Night Owls group

[thetygerlily]

Hey ladies,

I thought I'd get some advice from you. I graduated from college in '05 (Lawrence- Zeta Epsilon) in the midwest and moved back home (where I don't know any Kappas!). I tried to get involved in my local alumnae association but the group really isn't made for young working Kappas- almost all of their meetings and activities are during weekdays. All the working women who would normally be in this association join a different group because the other association is more fit to their needs. It's a perpetuating thing, from the sounds of it. I'd like to get more involved because I really miss being with Kappas, so one option is to start a Night Owls group. I'm seriously considering this, although at the beginning I'd have very little help because I just don't know any other working Kappas. Has anyone here started a Night Owls group? Any advice?

If you are just part of a Night Owls group, what kinds of things do you do? What other ideas do you have? Also, how are the groups structured- does the organizer rotate, or are there set chairs (a treasurer, a secretary, etc)?

I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on this!

~ Lily

[TrueBlueKappa]

I was thinking about posting this same thing. I just graduated and moved back home. My local alum group meets about 3 or 4 times a year, for a weekday luncheon. I am a teacher and can't attend. I feel so out of the Kappa loop. I'd love to start a young alum group, but I don't think there are any other young alums around. Guess that's what happens when you live in coastal Florida, the retirement capital of the universe!

Sorry I can't help, but I can feel your pain!

[thetygerlily]

Thanks TrueBlue- it's good to at least hear that there's someone else out there with this issue! With all the recruitment threads about FL I'd think there are a lot of young Kappas there... or maybe they all congregate in the big cities and stay away from Retirementville! It might be worth a shot, though, to see if there are others around. I know there are young Kappas here, I just don't know if they are happy in the Seattle association or if they'd be interested in getting to know people closer to home. I know how I feel, obviously, but you never know what others are thinking! Hmm... lots of thinking to do!

[ISUKappa]

I know there's a fairly active Night Owls group in the Twin Cities, I'll ask my pledge sister to see if she's gone to any events lately.

We're lucky if we get Founders Day and one other event in for our Alum group. I don't have time to plan anything anymore with trying to juggle Advisory Board and my son.

I would guess there'd be some interest in a night owls group, even if it was just drinks or something after work one night a month or so.

[paulaKKG]

Sorry your alum group is demographically challenged - I think you're right about it being a self perpetuating problem.

You might try emailing the association president to ask if she can help you can start an evening group. Each association gets a list from Kappa headquarters every year of all the Kappas that live in their area (that KKG HQ knows about anyway). Its just a big excel spreadsheet, but you can sort the list by intitiation date to figure out who the other "young kappas" in the area are. Then you can start making calls or send emails those ladies.

The night owls group in my association is just a happy hour group that consists of primarily the younger crowd. There was a group of 3-4 folks who organize it - they just picked a night and a place to meet and sent an evite out. I did learn a trick though, that if you call ahead to a bar and say you have a happy hour crowd coming, sometimes they'll give you special deals like free appetizers or something.

The Washington/Maryland alum group had a similar situation to what you describe - they had many older members and not many younger members, and it became self-perpetuating. Some of the younger alums in the area the started a night owls group, and from that they were able to grow a pretty good the group and now they have other evening/career/etc groups as well. If you can't find the washington/maryland president's email on the kappa website, PM me and I can send it to you.

Cheers,
Paula

[thetygerlily]

I should have mentioned before that it was the AA President who suggested the idea of starting a Night Owls group. That was a year ago, right after I graduated & had just joined the group. So I know I have her support- but she doesn't know exactly where to take it from there, and I obviously don't know either :-)

I actually did visit with the Twin Cities Night Owls one night- my chapter did some road trips to visit other schools, and the first of those was to Chi! The Night Owls were getting together for Bunco & snacks. It was fun, and there were definitely a lot of people there!

It is good to know, though, about the list of Kappas. It may be worth a shot to contact everyone within a certain initiation range and see what kind of feedback I get! I was thinking that I would be starting blindly, so that actually makes me feel much better. I figured there was something like that out there, I just wasn't sure it got to the AA level (especially considering that our association isn't the most technically savvy).

PaulaKKG, what other evening/career/etc groups were started, if you know? I'd be interested to hear... maybe that'd give me some inspiration as well.

[ISUKappa]

Lily

Did you get my PM? I basically said the same things Paula did, but wanted to make sure it went through.

[thetygerlily]

Yep, I just replied!

[Emory Kappa]

Kappa.org can help!

In looking for members, you could go to the galley spreadsheet that lists the members, but there's also the member directory on the website. It allows you to sort by initiation date, location, etc. It's great!

I know that one of the projects in process right now is getting all the Night Owls chairs listed on the website. (I haven't checked to see if it's up just yet.) This could be a great resource for you.

Good luck with getting a group going! Any time a bunch of Kappas get together it's bound to be fun. Kudos to you for taking the initiative.

[paulaKKG]

Originally Posted by thetygerlily

PaulaKKG, what other evening/career/etc groups were started, if you know? I'd be interested to hear... maybe that'd give me some inspiration as well.

Hi - Sorry for the delayed response, I've been on vacation :-)

Other association groups that are not daytime oriented are our evening book club (that has all ages, but shades younger than the daytime book club); a wine tasting group, and a career kappa group. The career kappa group and the night owl group were semi merged for a while, but since there are a number of career ladies who aren't necessarily 20something, we separated those groups. I've heard of other associations having a "dinner club", a movie group, a theater group,

Starting a group is a pretty informal process - someone decides they want to form a group around a particular interest (say, wine tasting) and they put a notice in the newsletter, or we send out an email usually with the time/location of the first event. I'm personally trying to get a running group going in our association, and I'll share that I've found that personal follow up and one on one recruitment of participants is key. No one wants to be the "first one" to show up, and everyone fears going somewhere and not knowing anyone, so I find calling on the phone is a good way for someone to feel like if they do come, at least they will know *me*. Thats probably the biggest hurdle to overcome with starting a new group, once people make a personal connection, keeping it going isn't so hard.

With the night owls, some ideas for events that are more interesting than just happy hours are bowling night, going to a local sports event, or such.

I'll PM you my email address, since I'm not on GreekChat all the time.

Cheers,
Paula