Rush/recruitment
There is always a certain degree of pressure to maintain numbers in a Fraternity chapter.
Its just not as intense as with the sororities.
We don't have total or ceiling which means that we don't have an arbitrary membership number that we can be compared with.
National Org's like you to be average size but there is very little pressure to achieve this.
A lot of organizations have motivational programs to increase new members such as Sig Eps +5 challenge which asks that you get 5 more pledges than your last year's average. This is common because without something like total to compare ourselves, its difficult to measure progress by an objective criteria that requires specific goal setting, ie we need 15 more pledges this semester to achieve ceiling.
Its my understanding that total/ceiling is designed to protect groups that may be temporarily weaker in numbers and/or deemed less popular on campus.
There is an underlying assumption that women are more likely than men to flock to the most popular groups creating discrepancies of 300 person chapters to 30 person chapters.
Total protects the smaller groups and spreads membership out. It also creates the mind boggling possibility that a person will not get to join the organization they want and that wants them because of an arbitrary number system! This is reinforced because if you decide not to pledge after going through the process you cannot enter the process again for a year.
There are reasons why Fraternities don't do this:
1. We tend to be more cut throat and are not about to subscribe to rules that may limit our membership.
2. We don't really care whether other groups fold or not (collectively).
3. Perhaps most importantly, we are generally not as well organized, nor disciplined when it comes to working together and effectively completing complex tasks as the average sorority chapter.
Speaking to a Greek Advisor at one of the largest Greek Systems in the country he/she mentioned that Fraternity chapters tended to be way behind sorority chapters in terms of being organized and competent. The adage there is that where the sororities go the fraternities follow.
This is strange to me given that a patriarchal world view and authority system has dominated all of recorded history.
Oh well sorry the writing is so dry . . . but I took a nap which always leaves me a little weak and brain dead for some reason . . anyone else have this problem?
[This message has been edited by James (edited January 28, 2001).]
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