A "Nu" Story

[misscherrypie]

This is the crazy story of the Beta Sigma Phi Friendly Venture (FV- what we call the chartering of a new chapter) I'll add some more each day.

This picks up around the time that I initially sent off for a FV Chapter in a Box package from International….that was in December of 2012.
Eleven women were interested in Friendly Venturing…..by the end of the year, they had all decided that it wasn’t for them. The FV was back to square one. Cue, a very, very sad Beta Sigma Phi sister sitting in Southern California on vacation visiting her family for the holidays.

…….Four weeks later……..

Classes had resumed, and I was preparing for my first retreat as a new member of the Student Ambassadors organization on campus……and thought that giving the FV process one final shot, in the hopes of helping to charter a chapter here was in order. I’d been disappointed in my Greek journey so often in the past six months that I decided that if a Beta Sigma Phi FV didn’t fly this time, whether it was a recognized greek organization on campus or not…..I was going to remain a member at large and deal with it and enjoy the heck out of being a Student Ambassador.

I wanted to share the goodness that is Beta Sigma Phi with other students….and sort of out of selfishness….I didn’t enjoy being the only Beta Sigma Phi on campus. (Looking back....I'm ashamed to admit this...but it was how I felt at the time)

Cue: Grace and Hannah. (Not their real names) We became friends in Student Ambassadors. They were the best of friends and did almost everything together. …then reached out to me….which was crucial to me feeling at home in the Ambassadors.Hannah graduated at the end of the semester and although we remained close and she lived not too far away, I missed spending so much time with both of them on campus.

Grace wasn’t initially interested in being a part of the FV. She did want to help me with the legwork of setting Rush up, since at that time….It was just me out there trying to recruit PNM’s, run rush and file paperwork.

This changed with the completely unexpected.

One day, Grace was surfing the internet to find out where other Beta Sigma Phi Collegiate chapters were located. During her search, our school came up. It turned out that a chapter of Beta Sigma Phi had deposited their scrapbooks in the University Special Collections on campus. Over 30 years’ worth of scrapbooks, to be exact. Grace told me about this and asked if we could go and look at these scrapbooks together. I agreed, wanting to see what was in them. So, we crossed campus and went upstairs to seek out the scrapbooks.

…….Four hours later……

Grace was so taken by the scrapbooks and kept saying “They’re like US! They do the same stuff that we do! They have the same kind of humor that we do! I want to be a Beta Sigma Phi!” That was the first interested PNM. I was trying not to cry over the scrapbooks….seeing my sisters and what they did together so long ago really touched my heart and kindled an even deeper love for Beta Sigma Phi

The scrapbooks belonged to “Nevada Nu” chapter, a chapter that was started in 1938. By looking up records and obituaries, we found out that the charter members of that chapter WERE our age: with a similar age cohort to that which later made up our chapter. Later, we found that Nevada Nu ceased to exist as of December of 2010.

This is our recruitment video that tells the story of Nevada Nu....with photos from the scrapbooks!

http://youtu.be/SWOKWF-TT7g

Grace asked if it was possible if we could be the “new” Nevada Nu and request permission from International to use that particular name. International said that this would not be an issue, so….when all of the paperwork is done, we will be the Nevada Nu chapter.

Hannah, who had wanted to go Greek during her entire collegiate career and had experienced disappointments during multiple years of going through recruitment , was the next PNM to come on board. Grace and I asked if she would be interested and she interrupted our spiel with “Yes. Is that even a question? We’d finally be sisters!”

The third member of our core group was another new ambassador named Laura. She was interested in going Greek and had considered both NPC and Multicultural Greek Council Sororities . For various reasons, she decided that Beta Sigma Phi was where she wanted to be.

To be continued……

[ADPi95]

I think this is your best story to date! So happy for you

[Gamma Xi Phi]

Your video is private.

[madoug]

Proud to be part of the Wolf Pack Nation!

My daughter might be part of the Pack next year, ahhh. Looking forward to hearing your story.

[misscherrypie]

Originally Posted by Gamma Xi Phi

Your video is private.

Sorry. Just fixed that. :-)

madoug, perhaps! Of course, being biased: perhaps "yes!"

[Gamma Xi Phi]

The video is really cute!

[misscherrypie]

Thanks. :-)

[AngelPhiSig]

Hey, sister, what is the video under, it is not working for me...

[Hartofsec]

Touching video -- and a great story. So glad you found your sisterhood, and looking forward to its continued story...

[misscherrypie]

After a few weeks of concentrated promotion: Lots of flyers and postcards all over campus, after being stamped by the Campus Scheduling office.....talking to other Greeks and asking them if they knew any women who was interested in going Greek and might be interested in what Beta Sigma Phi had to offer and talking to individual women everywhere we went on campus.

The informational was scheduled for early February.....We set up an informational table with Beta Sigma Phi information sheets, and name tags, bagels and schmear, coffee and tea (hot and iced) .

One PNM came. She and I talked a while and said that she'd come to the final rush party.


We were able to Table in front of the student union, which attracted lots of interest. We used the time to talk to PNMs and Greeks on campus about our national charitable drives and intended chapter philanthropy initiatives. We met over 100 interested PNMs, and filled two pages full of names and took applications of those who were interested in being considered for our charter class.

