Congrats to Michelle Obama

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by CrackerBarrel

I would say KA, Pike, Sig Ep and TKE are the greek organizations with fairly accurate national reputations.

I just spent a long time composing a post speculating about why PKA and KA had national reputations, but then I goofed up posting.

I don't know what the deal is with TKE, but PKA, KA, and Sig Ep all seem to have national programs and/or public history that they promote to achieve that.

Can you think of any NPCs that do?

ETA: would you have named Sig Ep before the Balanced Man program?

EATA: Do you feel that all IFCs have national reputations/stereotypes or just the ones you listed?

[CrackerBarrel]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I just spent a long time composing a post speculating about why PKA and KA had national reputations, but then I goofed up posting.

I don't know what the deal is with TKE, but PKA, KA, and Sig Ep all seem to have national programs and/or public history that they promote to achieve that.

Can you think of any NPCs that do?

ETA: would you have named Sig Ep before the Balanced Man program?

EATA: Do you feel that all IFCs have national reputations/stereotypes or just the ones you listed?

I never really had any experience with SigEp before the Balanced Man program, but the non-balanced man chapters seem to fit into the reputation pretty well too in my experience, so probably so.

EX and SAE are both generally very good, but they don't necessarily have a national reputation or stereotype. If I had to say one for them I guess SAE is a kind of southern chapter, like KA light. EX is a lot of times kind of the "good boys" maybe. But they are certainly not as firm stereotypes as the others have and no, I don't think every IFC chapter has a stereotype.

And no, to the best of my knowledge I don't know of a NPC sorority that tries to cultivate a reputation or stereotype. A few have reputations that have caught on to some degree, but they are negative stereotypes that their nationals are clearly not trying to build.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by CrackerBarrel

I never really had any experience with SigEp before the Balanced Man program, but the non-balanced man chapters seem to fit into the reputation pretty well too in my experience, so probably so.

EX and SAE are both generally very good, but they don't necessarily have a national reputation or stereotype. If I had to say one for them I guess SAE is a kind of southern chapter, like KA light. EX is a lot of times kind of the "good boys" maybe. But they are certainly not as firm stereotypes as the others have and no, I don't think every IFC chapter has a stereotype.

And no, to the best of my knowledge I don't know of a NPC sorority that tries to cultivate a reputation or stereotype. A few have reputations that have caught on to some degree, but they are negative stereotypes that their nationals are clearly not trying to build.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I can see I was wrong to assert that no IFC groups had national reputations or images.

I agree about SAE in the South where they do seem to mentally go with KA somehow but they don't seem as limited to a Southern identity nationally. I think they have some elite chapters all over, but I may be wrong. I think KA's elite chapters are all typically Southern chapters. (ETA: but I have no idea how the KAs are in Wyoming. I have no idea why I'd pretend to.)

It is hard to talk about without lapsing into groups have have generally good reputation, without having the same kind of good reputation. This is going to be kind of a stupid example, but with say EX, on campuses where "good" groups are thought of as old south-y and elitist, they may have a lot of chapters that seem that way; on campuses where "good" chapters are athletic party guys, they are athletic party guys; on campuses where good chapters have emo haircuts, . . .

So if you were doing national tiers, they might be really strong, but that doesn't mean they have one national image or reputation other than being pretty reliably well-thought of.

Contrast it with KA (Order, I mean of course) who are always regarded as Southern, even on a campus where Southern might equal redneck, rather than elite. They are still pretty solid if we tried to do national tiers, I think, because they are so strong in the South, but it's a different kind of good than Sigma Chi.

I think the NPCs are all a female version of the Sigma Chi model or want to be. Nationally, they are just thought of as good if they are, but not aspiring to be thought of nationally as a certain kind of good. Spun as positively as it can, I think the idea is that the GLO's ideals unite the group and attract the best women, no matter what image those best women have.

ETA: which is not to say NPCs are all successful at it or that any of them wouldn't be happy to be thought of as old money, philanthropically minded, morally sound, fun-loving beautiful debutantes if that reputation is going to be claimed by one group.

