[aephi alum]

I've found that AEPhi's national office has been pretty understanding of my chapter's situation. We were a local sorority with 10 active sisters, and we wanted to remain relatively small. Total was (and I believe still is) 80, and we didn't feel it was really possible to form a sisterly bond with 79 chapter sisters... we wanted to grow to around 50. AEPhi was actually cool with the idea of our wanting to stay below total. My chapter has faced pressure to grow (10 is just a little too small), but we haven't had our arms twisted to get to total this semester or else, we don't get nastygrams when we don't make quota, etc. Plus, a few area alums always turn out to help with recruitment, so the chapter has support.

Every school is different. For most GLOs, there are campuses where they're the only chapter there and campuses where there are tons of GLOs represented. There are chapters at commuter schools and at residential schools. There are big chapters and little chapters; there are little chapters where all the other chapters are big (indicating a possible problem) and little chapters where all the other chapters are also little (which usually means there isn't a problem, greek life just isn't all that big there). Every chapter has its own situation, and it's great when a national office is flexible enough to recognize that one size doesn't fit all.