What’s it like to be in a Huge Chapter?

[PhoenixAzul]

This kinda makes me chuckle.

I am an alum of a chapter that was 25ish people at its largest during my four years. My pledge class was 9.

I remember looking at the largest sorority (our neighbors) at 75 and thinking "how the heck can they know eachother!!!"

With the perspective of age, I understand a lot more now.

But when I was working at Oklahoma, I was just SHOCKED by the size of the houses, the size of the chapters...I think our tiny little house could have been a garage to the chapter houses there. KKG's annex was about the size of our entire house. It really hit home how different the Greek experience can be across the country.

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by PhoenixAzul

It really hit home how different the Greek experience can be across the country.

Different, yes, but there is SO much that's the same. I served as a regional officer 30 years after I pledged, but still had a great deal of common experience with the girls in the chapter at the time.

One of my chapters was down to 17 members on a campus where most of the sororities were around 50 members. Of those 17, 12 were seniors and were going to graduate in the spring. All the members were worried sick that this was the last year their chapter would be there. They spent a lot of time dreaming of what they could do "if only we had more members."

God bless her, the Greek advisor on that campus took the bull by the horns and organized a special recruitment just for them. She even ordered every sorority AND fraternity to not badmouth our group for the entire semester! (It was a very small campus!)

On pledging day, the chapter added about 40 members overnight.

Were the members thrilled? No.

Almost immediately, they were complaining about how the "new" girls did things. It's human nature - we resist change.