Being An Active Alumna

Once you graduate, it can be hard to identify your place and responsibilities as an alumna of your chapter and the Greek community. You no longer have those weekly chapter meetings, and, while you’re still a part of the chapter, your role has changed.

How Active Should I Be?

As an alumna, your participation in the chapter is entirely up to you and your schedule. Some alumnae choose to just receive monthly newsletters while others volunteer whenever possible. If you want to do more than just observe from afar, its good to find a balance that works for both you and the chapter. Two important things to remember:

• You don’t want to over-commit yourself so that your life is negatively impacted
• You don’t want to become so involved with your chapter that it ends up being overbearing (and your chapter resents you)

Ways to Get Involved

Some of the best and easiest ways for alumnae to get involved are by doing things for the chapter that they enjoyed as active members. If you were your chapter’s recruitment chair, volunteer to help with Fall recruitment or be an adviser to the current recruitment chair. If you played sports, come back and coach your chapter’s team. If you graduated with honors, proctor your chapter’s study hours or volunteer to tutor active members. The best active alumna is someone who enjoys what they’re doing and who helps active members succeed.

If you’re looking to be more proactive in the management of your chapter, consider being a chapter adviser or joining one of your chapter’s oversight committees (advisory committee, house corp. board, etc.). These types of involvement deal more with the the chapter’s executive members and nationals’ administrators rather than active members. However, this is an excellent way to hone your people skills, make new contacts, and gain experience in sorority management on a larger scale.

Next Time

Is there someone who is too active in your sorority? Is it you? Check back for tips on how to avoid being “that” alumna.

This post was generously provided by ChapterBoard.

Tags: alumna, alumnae, chapter adviser, chapter meetings, current recruitment, executive members, fall recruitment, greek community, oversight committees, recruitment chair

Category: Alumni