Advice on founding a sorority/cure me of founderitis

[SunflowerSmiles]

Hello all! I am hoping that some could either give me advice on how to accomplish this goal or cure me of founderitis. Sorry to have posted this question again, but all of the threads with good information seemed outdated.

My situation is a little different than many as not only did I go through recruitment, I pledged and was initiated into an NPC sorority. Tragically, our nationals has chosen to disestablish us despite the fact that we did nothing wrong. There were just so many things wrong with the way that the entire situation was handled, we feel that our (former) nationals no longer represents the values we pledged for. As a result, myself and many other former members of the organization would like to create a local sorority. Our chapter was often considered the chapter of "Misfits", and while that may have been a source of embarrassment for our nationals, we were not embarrassed of who we are. We still want girls like us to be able to have a house on campus.

This is where our 'new' sorority comes in. We want to take a page out of Phi Lambda's (the Christian Sorority) book and allow members who have been initiated into another sorority to join, but we will not allow members who currently hold active membership in another sorority to participate. We want an organization that upholds the values we hold and prepares girls for their future through sisterhood. We have a completely different structure and values from our former organization as well because we aren't trying to be XYZ house 2.0

There are no local organizations at our school, despite dire need, and there are no guidelines on how to get this done. Any and all advice would be appreciated.

[33girl]

How did the campus and Greek system react to your disestablishment? Did they think your National was awful for doing it, or did they treat it as a joke and say “about time they got canned, they’re irrelevant”?

If it’s the former, you have a chance of creating a new organization and attracting other women. But if it’s the latter, it will be very very hard to perpetuate a group that the rest of your campus has a negative opinion about.

The “not like other sororities” sorority doesn’t usually stay around long unless it has a DEFINABLE difference (substance free, geared to a certain religion, etc.). Also, advertising the fact that women who have been initiated into NPCs but were terminated or dropped, can have membership in your group, could make it look like you are trying to poach members.

You know your campus and its climate the best, so be honest with yourselves as to whether this could work.

[LXA SE285]

Long (old) thread here. Read the whole thing when you have time.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=10264

[SunflowerSmiles]

Originally Posted by 33girl

How did the campus and Greek system react to your disestablishment? Did they think your National was awful for doing it, or did they treat it as a joke and say “about time they got canned, they’re irrelevant”?

If it’s the former, you have a chance of creating a new organization and attracting other women. But if it’s the latter, it will be very very hard to perpetuate a group that the rest of your campus has a negative opinion about.

The “not like other sororities” sorority doesn’t usually stay around long unless it has a DEFINABLE difference (substance free, geared to a certain religion, etc.). Also, advertising the fact that women who have been initiated into NPCs but were terminated or dropped, can have membership in your group, could make it look like you are trying to poach members.

You know your campus and its climate the best, so be honest with yourselves as to whether this could work.

Currently, our University is pretty upset. Our nationals has burnt the bridge to the point where is it unlikely my chapter will ever be re-established because the university was not consulted and did not think this was the right choice. We also did absolutely nothing wrong which upset the university as well.

I’m open to not allowing women to hold dual membership or be imitated into another sorority at all, I just have to figure out how that would work because the founding executive council are all technically “unaffiliated college members” of our former sorority.

[carnation]

They didn't make you instant alumnae?

[SunflowerSmiles]

Originally Posted by carnation

They didn't make you instant alumnae?

No, they didn’t. This was all around handled poorly. They told us via email in the middle of the day that we were basically members of the national organization but no longer associated with a home chapter because they were pulling us. I have never been more embarrassed to be a member of my national organization.

[33girl]

https://www.collegian.psu.edu/archiv...2130938eb.html

When the Tri Delt chapter at PSU closed, the members still in good standing were considered “unaffiliated members.” I’m guessing a sorority would do this because of “once you go alum you can’t go back” policies. Underclassmen might transfer and this way they could reaffiliate with another collegiate chapter.

[SunflowerSmiles]

Originally Posted by 33girl

https://www.collegian.psu.edu/archiv...2130938eb.html

When the Tri Delt chapter at PSU closed, the members still in good standing were considered “unaffiliated members.” I’m guessing a sorority would do this because of “once you go alum you can’t go back” policies. Underclassmen might transfer and this way they could reaffiliate with another collegiate chapter.

That’s very true. Sorry, I meant it was handled very poorly in general in regards to how they let us know this news that we were now unaffiliated.

[Sororitysock]

Originally Posted by SunflowerSmiles

Hello all! I am hoping that some could either give me advice on how to accomplish this goal or cure me of founderitis. Sorry to have posted this question again, but all of the threads with good information seemed outdated.

My situation is a little different than many as not only did I go through recruitment, I pledged and was initiated into an NPC sorority. Tragically, our nationals has chosen to disestablish us despite the fact that we did nothing wrong. There were just so many things wrong with the way that the entire situation was handled, we feel that our (former) nationals no longer represents the values we pledged for. As a result, myself and many other former members of the organization would like to create a local sorority. Our chapter was often considered the chapter of "Misfits", and while that may have been a source of embarrassment for our nationals, we were not embarrassed of who we are. We still want girls like us to be able to have a house on campus.

