Less popular sororities

[ztamsu07]

I have a little issue.. I am part of a wonderful, diverse group of women on my campus. Unfortunately, we are not as strong as we should be. We are trying to gain more members through informal now, and increase numbers during formal this coming up fall, and we're trying to raise our gpa. I'm a freshman, and I believe our pledge class is the one to help with this the most now and in the future. I've been reading this thread to try to get ideas on what I can do to help better the chapter, and this is what I've decided:

We DO have a strong alumni base, that helps us SO much, so that isn't something we need to improve on.

We are continually recruiting women through informal, I actually just got to tell a girl today that she got a bid, so we're great in that field.

I must admit, I do feel that we have some girls could possibly not exactly help the chapter, but we're not going to just kick them out. They are my sisters and I do love them, it's just that I feel like everyone should come to our events, and respect the sorority as a whole, and I'm not sure everyone does.

We are also VERY involved on campus this year, mainly my pledge class, and I'm trying to get everyone to go to more events as a whole with our letters on for PR exposure, and we've been doing okay so far.

The thing is, we're getting a new sorority on campus this time next year, and I want to know everything I can do to get my chapter to be the strongest we possibly can by that time.

Any and all suggestions would be FANTASTIC. Thanks to all.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by ztamsu07

I have a little issue.. I am part of a wonderful, diverse group of women on my campus. Unfortunately, we are not as strong as we should be. We have the lowest number of girls on campus and the lowest gpa. I'm a freshman, and I believe our pledge class is the one to turn it around.

I have bolded one of your biggest problems! Get your GPA up! If you're more visible on campus, but no one is focusing on scholarship, you'll still not be very desirable to many women. Remember, you're in college, first and foremost, to get an education.

[gee_ess]

ZTAMSU-

You are to be commended for your committment to your group! Stepping up and taking a leading role is a positive move.

One thing that stands out to me (other than the low gpa) are your comments regarding nonattendance, ARRESTS(!), etc. Get with the alumnae and your standards officer - this is a problem. These girls are creating a negative image and need to be disciplined and counseled regarding their obligations to zta. Scandal and apathy are hard to overcome without help.

Keep up the good work!

[33girl]

ztamsu07 -

I am wagering your chapter has been told to get your numbers up at any cost.

If this directive came from on "high" (i.e. regional or national officers) offer concrete examples of why certain women (i.e. arrested girl) should not be given bids and that the "bid anything with a pulse" strategy is working against you.

Quality and quantity aren't exclusive, true, but if you keep bidding women who aren't up to standard the "quantity" you attain will be short-lived indeed.

[xowest]

Originally Posted by 33girl

ztamsu07 -

Quality and quantity aren't exclusive, true, but if you keep bidding women who aren't up to standard the "quantity" you attain will be short-lived indeed.

I so agree with the above statement.

At my campus, there are (or were during my years in school) three tiers of sororities- elite, middle and struggling. At the time I pledged, my sorority was solidly in the middle tier. By the time I graduated, we were probably in the top tier. (I recognize people will have different opinions about which sororities are in which tiers, and that some people, including myself, hate to even recognize that there are tiers, but, at my campus, the truth is that there were tiers).

Anyway, we improved our lot by focusing on quality over quantity, even if that meant we might not make quota, which was probably easier for us to do than a truly struggling sorority since we didn’t have a numbers problem. The first year we took this approach, we were one PNM short of reaching quota, but we were absolutely thrilled with our entire new member class. The strength of this class made subsequent recruitment efforts much better, and, within two years, we had a very high quality of members and were one of only two chapters that could not participate in COB due to having reached total.

A few problem members can bring down the recruitment efforts of an otherwise strong group, while having a group of solid, quality members is self-perpetuating. I think PNMs want to be with the quality group, even if it is not as large as a group that has a mix of some quality members and some problem members.

[FSUZeta]

zeta sister, please check you pm's.

[UGAalum94]

Perhaps we should warn active members they may want to mask some of the details about their chapters if they are going to be really specific. While GreekChat can be really helpful sometimes, it can just be used as a gossip center as well, which will feed the issues of struggling chapters.

Unless you're an alumna looking back at your chapter with years of perspective on a chapter whose problems are long gone, it's probably not a great idea to out a specific chapter's problems too clearly.

I didn't even think I should name the chapter in my turn-around post because I didn't want to dreg up any bad history. Let's be careful.