Less popular sororities

[honeychile]

One of the best phrases I've ever learned in life is "You gotta wanna." I can remember when (after I graduated) my chapter took only one new member in Formal Recruitment. They had so much going for them, but somehow, it wasn't enough. I remember looking at the faces of the PNMs during Pref thinking, "uh, oh..."

So, Bid Day came, and after comforting everyone, a few of us were rehashing things on the way home when one said, "Well, they're masters of their own destiny now." It got back to them, and they decided that they WERE going to change their chapter around! They were able to take a few women via COB, but the next Formal Recruitment, they took half of quota, then still worked at COB, then the next, they did better, etc - until they now have gone three years of Total, and won our International Chapter Improvement Award.

Okay, lots of great words, but the bottom line comes back to:
1) What does the chapter want out of being in a sorority?
2) What are they willing to do to get there - do they want it badly enough?
and
3) What could we do to help?

If the chapter doesn't want to improve badly enough, you need to get those people graduated, and start with some women who are excited about it!

[bejazd]

HDL.....I agree that's a real issue on some, but not all campuses. Which is why sadly not all struggling chapters can be saved. Going way way back to the start of this discussion someone said "less popular sororities. happens on every campus. sucks." so I'm trying to direct my thoughts to the broadest range of situations.

I am hopefully optimistic that we as NPC women are capable of controlling our own destinies and valuing what lifetime membership has to offer us...on a little deeper and more mature level than say, where many of us were at socially in middle school or high school.

[RushLeader08]

if these girls would just act like nothing is wrong then no one will think anything is wrong!!!

[UGAalum94]

EW, I think that it's cool that the chapters rush each other during spirit week and that could go along way towards building relationships between sororities.

The only "struggling" chapter that I know of that went from struggling to completely consistently solid was at the stage where they were getting assistance from their national organization during recruitment when I went through rush because they were maybe half the size of other chapters and having difficulty with numbers.

It took a little less than a decade; it wasn't any kind of immediate change, but I can remember being out of school a few years and learning that not only were they no longer struggling with not making quota or low numbers, but that they were pledging girls who also preffed groups that had traditionally been much stronger.

Today they are a completely solid and well regarded chapter. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how they did it. I think it was first great alumnae and support from the GLO itself, which is nationally a strong and well regarded group. The girls were working really hard even back when I rushed. You could tell that they were doing everything they could to have the best rush. The next stage probably involved a little help from the UGA HOPE grant because it meant more girls from more areas were going to UGA. (which meant they could break away from only having to recruit people with a sense of "tradition" and/or the "everyone knows that XYZ is for homecoming queens" mentally that someone correctly noted above).

I really wish I knew more about how they did it.

[Just interested]

I love, love stories like Honeychile's and UGAalum94. It gives hope to all who really seek the answers. If I'm correct UGA is no easy campus to make such a change and yes you have to be positive and ready to make a move when any opportunity presents itself.

[ztamsu07]

I have a little issue.. I am part of a wonderful, diverse group of women on my campus. Unfortunately, we are not as strong as we should be. We are trying to gain more members through informal now, and increase numbers during formal this coming up fall, and we're trying to raise our gpa. I'm a freshman, and I believe our pledge class is the one to help with this the most now and in the future. I've been reading this thread to try to get ideas on what I can do to help better the chapter, and this is what I've decided:

We DO have a strong alumni base, that helps us SO much, so that isn't something we need to improve on.

We are continually recruiting women through informal, I actually just got to tell a girl today that she got a bid, so we're great in that field.

I must admit, I do feel that we have some girls could possibly not exactly help the chapter, but we're not going to just kick them out. They are my sisters and I do love them, it's just that I feel like everyone should come to our events, and respect the sorority as a whole, and I'm not sure everyone does.

We are also VERY involved on campus this year, mainly my pledge class, and I'm trying to get everyone to go to more events as a whole with our letters on for PR exposure, and we've been doing okay so far.

The thing is, we're getting a new sorority on campus this time next year, and I want to know everything I can do to get my chapter to be the strongest we possibly can by that time.

Any and all suggestions would be FANTASTIC. Thanks to all.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by ztamsu07

I have a little issue.. I am part of a wonderful, diverse group of women on my campus. Unfortunately, we are not as strong as we should be. We have the lowest number of girls on campus and the lowest gpa. I'm a freshman, and I believe our pledge class is the one to turn it around.

I have bolded one of your biggest problems! Get your GPA up! If you're more visible on campus, but no one is focusing on scholarship, you'll still not be very desirable to many women. Remember, you're in college, first and foremost, to get an education.

[fantASTic]

Besides which, a new sorority coming on campus can actually HELP you. I know it sounds weird, but it's happened. So don't take it as a death sentence - take it as a way for you to look better than whoever's colonizing, and therefore get stronger girls.

[gee_ess]

ZTAMSU-

You are to be commended for your committment to your group! Stepping up and taking a leading role is a positive move.

