How to make our local sorority legitimate?

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by als463

I guess I'm confused as to why anyone would want to "stay" local when they have the opportunity to go national.

Some people like the independence of locals -- no national office or governing stucture telling you how to do things.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by als463

If you have the opportunity to have a national base with many chapters and alumnae, why not go the NPC/NPHC route?

Alot of people have asked that on GC. There are a few reasons (which I have learned from being around GC for while).

*Like MysticCat said, the "no national office" factor.

*Locals may have lower dues at some schools, that's attractive to some students.

*Students may enjoy the fact that they are part of something that is unique to their particular school.

*They may be the more popular option at that particular school. There are schools at which the local groups do better in recruitment than the NPC groups do.

Also a local sorority may not want to affiliate with an NPC for a few reasons:

*They may be a more established local group and are not interested in becoming something else and losing 100+ years of history.

*They do not wish to upset their alumnae base by becoming something else. Some locals have thousands of alumnae (due to being more established), and it would upset some of them to hear that their local is now something else. Not to mention potential loss of alumnae $$.

*They aren't interested in the increased costs.

[preciousjeni]

Originally Posted by als463

I guess I'm confused as to why anyone would want to "stay" local when they have the opportunity to go national. Are there other national sororities on your campus? If so, why didn't you go through rush and join one of those? My school used to have locals, but the thought of joining a local never crossed my mind. If you have the opportunity to have a national base with many chapters and alumnae, why not go the NPC/NPHC route?

From what I can tell on GC, locals get this question a lot. Unfortunately, a similar argument is used against the existence of any non-NPC/NIC organizations.

Different people are looking for different things and Greek Life offers a lot of options.

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

*They may be the more popular option at that particular school. There are schools at which the local groups do better in recruitment than the NPC groups do.

This reason is definitely something that would surprise a lot of people. You wouldn't necessarily think along these terms when you consider the resources and support available with a national organization. But, it's true.

[AlwaysSAI]

Wouldn't graduate members be the members that are in graduate school and active in the sorority?

Just guessing though.

[dp1228]

yeah alwayssai thats right. we allow graduate members who go to the graduate school full time our university to participate in our chapter. only bc we had girls who graduated who wanted to remain a part of the group and who would be here full time just not as undergrad anymore. under panhel though we might have to lose a couple of those great girls which makes this such a hard decision

[tcsparky]

I don't think you would have to lose your graduate members if you join Panhellenic. National Panhellenic doesn't have a rule against it, and some NPC organizations have rules that allow graduate members, as long as they are still full time students of the university. I would discuss this further with the Greek Life Advisor on your campus (the staff member who works in the Greek Life office).

[OPhiAGinger]

Originally Posted by tcsparky

National Panhellenic doesn't have a rule against it, and some NPC organizations have rules that allow graduate members, as long as they are still full time students of the university.

I'm sure it would help the OP's case to her Greek Life advisor if she could show him proof of this. Could anybody provide her with something that indicates this arbitrary limitation is actually in conflict with NPC rules? Unfortunately, since I'm not in an NPC, this is way outside my area of expertise.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by dp1228

yeah alwayssai thats right. we allow graduate members who go to the graduate school full time our university to participate in our chapter. only bc we had girls who graduated who wanted to remain a part of the group and who would be here full time just not as undergrad anymore. under panhel though we might have to lose a couple of those great girls which makes this such a hard decision

Panhel can determine who gpes through rush (i.e. they have to have a minimum GPA and be full time students) but they cannot determine if grad students can stay active. That would be up to the policies of the NPC or other national group you chose and some do allow it. (Ask about that during the colonization process.) If Panhel is trying to tell you otherwise, they need schooled. They're overstretching their boundaries.

[Lite_Psi]

a real big step in becoming legitimate

GET A TAX ID

trust me, alot of things will come to life with that ID.

[mayor13]

I know this thread is kind of old but I do want to know how to make our local sorority "legitimate", not for the reasons of issues with other sororities though.

