documents

[mckid]

besides the constitution, what are other important documents that a sorority should have? I am trying to reactive a long lost sorority on a campus without any greek, so I don't have a lot to go by and i've tried searching online, but I don't want to miss out on anything important. If I'm going to do this, I might as well do it right.

[Optimist Prime]

costitution
by-laws (inter/national and local)
ritual
creed
pledge ceremony
sweetheart/big bro ceremony
charter

[emb021]

Actually, in current parliamentary practice, the basic document of an organization is called the "bylaws". The use of a separate constitution or calling the document "constitution and bylaws" went out of favor several decades ago. (sadly, several GLOs don't seem to have gotten this message).

Is this group a local or part of a National organization. If part of a national group, said group will probably expect you to sign off on some kind of 'standard chapter articles of association' and provide you with a template for your chapter bylaws. Heck, if you are reactivating one of their chapters, they may have the previous groups documents on file.

In addition to bylaws, its a good idea to have a set of "Standing Rules". Standing rules contain additional information about the org that really don't belong in the bylaws.

Most national orgs will have additional policy documents covering things like Membership Policy, Disciplinary Policy, Risk Management, and the like. If you are a local, you may need to create your own, but I would check with your university to see if they have any rules/policies regarding what they require from student groups. Check with them in any case. they may have rules regarding organizational bylaws and the like, including clauses they expect to be in them or the like.

Hope this helps.

[Kevin]

mckid, if you can tell us whether your organization is/was national or local, we can help you out. That is to ask whether there was only one chapter of this organization in the world, or whether it was part of a large national organization.

If you're not sure, try a Google search, or give us the name of the organization.

If the chapter was part of a national organization, you'll want to go to the national body, find out what type of national it is (different groups have different rules as far as where their chapters are allowed to be placed). You'll also want to talk to your campus life advisor to make sure that Greek organizations aren't against the rules.

In other words, your question is far too non-specific for us to be able to give you any real advice. The more specific that you can be, the more direction we can give you.

Best of luck.

[Denise_DPhiE]

KTSnake,

It was a local, she hasn't given the name but she has posted several inquiries in various locations so if you trace under her, you can put it together a bit more. Her school has nothing for her to base anything on. Should she get permisison to establish a group, she can follow BetaRose's and others advise.

Denise

[emb021]

Originally posted by Optimist Prime
costitution
by-laws (inter/national and local)
ritual
creed
pledge ceremony
sweetheart/big bro ceremony
charter

Actually, I think this is incorrect.

I don't consider rituals/ceremonies as having an 'authority' in the same sense as documents like your Bylaws, etc. They ARE important, and they pass on some very important information/concepts/ideals/etc of our organizations, but they aren't authorities. Same for your creed.

Parliamentarians teach that this is the hierarchy of important documents/authorities for organizations:

* National Laws
* State Laws
* Local Laws
* Articles of Incorporation/Association or Charter (IF Incorporated)
* National Bylaws (if a national organization)
* State Bylaws (if a state level exists)
* Organization Bylaws
* Special Rules of Order (if the organization wants them)
* Parliamentary Authority (Robert's Rules of Order, etc)
* Standing Rules (may be called 'policies & procedures')

Now, for a student organization (I include all GLOs in this), you must also include University Policies/rules. Most GLOs (national and local) usually operate on the priciples that university policies over rule theirs, so these would go in just below local laws.

Your organization may have some kind of 'Chapter articles of association'. These would come above chapter bylaws. Any rituals/ceremonies coming from the national body (pledge ceremony, initiation ceremony, etc), would be above any chapter documents. Same for any national level policies and procedures (membership policy, risk management, pledge rules, etc). You might have some kind of "National Convention Standing Rules", these too, would be above any chapter documents, but that really doesn't matter as they have no affect on a chapter and how it operates.

If you have a Chapter Charter, since this comes from the National body, it too, comes above any chapter documents.

Hope this helps

[Optimist Prime]

They might not have any binding authority, but if a chapter operates in contradiction to their ritual, they have forgotten their reason for existance.

[Corsulian]

One of the easiest, in my opinion, things to do is to have two primary documents

The Bylaws (or Constitution--it really doesn't matter what you call them--but both nationals and your school probably have a certain template for them to look like--they're usually not terribly long or detailed)

The Standing Rules (almost everything else can fit in here)

It's like when you think about the US Govt--there's the Constitution which outlines the big stuff, and then 48 billion other rules and regulations


I've been working in my own organization to create uniform documents (all with same letterhead, format, etc) to look more professional. It's for everything from signup forms for intramural basketball, to chapter history logs, to ledgers--I think it's a good idea