[gtdxeric]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I don't know what the deal is with TKE, but PKA, KA, and Sig Ep all seem to have national programs and/or public history that they promote to achieve that.

TKE has a very aggressive expansion policy, more so than any other NIC fraternity I know of.

[Elephant Walk]

Originally Posted by gtdxeric

TKE has a very aggressive expansion policy, more so than any other NIC fraternity I know of.

...I'm not sure where exactly where you were going with this, but I assume you mean that it loses it's elitism/exclusiveness as there is likely TKE chapters in community college...hence why many say "If you can't go Greek, go TKE." Sure there are fine TKE chapters out there (I can't name any myself, but I'm sure there are). It's all fueled from the HQ's policies.

[PANTHERTEKE]

Originally Posted by Elephant Walk

...I'm not sure where exactly where you were going with this, but I assume you mean that it loses it's elitism/exclusiveness as there is likely TKE chapters in community college...hence why many say "If you can't go Greek, go TKE." Sure there are fine TKE chapters out there (I can't name any myself, but I'm sure there are). It's all fueled from the HQ's policies.

There used to be 2 TKE chapters in community colleges (both in Florida), but they were both closed.

And yes, our IHQ is very aggressive when it comes to expansion, which I don't really agree with. I think more focus should be put on building stronger, better, maybe bigger chapters than to keep trying to establish chapters at schools with 3000 kids. But whatever, that's just me.

Our stereotype is pretty much summed up by that "If you can't go Greek, go TKE" saying; non-elitist if you want to be nice. I also think we have the "alcoholic/party guys" stereotype, but maybe that's just Florida? Don't know...

But I'm fine with those stereotypes because I know I don't fit them.

[nate2512]

Originally Posted by gtdxeric

TKE has a very aggressive expansion policy, more so than any other NIC fraternity I know of.

Not the NIC, but close enough, Kappa Sigma's way aggressive.

[DSTCHAOS]

It really doesn't matter what the Obama camp meant.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

It really doesn't matter what the Obama camp meant.

Well, it might because if Michelle Obama meant that she still wanted to be eligible for membership in other groups, she will probably ultimately not be able to join AKA, which most of us would consider an important part of the story.

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Well, it might because if Michelle Obama meant that she still wanted to be eligible for membership in other groups, she will probably ultimately not be able to join AKA, which most of us would consider an important part of the story.

Actually, it's the part that makes this a story as opposed to just an announcement. AKA announces Michelle Obama will be a member - okay, an announcement. Obama camp then throws in the term "non-exclusive" - now we've got a story. And it may all just boil down to a pr person in Obama's office who worded it poorly!

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Actually, it's the part that makes this a story as opposed to just an announcement. AKA announces Michelle Obama will be a member - okay, an announcement. Obama camp then throws in the term "non-exclusive" - now we've got a story. And it may all just boil down to a pr person in Obama's office who worded it poorly!

It will be interesting to see if she does really accept the membership down the road.

It's possible that she's been interested in AKA membership for a long time and understands herself what it will involve, but the PR folks didn't.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

It's possible that she's been interested in AKA membership for a long time and understands herself what it will involve, but the PR folks didn't.

That's what I assumed.

[mccoyred]

If she is indeed initiated, it will probably not be until after the election. Funny thing is that in the longshot event that Obama loses, the question becomes will Michele still be initiated?

[tld221]

from the articles ive read about Michelle Obama, i would have seen here more as accepting membership on a local level. Not that this means anything, but I dont see her as the type to accept membership on an international level for political reasons, but because, hey, maybe she actually wants to be an AKA.

[DSTCHAOS]

I said it doesn't matter what the Obama camp meant because I'm sure that is being handled by those who are privy to the details. The rules don't bend for anyone so the AKAs are on top of it and the rest of us will know what's what if any info is released.

Big ups to the national website announcement that has been allowed to trump individual AKAs announcing "congrats to soror Michelle Obama" eventhough she wasn't inducted yet.

Congrats to the highly accomplished women who actually were inducted at their convention.