financial advisors....

[StargazerLily]

Oh My God, I want to pull my hair out and scream.

Are there any other financial advisors out there? Preferably from chapters that are comprised of girls who are working and paying their bill on their own, and not the mentality of "If you have to ask how much sorority cost, then you probably cant afford to join."

The chapter I advise has pretty low dues. It's right at $300 a semester - no house (not yet anyway). New members pay $415. They are told this before they join. They are also given a breakdown of how much their dues are, when each payment is owed, etc. I've rearranged how dues are billed, but every semester, I have that girl (or girls) who "oops, cant afford it."

I have been advisng just over a year, and I've been burnt bad already by some really flakey girls. As a result, I have a low tolerance for girls who always have an excuse why they cant pay. I got tired of the chapter paying national dues for girls who never paid their bill and then got kicked out for financial delinquency. So I made it mandatory that they had to pay their national dues (initiation, and semi annual dues) in full before they were allowed to initiate. Really, if they would just pay the darn bill by the due date, this wouldnt be a problem.

You would think.

What gives? Jeez, $415 as a new member is not that big a deal. The chapter has busted their butts to get to total this semester, and we want to have great retention efforts, but darnit they need to pay their stinking bills. Why is that so hard to understand? I was an undergrad. I knew I had a financial responsibility, and I paid my bill on time, or I went and asked for a payment plan before I got so far in over my head that it was impossible to get caught up.

If I had my way, I'd bill the whole semester in full on their very first bill and require the $415 up front. But that wont fly on this campus. So what do you do? I've tried getting the New member educator on board with me to help educate them on their finances, but I swear I've told her the same thing 16 times this semester already - so I dont know how much of that information is actually being relayed to the new members.

I tried to correct this problem before it started by creating a financial packet for the new members, including what to expect financially, and my contact info if they had any problems, or questions. ONE has contacted me. And there are more than one who are already past due on their bills. And initiation is next week.

uuuuuuuuuuuughhh.

[KSUViolet06]

Our Panhellenic required to hand out financial info during recruitment, so the girls who couldn't afford to be in a sorority usually dropped out.

As far as getting girls to pay, the New Members are all required to pay ALL FIRST SEMESTER FEES BEFORE INITIATION. NO EXECEPTIONS.

Our HQ has to approve all initiations a week prior anyway, and they wouldn't approve them without full payments.

If they didn't pay in full, they didn't get initiated with their class. They'd have to be held over until the next one. So there was no such thing as "oops" because if you didn't pay, you couldn't get initiated.

As far as active members not paying dues, our treasurer was very flexible with working out payment plans, but girls who were delinquent were sent to Honor Council and received disciplinary actions (such as not being able to attend certain events, take Little Sisters, etc).

[StargazerLily]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

As far as getting girls to pay, the New Members were all required to pay ALL FIRST SEMESTER FEES BEFORE INITIATION. NO EXECEPTIONS.

I had already been thinking about this, but I'm going to have to ask the chapter advisor and other "bosses" if I can implement this starting in the spring. I think it would help with our retention because if they can afford 415 all at once, they can afford normal monthly dues totalling 300 in subsequent semesters....

It's not going to go over well, but it's getting to the point that i think it's necessary. I hope I can convince them of it....

[StargazerLily]

Yeah, I dont budge on the little sister thing AT ALL. If you can afford to buy stuff for a little, you can afford your dues, and your dues are a priority.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by StargazerLily

I think it would help with our retention because if they can afford 415 all at once, they can afford normal monthly dues totalling 300 in subsequent semesters....

It's not going to go over well, but it's getting to the point that i think it's necessary. I hope I can convince them of it....

To clarify: they have all semester to pay their first semester fees (usually about $650), but they had to be paid in full by x date before initiation. You could pay $50 per week, $100 a month, whatever, as long as you were paid in full by a certain date before Initiation. A week before Initiation was usually the due date.

Also: with active sisters, we were very stringent about not allowing them to do "extras" if they weren't current on dues. For example, if you can't pay dues, you are not eligible to be a Big Sis, go to Formal (since the cost of formal was built into my chapter's dues), or have a Pearl Pal.

[StargazerLily]

Well, NM period is only 5-8 weeks, which still makes it tough. They are required to pay $75 up front to pledge, so that only leaves 340 to pay in the next 8 weeks. I understand what you're saying, and I like it. I have been wanting to suggest something like this for a while now. I dont want to turn PNMs away who would be great sisters, but seriously - sorority is not free. Be responsible. I'm tired of my secrets being shared with girls who were too flakey to be financially responsible, who later get kicked out.

[AGDee]

I'm reading this thinking "$415 in two months is a lot". I was a finance advisor and on our international finance committee (overseeing 7 chapters re: finance) for 6 years so here goes:

1) Break down what must be paid prior to Initiation (New Member fee, badge, Initiation Fee). They would need to pay the $75 to pledge. Then divide the rest of what has to be paid before Initiation into two payments with due dates, the last one due at least one week prior to Initiation. Have them pay the rest of their dues for that term after Initiation, divided by the other two months (nov and dec).

2) If you don't know what information is being conveyed to them, then attend a new member meeting and give them the info yourself, with due dates. A little program on "where does your money go?" would be really helpful so they know exactly what they're paying for: $xxx gets sent to our Headquarters to cover expenses like visitors, report and web development, etc. $xxx stays with the chapter. Have a pie chart of what percentage of the general budget covers recruitment, social, business expenses (copies, postage), house (if applicable). Another little chart showing how it affects the budget (usually deducted from social!) if sisters don't pay. Emphasize, in person, that payment plans can be available and that they should contact you if they need to arrange one. In my experience, they aren't going to contact someone that they don't feel like they know. Collegiate women I've met face to face are always more likely to contact me.

3) If you're not set up to accept credit cards, either get yourself set up to do so or consider going with one of the bill paying agencies (although you have to pay them based on your accounts receivables) to bill the women and follow up with payment. There are a few out there, Omega Financial, Bill Highway.. that focus on Greeks. I'm sure there are threads about these services.

4) I would double check national policies. I can't imagine that any group allows women to be initiated if they haven't paid what is required to be sent to their Headquarters for an Initiation fee. It probably isn't you making policy, but you *enforcing* policy.

5) Contact whoever your support system is in the hierarchy of your sorority (regional/province support) for ideas and support with enforcing current policies.