I'm nineteen! Sorry if that's off-putting...
Anyhow...to clarify. Oh boy. I have every intention of rushing that small sorority that many of you have recommended to me in the fall, but as of now I am ineligible to rush because of formal recruitment rules. As such, I decided to reach out to the GC community in the meantime to see if perhaps starting up a new sorority with a 100% clean slate would be an even better bet. I saw that there was a local forum, didn't know much about locals, but asked the question to get the cogs in my brain turning while I bide my time til the fall.
The resounding response is first and foremost I already have to be within the Greek community (which I plan to be for sure) in order to make effective change, and that joining an already established but smaller sorority is better than starting from scratch (which I definitely didn't know). This is the advice I had been seeking so I thank you.
So I hope that we are all actually somewhat on the same page in terms of, you need to become Greek to know Greek to improve Greek. I thought that forming a local could be that "becoming Greek", but maybe I jumped the gun by posting on here without thoroughly scanning the locals forum, where locals are viewed more negatively than I anticipated. I did not realize locals were viewed as anti-Greek-but-trying-to-be-Greek organizations, and that colored my question badly. I am not anti-Greek. In any case, I still see the inherent problems of our university's social system (Greek vs. GDI, the Row vs. the University, guys' treatment of girls, girls being ok with it, alcohol being necessary for people to attend things, etc.) and still hope to turn things into a more positive environment, hopefully in the fall in that sorority.
In terms of my prior recruitment: I am not a status hungry person. (If you're wondering, then, why on earth I would want to be the founder of a local, it would be in order not to alienate girls already in a house, a new member coming in with a new mission statement and direction and things. But! You have all said that I would be more effective already in an established sorority for reasons ranging from financial to practical and I appreciate that, because I hadn't considered it and came to you for advice.) I was gung-ho to get very involved with leadership positions in my sorority, but I went to pref for a sorority I felt comfortable in and one I did not. I received a bid to one I did not feel comfortable in, and that one happened to be the house that has trouble during formal recruitment.
I had a whole moral dilemma with declining that bid, which you are free to PM me about or check out my recruitment thread. But I would have declined a bid at any house where conversation was forced and stilted
during pref. (I consider it practically a sacred thing. I'm weird.) Status was not an issue. I mean...starting a local would mean having a group of 8 girls tops, and that's pushing it.
Being a writer, I decided to share my recruitment story with you on GC because I feel like it's an interesting case and in any case learned things that future PNMs could benefit from. But I had moved on, immersed myself in classes, work, volunteering, relationships, and my professional fraternity. Meanwhile my best friend has been going through dilemmas of her own within her sorority, and one roommate dropped hers out of lack of time. It wasn't until these recent USC scandals that I reexamined the Greek system and how we (as in USC, as in the Greek community, as in the media in general) are handling it.
USC students received an email from the administration after the Kappa Sig email, saying how it was wrong, offensive, etc...and then essentially "but someone from Harvard wrote it, thank god it wasn't us! So we're good!" which I and many people felt was a cop out. It was no comfort to those offended by the email, and they would prefer to see something along the lines of, yes it was wrong, and doesn't matter who wrote it, but this is a good opportunity to discuss what caused this email to be written and to discuss how to treat each other with respect. Instead no discussion came of it.
And now recently the Greek system was put on probation, which sucks because a girlfriend said that formal recruitment might be cancelled in the fall if more problems occur this semester. However, the overwhelming response to the punishment has been "shit! When can we party again!?" I say overwhelming but lots of people are negatively affected by this apart from partying. I know because I have friends that are officers in Kappa Sig, other fraternities, other sororities, student government, leaders in Panhellenic, and they often say how difficult it is to make positive change in a group that already has an entrenched history. As a member of a fraternity trying to move forward and be the best we can be, I know how that is. I'm not saying any group is perfect, and I'm not saying that I am better than anyone. I thought that a clean slate might be effective and your advice has been pointing to look elsewhere. So I appreciate your advice and will do so.
