My Live Spring Rush Story

[honeychile]

Congratulations - late, but no less sincere!

[OHNOITSJESS]

Thanks so much for all the congrats!
This is a long post with random outbursts of sports, sisterhood, and ALSO a twist


so tech wrecked last night!
it was incredible, i was there, and i rushed the field... at the right time

Lubbock felt like the center of the nation last night with so much media attention, it was incedible. The Tech-UT game [i thought] was overhyped, but amazingly it lived up to that hype. The next week we [fans] will be living in the afterglow of the victory, while the players get geared up for the next game.... [i miss being a sports journalist, i could go on and on]
i did call all my UT friends to [honestly] give them props for a good game, but i heard some very unpleasant things I don't do that to them when they call me to talk about a game that THEY win. MEANIES!

with that being said. we made lovely tote bags [w AOE on them] today. They actually turned out really really well, and we got permission from AOE to use their letters [this was a sisterhood event that we planned before we even filed our petition]

we are so happy to actually become part of a national organization that is so well established!

and another twist.... i am redraidergirl....
many of you commented on my other threads, and i'm pretty sure that you can see how much i've [hopefully] matured. I've definately realized that its about a sisterhood, and not just letters. My parents aren't totally on terms with what i'm doing, but they can't stop me and it has helped me.... ALOT. When i wrote under that name i didn't understand greek life, and had never gone through any form of rush. still unable to go through FR due to family commitments, i went through spring rush, and honestly i think it helped me. Looking back, i know i would prob. not have personally benefited being part of the orgs [not that they aren't strong and good, it just wasn't my place.] I accomplished something and helped many other girls in my position as well [we all wanted female 'sisters' in a totally male dominated field] by backing off the fact that i wanted to leave a legacy behind, and focusing on working to form a bond between female engineers, i accomplished so much more than i could have imagined, and worked from scratch to start something that is so much bigger than me!

the end [of this long post.]

[CougarGrad]

Jess, congratulations! Your hard work and dedication seems to be paying off. Best of luck to you and your soon-to-be-sisters of Alpha Omega Epsilon!!

[TriDPrincess]

Congratulations!

[OHNOITSJESS]

i need help!

so chapter meetings are every Tuesday [7~8:30], every one shows up [on time for the most part]. We run by an agenda [that i print out and hand to all the girls so they have all the info, websites, ect. so they don't forget what we talked about....], and usually everything runs smoothly.

here's the problem, during chapter we get off topic [usually because someone blurted out something, and everyone has something to say about it], and now we have two girls, one officer [for naming sake, Paige] and pledge [Allie] that are taking a lot of control.

for example: i brought up that we COULD be associated with the College Panhellenic, and before i could really get my ideas into words Allie jumps in with how she didn't join a regular sorority because she thought that they were too uppity, snobby, and the stereotypes continued for 5 mins... She then stated that if we did rush like PC, that we won't get any good members [if they are looking for "that kind of sorority"]
I responded by stating that there are a handful of female engineers that go through rush and get picked up by the NPC not knowing that such an organization [Engineering Social/Professional Sorority] exists, and HAD they known that they might like to be a part of us. she then asked the room if anyone else joined THIS sorority for that same reason [now what she failed to note is, (A)a sorority is about SISTERHOOD, and (B)that I FREAKING WENT THROUGH SPRING RUSH SO NOW SHE'S CALLING ME UPPITY, SNOBBY ECT?...]. The room was silent [she's about 22 [i think] so many of the others were intimidated by her], so she assumed everyone agreed. I am a believer in Democracy and i think everything that will major-ly affect a sorority needs to be put to a vote, and the way she said it, no one will vote for what THEY feel. Paige quickly agreed with her. They both put a lot into this organization [time and Money-wise], but i don't think they realize that they are [well at least Allie is, paige is just her exec. agenda pusher] over stepping her boundries.


Any ideas on how to restore balance and order? and keep Allie simmered down? Me and the VP were thinking of re-implementing a paralmentary style of meeting. Thats how we started out and i guess we've strayed....

sigh.

[KSUViolet06]

*You need to be following Parliamentary Procedure and having an officer (usually secretary) make sure that it's being followed. According to PP, the floor must be open for discussion in order for there to be discussion of ANY point on the agenda. So girls really shouldn't be having discussion about agenda related things without the floor being open.

*Playing devil's advocate here: Has there been discussion of affiliating with your PHC since the colony began? When the new girls joined, did they know that this was a possibility? If not, I can somewhat see why a few girls' feathers are a bit ruffled. The uproar could've been caused because the girls felt like this was just brought up out of the blue. The pros/cons of affiliation need to be presented to all members. Then there needs to be a chance for girls to ask questions, express concerns, and vote to affiliate.

[OHNOITSJESS]

what if the Sec. is part of the problem?
we do have a time for open floor, comments, concerns questions, ect... at the end of the meeting, most girls feel like they have to outburst before then tho...

The idea of possibly joining the NPC, has been mentioned time and time again [it started with the formation of our sorority before we decided to go national and we even mentioned it as a possibility during our info nights] so its definitely not new.

sigh. off to chapter i go!

[DreamfulSpirit]

I'm not sure how your school panhellenic council works, but when my OphiA chapter joined Arizona State's panhellenic council (I believe as an associate member, don't quote me on it), we continued to do rush on our own, how we usually did things, and did not participate with panhellenic formal recruitment. Our sorority's policy on rush conflicts with how panhellenic does their recruitment.

I believe Phi Beta Chi at UNC, they're associate members of their panhellenic council, and I believe they do their rush/recruitment on their own as well.

Check with AOE's rush or recruitment policies and also with your school's panhellenic council's policies.

[CougarGrad]

Originally Posted by OHNOITSJESS

what if the Sec. is part of the problem?
we do have a time for open floor, comments, concerns questions, ect... at the end of the meeting, most girls feel like they have to outburst before then tho...

The idea of possibly joining the NPC, has been mentioned time and time again [it started with the formation of our sorority before we decided to go national and we even mentioned it as a possibility during our info nights] so its definitely not new.

sigh. off to chapter i go!

Jess, I hope things went well tonight.

I agree with what KSUViolet said- there really needs to be a procedure in place, and it needs to be followed. My suggestion is that if the secretary isn't able to follow the procedure- or is able to follow it unless SHE'S the one wanting to be talking- then another officer needs to keep the meeting on track.

Certainly, some of the ladies will feel very passionately about certain subjects, and outbursts cannot be helped at times- but you want to avoid chaos, because when there's chaos, things may not get done.

[AOEforme]

How are you feeling with the colony ceremony coming up?

[OHNOITSJESS]

woot. i am overly excited!!

[Hoosiermama]

Hey Jess come back and fill us in on all the exciting goings on!

[OHNOITSJESS]

in a nutshell...
last week we were installed as a colony of AOE with 9 founders! it's exciting!
this past week [and next week] we are doing recruitment events, so far we have 5 interested girl and more on the way. Bid day is next saturday.
i haven't been able to update as much since i started working 15 hours. and i'm taking 16 hours of classes.

[OHNOITSJESS]

soon i will start a "Recruitment from the other side" post. Our recruitment is similar to an informal/spring rush, with a little bit more structure. Since our drawing pool is limited, its a different type of story (we have to go to classes, talk to professors etc..)
Info Nights are Sept. 8-9 and recruitment is Sept 14-19

[CougarGrad]

I was wondering how you ladies are doing. Good luck with recruitment! I look forward to your posts.