If you could design an AI program.........

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

For your specific AIs, how do you know whether or not the women who were helpful to the collegiate chapter were doing so because they wanted to get noticed for AI? (Not saying that they are bad people, but what if they just happened to know that's how the game is played?)

If a woman is batshit crazy enough to advise for years or donate money to the chapter just so she can AI, I'm inclined to give her an A for effort. If nothing else, she undoubtedly has some efficient (if not legal) fundraising or rush methods up her sleeve.

You have to be vetted to serve in advisory positions if you're a member, and I'm sure for a nonmember they're looked into even more.

Quite frankly, most of the (non-member) advisors I've come in contact with are humbled and surprised when they're offered membership. They are doing this because they want to help young people, not to gain something for themselves. This includes men and women.

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Quite frankly, most of the (non-member) advisors I've come in contact with are humbled and surprised when they're offered membership.

How many non-member advisors are out there for NPC groups?

(Honestly just asking...)

[agzg]

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

How many non-member advisors are out there for NPC groups?

(Honestly just asking...)

There's actually a lot. Campus advisors, for one, are often not members of the organization. My chapter's campus advisor is the dean of the humanities college at Gannon. Every semester for midterms and finals she would send a huge spread to the house so we had food to eat while studying. Plus, she would come to (open) events - we even invited her to feast of roses after initiation.

I know another chapter on my campus had my former boss as their campus advisor, a secretary in the new student services office. She was wonderful and extremely active in the chapter, and the chapter appreciated it. Not sure if she was ever extended membership, but honestly I think that chapter would be crazy if they didn't!

ETA: Our campus advisor was also really really helpful in finding a room big enough to do initiation - and very good at keeping it discrete and making sure that there weren't a lot of groups using those buildings when we were initiating a new member class.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

How many non-member advisors are out there for NPC groups?

(Honestly just asking...)

From what I understand, AST has quite a few non-member advisors. We are also able to have male advisors, one of which is David Stollman, Co-founder of CAMPUSPEAK, who advises the Delta Phi chapter at NYU. LOVE him!

[ComradesTrue]

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

How many non-member advisors are out there for NPC groups?

(Honestly just asking...)

I think it is more common on rural campuses where recruiting alumnae to serve is difficult. I went to grad school in relatively-rural Virginia, and there were quite a few chapters on that campus that had advisors who were not members of the organization. Most of the advisors were employees of the university in some regard.

There was also the poster recently who advised the ZTA chapter that her sister had been a part of. That chapter then voted to offer her membership as an AI. IIRC it was a similar situation- rural campus with no one else to help the chapter.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Blondie93

I think it is more common on rural campuses where recruiting alumnae to serve is difficult.

And as alphagamzetagam mentioned, many schools INSIST that the primary chapter advisor be a faculty or staff member. You don't fight with the administration and say "ohh, our nationals says it has to be a sister" if you want to stay a registered student organization.

[AGDee]

There is a very remote chapter in the UP of Michigan that was left high and dry by the ONLY advisor we could find. This actually happened two years in a row. We realized that we have to do *something* to get some consistency in advisors with this group. At Convention, myself, along with one of our alumnae development volunteers and the collegiate delegate met to develop a plan for this chapter. Part of this plan includes AI recruitment. We first did a mass mailing to all alumnae within a 75 mile radius of the chapter. By doing that, we found 4 women who are graduate students (read, in the area temporarily) who are willing to serve as advisors for now and assist with an AI recruitment and education effort. We have contacted the advisors at the chapter two hours away and they are willing to assist with the recruitment effort as well. We have asked both collegiate chapters up there to provide us with names of women who have been their bosses, co-workers, have been local business owners or faculty/staff who are in the area and who might be interested in mentoring them as advisors and becoming AIs. We talked with the Greek Advisor for ideas on where to look for women who may be motivated to do something like this. We found a list of community organizations in the city. The organizations include women's business organizations and things like that. The Greek Advisor also suggested 4 or 5 of those groups. We are gathering some materials to use as a "pitch" to these groups and getting some local alumnae and advisors to go to some of these meetings to "present" the idea to these organizations and gather names. We intend to have events which will include some of the local alumnae (some are too far away to advise but are willing to come and help with these) as well as some of the collegiate officers there to meet these women, get to know them, answer questions, etc. Then we will decide who we want to invite to AI. We have worked very hard on this plan and I've never been involved in something of this magnitude, but we're hopeful that we can find some area women who will welcome the opportunity to mentor and be involved as advisors. If we can get enough, we'd like to develop an alumnae club as well so that they can benefit from the sisterhood that a club can bring and not just work with the collegians. After invitations are extended and accepted, there will be an education period followed by initiation with the collegiate chapter's winter class.

I see faculty/campus advisors as different from Chapter Advisor. A Chapter Advisor must be a member to be able to attend our Executive Council and Initiation, etc. There are things that a faculty/campus advisor can be helpful with, but you have to have *someone* there who knows ritual, membership selection, etc.

My other UP chapter has a few advisors who are AIs. The past CA is a VP for the University but was initiated. Her daughter became a member of that chapter eventually and is now the CA. It's worked out great.

For these extremely remote chapters, I think it's a great and needed option. We are clearly targeting a select group (first women who have some connection to current members and then women who have demonstrated leadership/business sense in the community) I think in the long run, it will have the benefit of demonstrating the positive side of the Greek system to the community as well. I don't think we'll end up getting sorority shoppers because, quite honestly, the "I really need to be in a sorority" attitude just isn't that prevalent. I think, instead, we'll be battling the "Why in the world would I want to join a sorority at my age?" mentality. I'll let y'all know how it goes!

