Advice on founding a sorority/cure me of founderitis

[33girl]

How did the campus and Greek system react to your disestablishment? Did they think your National was awful for doing it, or did they treat it as a joke and say “about time they got canned, they’re irrelevant”?

If it’s the former, you have a chance of creating a new organization and attracting other women. But if it’s the latter, it will be very very hard to perpetuate a group that the rest of your campus has a negative opinion about.

The “not like other sororities” sorority doesn’t usually stay around long unless it has a DEFINABLE difference (substance free, geared to a certain religion, etc.). Also, advertising the fact that women who have been initiated into NPCs but were terminated or dropped, can have membership in your group, could make it look like you are trying to poach members.

You know your campus and its climate the best, so be honest with yourselves as to whether this could work.

[LXA SE285]

Long (old) thread here. Read the whole thing when you have time.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=10264

[SunflowerSmiles]

Originally Posted by 33girl

How did the campus and Greek system react to your disestablishment? Did they think your National was awful for doing it, or did they treat it as a joke and say “about time they got canned, they’re irrelevant”?

If it’s the former, you have a chance of creating a new organization and attracting other women. But if it’s the latter, it will be very very hard to perpetuate a group that the rest of your campus has a negative opinion about.

The “not like other sororities” sorority doesn’t usually stay around long unless it has a DEFINABLE difference (substance free, geared to a certain religion, etc.). Also, advertising the fact that women who have been initiated into NPCs but were terminated or dropped, can have membership in your group, could make it look like you are trying to poach members.

You know your campus and its climate the best, so be honest with yourselves as to whether this could work.

Currently, our University is pretty upset. Our nationals has burnt the bridge to the point where is it unlikely my chapter will ever be re-established because the university was not consulted and did not think this was the right choice. We also did absolutely nothing wrong which upset the university as well.

I’m open to not allowing women to hold dual membership or be imitated into another sorority at all, I just have to figure out how that would work because the founding executive council are all technically “unaffiliated college members” of our former sorority.

[carnation]

They didn't make you instant alumnae?

[SunflowerSmiles]

Originally Posted by carnation

They didn't make you instant alumnae?

No, they didn’t. This was all around handled poorly. They told us via email in the middle of the day that we were basically members of the national organization but no longer associated with a home chapter because they were pulling us. I have never been more embarrassed to be a member of my national organization.

[33girl]

https://www.collegian.psu.edu/archiv...2130938eb.html

When the Tri Delt chapter at PSU closed, the members still in good standing were considered “unaffiliated members.” I’m guessing a sorority would do this because of “once you go alum you can’t go back” policies. Underclassmen might transfer and this way they could reaffiliate with another collegiate chapter.

[SunflowerSmiles]

Originally Posted by 33girl

https://www.collegian.psu.edu/archiv...2130938eb.html

When the Tri Delt chapter at PSU closed, the members still in good standing were considered “unaffiliated members.” I’m guessing a sorority would do this because of “once you go alum you can’t go back” policies. Underclassmen might transfer and this way they could reaffiliate with another collegiate chapter.

That’s very true. Sorry, I meant it was handled very poorly in general in regards to how they let us know this news that we were now unaffiliated.

[Sororitysock]

Originally Posted by SunflowerSmiles

Hello all! I am hoping that some could either give me advice on how to accomplish this goal or cure me of founderitis. Sorry to have posted this question again, but all of the threads with good information seemed outdated.

My situation is a little different than many as not only did I go through recruitment, I pledged and was initiated into an NPC sorority. Tragically, our nationals has chosen to disestablish us despite the fact that we did nothing wrong. There were just so many things wrong with the way that the entire situation was handled, we feel that our (former) nationals no longer represents the values we pledged for. As a result, myself and many other former members of the organization would like to create a local sorority. Our chapter was often considered the chapter of "Misfits", and while that may have been a source of embarrassment for our nationals, we were not embarrassed of who we are. We still want girls like us to be able to have a house on campus.

This is where our 'new' sorority comes in. We want to take a page out of Phi Lambda's (the Christian Sorority) book and allow members who have been initiated into another sorority to join, but we will not allow members who currently hold active membership in another sorority to participate. We want an organization that upholds the values we hold and prepares girls for their future through sisterhood. We have a completely different structure and values from our former organization as well because we aren't trying to be XYZ house 2.0

There are no local organizations at our school, despite dire need, and there are no guidelines on how to get this done. Any and all advice would be appreciated.

Originally Posted by SunflowerSmiles

Currently, our University is pretty upset. Our nationals has burnt the bridge to the point where is it unlikely my chapter will ever be re-established because the university was not consulted and did not think this was the right choice. We also did absolutely nothing wrong which upset the university as well.

I’m open to not allowing women to hold dual membership or be imitated into another sorority at all, I just have to figure out how that would work because the founding executive council are all technically “unaffiliated college members” of our former sorority.

Originally Posted by SunflowerSmiles

No, they didn’t. This was all around handled poorly. They told us via email in the middle of the day that we were basically members of the national organization but no longer associated with a home chapter because they were pulling us. I have never been more embarrassed to be a member of my national organization.

Originally Posted by SunflowerSmiles

That’s very true. Sorry, I meant it was handled very poorly in general in regards to how they let us know this news that we were now unaffiliated.

So wait. You say your chapter did nothing wrong. You were unaware there were any issues between your chapter and national organization. Out of the blue, they sent out an email to inform you that you're closed. I'm not buying it.

If your school doesn't have locals, they may very well have a rule against it. If there were a "dire need" for the type of group you're suggesting, it would already exist. Even if you were able to start a local, no matter how you phrase it others are going to think of you as XYZ 2.0 because a large portion of your members will be the former XYZ members and you're trying to manipulate your new organization's rules to allow your former chapter members to join while putting roadblocks in front of other prospective members who are former members of different sororities.