Later that day, six came to the Zumba social that was planned. It went well. My personal favorite memory is from our Zumba Rush event.....it was a very bonding experience, especially because about half our group had done it before....but the other half had not. It was fun, we were tired.....but we left feeling extremely accomplished and talking like crazy. Our President to be took my hand as we were headed to the locker rooms and whispered in my ear " I think that we are all going to be very close. I can't wait for bid day! "
The knowledge that we would soon be sisters, for the rest of our lives....joined to the chain of BSPhi sisters....and especially the original "Nevada Nu" chapter not only by our sisterhood, but also by our name made we want to cry.

On Tuesday, the last day of rush: two came for a philanthropy project. Crafting With Heart: Basically, it's preference + philanthropy day rolled into one night. Specific to this FV. We showed the three recruitment videos that we created, each of the core group of the FV stood up to speak about why they are choosing Beta Sigma Phi, and made cards for one of our chapter philanthropies and served dessert.

We issued 33 bids for membership. That started the waiting game. How many would accept their bids? We didn't know.

To be continued....

[sigmadiva]

This is like the flip-side to a rush story. Usually we hear from the PNM's side. But with this story, we are hearing from the chapter's side (or soon to be chapter). How neat!

[erica812]

So proud

[misscherrypie]

That's what happened.

So, we issued bids....and invited them to Bid Day Celebrations.
In the meantime.....I went to work on putting together bags for my three littles: Hannah, Grace and Laura.
The theme: Spoil them rotten!
Among the bags were the four charm bracelets that I posted photos of in the Bid Day thread.

The day came....and I was nervous. Hannah, in her boundless wisdom said "We will have exactly enough to charter." Grace, said to me
"Hannah is always right. When she says something will happen, it does." I had a terrible feeling that we wouldn't have enough....and everything would be for naught.
Laura for her part, was extremely excited.

9:30am....the only girls standing in Honor Court were the four of us.

So....using a bid day ritual that I composed for use by our chapter, the three who had thrown their hat into the ring, and refused to let me stand as the only Beta Sigma Phi on campus..... pledged to continue toward their initiation, and became my sisters.
For some reason....this fit. It was sort of reenacting our own story.....of course, I can't disclose what happened during bid day ritual.....but can say that I came close to crying in joy, and only my sisters' words kept those tears from running over.
Oh happy, delirious day!

The next day.....surprise awaiting.....

My birthday was the day after bid day. I had a huge party planned with two separate venues (dessert at one, dancing until late at the other) and expected many guests. After some thought, I decided to reach out to Sophie. I'd been friends
with her in the past, but we had a huge falling out shortly before I began classes at the University. She was a newlywed, and she, her husband and I had been friends for several years before the falling out. I wanted to extend the olive branch and reconnect,
so I sent the following email:

Hi,
Just wanted to invite you guys to my birthday bash on Thursday. 8:30pm at XYZ, 10:30pm at ABC. Your presence would be both welcome and appreciated.

Sorry for the short notice,

Mimi


So, the parties began. There was an excellent turnout....and at the second venue, I recieved a text: It was from Sophie. She and her husband were enroute!
Needless to say, after the party and a long heart-to-heart....we put the past behind us and became friends again. That was one of the best birthday presents I've ever recieved.

Over breakfast, she asked me about what I was up to these days, and I mentioned Beta Sig to her when listing what occupied my spare time. She interrupted my stream of chatter with:

"Beta Sigma Phi? What is that?" she asked
"A community sorority", I replied.
Her eyes lit up.

"Mimi, can I join too? "

We had our #5. (After the sisters got to vet her a bit....okay, a lot!)

In retrospect....she is very similar to the rest of us. Similar sense of humor, warmth, and values. She's a good fit for us. Also along the "friends first....sisters later" trend that seems to be developing.



#6? Number 6? Who's Number 6??

Of the 33 bids we issued....three women got back to us after bid day. Two of them are interested in rushing with us next semester. The last of the three, yearned to pledge now and we all liked her a lot....but her schedule was so ridiculously packed that she could barely spare a moment.

We made a deal with her that she could be part of our charter class, but that we would not expect anything more than to attend chapter meetings, until the end of the semester when her schedule lessened considerably. This suited her fine.

One more....just one more?

We only had six.....we really, really needed seven to go forward. The next week was a picture in chaos. We contacted the 30 women who we extended bids to via email, expressing our interest in them and a hope that they would consider joining with us.

Cue: Crickets.

As a group, we determined that if we didn't hear from the thirty by Friday at noon, their bids would be null and void, and that we were going to hold off on FVing....

To be continued......

[erica812]

I love that you reconnected with your friend, and Beta Sigma Phi will continue to bring you together.

[AngelPhiSig]

Oh Mimi, you're making me wait! I wish I could 100% remember my college chapter forming, but it went a bit like this in a way. We made a list of women we thought would be good sisters and invited them to meet us. I think the story is WAYYYY back in the BSP forum!

SEVEN, SEVEN, SEVEN! You can do it! Then you will keep adding! We (VA KPi just hit 10 and you will too!)