What’s it like to be in a Huge Chapter?

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by 33girl

From what I've gleaned on this board, there are groups who have looooooong initiations even if they have a pledge class of 5 people - so you really can't say it's hazing just because your initiation is long. I'm thinking that as far as altering the ceremony, they are afraid of in for a buck, in for a quarter...not to mention other chapters saying "well Arkansas gets to do blah blah, we should too."

I think our initiation actually has instructions like "if you have more than 10 pledges, do this" and "If you have more than 50 pledges, do this", but it's been a while since I looked at the ritual book.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

Well, getting all the hovercrafts and sequined cat suits all up and running takes time!

Yeah, if it's a soggy, dreary day and our Phoenix has been rolling around in the yard, it's a real bitch to get his butt-flame started.

[Mevara]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Yeah, if it's a soggy, dreary day and our Phoenix has been rolling around in the yard, it's a real bitch to get his butt-flame started.

LOL, This just made my day.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by XOcarnation

I cannot even imagine. For our new member class initiation (the class was of ~40 girls) we had to break it up into two days. I AM IN AWE.

I believe my collegiate chapter did 2 days this year as well (class was almost 50.)

[AZ-AlphaXi]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

I believe my collegiate chapter did 2 days this year as well (class was almost 50.)

I've always wondered how do you choose who will be initiated on the first day and who on the second. Alphabetical?

[DubaiSis]

Or is it Part A day one and Part B day two?

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by AZ-AlphaXi

I've always wondered how do you choose who will be initiated on the first day and who on the second. Alphabetical?

I believe it was a "whichever day works best for you as long as you choose one" thing. They were pretty evenly split (like 20 women each day.)

[Cruise4fun]

So groups run more than one intiation at a time by having an extra set of necessary items or borrowing from a nearby chapter.

[honeychile]

Bump for spammers.

[CrimsonCrescent]

You can probably tell by my username, but my chapter is very very large. It has it's benefits and downsides.

Benefits
- I always have a sister to talk to
- If you fight with one sister, there's a couple hundred more you can befriend
- "I have nothing to wear!" is never an issue
- There's always someone in an organization you want to join, which makes it a lot easier to reach out on campus
- pomping is a lot easier with a couple hundred members

Downsides
- I have no idea who a lot of my sisters are. I'm friends with everyone on Facebook, but I couldn't put names to faces.
- Ceremonies are ridiculously long
- There's always drama
- Never enough space

I wish my campus would bring on more NPC to help balance our chapters out. I believe every chapter is close to 400+ members and it's really impeding our sisterhood when sisters can't even recognize who's in our chapter unless their wearing letters. I love my sorority, but I do with we could have a recruitment where every sorority can take the number of women they are most comfortable with without having to worry about NPC trying to give every girl a bid. I'm all for inclusion, but with 2100+ women coming through recruitment, I think there should be a line of how large we let our chapters get.

[irishpipes]

Well Crimson, if you go to Alabama, there aren't many sororities left to bring on campus!

[Titchou]

So, where would you cut off registration? At a certain GPA? Activity level? A date even though everyone may not have been accepted and had an opportunity to register in time?
Your campus - obvious which one it is as it is mine! - has been open for expansion but no one has applied who would be able to build a house the size required. What would you do about that? There is more property available but with rising costs, how would you fund a house that costs $12-15million? You need an alumnae base to donate. Only two groups remain who have been there previously and neither seems inclined. How could Alabama recruit them to come? And still adhere to NPC expansion regulations?

Just brainstorming here....

[CrimsonCrescent]

I have no idea how we could do it. GPA might be it, as we still have many women come through with below a 3.0. Sometimes it's just hard because I see my friends from high school at smaller schools who have smaller chapters and you can tell how close their entire chapter is.

Another would be to allow more cuts. National average is 79% and our placement rate is 93%. If we were more around the national average, our chapters could have more manageable sizes.

Like I said, I absolutely love my friends and I'd do anything for any one of my sisters regardless weather or not we're close. However, and I speak for a lot of girls in different sororities on campus, it's virtually impossible to do so with such large chapters.

But Titchou you're right - it's expensive and there's not a lot of sororities who would have the support nationally. But I do think that campus would support an additional chapter because it's so desperately needed. I also think that SDT should do a full recruitment, even if it would require bringing in large numbers of alumni.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

What about not letting freshmen rush? That obviously cuts down the chapter sizes, but obviously would have unintended consequences I'm not thinking of.

[IndianaSigKap]

Originally Posted by CrimsonCrescent

I also think that SDT should do a full recruitment, even if it would require bringing in large numbers of alumni.

They would only need to bring in alums for a few years, then they would be closer in size to the other chapters. Do you know what percentage of your campus is Jewish? Enough for SDT to go through the enormous task of taking on such a recruitment? I ask because my alma mater has both SDT and AEPhi, both participate in the entirety of formal recruitment and always make quota.