Starting a new local sorority. Looking for help/advice

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[KSUViolet06]

Something to note: You need to have more of a reason for your existance beyond "Every other sorority is _______ and we're not."

When you're presenting yourselves to all of the sororities on campus, they aren't going to be very keen on aaproving an org that assumes that they all haze and are all partiers/snobs/whatever.

Also consider that the other sororities may not see a need for a new org at this time. You may think that there is absolutely a need for a new org because YOU and your members did not choose to join one. It could be that most of the women who rush at your school join chapters just fine.

Just something to keep in mind.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by nanook1844

We would never put another organization down because we wouldn't want them to do that to us. And of course, we wouldn't say those things to the other sororities while we're trying to convince them to vote us in.

No, you would just do it on an extremely public forum on the Internet.

You really aren't saying or doing anything different than most other sororities say and do in their mission statements, purposes, etc. And those all kind of sound the same, anyway.

If you want service to be your focus, found a chapter of Gamma Sigma Sigma or Omega Phi Alpha. Be advised, however, that your rushing and pledging requirements/procedures may differ from the other groups on campus.

You can only be so "different" without exhausting your membership pool.

ETA FYI: Using the same username everywhere throughout the Internet is an exceptionally bad plan.

[Pingyang]

Originally Posted by 33girl

If you want service to be your focus, found a chapter of Gamma Sigma Sigma or Omega Phi Alpha.

I tend to agree, unless your school doesn't allow or is generally opposed to national GLOs. It already sounds like you're describing GSS or OPA, so you might want to look into them as an alternative. If you go the direction of an established service sorority rather than a new local social sorority, you may also have a larger potential membership pool, since there would be few or no conflicts with other sororities on campus. Instead of a direct competitor, you'd be an entirely different type of organization. There might be advantages in that.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by nanook1844

In the past, our school has generally been opposed to affiliating with national GLOs. All of our Greek orgs on campus are local fraternities or sororities. We don't have any chapters of National Orgs.

Even like the NAACP, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, or other professional.honor societies having chapters?

And I echo the others who say it sounds like you are describing a chapter of OPA or GSS -- not so much with the service, but with the leadership development component.

[APiPhiHottie]

Creating a new organization is a very difficult, time consuming and expensive thing to do. It requires a lot of dedication from all founders and, obviously, is not something an individual can do by themselves. I've easily spent an upwards of 2000$ on my organization in one year (out of my savings), along with a lot of time and printer ink :-P I don't regret it and would do it all over again in a heartbeat - but it's not something I would encourage an individual to attempt to "start" if they have not seriously looked into other organizations which already exist on their campus.

If you do decide to go through with it and create a new organization, I strongly suggest you to be on the look out for a few other solid founders, take classes part time next semester and save up a few grand... good luck!

I posted this quote in another thread about starting a new organization, and although I'm not sure whether the original person who created the thread actually went through with founding a sorority, I still stand by what I posted.

Starting a new organization, especially a "local" organization, is hard. You'll need to consider the following:

-Finances: How are you going to fund this organization? Everything costs money, whether its a banner or snacks for recruitment or booking rooms to host a philanthropy event in. As a founder, I can tell you that, when Alpha Pi Phi started, almost everything for the first year came out of our pockets - be it buying active, initiated members pins, food, apparel, etc. Like I mentioned above, I spent quite a lot of $$$ out of my own savings. But I believed in myself, the other founders and the organization and I never doubted our success. Which brings me to my next point...

-Drive and Commitment: You and the other founders (I expect you'll need 6 to 10 in total, depending on other chapters and how big your school is) are going to have to believe in your organization 110%. In my experience with founding Alpha Pi Phi, a local organization in Canada, our sorority had some organizations/individuals who were big supporters from Day One and other organizations/individuals who hated on us like I've never seen hate before. Even one of the founder's (now ex) boyfriends told her that he didn't think we'd succeed. As cheesy as it sounds, as long as you believe in yourself and take yourself and your organization seriously other people will come around (or be forced to). It's hard to not care what other people think, but in the long run, it will be the biggest stepping stone to your success.

-Recruitment: How, if you do go through with creating an organization, are you going to recruit? You're going to be up against 5 other organizations with larger numbers than yours, histories, traditions, etc. and you'll need to figure out a way to attract PNM to your organizations. Recruitment is the lifeblood of maintaining a strong organization. Don't get me wrong! I'm not trying to discourage you, it's completely do able in your situation, but you'll need to think hard and strategically about this one...

Overall, starting your new organization is hard, time consuming and you'll need to have one heck of a fight in you. Good luck, girl!

[ree-Xi]

Originally Posted by nanook1844

Hi everyone!

Ok, I'm going to forewarn you. This message is going to be very very long.

I've done a lot of research and I've read through the 'Rush at UCSC' thread and the threads pertain to me at 'Before You Found A New Sorority.' But a lot of those threads are mostly 'Hi! I want to start a new sorority, what do I do?' I've done a lot of research and I've taken the initial steps, now I'm trying to figure out what to do next.

