlwaysSAI]

Originally Posted by klk112

We asked them other questions about family trees, chapter traditions, and so on, and their favorite phrase was, "We'll talk about it."

What a cop out. That whole presentation just sounds sketchy to me. Note cards...no enthusiasm...unwilling to really answer questions.

There is a post on here somewhere. There was a local that was colonized by Omega Phi Alpha. The OP was a national officer or something and was officially pledging the colony. It was at some sort of camp retreat or something and come time for the ceremony a bunch of the girls were wearing the local's letters. She could tell the girls were getting emotional about "leaving" the local and she allowed them to wear the letters during the pinning ceremony. A lot of the girls said that was the first time they really felt a connection to OPhiA.

I mean really, when you have an established local that has traditions, rituals, and bonds under the 'old' letters, you really have to be willing to honor that at least for some amount of time.

[klk112]

Originally Posted by AlwaysSAI

I mean really, when you have an established local that has traditions, rituals, and bonds under the 'old' letters, you really have to be willing to honor that at least for some amount of time.

It is definitely a different kind of challenge. I don't know how many locals older than four years seek national adoption. I would think that most orgs speak to interest groups, but I don't know any statistics on this.

Originally Posted by alum

Mustard couldn't be Chi O. However, in light of the WFU/Fidelis issue occurring only a few years before and the fact that the WF chapter was holding on to local rituals over a decade after they had been absorbed by a National, was Mustard concerned that the same thing might happen at Carnegie Mellon?

This is the first I've heard of that situation, but it is completely possible that they were worried about this.