This is where our 'new' sorority comes in. We want to take a page out of Phi Lambda's (the Christian Sorority) book and allow members who have been initiated into another sorority to join, but we will not allow members who currently hold active membership in another sorority to participate. We want an organization that upholds the values we hold and prepares girls for their future through sisterhood. We have a completely different structure and values from our former organization as well because we aren't trying to be XYZ house 2.0

There are no local organizations at our school, despite dire need, and there are no guidelines on how to get this done. Any and all advice would be appreciated.

Originally Posted by SunflowerSmiles

Currently, our University is pretty upset. Our nationals has burnt the bridge to the point where is it unlikely my chapter will ever be re-established because the university was not consulted and did not think this was the right choice. We also did absolutely nothing wrong which upset the university as well.

I’m open to not allowing women to hold dual membership or be imitated into another sorority at all, I just have to figure out how that would work because the founding executive council are all technically “unaffiliated college members” of our former sorority.

Originally Posted by SunflowerSmiles

No, they didn’t. This was all around handled poorly. They told us via email in the middle of the day that we were basically members of the national organization but no longer associated with a home chapter because they were pulling us. I have never been more embarrassed to be a member of my national organization.

Originally Posted by SunflowerSmiles

That’s very true. Sorry, I meant it was handled very poorly in general in regards to how they let us know this news that we were now unaffiliated.

So wait. You say your chapter did nothing wrong. You were unaware there were any issues between your chapter and national organization. Out of the blue, they sent out an email to inform you that you're closed. I'm not buying it.

If your school doesn't have locals, they may very well have a rule against it. If there were a "dire need" for the type of group you're suggesting, it would already exist. Even if you were able to start a local, no matter how you phrase it others are going to think of you as XYZ 2.0 because a large portion of your members will be the former XYZ members and you're trying to manipulate your new organization's rules to allow your former chapter members to join while putting roadblocks in front of other prospective members who are former members of different sororities.

[KSUViolet06]

The number 1 question to address to avoid founderitis:

What need or void is your new group going to address on your campus?

If you cannot answer the question, your new thing is probably not needed.

[KSUViolet06]

Some notes on need/void:

The answer is not "because everyone else is national."

The answer is also not "to fill my personal void because NHQ closed my chapter."


How is your group going to benefit the campus community in a way that everyone else does not?

[KSUViolet06]

I have a sister who started a chapter of a suicide awareness organization at our school.

Reason was not "I want to start a thing and be leader of a thing."

Reason was not "a thing for me and my friends to be in."

There was no such org on campus and she noticed a very real need.

Sorority is a tad different but the question is the same because generally speaking, every campus has more than one, so with new undertakings I have to ask what is going to make yours so special.

[AZTheta]

So who else knows where this school is besides me? Pretty transparent.

[SunflowerSmiles]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

I have a sister who started a chapter of a suicide awareness organization at our school.

Reason was not "I want to start a thing and be leader of a thing."

Reason was not "a thing for me and my friends to be in."

There was no such org on campus and she noticed a very real need.

Sorority is a tad different but the question is the same because generally speaking, every campus has more than one, so with new undertakings I have to ask what is going to make yours so special.

Right now it is difficult for out of state students, nonfreshmen or transfer students to find a greek home on our Campus because the recruitment is very competitive. We personally feel that everyone should have the opportunity to experience greek life regardless of where you started out which is why we want to create an organization that is open to those types of students. We also want to provide programming in a slightly different way than the other houses by making it less social and more service/scholastic oriented (but still having socials and networking opportunities!)
Additionally, our local philanthropy depends on the funds my chapter used to provide. Without a regular source of donations, the local organization is going to die.
Our University has told us that there was already a need for more sororities to join our campus and now the need has only been amplified now that we're gone. In my opinion, chapters have reached an unhealthy size to the point where most members do not even know everyone in their chapter. Now they will be forced to take even larger pledge classes to make up for our absence until a new chapter comes to campus and colonizes.

While this is something we're passionate about, it wasn't something we jumped to as our first resort. We could create a local club for our (former) philanthropy, but that wouldn't solve the issue of non-typical rushees not having a home. We could create a social club, but that doesn't seem to satisfy the service or social aspect of things. We have been considering something like a Spirit group like they have in Texas which is basically a sorority minus the letters, but I'm still trying to find more information on that and trying to explore all of our options.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AZTheta

So who else knows where this school is besides me? Pretty transparent.

In the immortal words of The Valley Girl Handbook, “Like, even Stevie Wonder could see it.”

OP, if you really want to be in an organization focused on service that has a social component, that already exists on your campus. I’m betting that groups that help transfer students and OOS students acclimate exist as well. But you can’t build a sorority just on “we’re the OOS students sorority” because it implies OOS students are not allowed to join other groups which is not true.

Sororitysock - I don’t think OP ever said she was unaware of issues between her chapter and their HQ or that this was out of the blue, rather that they were not closed for anything that was a risk management issue, and that when the end did come, she felt email wasn’t a suitable way to be notified.