I want to start at the beginning. I'm a sophomore at a small liberal arts college and I've been interested in Greek Life. We have 11 houses on campus, 5 sororities, 5 fraternities, and one co-ed sorority/fraternity. My freshman and sophomore year, I went to the 'meet-and-greets' for several of the sororities. I've gotten bids from houses both years, but after careful consideration, I realized those houses weren't for me.

This year, one of my friends approached me about re-starting a sorority that never got officially passed through. At first I was a little weary. From the Greek Houses I saw on campus, I wasn't really interested in being in them. I didn't have a good fit at any of them and I didn't like what they represented so why would I make one to be like them? She convinced me and we starting talking about the org and what it would be like. What would make us different.

Since then, we've figured out our mission and what sets us apart. Why do we want to do this? To provide an option for other girls who also just don't 'fit' with the other houses on campus.

Our purpose:
-Challenge students with respect to their leadership development
-Act as a resource for the College and the College community
-Provide opportunities for growth and development
-Uphold high scholastic and ethical standards
-Promote unity and friendship among all members of the College
-Demonstrate quality service within and surrounding the College community
Every Greek org on our campus is supposed to do a certain amount of service each semester. We don't really see that with the other houses. Sure, they do a Relay for Life in a nearby larger city, but what about at the campus? What about in the surrounding community? The people that live here need help to. We are very strongly dedicated to service and we feel like our organization needs to be committed to service too. Therefor, keeping it simple: we are a social organization dedicated to service. Service will be a big part of who we are and what we do.

Each house has a motto like 'Women of a higher standard' or 'Remarkable women.' We've decided to be 'Ladies of Excellence' because, to us, any female can be a woman, but not all females are ladies. It takes a certain way of holding yourself to be presented as a lady and those are the girls we are looking for.

We hope to foster unity and friendship by working with other houses for events and already, we attend all of the events we can that other sororities host. We also don't see a lot of diversity in the other houses on campus, we intend to look at people from all types of background. Right now we have members who are Mexican, African-American, European-American, Itallian-american, Chinese, and multi-ethnic.

Another focus with our group is preparing for success. We want our girls to succeed. We have focus groups once or twice a month where we sit down and pull out our portfolio materials, resumes, cover letters, graduate school applications, and try to prepare for what we'll be doing after we graduate. If some of us are going on to graduate school, we study books that help prepare us for the GRE, the MCAT, the LSTAT, whatever it is. We work on it as a group. As sisters.

After several meetings with the Dean of Student Life, and the Associate Dean, we found our beginnings. After lots of paper work, recruitment of members and and advisor, we finally became a student organization. We call ourselves Ladies of Excellence because we don't feel it would be right to give ourselves our letters without being officially passed through. We have ten girls. We have a constitution, by laws, officers, letters, motto, colors. Our next step is to be voted in by the already existing sororities and fraternities. We don't want to seem as if we're better than the other houses, because then we would seem kind of stuck up. Who wants someone who's stuck up? We want to show ourselves as we really are, friendly girls who are trying to do something good for the college and greek life.

Initially, when I went to the Inter-society Council (ISC, the governing body of the GLO on campus) president, he said we'd have a hard time getting recognized because there's already too many houses on campus. We recently went back now that we're more organized and told him about our purpose and he was surprisingly receptive. He hopes we get the chance.

So how can we convince the other GLO's that we're worth being voted in and that we would be a good look for Greek Life as a whole?

Also, one thing we're missing is a pledging philosophy. At my school, we have anti-hazing rules to coincide with state laws. Unfortunately, incidents still happen during the process. I'm an RA and two of my girls had to go to the hospital during pledging, and so did my best friend (who pledged a fraternity).
Our philosophy is "To treat the pledge as a sister in order to become a sister." We would NEVER physically, emotionally, or mentally abuse our pledges. All in all, we want to establish a relationship from trust and honesty, not out of fear and pain. We want it to be challenging, but not demeaning.

Do you have any ideas on what types of safe activities we could do for our potential pledges that would be a challenge, but not demeaning, disrespectful, or dangerous?

If you have any other ideas that you think will be helpful, I'm very open to them. I'm hoping to get some good feedback like I've seen in some of the other threads. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. There might be something I left out or need to clarify.

Thanks so much! I'm looking forward to the responses!

QFP because you aren't the first to "want to do something different", and I think that there will be plenty of people in the future who will recognize themselves in this post.

Honestly, I don't see anything different than what is typical of the ideals of other sororities. Scholarship, service, friendship, etc. You're just using different words. The main difference is that your programming may be geared more to academics.

[Fatal1913]

Im sorry, so what is going to be different about your group.. because I dont see it listed....

also, my thing is how do you know what the other group are NOT doing... you are not a member, so im sure you dont know alot about what they are and are not doing...

if you already and approved student organization, what more is it that you want? I mean cant you achieve what you say you are looking for by being and approved organization? Or is it not the same unless you have Greek letters? hmmmm

Sorry, I just dont believe in whole new orgs thing.. I dont think there is anything that another one cant or isnt already providing. I new chapter is fine... I think its either an ego thing, or something to do because you werent accepted into another.

[ree-Xi]

Originally Posted by 33girl

ETA FYI: Using the same username everywhere throughout the Internet is an exceptionally bad plan.

Dang, girl, you beat me to it!!