Affiliating with Panhellenic Conference on Campus

[AlphaSweetheart]

Hi, guys! I've been lurking for a while and was able to find most information I need on previous posts. However, I was hoping for some advice.

Imagine this scenario:

You're at a Midwestern School with a somewhat competitive recruitment. (Out of 500 girls who rush every year, about 200 are cut). Many of the NPC sororities (including the one you are in) are nearing total.

A rather new local approaches the PHA (that's me and my sorority!) and requests associate membership. The entire executive board is really excited to welcome the local to the PHA. The delegates.... well, not so much. (Many delegates voiced the opinion at a meeting, while the delegates from our local were there that they didn't want the size of the PHA to change, they didn't want another group to compete against in formal, etc. The president pointed out that another group would need to be brought to campus within the next two years no matter what, due to the nearing of total and the amount of girls being cut)

What can we do to impress these delegates and show them we'd be excellent members of the Panhellenic? Both the Panhellenic Executive Board and the presidents of 11 out of 12 NPC groups are thrilled to have our local join as associate members. It's really the delegates and that 12th group I'm worried about.

What, as a delegate, would you like to see in a prospective sorority? What would impress you?

[texas*princess]

If you are worried about what they will think, you should go to the table prepared to offer something.

What exactly does your group bring to the table that will enhance the campus Panhellenic?
What are your reasons for wanting to join?
What do you want your group to gain or benefit by joining the Panhellenic?

If you just show up and say "Hi! We'd like to be part of the Panhellenic! Ok thanks,bye!" you don't give anyone a real compelling reason to take your request seriously and consider it.

The college panhellenic also needs to evaluate what is happening with Recruitment. Are these 200/500 pnms going bidless because they only want to be part of a handful of those groups and drop out if they get cut without giving the others a chance? In formal recruitment, if all the NPCs are 30 girls away from being at house total, but the quota is 41 (500/12), assuming all of those girls made it to Pref round, the NPCs are allowed to take quota whether or not they are 5 or 50 members away from being at total.

[AlphaSweetheart]

Thanks for all your help! We meet with the chapter presidents before the school year begins and I want to be able to impress them. Thanks for the tips.

(Any others are very much appreciated!)

[33girl]

I'm going to be really blunt and ask what your sorority did to piss the other sororities off. With that many girls going unbid I'd think a new group would be welcomed.

I'm also wondering why there would be such an across the board disconnect between the presidents of the sororities (I assume you mean the presidents of the chapters on campus) and their Panhellenic delegates. I can understand why 1 or 2 groups would have those officers disagree...but 11 out of 12? And for it to be so open that the petitioning group knows about it? The Panhel delegates should be taking these issues back to their chapters for a chapter vote on what they are to do - it's not a "I'm the Panhel delegate so it's all me" type of deal. The chapter presidents do not control the vote, either. The chapter as a whole makes these types of decisions.

Maybe I'm reading your post all wrong but something here is fishy.

Originally Posted by 33girl

I'm going to be really blunt and ask what your sorority did to piss the other sororities off. With that many girls going unbid I'd think a new group would be welcomed.

Maybe I'm reading your post all wrong but something here is fishy.

I'm going to be even more blunt and ask the OP if her group hazes their new members.

I'm not saying this the case here, but my chapter rarely ever associates with the local sororities on campus because it's very obvious the locals haze the crap out of their pledges and we just don't want to be associated with that kind of behavior.

[AlphaSweetheart]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I'm going to be really blunt and ask what your sorority did to piss the other sororities off. With that many girls going unbid I'd think a new group would be welcomed.

I'm also wondering why there would be such an across the board disconnect between the presidents of the sororities (I assume you mean the presidents of the chapters on campus) and their Panhellenic delegates. I can understand why 1 or 2 groups would have those officers disagree...but 11 out of 12? And for it to be so open that the petitioning group knows about it? The Panhel delegates should be taking these issues back to their chapters for a chapter vote on what they are to do - it's not a "I'm the Panhel delegate so it's all me" type of deal. The chapter presidents do not control the vote, either. The chapter as a whole makes these types of decisions.