Our schools & most schools in the NYC area do not recognize Greek life, at all-national or not. We can have "on campus clubs" that do not have any of the Greek letters in them and the clubs have to be open to all students. (Usually these are used for fund raising and to be able to have a table during orientation)

Recently, we had 3 girls decide to drop with no warning. They did not show up for a ceremony and from that point on stopped all communication. 2 of the girls that dropped were our VP/Pledge Mother & our ritualist. They had all of our ceremony stuff in their possession as well as our scrapbook (with some of the girls personal photos(baby/family photos)) and our sorority position books.

We have done everything we can to try to get this stuff back with no results. One of the sisters has a father involved with the police who said that because we are not "legitimate" we cannot do anything.

At this point it seems there is nothing we can do, but I want to stop this from even being an issue in the future.

I do not know what else we can do to become "legitimate" short of trying to become apart of a National sorority, which we do not want. We have by-laws, have been published in the papers for our charity work and have a bank account in the sororities name.

Does anyone know what other routes we can take so we aren't faced with this situation ever again?

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by mayor13

I know this thread is kind of old but I do want to know how to make our local sorority "legitimate", not for the reasons of issues with other sororities though.

Our schools & most schools in the NYC area do not recognize Greek life, at all-national or not. We can have "on campus clubs" that do not have any of the Greek letters in them and the clubs have to be open to all students. (Usually these are used for fund raising and to be able to have a table during orientation)

Recently, we had 3 girls decide to drop with no warning. They did not show up for a ceremony and from that point on stopped all communication. 2 of the girls that dropped were our VP/Pledge Mother & our ritualist. They had all of our ceremony stuff in their possession as well as our scrapbook (with some of the girls personal photos(baby/family photos)) and our sorority position books.

We have done everything we can to try to get this stuff back with no results. One of the sisters has a father involved with the police who said that because we are not "legitimate" we cannot do anything.

At this point it seems there is nothing we can do, but I want to stop this from even being an issue in the future.

I do not know what else we can do to become "legitimate" short of trying to become apart of a National sorority, which we do not want. We have by-laws, have been published in the papers for our charity work and have a bank account in the sororities name.

Does anyone know what other routes we can take so we aren't faced with this situation ever again?

There's no "official" entity that you have to go through to be considered "legitimate" when it comes to Greek life. If your local is operating the way your founders envisioned, you're legit.

And (someone correct me if I'm wrong) unless you have something signed by sisters stating that all XYZ property belongs to XYZ, I'm not sure how you'd get your stuff back. Maybe from now on, keep it in a centralized location so that individual sisters won't have your information at home (maybe a safe deposit box?).

[mayor13]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

There's no "official" entity that you have to go through to be considered "legitimate" when it comes to Greek life. If your local is operating the way your founders envisioned, you're legit.

And (someone correct me if I'm wrong) unless you have something signed by sisters stating that all XYZ property belongs to XYZ, I'm not sure how you'd get your stuff back. Maybe from now on, keep it in a centralized location so that individual sisters won't have your information at home (maybe a safe deposit box?).

I am actually one of the founders, and it is operating the way we first planned. But according to legal standpoints, we are not a "legitimate organization" to be able to file a complaint.

Thats where I was looking for clarification. What would we need to do to be considered a legal legitimate organization?

I have to double check if the bylaws that are signed by each girl have anything in there about our stuff, but the safe deposit box--or something like that, is a good idea. Im not sure we could actually use that as we would need these things on a weekly to bi weekly basis, but maybe we could keep all hard copies there. Ill have to talk it over with the other active founder. Thanks for the advice.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

You need to incorporate as a non-for-profit entity in the state of New York. Do some research online; it's probably a form and like a $100 filing fee. Note that this doesn't get you federal NFP status, but it will make you a separate entity that can own things and sue if those things are stolen.

[mayor13]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

You need to incorporate as a non-for-profit entity in the state of New York. Do some research online; it's probably a form and like a $100 filing fee. Note that this doesn't get you federal NFP status, but it will make you a separate entity that can own things and sue if those things are stolen.

Thank you so much!!

[baibai]

so i can create a teen sorority in my neighborhood give it a greek name and dont have to be incorporated