Need help with *everything*

[pbear19]

Hello! I recently stumbled upon this board and I am so happy that I did. I hope you all will forgive me for my complete ignorance, but this is why I am asking questions.

I am a member of a local service sorority that is thinking about trying to go national. We all know that this is a process that will take years and a lot of hard work. We don't want to affiliate with a national, because we think our organization would provide a great alternative to some of the other service sororities out there now.

I'm graduating in May, but I'll be staying here in town. So it looks like I will probably be leading the project of going national. (I can keep working on it for years, and I've been active in the organization for five years already.)

My problem is that I know absolutely nothing!! Since this is not an official project yet, I'm trying to learn as much in advance to be able to present to the sorority. We don't want the rest of the university to know yet that we're thinking about this, because it's not official. So I can't go around asking other students, advisors, etc. about their opinions.

I guess I would just like some basic ideas of where to begin. We would like to be incorporated, but need to know where to begin. I know we'll need insurance. Also, we'll probably have to change our bylaws so that we have local and national bylaws, correct? And do we need to be affiliated with some type of national organization like National Panhellenic or is that only for social sororities?

I'm sure I sound completely ignorant, but I would just really like some advice on what needs to be done first, before we even think about going to other universities and seeing if there is interest. If anyone can help, I'd appreciate anything you have to say!

[33girl]

National Panhellenic is only for social sororities and I think you have to be national for 5 years and have 13 chapters, or something....anyway, it's a lot.

Once you have several chapters, you would make national bylaws and each chapter would make their own local bylaws.

That's about all I know on this subject! There are several posters on this board who have done what you're attempting to do. Good Luck!

[ZChi4Life]

Hi pbear and welcome to our board!

First off, starting a national org will definitely take a lot of work. I think the first thing you will or should want to look into is getting your sorority incorporated. I am not sure where one would go to do this but I'm sure if you surf the net, you might be able to find this. Or maybe some of the other up and coming org members on this board can help you with that aspect.

I think once you take care of that or even while you are taking care of that, you will need to start the expansion part of becoming national. However, you and your sisters will need to come up w/ a process of expansion. By this I mean, you need to come up with the methods by which an Interest Group will become a chapter. For instance, my sorority does this: Interest Group, Colony and then Chapter....where each of these phases will include having the interested ladies accomplish certain tasks before they can become members.

Example: w/ my sorority, women in the Interest Group phase have certain requirements to fulfill to become a Colony such as establishing themselves as an official student org on campus, finding a faculty member to serve as an advisor, making a list of short and long term goals, etc, etc. They also need to have at least 6 women to be an IG and they need to be an IG for at least a semester.
For the next phase which is Colony status, the women would be colonized if they met all the requirements asked of them during the IG phase. At this point, they also become Associate Members of our sorority, meaning they are now allowed to go through the sorority's educational process to learn our history, traditions, etc. During this process, they will again have requirements to fulfill to become an official Chapter.

So as you can see, you can do something similiar to that or vary it however you want to. I would try to do some research of the expansion processes of the service sororities out there to see which one you guys could borrow ideas from or modify to fit your org. My sorority is social and you can use the methods of a social sorority, but since you all are service, their methods might suit you all better. That's all up to you though.

After you figure out the expansion process, you will need to get your name out! That takes lots of advertising. If you all have a website, I would start there and start posting it on all the search engines on the net. If you don't have one, I'd make one. When my chapter got established, our sorority didn't have a website. Our chapter started the first website. From there, we have gotten SO much response from women all over the country wanting to start a chapter on their campus. So websites are GREAT for recruiting! Next, if you have other colleges/uni's around, I would start advertising (putting up flyers, etc) to see if anyone would like to start a chapter. If there aren't any close schools around, then you all will have to do some traveling to the nearest schools. I would try to start w/ the schools that are closest to you b/c it can be hard expanding to places that are really far away.

Let's see..I think that's like the basic things you need to do to get started. I'm the National Asst Membership Chair of my sorority, so I asst w/ starting new chapters. Feel free to email me...my email address is in my profile.

Or just post on the board again, we're all really friendly in here and will do our best to help you!
ZC4L

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A Radiant Lady of
Zeta Sigma Chi Multicultural Sorority, Inc.