Maybe I'm reading your post all wrong but something here is fishy.

I don't know and I wish I did. (That would be the best way to go about fixing it!).

I do know Chapter #12 is having a lot of issues with both recruitment and money. I don't know the facts behind it, so I can't really say in case I get something wrong. I do know that the last four years they've been really below quota, with every other chapter on our campus being near, above, or beyond quota.

I'm not sure about the disconnect: Two presidents have asked our sorority to come to their house and give a speech about our sorority. We were really well recieved by the majority of the girls. They loved our ideas and what we stand for. We also made up a really nice powerpoint we gave at the PHA meeting that has been forwarded to all the houses.

That's part of the reason we know about the disconnect. Our reception at the houses and at PHA meetings is exceedingly different. (The PHA Exec board has also told us about it.)

I know the main complaint we got at the PHA meeting was change. We would be the first associate group on campus and the first non-NPC sorority in Panhellenic. The 12 NPC chapters in Panhellenic have also been the only 12 for the past 21 years, so we're up against a lot of tradition.

The exclusivity of the Greek System is also really prized by some at my school. We have a small % of Greek students and I think a lot of girls do like this factor. I'm not sure if this contributes at all.

I am hoping that with the new PHA delegates next semester we have a much better chance.

[AlphaSweetheart]

Originally Posted by OTW

I'm going to be even more blunt and ask the OP if her group hazes their new members.

I'm not saying this the case here, but my chapter rarely ever associates with the local sororities on campus because it's very obvious the locals haze the crap out of their pledges and we just don't want to be associated with that kind of behavior.

Agreed. And, no, we do not. One of our ideals is to be welcoming to absolutely everyone, regardless, and to cultivate sisterly love without hazing.

Also, our campus is SUPER strict about hazing. In the past year, three chapters have been suspended for a semester for hazing. Hazing on our campus includes everything from having NMs walk through the front door of your chapter house, not allowing NMs the right to wear letters, making NMs retake quizzes, any sort of physical activity that NMs are "forced" to do, asking NMs to fundraise, etc.

I'm not sure of the past history of locals on our campus, but you're right: we might have that stereotype to fight against.

On a side-note about hazing, this story just makes me laugh:
We were talking to my friend from Uganda about how a chapter at my friend's school got a hazing violation. Ugandan friend asked what it was and we explained they were dumping buckets of human excrement on their NMs heads. He looked at us with a very serious face then and said, "Oh. I was hazed, too!" When we asked where, he explained that "It was at a football game and it was a bucket of water."

Not so much.

[33girl]

OK, I guess I should have asked this stuff last night, but I was tired & forgot.

Are you intending to stay local, or do you eventually want to affiliate with an NPC group? If you want to stay local, I can understand why they might be anti your group...they might be afraid that you won't follow risk management or rush rules and get the benefits of being a Panhel member without the price you have to pay.

Oh and how big are the chapters? If they're huge, I can understand more why the Panhel delegates would not be jazzed....they know more about what it takes to make rush work, whereas the average sorority member (including the president) might not.

[AlphaSweetheart]

Originally Posted by 33girl

OK, I guess I should have asked this stuff last night, but I was tired & forgot.

Are you intending to stay local, or do you eventually want to affiliate with an NPC group? If you want to stay local, I can understand why they might be anti your group...they might be afraid that you won't follow risk management or rush rules and get the benefits of being a Panhel member without the price you have to pay.

Oh and how big are the chapters? If they're huge, I can understand more why the Panhel delegates would not be jazzed....they know more about what it takes to make rush work, whereas the average sorority member (including the president) might not.

We'd like to stay local: it's our goal. However, we're not against affiliation. We've began looking into it, but we were looking at a few non-NPCs to affiliate with and prefer a few of them, if affiliation must happen.

They are huge, chapters. I think we're going to wait a while for formal, because we might even have to triple seat or bring in alums.

