[19788] in APO-L
Re: A chapter in need of suggestions...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (jennifer ann o'leary)
Tue Dec 15 11:58:58 1998
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 10:58:35 -0600
Reply-To: jennifer ann o'leary <j-oleary@STUDENTS.UIUC.EDU>
From: jennifer ann o'leary <j-oleary@STUDENTS.UIUC.EDU>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
In-Reply-To: <4fffec79.3676867c@aol.com>
hi
i've read all the e-mails so far about revitalizing a chapter and a lot of
it seems very familiar although in a different context. the situatiion
i'm talking about pertains to a large chapter - alpha alpha at uiuc. yes
large chapters can have retention problems. the ways we have faced these
problems are many and varied.
one of the biggest problems we faced was
cliches. people that hadn't been around for a semester due to classes
felt left out because everyone that knew eachother hung out together and
it was hard for the people coming back or just pledging to get to know
each other. as a result we were losing a lot of people - so one of the
things we try to stress is that everyone is welcome and having an MIA
(missing in action) semester is fine. also a lot of people are ignoring
the cliches by trying to get to know as many people as possible and the
cliches are slowly dying.
in some the recent e-mails it was mentioned that projects that are
repeated don't get as much enthusiism, then set up new ones. we had this
problem a couple semesters ago. as a result our service vp made it a goal
to set up at least one new project a week. to add to this variety - each
member of the service committee is required to set up at least one project
a semester (it's the largest committee). we do have projects that we do
every semester like bingo at the local nursing home, working at the men's
shelter, cleaning up at the park district and working concessions at the
football games each fall. many would think that doing some projects
semester after semester would get old but they almost always are full.
our response to those resume people is to enforce a whole bunch of
requirements that can hardly be called boring. sometimes, a
resume-builder will end up being a wonderful brother
well that's all i have time for now - feel free to e-mail me personnally
since some of this could apply to the smaller chapters and if people from
larger chapters have ideas for retention could you share that too.
thanks in lfs
jen
alpha alpha @ uiuc
1998 nationals delegate
spring 1999 - 2nd vp pledgetrainer
On Tue, 15 Dec 1998, Chris Beard wrote:
> Korin,
>
> Here at Mu Tau we have the same problem, small campus, few actives, many
> inactives. Many of our members join for one semester then go inactive. Some
> of these people are known to have done this with other organizations. These
> folks are in it for the resume. After talking with the rest of the group it
> turned out that it was the lack of fellowship and new and meaningful service
> projects that drove them away. We had several little groups within the
> chapter, this really took away from the whole principle of being brothers.
> Also, our chapter has fallen into a rut of the standard projects we do every
> semester and it gets old. So our suggestions are one really promote
> brotherhood and in a way that the rest of the school will see it. Eat
> together, participate in intermural activities, anything that will get the
> GROUP noticed. This will help draw back the inactives and bring in new
> brothers. Second try to keep variety in the projects and publicize every one.
> If anyone has any suggestions on ways of promoting brotherhood or creative
> projects please send them our way too. Thanks
>
> Chris Beard
> Mu Tau at WVUIT
>
