Hi there!
I can completely understand and respect those who disagree with Gamma Chi. I can understand and respect that some people don't understand what Gamma Chi's purpose is, don't feel that it's a place for them etc. And you know what? That's OK! Really! It would be foolish to think that everyone is going to like everything.
However, when a couple of people posted that they thought Gamma Chi was stupid, I didn't think that was very nice. For example, when AXWoah said that Gamma Chi was, "...the supidest thing ever", that hurt my feelings. Believe me, I agree that people can have the right to an opinion, and I am more than glad to hear out reasonable discussions. But, as someone else pointed out earlier, it's just not nice to name an organization and effectively say, "you suck."
If I went onto the Greek Life forum and posted a message like, "I visited suchandsuch university today and boy, let me tell ya, XYZ sorority is the lamest chapter I ever saw!" there would be an uproar about it. Yet, some think its ok to say something like that about Gamma Chi.
Respectfully, a more appropriate post would have been something like "I just can't see myself signing up for something like Gamma Chi. I feel that it takes away from my GLO...it doesn't have a strong mission etc." A couple people did that and I appreciate that very much. Thank you. However, a few people said things that I thought were mean. Does everyone understand what I am trying to say here?
Also, I do not agree with the people who have been saying that Gamma Chi is not a "real" organization. That's an unfair thing to say. How does an organization become "real"? Is it by your standards? Is it only "real" when a trademark is filed with the US government? In that case, many of the locals on Greek Chat would not be allowed to discuss their organizations here either. Gamma Chi is very real.
As for the whole argument that crests, rituals and stuff should be ignored. I both agree and disagree. Things like that are fun to have and important too. However, it shouldn't have been a top priority. Setting a mission and writing a constitution should have been a top priority. But, as I've mentioned before, everyone wanted to help out so badly that we created the various committees to help people get involved. Just as I predicted, too many cooks spoiled the broth.
Now, that's not saying that these people were foolish for wanting to have that committee, but that many people did their own thing without communicating it to the rest of the group. In case no one noticed, I did try my best to get things organized in an orderly fashion. However, people just got a little too carried away with it all.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I agree that some of the Gamma Chi people have made some negative posts. However, I think I can understand why. Everyone got excited about the idea of Gamma Chi and started taking off in different directions instead of letting the committees do their jobs. The membership committee in particular was under additional strain from people asking over and over and over and over about how they can join Gamma Chi. Frankly, the information had been posted several times - it just that people weren't reading it. Then they'd get upset when no one PM'd them to personally explain how to go about it. That's when the membership committee posted this "pay attention" post. Was it the nicest post ever? Nope. But, as someone who has had experiences very similar to this, I can understand why the membership committee felt that they were tired of explaining this to people.
Even though I am not a member of the membership committee, I have been one of the people working on Gamma Chi. I wish to extend my personal apologies to those who feel that they have been excluded, or that their opinions haven't been properly received. I hope you can take some consolation in knowing that I have heard and registered your opinions.
I will do my best to help clarify some of the issues with Gamma Chi, starting with:
1) Finding a way to get the Gamma Chi discussions off of the Greek Life forum
2) Setting a solid and definite mission statement.
I do not feel that anyone's posts have been a personal attack against me. I hope that everyone receives my words today in the respectful and gentle manner in which I wrote them.
Hugs to everyone!
......Kelly