One thing that stands out to me (other than the low gpa) are your comments regarding nonattendance, ARRESTS(!), etc. Get with the alumnae and your standards officer - this is a problem. These girls are creating a negative image and need to be disciplined and counseled regarding their obligations to zta. Scandal and apathy are hard to overcome without help.

Keep up the good work!

[33girl]

ztamsu07 -

I am wagering your chapter has been told to get your numbers up at any cost.

If this directive came from on "high" (i.e. regional or national officers) offer concrete examples of why certain women (i.e. arrested girl) should not be given bids and that the "bid anything with a pulse" strategy is working against you.

Quality and quantity aren't exclusive, true, but if you keep bidding women who aren't up to standard the "quantity" you attain will be short-lived indeed.

[ztamsu07]

Thanks for all of your help everyone! I understand the nonattendence and apathy towards the sorority is a problem and could hurt us, and the thing is, the girls we've gotten from informal are mostly FANTASTIC!! My pledge class from formal is an excellent group as well, but we're actually the ones with the couple girls that are not exactly what would be ideal, and I wish I could change that. They're great girls, I just think they don't exactly have their heads on correctly.. at least not for college I guess.

About the GPA thing... I KNOW that's a huge problem! But honestly, there's nothing more I can think of we can do to help them, except maybe take their tests and study for them! Which, uh, yeah right.. I have a 3.6, so you can understand that being in a chapter that has a lower gpa would bother me because I'm doing my best. We do "grade checking" (there's a real name, I can't think of it) and based on our GPA, we have to do in-house study hours - up to 5 a week! - and we can get on probation as well. We really are doing a lot to try to get it up, and I really don't know what else to do.. suggestions?? You've all been really helpful..

[summer_gphib]

Originally Posted by ztamsu07

Thanks for all of your help everyone! I understand the girls that are not "up to par" are a serious problem and could hurt us, and the thing is, the girls we've gotten from informal are (mostly, with the exception of one, maybe two) FANTASTIC!! My pledge class from formal is an excellent group as well, but we're actually the ones with the "problem girls." We have a couple girls that just do "undesirable" things, and I feel actually a little sad to have to associate with them. They're great girls, I just think they don't exactly have their heads on correctly.. at least not for college I guess.

About the GPA thing... I KNOW that's a huge problem! But honestly, there's nothing more I can think of we can do to help them, except maybe take their tests and study for them! Which, uh, yeah right.. I have a 3.6, and as a chapter we are on academic probation! So you can understand that it infuriates me because I'm doing my best. We do "grade checking" (there's a real name, I can't think of it) and based on our GPA, we have to do in-house study hours - up to 5 a week! - and we can get on probation as well. We really are doing a lot to try to get it up, and I really don't know what else to do.. suggestions?? You've all been really helpful.. I love this site..

You could up the study hours and have strict monitoring. When I was a collegiate we had up to 10 study hours per week, and social probation if your GPA was under a certain amount (I believe 2.5). I know I had a gpa of 3.25 and still had 2 mandatory study hours.

Good luck to your chapter.

[xowest]

Originally Posted by 33girl

ztamsu07 -

Quality and quantity aren't exclusive, true, but if you keep bidding women who aren't up to standard the "quantity" you attain will be short-lived indeed.

I so agree with the above statement.

At my campus, there are (or were during my years in school) three tiers of sororities- elite, middle and struggling. At the time I pledged, my sorority was solidly in the middle tier. By the time I graduated, we were probably in the top tier. (I recognize people will have different opinions about which sororities are in which tiers, and that some people, including myself, hate to even recognize that there are tiers, but, at my campus, the truth is that there were tiers).

Anyway, we improved our lot by focusing on quality over quantity, even if that meant we might not make quota, which was probably easier for us to do than a truly struggling sorority since we didn’t have a numbers problem. The first year we took this approach, we were one PNM short of reaching quota, but we were absolutely thrilled with our entire new member class. The strength of this class made subsequent recruitment efforts much better, and, within two years, we had a very high quality of members and were one of only two chapters that could not participate in COB due to having reached total.

A few problem members can bring down the recruitment efforts of an otherwise strong group, while having a group of solid, quality members is self-perpetuating. I think PNMs want to be with the quality group, even if it is not as large as a group that has a mix of some quality members and some problem members.

[FSUZeta]

zeta sister, please check you pm's.

[UGAalum94]

Perhaps we should warn active members they may want to mask some of the details about their chapters if they are going to be really specific. While GreekChat can be really helpful sometimes, it can just be used as a gossip center as well, which will feed the issues of struggling chapters.

Unless you're an alumna looking back at your chapter with years of perspective on a chapter whose problems are long gone, it's probably not a great idea to out a specific chapter's problems too clearly.

I didn't even think I should name the chapter in my turn-around post because I didn't want to dreg up any bad history. Let's be careful.