Why are you NOT involved in an Alumni/ae Association?

[NinjaPoodle]

Originally Posted by rhoyaltempest

I was inactive before due to finances so I understand. The difference is that you plan to reactivate as I always did.

Yep. I try to support events when I can, which is rare these days. If I manage to even get to a greek event, I'm shooting pictures for class or a personal project.

Originally Posted by BluPhire

My main reason is finances. Grad chapter was cool and was still allowing me to come to meetings, but it felt like stealing. Raised enough money to get active again only to find out Nationals discounted the price.

Ha.

@ 1st bolded--Wish I could do that but I would have felt the same. It wouldn't be fair to my Sorors who had paid.

@ 2nd bolded-- I WISH IHQ would discount the price!

[rhoyaltempest]

Originally Posted by NinjaPoodle

Yep. I try to support events when I can, which is rare these days. If I manage to even get to a greek event, I'm shooting pictures for class or a personal project.



@ 1st bolded--Wish I could do that but I would have felt the same. It wouldn't be fair to my Sorors who had paid.

@ 2nd bolded-- I WISH IHQ would discount the price!

See your PM!

[NinjaPoodle]

Originally Posted by rhoyaltempest

See your PM!

Thank you!

[baci]

Just curious...many have said it is the money that keeps you from getting involved. How much money do you need to invest each year to be an active alum in your org? I am not asking you to name your org or anything of that sort, but I wonder how much money orgs require that it is keeping interested members from being involved.

In my org, we are asked to pay annual dues as an alum, but it is minimal. It is far less monetarily to belong to my alum org than to be involved as an undergraduate. Sure, there are dinners that involve a fee, but they are quite reasonable and I suppose if I did not have the extra money one month I would just not attend.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Yeah so does this topic boil down to the difference between NPHC and NPC/NIC?

It will be kinda funny if it does.

Originally Posted by EE-BO

I have zero personal experience with NPHC alumni/alumnae chapters, but after reading about them here over the years I agree answers to the OP's question will depend entirely on NPHC vs NPC/NIC.

Originally Posted by rhoyaltempest

I think it does indeed. People keep making excuses like our members are single, no kids, no jobs and nothing else to do...LOL! Sure everyone can't devote the same amount of time but if it means that much to you, you'll do what you can whenever you can.

I do think you have to be reared with this mentality though and clearly every org doesn't instill this in its members. I think that's the big difference.

I'm swerving out of my lane a bit here (though in this regard I think we're very much like the NIC fraternities), so anyone who thinks I'm off track about this, feel free to say so. (Not like you needed permission. )

While I do think that it boils down to a NPHC - NIC/NPC difference, I don't think it's necessarily a difference of whether some groups stress the lifetime commitment more than others. I think it's a difference in the groups to begin with.

NPHC groups, while social organizations are also service organizations. At least from what I've learned here at GC and what I've seen in real life, the social and service aspects are perhaps equally important. Thus, there is an understanding from the outset that your involvement in the fraternity or sorority will be involvement in service to the community through that fraternity or sorority.

NIC (and similar) fraternities and NPC sororities, on the other hand, are primarily social organizations. True, most have in the last few decades adopted official philanthropies and most have always had some degree of service to the community, but that is secondary (or tertairy) in their reasons for being. The lifetime expectations in NIC/NPC-type groups is that you will continue to cherish and foster the bonds of brotherhood or sisterhood for life, that you will live the values of the organization for life and that you will continue to be involved by supporting the organization and its chapters in whatever way you can. That, I think, is why some NPC-people here have talked about joining other groups (Junior League, Jaycees, Rotary) over alumnae groups. If you want to do community service, you join a group that does that. In my experience, NIC/NPC-type alumni/ae groups exist primarily if not exclusively for social purposes and to support nearby chapters, not to do community service (although they may do some). Often, participating in particular community service groups or activities can be seen as an effective way of living out the values of one's GLO.

It seems to me that the difference, then, is not whether membership is for a lifetime. That's a red herring. It's what lifetime membership entails, which in turn depends on the nature of the fraternity or sorority to begin with.