"Diversity: Often perpetrated, never initiated"

[pbear19]

Thanks for your speedy replies ladies! I feel better knowing the small amount that I know now from your replies and other threads in this forum.

Are there any service sororities at all that post here? Although we are service, we have a ton of social activities, and we participate in Homecoming and all the campus-wide events that our university has. We don't participate in Greek Week of course. Our university is fairly small. We have 5 NPC sororities and (I think) 3 NPHC sororities. We also have a local social sorority. We have one other service sorority, which has about 200 members. There are also tons of other orgs, including some coed service orgs. Our niche is that we are smaller (50-60 members on average) and we try to really combine the city community with the campus community. (By that I mean we do a lot of service projects with the town, and I think we are one of the most well recognized organizations by the local townspeople.)

Anyway, that's some more info about us. We have about 10% of our members who are also in social sororities, and then some who would never rush a social. It's been a blessing to me, and that's why I'm excited about the opportunity to bring the org to other universities.

I could go on and on, but I just wanted to say thanks for helping me so far.

[equeen]

Whew, where do I start! pbear19, I'll get back to you a in a bit...I have an exam in a couple hours that needs some last-minute review time!

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@-->---
Pure as Silver, and True Blue!
Alpha Sigma Kappa - Women in Technical Studies

[gsswonder]

pbear, I am a member of a national service sorority. In fact my chapter just became a chapter last April. I'd be happy to answer some of you questions.
Also, what is the name of the other service sorority there?

[pbear19]

Well, I've done a lot of research the last couple of weeks, and I'm pretty sure that I've discovered that the other service sorority is not national. I was always told that they were, but maybe it's just a misconception because they are about 30 years old. But, they might have some other chapters. I really think I was just going on hearsay. Their name is Alpha Sigma Gamma. Does that ring a bell for anyone?

I'm guessing that you're in Gamma Sigma Sigma, right? I've done some research on you guys as well. Was your chapter a local before you became GSS, or were you founded with that purpose? I'd love to hear what you think about it. At our meeting this week I'm going to be passing out a survey to our members to test the waters on some subjects. One of the questions will be if they would be willing to affiliate with an already established national group like yours. I'm sure it would be tons easier than starting our own national org, but I'm not sure if the girls will go for it just yet.

I have to say that I totally love my sorority, and would almost hate to see us affiliate. For one thing, we have the cutest mascot of anyone! Ours is the panda bear, and I already have so many stuffed panda bears and pictures that I've decided that when I have kids I'm going to decorate the baby room in pandas!

But, it would still be helpful for us to hear what an insider thinks of an established national like yours. So if you have any opinions, I'd love to hear them. You can email me if you'd rather. And thanks!

[pbear19]

I went to the officer's meeting tonight to share with everyone all of the stuff that I have learned so far, and I'm so excited!! I just had to share this! It's still unofficial, but I think that we are really going to go through with starting a new national service sorority! I'll be passing out a poll on Sunday to see what the rest of the members think, and to guage their interest. But I got nothing but positive feedback from the officers. We ranged from getting goose bumps to one girl almost being in tears at the thought of having our letters all over the country and being able to participate in stuff when we're little old ladies!

I know it will be a long process, but I'm sure we can do it. The officers alone mentioned five or six different universities that they have friends at who have at some point expressed interest in us.

Anyway, I'm just really psyched, so I thought I'd share. Also, this may seem silly, but even though I know there are a few Gamma Sigs who post on this board, I was just wondering if anyone would be offended by me posting. I mean, since my org is neither national nor social. I don't want to step on the toes of anyone.

If anyone still has any thoughts or suggestions I'm very interested in hearing them!

[ZChi4Life]

pbear,
That's great that you guys decided to go National! I wish you all nothing but luck on your road to becoming bigger and better
And I don't know about anyone else, but I don't mind you posting here at all. That's what this forum is for. So consider this your new home! Welcome, welcome, welcome!!

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A Radiant Lady of
Zeta Sigma Chi Multicultural Sorority, Inc.

"Diversity: Often perpetrated, never initiated"