Legacy Dilemma

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by rhoyaltempest

To add to this, Alumnae/Grad membership is expected of all NPHC members so continuing to honor your lifetime committment by being active in your org after college is not taken lightly and although some members don't remain active after college, the idea is for potential members to understand fully what they're getting into so that they will indeed strive to remain active once they become members. Hence the need for all the research and reflection. Just to give you an idea of how important Alumnae/Grad membership is in NPHC orgs, some of the NPHC orgs have more Alumnae/Grad active members than they do undergrads; in some cases as much as 70%-75% Alumnae/Grad. The NPC and other councils cannot say that about their Alumni participation or even come close.

I don't think that NPC will ever have a larger active alum population than undergraduate. Our organizations are designed primarily as college based groups with alumnae status as an afterthought. In fact, the object of AOII includes "college loyalty" implying that our main purpose is to support women during the college years. The lifetime commitment likely was originally to continue to values of the organization after graduation rather than remain a t-shirt wearing active alumna. Now, however, we realize that we need more alumnae support to keep the organization strong. We also have discovered that for some women going through recruitment, having a strong alumnae programming initiative is an important factor. Lifetime commitment doesn't have to mean monthly attendance at an alum meeting, but it would be nice if everyone found at least some way to give back to their fraternity once they go alum.

[rhoyaltempest]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

I don't think that NPC will ever have a larger active alum population than undergraduate. Our organizations are designed primarily as college based groups with alumnae status as an afterthought. In fact, the object of AOII includes "college loyalty" implying that our main purpose is to support women during the college years. The lifetime commitment likely was originally to continue to values of the organization after graduation rather than remain a t-shirt wearing active alumna. Now, however, we realize that we need more alumnae support to keep the organization strong. We also have discovered that for some women going through recruitment, having a strong alumnae programming initiative is an important factor. Lifetime commitment doesn't have to mean monthly attendance at an alum meeting, but it would be nice if everyone found at least some way to give back to their fraternity once they go alum.

Exactly. But I could tell that the OP was having a hard time understanding why the NPHC orgs stress the importance of researching, observing, and taking time to find the right org to pursue.

[sigmadiva]

Originally Posted by rhoyaltempest

Exactly. But I could tell that the OP was having a hard time understanding why the NPHC orgs stress the importance of researching, observing, and taking time to find the right org to pursue.

Maybe not so much today, but in my mom's day when she joined SGR in the early 1960's, joining a NPHC org also meant entree' (?sp) into Black High Society. It was a lot of the NPHC orgs back then that gave the swanky dances, fashion shows, parties, cotillions and beautillions for the Black community.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by sigmadiva

Maybe not so much today, but in my mom's day when she joined SGR in the early 1960's, joining a NPHC org also meant entree' (?sp) into Black High Society. It was a lot of the NPHC orgs back then that gave the swanky dances, fashion shows, parties, cotillions and beautillions for the Black community.

This was also the case decades before the 1960s.

This still applies at some undergraduate chapters (particularly those who have remained relatively exclusive and usually work closely with a graduate chapter) and in many alumnae/graduate chapter servicing areas.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

I don't think that NPC will ever have a larger active alum population than undergraduate. Our organizations are designed primarily as college based groups with alumnae status as an afterthought. In fact, the object of AOII includes "college loyalty" implying that our main purpose is to support women during the college years. The lifetime commitment likely was originally to continue to values of the organization after graduation rather than remain a t-shirt wearing active alumna. Now, however, we realize that we need more alumnae support to keep the organization strong. We also have discovered that for some women going through recruitment, having a strong alumnae programming initiative is an important factor. Lifetime commitment doesn't have to mean monthly attendance at an alum meeting, but it would be nice if everyone found at least some way to give back to their fraternity once they go alum.

Well, I think part of it too is the way NPC vs NPHC rush. It's been said on here that for NPHC, undergraduate and graduate chapter rush are more alike than different. Can you imagine taking a collegiate NPC rush and transplanting it to the alumnae arena?

I don't think the NPC sororities are ever going to be able to develop as distinct of "identities" as the NPHC groups are...simply because there are 6 times as many of them.

For NPC to have the kind of alum participation that NPHC groups do, we would have to radically rethink the way we rush and choose members, and groups would probably die in the process.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Well, I think part of it too is the way NPC vs NPHC rush. It's been said on here that for NPHC, undergraduate and graduate chapter rush are more alike than different. Can you imagine taking a collegiate NPC rush and transplanting it to the alumnae arena?

I don't think the NPC sororities are ever going to be able to develop as distinct of "identities" as the NPHC groups are...simply because there are 6 times as many of them.

For NPC to have the kind of alum participation that NPHC groups do, we would have to radically rethink the way we rush and choose members, and groups would probably die in the process.

I agree. You would also lose sorority houses since filling them would become a problem is you switched to the NPHC system of recruitment. In many ways, though, I like the way that NPC does it because there are often women who join that would not have gone through the trouble of researching and waiting to join a group that have ended up highly active alumnae and have contributed a lot to our organizations. NPC needs to find a way to convince the women that do go through our system that there is more to membership than just 4 years. Maybe recruiting our seniors into our alum groups and advisory councils like you recruit NMs would be feasible.

[rhoyaltempest]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

I agree. You would also lose sorority houses since filling them would become a problem is you switched to the NPHC system of recruitment. In many ways, though, I like the way that NPC does it because there are often women who join that would not have gone through the trouble of researching and waiting to join a group that have ended up highly active alumnae and have contributed a lot to our organizations. NPC needs to find a way to convince the women that do go through our system that there is more to membership than just 4 years. Maybe recruiting our seniors into our alum groups and advisory councils like you recruit NMs would be feasible.

We also deal with this issue since not all NPHC members remain active after college, especially among the fraternities. One way to convince members to remain active is to talk to them about it early, while they're still undergrads and to reinforce the idea of life commitment throughout their college years. For example, we have retention and reactivation committees which focus on keeping members active and encouraging members that are no longer active to reactivate. While not all members will transfer into an alumnae chapter immediately following college graduation, many will reactivate at some point in their lives because they made a life commitment and they want to honor it. Also most members feel that their organization's commitment to the community and national programming is valuable and necessary. They also know that it's the alumnae members that run the organizations so without them, the organizations cannot prosper.

[33girl]

Part of the issue is that we all need to get on the stick and have stand alone alum programming that appeals to alumnae - that they are willing to pay for - alumnae involvement needs to be more than being an advisor or a volunteer to help the collegians.

[AlphaXi_Husky]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Part of the issue is that we all need to get on the stick and have stand alone alum programming that appeals to alumnae - that they are willing to pay for - alumnae involvement needs to be more than being an advisor or a volunteer to help the collegians.

Well said. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to get alumnae together for just random fun activities (movies, happy hours, trivia nights, etc) and face reluctancy from people who aren't into it and/or don't want to be asked to give up their time and money to donate to the collegians. It is sad and frustrating - however I do think nationally NPC GLOs are trying to focus more on lifelong membership.

I'll stop here, as this is a complete hijack of the OP.