I was involved with a colony where the school really needed an additional chapter, but when the colonization process started a FRACTION of the girls needed to get the colony off the ground showed up. The powers that be wrung their hands for awhile and eventually decided to go forward. I really enjoyed advising this chapter, but they really should have pulled the plug when reality didn't match expectations.

This has been something I've been concerned with all these really tightly stacked expansions that this kind of thing is going to happen, or worse, a colony that SHOULD succeed that doesn't because of dwindling interest in being the new group on campus.

Was the chapter ultimately successful?

Shouldn't they have figured that out BEFORE they bit on the expansion opportunity?

Sadly, no. They hung on for 3 or 4 years but it was always 2 or 3 very strong chapters against the girls that nobody wanted to join. I don't know if another sorority could have done it better, could have done more marketing prior to colonization to build support, could have found the magic pill that would get girls to see the value in joining the small chapter versus no sorority membership, or would have just pulled the plug after that first night when the writing was on the wall. But they were never able to recover from a bad start. And I've always felt badly for those girls who got a really lousy sorority experience.

Interest in Fall Formal recruitment showed there are enough PMN's to support adding another group, the university has the number and quality of female students to support another group, perhaps just the # of quality PMN's that attended this week were not sufficient. Not enough publicity? or the time of year?

But if we're talking about the quality of the candidates, and not necessarily the number of candidates, how would an organization necessarily know that before they submit their packets?

How long is the typical extension preparation before the recruitment events? It sounds like it's pretty common to host a week's worth of actual recruitment events, but how long do the colonization teams hang out on campus before those events take place? I assume that there would be some presence in terms of tabling, flyering, meeting with the leadership of other campus organizations, and signing up PNMs to attend the actual recruitment events. I would imagine that you'd get some idea of the quality and quantity of the candidates during that period, no?

How do you know it's quality? Nothing has been said about what the problem was. You are assuming this. The problem may be that not enough girls turned out.

Any word on the Sigma Kappa re-colonization at ASU? According to the SK website, preference was Feb 9.

One of my sisters from my chapter now lives in AZ and was involved - she put pictures on FB today, so I should go look and see what the story is...

ETA: Looks like about 60 or so - the photo made it tough to get a good count - and I don't have the attention to detail that I should - regardless, a happy looking bunch of young ladies just after formal pledging.

Yay...happy new Sigma Kappas! Thanks for the update!!

What's the average chapter size at ASU?

One of my friends from high school is a part of that chapter now (I am pretty sure)! She was initiated at Susquehanna University but now is at Arizona State. I'm so happy for her, she loves it there and she loves Sigma Kappa :)

Hey, that's my school! :D Susquehanna to Arizona State is quite a different experience, I bet!

Total was just changed to 145 which is the average chapter size at ASU.

Yes, I think there is a CPC vote in the next week or so to open for extension (or at least to start the process). Like Arkansas, the university is making land available to build new houses. My information is that they want stacked extensions for 2013 and 2015.