Chapter Housing and Live Outs

[cheekygreeky14]

Hey everyone, this is a question for the sororities--
For those of you that have chapter houses, who gets to live in? Sophomores and Juniors? Juniors and Seniors? My chapter traditionally has been able to fit all initiated members into our chapter house, however our numbers have grown so significantly in the past 3 years that people will definitely have to live out in the fall. We are working on a live out policy but no one can seem to really agree if we should have seniors live out or not let the new members live in until their 3rd year (or second semester sophomore year when a lot of women go abroad). I personally think that new members should be given priority housing (and I'm speaking as a third year who will potentially live out next fall if the decision goes that way)...living in as a new initiate is the best way to bond with the house. Anyway I just wanted to know what other chapters/campus norms were, your response is appreciated!

thanks ladies

[fantASTic]

..Why don't you just make a list of who DOESN'T want to live in and go from there? If you need 50 people to live in and you have 55 members, and 7 people want to live out, then go from there and make people live in by scroll order.

[cheekygreeky14]

...because no one wants to live out. I'm not joking. Living in is a really great privilege that no one, not even next years seniors, want to live out. We are going to need more than 5 live outs. I'm talking about 15-20. Thus even if 7 people wanted to live out, there are still 8-13 that would be seen as being "forced out." So who do you make live out, new members (at their second year) or seniors?

[fantASTic]

Wow thats awesome that no one wants to live out!

If I were you..I would probably not let NMs live in, if only because then you have your E-board in house. If you force older members out, then you force out your executive staff, and I feel they should be in/around the house.

[Fawn Liebowitz]

My daughter's sorority did a "lottery". It apparently was luck of the draw, so no one could/should be mad.

[Kansas City]

My chapter didn't have a house but we were responsible for filling a portion of the all sorority dorm. We used a point system for selecting who could make a decision. (Sr=4, Jr=3, So=2, Fr=1) + (semesters in sorority 1-8) + GPA + (exec officers added 5 poinits). Those with the highest amount of points or the set of roommates with the highest combined points would get to select what room they were in first . In your case, you might allow those with the highest points to decide if they want to live-in and what room. Those with the lower points may have to find other options. Also, keep in mind that on most campuses, it is easier for Freshmen to find university housing due to it's availability and that in your particular situation, living in the house appears to be an honor that should be looked forward to.

[PinkRose1098]

That is amazing and fantastic that every one wants to live in the house! Why not start a lottery type deal to decide who lives in house? E-board is a given but after that anyone could be fair game. You could draw names or you could give everyone a number 1-whatever and and draw the appropriate amount of numbers that could be living in house.

To answer your question - in my chapter priority was given first to officers and then to the most recently initiated class. That meant sophomores could plan on living on hall. There might have been a fee to live off. Most of the time those two groups were able to fill the hall.

[RaggedyAnn]

I would require certain executives to live in-it just makes it easier to do things like collect dues and handle problems. I feel you are right in thinking that it is a great way to get the new members immersed. This will also give upperclassmen who become new members the opportunity to live in the house...and you are in a very good position now, but in the future, your chapter may not be so lucky. From my experience, seniors are usually the ones who like to go off on their own, get an apartment, move in with significant others, etc.

I would hold it by lottery by new member class, not scroll number though. And when you rewrite the bylaws, try and make sure you have everything covered that you can think of in the case of not having enough people. You might want to talk to the Parliamentarians or House Chairs of other chapters that have houses to get ideas for wording.

Good luck and congratulations on having this problem! That really says a lot.

[AZ-AlphaXi]

another option other than scroll numbers or a lottery (both of which are reasonable systems) .. is if you have a merit system of some kind than those with the most merit points get first choice of moving in or not.

[irishpipes]

We do a merit system. Members earn points based on chapter offices currently or previously held, campus activities, class status, GPA, etc. Members are prioritized after points are tabulated and then are given the right of first refusal. The same points are used to determine room picks. It is great incentive for members to be active and get good grades.

[AnchorAlumna]

Be sure to check your sorority's policies. Certain members of the executive board may be REQUIRED to live in.

[BigRedBeta]

We had space for pledges to live in, so they did, up to about 22 of them. Usually we had several pledges that wanted to live out or were required to by scholarships or the like so we could take more.

The executive board was required to live in, and there were a number of times where that bylaw was challenged, but it never changed.

The sophomore pledge class was guaranteed spots, and after that, it went by roll number. If you were at the end of your class going into junior year, then you were most likely going to live out (keep in mind I'm talking about pledge class year, not actual year in school). As long as you have some sort of merit based system of awarding roll numbers, it's an okay system...and no one was forced to live in the house if they didn't want to.

[dnall]

While I come from a fraternity perspective, I still think this is valid.

I would lean more to keeping older girls in & making younger girls wait. You don't want your seniors forced out of the house and theoretically not as closely associated with the chapter. You want them heading into alumnae status with the fondest possible memory - and the latest memory is the most important one. On the other end... I know you need to hold your new girls close to reinforce their commitment to the org, but if they have to wait to live-in then they'll still have a chance later. They also really haven't done anything of consequences in the chapter to be deserving of the privileged.

It's great you're in this situation, and hopefully you'll continue to grow so it's an even bigger problem. We should all have such problems. There's different philosophies, all based in sound logic. Yall will have to develop and change that as you go to suit your priorities.

In the long-term, most chapters have a points system based on seniority, grades, chapter participation, and campus participation. It's always complicated, but at least it's fair and you can tweak details to get the chapter performance you're looking for.

I would also mention optional meal-plans for live-outs, especially if your house is walking distance from campus. That's extra money that might help you save toward adding on sometime down the road.

[knight_shadow]

Are you looking at the dates of the threads that you're posting in?

[dnall]

I didn't in that case, but honestly it doesn't matter. The only reasons there are posts that old still on here is because different people search for and find old information that apply to their current situation.