[DSTRen13]

Honestly, not trying to be stupid here, but one thing I've been confused by --- I keep reading all these critiques about "sorority shopping" if a woman looks at more than one NPC for AI, but then undergrads are bashed if they don't give consideration to every NPC group available on their campus?

Originally Posted by DSTRen13

Honestly, not trying to be stupid here, but one thing I've been confused by --- I keep reading all these critiques about "sorority shopping" if a woman looks at more than one NPC for AI, but then undergrads are bashed if they don't give consideration to every NPC group available on their campus?

Comparing collegiate recruitment to Alumnae Initiation is like comparing apples and oranges.

They are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum and one should not even compare the two.

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally Posted by DSTRen13

Honestly, not trying to be stupid here, but one thing I've been confused by --- I keep reading all these critiques about "sorority shopping" if a woman looks at more than one NPC for AI, but then undergrads are bashed if they don't give consideration to every NPC group available on their campus?

AI is much different than NPC recruitment in college. Completely different concept.

[fantASTic]

Originally Posted by AGDee

There is a very remote chapter in the UP of Michigan that was left high and dry by the ONLY advisor we could find. This actually happened two years in a row. We realized that we have to do *something* to get some consistency in advisors with this group. At Convention, myself, along with one of our alumnae development volunteers and the collegiate delegate met to develop a plan for this chapter. Part of this plan includes AI recruitment. We first did a mass mailing to all alumnae within a 75 mile radius of the chapter. By doing that, we found 4 women who are graduate students (read, in the area temporarily) who are willing to serve as advisors for now and assist with an AI recruitment and education effort. We have contacted the advisors at the chapter two hours away and they are willing to assist with the recruitment effort as well. We have asked both collegiate chapters up there to provide us with names of women who have been their bosses, co-workers, have been local business owners or faculty/staff who are in the area and who might be interested in mentoring them as advisors and becoming AIs. We talked with the Greek Advisor for ideas on where to look for women who may be motivated to do something like this. We found a list of community organizations in the city. The organizations include women's business organizations and things like that. The Greek Advisor also suggested 4 or 5 of those groups. We are gathering some materials to use as a "pitch" to these groups and getting some local alumnae and advisors to go to some of these meetings to "present" the idea to these organizations and gather names. We intend to have events which will include some of the local alumnae (some are too far away to advise but are willing to come and help with these) as well as some of the collegiate officers there to meet these women, get to know them, answer questions, etc. Then we will decide who we want to invite to AI. We have worked very hard on this plan and I've never been involved in something of this magnitude, but we're hopeful that we can find some area women who will welcome the opportunity to mentor and be involved as advisors. If we can get enough, we'd like to develop an alumnae club as well so that they can benefit from the sisterhood that a club can bring and not just work with the collegians. After invitations are extended and accepted, there will be an education period followed by initiation with the collegiate chapter's winter class.

I see faculty/campus advisors as different from Chapter Advisor. A Chapter Advisor must be a member to be able to attend our Executive Council and Initiation, etc. There are things that a faculty/campus advisor can be helpful with, but you have to have *someone* there who knows ritual, membership selection, etc.

My other UP chapter has a few advisors who are AIs. The past CA is a VP for the University but was initiated. Her daughter became a member of that chapter eventually and is now the CA. It's worked out great.

For these extremely remote chapters, I think it's a great and needed option. We are clearly targeting a select group (first women who have some connection to current members and then women who have demonstrated leadership/business sense in the community) I think in the long run, it will have the benefit of demonstrating the positive side of the Greek system to the community as well. I don't think we'll end up getting sorority shoppers because, quite honestly, the "I really need to be in a sorority" attitude just isn't that prevalent. I think, instead, we'll be battling the "Why in the world would I want to join a sorority at my age?" mentality. I'll let y'all know how it goes!

I know exactly where you're talking about! They're both great schools...though kind of chilly!

I know the AST chapter up there has also had a little bit of an issue with that, though not nearly to the same extent. They manage, and are doing great

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by 33girl

And as alphagamzetagam mentioned, many schools INSIST that the primary chapter advisor be a faculty or staff member. You don't fight with the administration and say "ohh, our nationals says it has to be a sister" if you want to stay a registered student organization.

I must say that it's not at all typical for a non-member to advise a Chi Omega chapter. There might be a couple of cases, but I can't think of a single one. Perhaps we're just fortunate to have alumnae who are also faculty on those campuses.

Anyway...back to the AI discussion...

[groovypq]

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

How many non-member advisors are out there for NPC groups?

(Honestly just asking...)

I was one. The chapter I advise is pretty much geographically isolated - the nearest alumnae chapters are at least an hour away and, this not being a high population area, there just aren't a lot of alumnae nearby. When the chapter's previous advisor moved away, the chapter asked me to be its advisor - my sister was an alumna of the chapter and I also coach one of the current sisters. So I guess I was a little unusual in that I already had a connection to the chapter, but I wasn't a member when I became advisor. I am now, though.

ETA - Blondie93 is talking about me! Great minds think alike. :-)

[ComradesTrue]

Originally Posted by groovypq

I was one. The chapter I advise is pretty much geographically isolated - the nearest alumnae chapters are at least an hour away and, this not being a high population area, there just aren't a lot of alumnae nearby. When the chapter's previous advisor moved away, the chapter asked me to be its advisor - my sister was an alumna of the chapter and I also coach one of the current sisters. So I guess I was a little unusual in that I already had a connection to the chapter, but I wasn't a member when I became advisor. I am now, though.

Hey! You were the one that I was thinking of!

And bringing this back to the topic of AI... you are *exactly* the type of situation that AI should be used for. Congrats to you!