House Mothers

[MSKKG]

Ginger,

House moms do live in the house. They have their own suite (bedroom, bathroom, & sitting area generally). They are responsible for running the household--planning meals, buying food, supervising cooks & other employees, keeping within a budget, etc. They eat their meals with the chapter.

ah, okay. That's kind of what I imagined, but I wasn't sure. It makes sense that none of our GLOs had them, then... DO was unhoused, but my understanding of those that were was that they had no employees to speak of, and few meals were provided in house (except for a weekly dinner/meeting).

I suppose it's just another of those things that varies from campus to campus.

[carnation]

The houses at Arkansas had housemothers and the fraternities at Auburn and Mississippi State did (the sororities there didn't have houses--they do now at State). We had sorority dorms at Auburn and each had a housemother--we initiated our precious, precious housemom.

I have always felt really sorry for fraternity housemothers!

hey, uwwsweetie, just out of curiousity was I right about the NPCs at Whitewater? I realize it's been a few years since I've been there, so things might have changed...

[Nikki_DZ]

At Bowling Green, Greek houses (all "official" houses are on campus and owned by the University) have House Directors. House Directors are usually (like 99.9% of the time) graduate students. Most are pursuing their Master in College Student Personnel. Occasionally two houses next to each other will share a H.D., but that's pretty rare. Or at least it was while I was there.

I've never heard of one being a member of the organization they are the H.D. for (conflict of interest), but most were greek when undergrads. During my time, we had House Directors who were members of AEPhi, ZTA, and ADPi.

[AOII_Luv]

I think that House Mom or House Director rules vary from campus to campus and chapter to chapter. I am pretty sure that at IU it is not required to have either. There is one fraternity that I am thinking of that I am just about 100% positive does not have a HM or HD.

Also, AOII does not require that the HM be a member. For instance, the woman we have right now worked as a HM for Sigma Alpha Mu and Sigma Delta Tau before coming to our chapter. I am just about positive that both HM's that we have had were not members of a chapter either.

[CutiePie2000]

Here's a blurb that's recycled from another thread:

....house directors at Pi Phi houses cannot be initiated members. It is to maintain the inpartiality of the HD. It is considered a conflict of interest to be a member. HD are not supposed to be involved in the internal workings of the chapter, disciplinary matters among members or conflicts between officers/ alumnae. The lines get blurred when you are talking about someone who has developed enough of a relationship with chapter members to receive an invitation to membership.

that was the one Yeah, I didn't even know the Sigmas had a house-mother, but I knew them the least of anyone on campus.

Strangely enough, I lived in Lee Matson house (across from Anderson library) for a while, and it has a suite like those described here... I've heard it used to be a sorority house (though I don't know for whom), and when I was there, Delta Omicron was trying to work something out with DLK for us to take over that house but it never came through. Anyway, it never occured to me that someone other than a student would live in there... I figured it was just the president's suite!! (or at least I hoped )

[damasa]

Originally posted by uwwsweetie
Delta Omicron isn't doin too well on campus these days - at least they aren't very vocal. My big bro is a phi mu alpha and for the longest time he tried to get me to join Delta Omicron instead of Sigma (he is kinda weird) but *shrug* i heard they only have like 8 active girls

How does only haveing 8 active girls = "not doin too well?" I don't understand that. A group could have eight actives and be doing great.....

I guess if you are looking at it from a quantity point of view....

Point is, small doesn't always mean bad or weak or struggling.....word.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally posted by CutiePie2000
Here's a blurb that's recycled from another thread:

....house directors at Pi Phi houses cannot be initiated members. It is to maintain the inpartiality of the HD. It is considered a conflict of interest to be a member. HD are not supposed to be involved in the internal workings of the chapter, disciplinary matters among members or conflicts between officers/ alumnae. The lines get blurred when you are talking about someone who has developed enough of a relationship with chapter members to receive an invitation to membership.

Hmmm... I know that can't be true since our house mom is a Pi Phi, and nationals definately knows that. What thread did you find that on?

In regards to the conflict of interest question, sorority HDs at my school are minimally involved in the chapter. Miss Joan doesn't really have too many responsiblities. She knows nothing about the internal workings of the chapter and we make sure that that stays the case. She cooks us dinner on the weekends when our cooks have off, decorates the tables for the seasons, buys us little goodies, helps keep the house clean, etc... Honestly, she's the greatest, but she doesn't have a real good idea about modern sorority life (she was initiated in 1950!). There really isn't any conflict of interest.

[AXJules]

(Alpha chi omega) We have a housemom who I'm pretty sure, isn't Greek. She used to be a housemom for Delta Chi and Kap Sig in New Mexico, among others. We think she's great.

Being non- Greek isn't an issue to us, even w/past housemoms, none were allowed at chapter, and all were requested to leave the house during initiation. Mom's apartment is connected through our foyer- she has her own bathroom and living room/cable, but since our house is really old she has to share the driveway as her parking spot.

Mizzou requires all fraternal organizations w/housing to have a 24 hr live in "babysitter", if you will. Kind of a rule that works nicely with our attempt at a dry campus...........

Personally i see the benefits to both a non- Greek and Greek housemom/dad. If not anything else, they'd be more likely to understand certain customs (dinner etiquette, serenades, etc.) Last year for about 5 months we had this woman who never really liked sororities. We nicknamed her Sweaty D b/c she'd always be running around the house yelling at us and sweating profusely. She just didn't understand why there were young men standing on our grass and flowers singing at such a late hour of the nite. (!).

[AXJules]

Another question- do you guys call your housemom "mom"?? We do , and it totally freaks some of my friends out who go to school on other campuses.

[CutiePie2000]

Originally posted by breathesgelatin
Hmmm... I know that can't be true since our house mom is a Pi Phi, and nationals definately knows that. What thread did you find that on?

http://forums.greekchat.com/gcforums...5&pagenumber=2
posted by dakareng

[breathesgelatin]

Originally posted by CutiePie2000
http://forums.greekchat.com/gcforums...5&pagenumber=2
posted by dakareng

hmm... dakareng works for nationals... I assume we've cleared it in some way, then.

[Lady Pi Phi]

Maybe I am reading Ms. Gunther's words inccorectly, and if I am, hopefully someone will correct me.
From what I understood of her post was that HD's could not be initiated members of that particular chapter. Perhaps they can be HD's of another Pi Phi chapter?


Edited for horrible spelling