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I think that Alpha Gam is understanding of the differences between all chapters. They provide special exceptions to some chapters for things like a mandatory Housing Support Fee. We have a chapter in the inner city of Detroit at Wayne State University who gets exempt from this payment each year. I have another chapter who rents their house and has permission for a reduced mandatory fee.
They had scheduled a travelling consultant for Wayne State for 10 days and I talked with them about shortening the stay because, for them, a consultant is usually staying at someone's house with their parents, since they all live at home and commute. They were able to shorten the stay to make it more comfortable for everybody and still get things accomplished.
The awards that are presented at our Convention are divided into categories based on size. So three awards are actually given: one for chapters under 50, one for chapters with 50-95 and one for chapters over 95. That way chapters are competing for awards with other chapters of similar means/sizes. The current philosophy is to pour tons of support into struggling chapter to keep them alive and get them thriving again instead of closing them.
Bottom line is, we have some awesome chapters with 30 members and some awesome chapters with 150 members. How well they are living up to our purpose has nothing to do with their size. If a chapter has a house there are financial reasons for needing to be bigger, to be able to fill a house. It is easier to get things accomplished with at least 30 members. When you don't have enough women to fill all the offices and people are doubling up on offices, they get exhausted and burned out and retention suffers. It is easier for them if they are of similar size to the other chapters on their campus because of things like Greek Week competitions, socials, and sadly, reputations.
Dee
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