Mega Chapters

[KSUViolet06]

Mega chapter must be a new term.

Reminds me of Megatron.

Anyway, I've asked OleMissGlitter a lot of questions about this as she is from your Nu Beta chapter there and they have over 200 women regularly.

She mentioned that there are MANY events designed to get different groups/classes to hang out and get to know each other. Ex: Senior/Sophomore bowling night and stuff.

Maybe she'll chime in here?

[33girl]

I'm also guessing there isn't just one NM Educator, but a whole committee.

[wavycutchip]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I'm also guessing there isn't just one NM Educator, but a whole committee.

Only speaking for my group - KD's NM Educator in our VP-Member Education. She has more than just new member education in her job description, so she (both big and small chapters) use SET leaders (a SET is a smaller group of the new member class, used to make sure they are getting acclimated) to facilitate the new member program. In several large chapters, the VP-ME acts as the manager of lots of NM educators (ie, SET leaders). Sure, new members may all meet together in new member meetings with the VP-ME, but there are lots of sisters who work hard to ensure that our new members are learning about being Kappa Deltas. There is certainly NO WAY that 1 person could handle a group of 70+ women on her own, and thankfully she has a great team who works with the new members.

[OleMissGlitter]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Mega chapter must be a new term.

Reminds me of Megatron.

Anyway, I've asked OleMissGlitter a lot of questions about this as she is from your Nu Beta chapter there and they have over 200 women regularly.

She mentioned that there are MANY events designed to get different groups/classes to hang out and get to know each other. Ex: Senior/Sophomore bowling night and stuff.

Maybe she'll chime in here?

I think the best way to manage a "Mega chapter" is to have a very strong NM program and like everyone has mentioned, lots of activities for ALL sisters. I spoke to AOII Ole Miss last week about "how to retain new members once you get them." For some chapters recruiting a new member class is easy, but keeping them all is another story. So, it takes every single member from the senior who is worn out to the eager sophomore who wants to be their big sis. But in any size group you will have members who will never be happy with every single event planned. I also think a diverse chapter can help with programming and retention. This means recruiting women who like everything from Bible Study to Academic Games to Philanthropic Work to Socials!

As far as retreats and even socials, it just takes a lot more chartered buses to move everyone around form point A to point B! At Ole Miss new members don't move into the house until later on, probably sophomore or junior year or even senior year. Since the new member classes are so big not all new members can live in the house.

Ole Miss use to be the exception as far as new member size when around 2002 the new member classes started to get crazy with numbers in the 80s and 90s. Now of course other Universities like U of AZ, Bama, Arkansas, LSU have crazy new member numbers too. So, I think just about every NPC group has had to figure out how to educate "mega chapters" on how to be effective and how to survive! But it is possible!