[EE-BO]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

NPHC groups, while social organizations are also service organizations. At least from what I've learned here at GC and what I've seen in real life, the social and service aspects are perhaps equally important. Thus, there is an understanding from the outset that your involvement in the fraternity or sorority will be involvement in service to the community through that fraternity or sorority.

NIC (and similar) fraternities and NPC sororities, on the other hand, are primarily social organizations. True, most have in the last few decades adopted official philanthropies and most have always had some degree of service to the community, but that is secondary (or tertairy) in their reasons for being.

I think you have hit on the crux of the matter quite brilliantly.

Let me please go a step further and make a very painful point about life in the United States many seem to want to avoid discussing.

Simply put- NPC and NIC philanthropy involvement is far different than that for NPHC involvement for the same reasons that exist for non-Greeks. We white folks often do care to some extent, but there is also an element of "doing a greater service" that makes us look better as compared to the demands on successful African-Americans which expect a far more personal and real aid to a community that does go unnoticed, and which does not often generate a society-wide approbation (and thus "prestige") when assistance is provided.

For my part, I was actively involved in philanthropy as an active- served as chair during all of my time as an active member perhaps just as much because I cared as because noone else wanted the job. As an alumnus, I still felt it was important- but I promoted to the chapter on the basis of the social benefits it could confer. The results were positive, but the reasons were still superficial.

This is not true in NPHC organizations because I think the pressure on those who have gone to college and secured good careers is significant- moreso than I could ever truly comprehend.

That pressure not only makes for active graduate chapters- but I suspect it also places a burden on potential active alumnae/alumni many are not able or prepared to meet.

This is where there is some similarity with the NIC situation. Just as an NIC or NPC alumnus may not want to get involved knowing he/she will have to write big checks as I discuss above, perhaps an NPHC alumus may also feel the burden of the social expectations of the role?

I really hope the OP comes back to confirm which side is being researched. Anecdotal evidence certainly suggests the NPHC wins in a landslide when it comes to what really motivates alumnus/alumna involvement. And given the interest in this thread, I think it would really help to know where the OP is coming from.

PS- LOVE the Mikado reference in your signature! I have seen it many times. The best was when Eric Idle came to do it in Houston when Sarah Ferguson was in attendance back when she was Duchess of York. Idle pulled no punches with the "List" song, and lo and behold- the story of Sarah and Steven Wyatt (the toe sucker) broke soon after. Oh how prophetic Idle was that night!

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by EE-BO

PS- LOVE the Mikado reference in your signature! I have seen it many times. The best was when Eric Idle came to do it in Houston when Sarah Ferguson was in attendance back when she was Duchess of York. Idle pulled no punches with the "List" song, and lo and behold- the story of Sarah and Steven Wyatt (the toe sucker) broke soon after. Oh how prophetic Idle was that night!

That must have been awesome. I would have loved to have seen/heard that.

[EE-BO]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

That must have been awesome. I would have loved to have seen/heard that.

It was my favorite Mikado ever- but I have to say there was one other that got even more audience reaction. Alistair Donkin performed in Houston a few years later right after the Enron debacle. They added extra stanzas to The List song to cover all of that mess and all of the companies involved. It was an absolutely brilliant and painful thrashing. There was not a one of us in the audience who had not felt the pain of the scandal, but it was somehow theraputic to hear it satirized in the spirit of Gilbert and Sullivan.

[PhoenixAzul]

From a different perspective...

I'm an alumna of a local sorority, who lives really. really. far from her chapter. It was difficult for me to make alum meetings when I lived in Pittsburgh, and impossible when I lived in Scotland, but now that I live in Oklahoma, it is still really challenging for me to be involved in more than a cheerleader kind of way. I'd love to be able to make it to alum/pledge events, to certain rituals, to meetings and football games and formals...but alas, I can't.

And now that I'm beginning my career, I'm going to make provisions for the sisterhood in my annual budgeting. While a warm body is good, cash helps too! The sisterhood is also remembered in my will (which is how I found out my lawyer was a Sigma Nu. Small world!)

If there was an alumni chapter of my school in my area, I'd join (I don't know what the status of our Arizona chapter is?) because that would be a way to meet sisters, but without being in the area of Columbus, it can be hard to impact the chapter.