Does a shorter associate program lead to more drop-outs?

[KSUViolet06]

^^^A big part of retention = the extent to which NMs responsibilities match up with the responsibilities they WILL have once initiated.

For example: if you go from "cake, presents, not actually being required to attend anything, YAY!" to "you must hold a chair or be on a committee, meet 90% of attendance points, and participate in at least x study hours per week" you're going to have a retention issue because your NMs are going from zero to 60 in 2 months.

I'm a big fan of programs that require some of the same things of NMs that will be required of them once initiated. For example: Requiring NMs to do study hours and meet attendance points and come to chapter every week just like everyone else. I know that ours and a few other NPC's programs are the same way.

I've heard of situations in some NM programs where you can miss like half of your NM meetings, come to like one event, and you are still allowed to be initiated. Obviously that NM is going to terminate her membership once she sees that she went from having to do nothing to having a full slate of expectations.

[aephi alum]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

The real retention issue is that critical first year after initiation (the period from after initiation to about fall of sophomore year.) That's where I find that sororities have the biggest issues retention-wise.

That, plus the retention of seniors who rushed and pledged the moment they set foot on campus, and have gotten burned out.

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

^^^A big part of retention = the extent to which NMs responsibilities match up with the responsibilities they WILL have once initiated.

For example: if you go from "cake, presents, not actually being required to attend anything, YAY!" to "you must hold a chair or be on a committee, meet 90% of attendance points, and participate in at least x study hours per week" you're going to have a retention issue because your NMs are going from zero to 60 in 2 months.

<snip>

I've heard of situations in some NM programs where you can miss like half of your NM meetings, come to like one event, and you are still allowed to be initiated. Obviously that NM is going to terminate her membership once she sees that she went from having to do nothing to having a full slate of expectations.

Agreed.

Our NMs have to meet certain minimum requirements before they can be initiated. A portion of those requirements can be met by attending chapter or by joining committees (they're obviously not allowed if anything ritual is going on, but they can at least get a whiff of the business aspect of being a sister). This way, they have a decent understanding of what it means to be a full sister, before they actually become full sisters.

One chapter at my school ran a 4-week NM program during my freshman year. They met quota, but fewer than half of that class were still affiliated when we graduated.