[LatinaAlumna]

If you prefer to stay local, why are you trying to join the PHA?

Originally, my campus wanted us to join the PHA, but the reasons not to far outweighed the reasons to seek affiliation. If your campus isn't requiring it, I would consider staying independent.

[OPhiAGinger]

Originally Posted by LatinaAlumna

If you prefer to stay local, why are you trying to join the PHA?

Membership in the local Panhellenic Association often provides a greater level of connection to and involvement with the campus Greek community. Non-NPC sororities can enjoy participation in things like Greek Week, etc, that they may otherwise be excluded from. From the university's perspective, it also provides some oversight at the local level that could be a very good thing.

A few of our OPA chapters are associated with their local Panhellenic organization. We don't participate in the NPC-style formal recruitment.

[LatinaAlumna]

^We were allowed/invited to participate in Greek Week and all the other major campus activities when I was an undergraduate, and we were/still are not part of the PHA. It's good that your campus doesn't require you to participate in the NPC recruitment (this is something that we would have been required to do if we had joined the council).

[one800thekiller]

Originally Posted by AlphaSweetheart

Hi, guys! I've been lurking for a while and was able to find most information I need on previous posts. However, I was hoping for some advice.

Imagine this scenario:

You're at a Midwestern School with a somewhat competitive recruitment. (Out of 500 girls who rush every year, about 200 are cut). Many of the NPC sororities (including the one you are in) are nearing total.

A rather new local approaches the PHA (that's me and my sorority!) and requests associate membership. The entire executive board is really excited to welcome the local to the PHA. The delegates.... well, not so much. (Many delegates voiced the opinion at a meeting, while the delegates from our local were there that they didn't want the size of the PHA to change, they didn't want another group to compete against in formal, etc. The president pointed out that another group would need to be brought to campus within the next two years no matter what, due to the nearing of total and the amount of girls being cut)

What can we do to impress these delegates and show them we'd be excellent members of the Panhellenic? Both the Panhellenic Executive Board and the presidents of 11 out of 12 NPC groups are thrilled to have our local join as associate members. It's really the delegates and that 12th group I'm worried about.

What, as a delegate, would you like to see in a prospective sorority? What would impress you?

It seems like the biggest issue with Pan-Hel allowing new GLO's to be a part of it is...

What makes your sorority different than the others already part of PanHel.

What sets you off from the rest of the pack so to speak....

This is where philanthropy comes in a great deal

Recently Panhel at my school was presented another fraternity trying to start up on campus. They passed campus approval, but they needed Greek approval(in the form of pan hel)

What the deciding factor in this, for us at least, was a one year provisional membership.

At any time during this provisional period, with a 2/3 majority, we can kick this new GLO off campus basically.

while i'm not recommending you put your sorority on the chopping block quite that much, Maybe if you or your sororities representatives would ask them for a one year provisional membership, perhaps they would be more likely to grant your request.

Is PHA normally a NPC thing?

because at my school it is the exact polar opposite.

In fact, as it stands now we don't even allow NPC into panhel.

[gpb1874]

Originally Posted by one800thekiller

It seems like the biggest issue with Pan-Hel allowing new GLO's to be a part of it is...

What makes your sorority different than the others already part of PanHel.

What sets you off from the rest of the pack so to speak....

This is where philanthropy comes in a great deal

Recently Panhel at my school was presented another fraternity trying to start up on campus. They passed campus approval, but they needed Greek approval(in the form of pan hel)

What the deciding factor in this, for us at least, was a one year provisional membership.

At any time during this provisional period, with a 2/3 majority, we can kick this new GLO off campus basically.

while i'm not recommending you put your sorority on the chopping block quite that much, Maybe if you or your sororities representatives would ask them for a one year provisional membership, perhaps they would be more likely to grant your request.

Is PHA normally a NPC thing?

because at my school it is the exact polar opposite.

In fact, as it stands now we don't even allow NPC into panhel.

Are you talking Pan-Hellenic (NPHC) or Panhellenic (NPC)? Yes, both very different. The OP is talking about NPC.