How to make our local sorority legitimate?

[dp1228]

33girl - yeah we were trying before to become affiliated with a national but it had to be a unanimous vote in the NPC to let us on campus. The meeting never happened because the women we were talking to never organized it like she said she would. So we started a local. At this point we are past panhel but i was just wondering if there was anything else we could do to have a larger support system

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by dp1228

33girl - yeah we were trying before to become affiliated with a national but it had to be a unanimous vote in the NPC to let us on campus. The meeting never happened because the women we were talking to never organized it like she said she would. So we started a local. At this point we are past panhel but i was just wondering if there was anything else we could do to have a larger support system

33girl and Kevin aren't talking about joining an NPC/NHPC organization. They are referring to your campus Panhellenic, the governing body over all sororities ON YOUR CAMPUS. It's simply made up of members of different sororities from your school. They have meetings, by-laws, and other ways of making sure that all of the sororities on campus are "following the rules" and running under the same system.

At some schools, the locals choose to affiliate with the campus Panhellenic. At others, they don't. They're talking about your group requesting to become a member organization of Panhellenic so that you will be viewed as a more "legitimate" organization.

ETA: It sounds as if you're already doing very well as an organization. Why do you want to be seen as more "legitimate" by your peers? As the saying goes, "Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind"

[dp1228]

astalumna06 - im sorry i misspoke. i meant we were trying to join Panhel but the meeting to do so never happened because certain members were against us forming another group. while we were trying to join Panhel we were also trying to colonize a chapter from a national sorority. So when were essentially turned away from Panhel we decided to start a local sorority to just start our whole process over fresh.

sorry for the confusino

[OPhiAGinger]

Originally Posted by dp1228

i meant we were trying to join Panhel but the meeting to do so never happened because certain members were against us forming another group. while we were trying to join Panhel we were also trying to colonize a chapter from a national sorority. So when were essentially turned away from Panhel we decided to start a local sorority to just start our whole process over fresh.

I agree that you don't need affiliation with a national umbrella org to be legitimate. However, I think it would benefit your group immensely to have a better working relationship with the other Greeks on your campus.

When you approached Panhell the first time, it was about expanding the NPC presence on your campus. They didn't want to open the campus for expansion, so you decided to test the waters and see whether there was enough interest to sustain a local sorority. Since then, you've been successful in defining your new sorority's identity and in attracting and retaining members.

Now that you are a somewhat stable group, you should consider approaching Panhell again about membership in the local Panhellenic Council, not as a new NPC sorority but as the local you have so successfully gotten off the ground. If an associate membership is an option, it might be what you need rather than a full Panhellenic Council membership. That would give your group a place at the table in campus decisions that impact Greek Life, and probably enable you to participate in campus-wide Greek events like Homecoming, Greek Week... whatever your campus has.

Be aware, though, that by affiliating with Panhell even at an associate level you'll have to abide by Panhellenic rules governing sororities on your campus. That could be a very good thing, too, for a young group.

Good luck!

[dp1228]

ophiaginger - thank you so much. i proposed the idea of joining panhel again to my president and she agreed that it would be a really good idea to try again. you guys really helped me and once again i truly appreciate it. theres a rush event tonight so i promise to keep you guys updated on anything new with my group

[OPhiAGinger]

In general, OPA chapters are chartered as "campus organizations" like you are and most are not members of their campus Panhellenic Council. Joining Panhell is a decision left up to the local chapter. But a few of our chapters have joined Panhell and it has been a positive experience for them. If you have the option of an associate membership rather than a full membership, that might be best for you. On campuses that offer an associate membership, this usually means you don't participate in formal recruitment with the NPC chapters. (And since you aren't paying for any shared recruitment expenses, dues for associate members are often less than dues for full members.)

Good luck with your recruitment this week!

[dp1228]

I just wanted to update you u guys on how its going with our group. We got 10 new pledges (yayyy!!). We did have a bump in the road though when someone from Panhel tried to shut us down. But because of our source (my universities rules) they weren't allowed to. Now after many meeting with both Panhel, the administration and the student government association we have two options. We can either petition SGA to go under them as a subgroup that would allow us to keep a gpa requirement and just accept girls (because under SGA neither is allowed), or we can join panhel with an associate membership (which our panhel has never done befroe). If we go under SGA though we can't call ourselves a sorority. We would have to change it to society or just keep it to our letters. Under panhel we would have to change some of our rules, our dues would be raised and our graduate members may not be able to to stay as members. There are pros and cons to each side but I think we may be leaning more towards joining panhel. We aren't sure yet but I wanted to update you guys and see what you thought!