Automatic Total readjustment

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by DGTess

I'm with you. I can think of nothing that says "stay away" more than a door completely packed with women looking out, but that's me. I was not in the least upset when daughter chose not to rush at Texas; though I had no clue what Texas rush was like, the rush booklet turned me off.

Perhaps that is why this column speaks to me so strongly. To me, it's the perfect COB technique, though I'm nearly certain it wouldn't bring in 20 or 30 a semester.

By the way, love this idea. So simple!

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

I had a dinner with my alumnae chapter a couple weeks ago. We started talking about the different types of recruitment systems we each went through at our respective schools, and we discussed why we decided to go Greek. At one point I said, "If I went to one of these huge schools with intense/competitive recruitments, I probably never would have joined any sorority," and a few others piped up (our national president included) and agreed, saying they never would have either.

Even at schools with huge recruitment systems, there are girls on campus who don't even know they want to be in a sorority. Or perhaps they do, but they don't thrive in the type of environment that formal recruitment creates, so they shy away from Greek life altogether. Those are the women that COB was built for. There are great potential members walking all over campuses across the country, but they never attempt to join because the chants, hair-flipping, and skits freak them out. And hey, let's be honest: sometimes those things even freak out the girls going through formal who have been prepping for it their whole lives.

However, the big competitive recruitments can be seen as a rite of passage. So, members who join by just hanging out informally may deal with resentment from members who had to endure the ups and downs of FR. The FR experience is sort of a common bond.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

However, the big competitive recruitments can be seen as a rite of passage. So, members who join by just hanging out informally may deal with resentment from members who had to endure the ups and downs of FR. The FR experience is sort of a common bond.

I would hope that as long as they show that they're going to be an active member ESPECIALLY during rush that there wouldn't be any long-term ostracism or anything. I do agree that even if you joined outside of formal rush, you still need to learn how to do it well. I'm betting there are lots of girls who are terrified of FR when it's the first thing they see on campus - but after a year and membership in a group, it's not so scary and something they might even excel at.

[Griffins&Quills]

Like I said, I had just thought about it and was confused as to how it would all work. I was primarily thinking of a semi-substantial amount of COBs (greater than 10 or so) I suppose and/or a substantial gap between the new members received during FR and then if COB had to happen in the same semester.

As someone mentioned in a different thread, one campus adjusted total following bid day and supposedly 5 of the 7 chapters on that campus need to COB to reach total, and a new group is in the process of colonizing. I don't see how that's the right decision in that instance...?

[Griffins&Quills]

Also, I feel like regularly having 3 new member classes or running 2 new members classes at the same time would be exhausting!

[DubaiSis]

Hazing before the fact, you might say.

[Xidelt]

Can a campus Panhellenic ever decide they do not want to adjust total and vote for expansion instead? Or is adjusting total an automatic?

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by Xidelt

Can a campus Panhellenic ever decide they do not want to adjust total and vote for expansion instead? Or is adjusting total an automatic?

That would be something they would have to discuss with their NPC Area Adviser and the individual NPC Delegates for the chapters on their campus.

[DubaiSis]

But I would imagine the subject would come up at the time of total adjustment. There seems to be some schools that are really trying to hold total down by doing just this thing, while others either can't (Alabama, because lack of takers on the offer of expansion) or won't for other reasons and total just keeps going up up up. And I'm sure at the schools where they have spent a bazillion dollars on expansion/updates to the already expensive chapter houses, dropping total probably seems terrifying so adding a sorority would seem like a bad investment in their chapter's financial future.

[Titchou]

Keep in mind, ladies, that there is a bubble here that someday will burst...and all the national organizations are well aware of that. It can't continue on like this with these numbers ad infinitum. So caution with regard to raising total, adding on to houses, expansion, etc is well-advised.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Titchou

Keep in mind, ladies, that there is a bubble here that someday will burst...and all the national organizations are well aware of that. It can't continue on like this with these numbers ad infinitum. So caution with regard to raising total, adding on to houses, expansion, etc is well-advised.

Yep. 80s boom turned into mid-late 90s bust. I would hope there are people at the upper levels of all the NPC and NIC groups old enough to remember that. It would be one thing if you could base it strictly on birth rates, but there are these little things called society and the economy that figure in as well. And those never quite go as planned.

[Xidelt]

Unless you have parents like mine who nixed the idea of going Greek before I even new it was a possibility. And by the time I did figure it out, I was a more socially confident junior who had no friends or acquaintances that were sorority women. I found my niche in a local GLO, but wish I had the opportunity to at least give formal recruitment a shot.

[Xidelt]

And since that membership bubble will some day pop, why not start reaching out to those maybe-joiners now instead of waiting until you are in jeopardy of shutting down chapters due to low numbers?

[DubaiSis]

Originally Posted by Xidelt

And since that membership bubble will some day pop, why not start reaching out to those maybe-joiners now instead of waiting until you are in jeopardy of shutting down chapters due to low numbers?

Because there are multimillion dollar homes at risk here. This is a lot more than a club for women. And a new beatiful house at Bama coupled with a failed chapter could literally mean the end of a sorority. Nationwide.

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

Because there are multimillion dollar homes at risk here. This is a lot more than a club for women. And a new beatiful house at Bama coupled with a failed chapter could literally mean the end of a sorority. Nationwide.

No it would not. Chapters have closed at Bama before and the national sorority managed to survive just fine without their Bama chapter.