Small Chapters

Aejo16 · #1 07-09-2002, 03:26 PM

'Any other Chapter president's on here that have small chapters? My chapter only has about 22 girls, and we are the only sorority on campus without a house. Our greek system here is not strong at ALL...we only have one that is at total, and only had 40 girls take bids during recruitment last year.

We seem to have bad luck all around, especially with recruitment. It seems like there aren't enough girls to do everything

But I am bound and determined to have better luck this year and show our campus what we already know--Phi Mus are the best!!

If anyone who has a small chapter, or a chapter that has had problems in the past, has any suggestions on how we can improve, or would just like to chat, please let me know! My aol IM is aejo16, and my e-mail is the same :-)

Thanks!

lionlove · #2 07-09-2002, 10:11 PM

Hi,

I am from a small chapter in PA with only around 40-50 girls. Total is 75 and every other sorority on campus is at or above total. I agree that it does hurt during recrutement when we have two pnms per sister and the other houses have one sister per pnm.

I also agree that weak chapters can turn around. When I pledged, I was one of 5 people in my whole class. There were 12 people graduating that year so it seemed that our chapter was losing numbers fast. We got a chapter consultant in a few months later and while she was here, we recriuted 15 new pledges via cob. It turned our chapter around pretty quickly.

My advice is to engage in subtle pr all year round, not just during rush. The Alpha Chi Omegas on our campus have a program called PACE, Promote Alpha Chi Everyday, and they are the biggest sorority on campus. The idea of PACE is to always have at least one sister doing something to promote Alpha Chi, even of she is just wearing letters while helping an old lady cross the street or a group of sisters hanging out in the student union having fun together. It isn't blatant pr but it gives the impression that they are a fun and caring sisterhood. As a result, they always do really well in rush (we have deffered rush until sophomore year on our campus so pnms have a year to get to know the sororities before rushing.) In Phi Mu, we do things like have a table in the cafeteria that is "ours" during lunch and sisters come and go during their lunch times but there is always at least a small group of sisters there. We sometimes invite friends of ours who "happen to be" freshmen to sit with us at our table (kind of a way to get freshmen women that we like to hang out with us and see how cool we are).

I guess the point of my above spiel is to mention that on my campus, subtle year round pr is what works for all of the houses on our campus.

Hope this helped. Feel free to PM me or IM me at clair424

pinkyphimu · #3 07-16-2002, 11:59 PM

I am a past president (and current alum) of a small chapter at a school in PA. When I joined in Oct 1995, I was a part of the biggest Phi class with 7 (and increased to 11 through COB) in the chapter's short history. In 1994, our school moved to a sophmore rush which had a really negative impact on our chapter. I agree that it is important to remember that rush is definately not a one week thing. Chapters not up to total should be able to have COB events. Have each member bring one non-greek friend to a COB event. Take an interest in the women you are meeting. Many people I know were not able to join my chapter due to finances, but were still very welcome in our house and at non ritual events. Invite people to non ritual meetings. If you are having a makeover party or having a guest speaker, then invite potential rushees. This gives them the opportuinity to see what you do!! Invite women to volunteer activities, etc. Inviting potential rushees to bid day helped us to increase our numbers. With small chapters on campus's with small greek populations, COB will be your life saver!
If you also have sophmore rush, then start in the spring by inviting freshmen women to an ice cream social or a pizza and friends party. Check with your school's policy, but ours was ok with this provided that all of the freshmen girls were invited.
WEAR YOUR LETTERS EVERYWHERE! People should see someone in letters all the time. Hang up banners and signs when sisters have something exciting happen. On campus, each sorority hung up a banner if a sister got engaged. When I was a junior, we had "Paint the cammpus Pink." Our student union looked like someone had thrown up pink, but it was great to get our name out. We had signs everywhere....and decorated everything! Join clubs and other activities and meet people. And most importantly, HAVE FUN!!!!!

Best of luck!

lionlove · #4 07-17-2002, 09:02 PM

pinkyphimu,
What chapter are you from? I am from a small chapter in PA also and your ideas sound like alot of things that we do

HotDamnImAPhiMu · #5 07-25-2002, 11:46 PM

HAHAHA! Paint the campus pink. I love it!

Girls, help me think up a cute name to Alpha Chi's PACE (Promote Alpha Chi Everyday.)

LIOB!
~ Jaxy

betapsigirl · #6 08-13-2002, 02:15 AM

We are also small... only twelve actives. Our largest phi class that I can remember was only five strong. COB doesn't do much for us, and greek life at our school isn't very big. (2.6% of students are greek.) We don't have a lot of time to do stuff, and we never have socials or anything, so we're getting a reputation for being snobs. All three fraternities that have houses are refusig to have socials with us. One said we never show up when they plan one with us, so that's it. Hmph. I have no idea what to do. Hopefully we can get some big classes this coming year.

OUlioness01 · #7 08-13-2002, 02:24 PM

we have a graffitti wall on campus where any organization can paint the wall. we hosted state day this year, and painting the wall was a great way to not only advertise ourselves but to welcome different chapters to our campus, celebrate the 150th, and celebrate our chapter's 75th anniversary of being on our campus.