Quote:
Originally Posted by Sciencewoman
As detailed as Irishpipes's list is, there are also "immediate recolonizations" (which used to be known as reorganizations) that may not have made the list. I don't think those are done anymore, because they usually don't work well and they create bitter feelings. However, if a chapter had a physical house and they don't want to ose it, it was probably worth a try.
In those efforts, the current members would all be given alum status (and sometimes an opportunity to be interviewed by the national reps and remain active with the newly reconstituted group), and then nationals would recruit a whole new "clean slate" group of PNMs the next semester. Sigma Kappa did this at Maryland when I was there, and it worked great. That would have been 1984, I think. Both my chapter of initiation (Michigan) dit this, and so did Maryland. Both times, the chapters eventually closed for real and they've both sucessfully recolonized after 10-15 year hiatuses. None of these intermediy reorganizations appear in Irishpipe's thread, and I know of 2-3 more with other groups at Michigan that aren't noted either.
Does anyone remember the big brouhaha a few years ago when Delta Zeta tried to reorganize at a school in illinois or indiana due to low numbers and there was a big media spash because disgruntled members who were given alumnae status publically complained about the process?
I think RFM has helped, and staying off for 4+ years helps, too.
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That was DePauw Delta Zeta, and I think that's a great cautionary tale of why reorganizations don't always work. There's a Wikipedia article with more details about it online.
I suppose there's different levels of closure: there's closed and gone and no members for 4+ years, closed and no members for less than four years, close down for a year or two and come back with all the same members (a couple sororities at UConn did this with mixed results), make all the current members go early alum and recruit a whole new chapter, pull out of recruitment and have a "colonization" but keep the current members.
I suppose it comes down to how badly a sorority wants to be on that campus, how difficult it is to recolonize if you're gone more than four years, and whether a new group can overcome the previous reputation of the chapter or if they need to wait for that to go away before they try to return.
