Recently, the Seattle Alumnae Chapter administered its 2016 alumnae survey. With over 2000 alumnae in the area, the effort to revitalize and grow our alumnae chapter is in full force. But we can’t do that without our local alumnae’s support.
The results of the survey have trickled in over the last few days, posting a higher click and response rate than we’ve seen in years past. It truly is an exciting time to be an AOII in western Washington. As we read through the survey responses, we noticed a trend with several questions or comments. We hope this post serves as a pseudo-FAQ for being a member and active alumna in the Puget Sound area. What territory does the Seattle Alumnae Chapter cover? Despite our name, which was decided back in 1917 when we were chartered, the Seattle Alumnae Chapter essentially covers the entire Puget Sound area. Our territory encompasses north to Marysville, south to Olympia and beyond, east to the Cascade mountains, west to the Olympic Peninsula, and all points in-between! And with over 2000 alumnae in the area, it is almost guaranteed that we have at least one sister in the area from almost all of our 200+ collegiate chapters. That’s exciting. Why don’t we have several alumnae chapters in the area? That’s a great question. And one day soon, we hope that there will be several alumnae chapters spanning western Washington. However, due to a lack of chapter leadership and low membership numbers, that opportunity has yet to present itself. This is a goal of our current chapter’s leadership. Ideally, we would like to see several chapters – South Sound, Kitsap, North Seattle, etc. but at this time, we do not have the strength in numbers and willingness to serve as a chapter officer to do that. In the meantime, we will plan several events in our various geographic areas with the goal of bringing sisters together, strengthening our bond as an alumnae chapter, and ultimately breaking off into smaller, but stronger alumnae chapters. What are dues? Where does the money go? How do I pay? We received feedback that some alumnae are not current members of the alumnae chapter because they aren’t sure what the money is for or why they aren’t seeing any return on investment. Those are excellent questions and concerns. Here’s a high-level overview for the purpose of this FAQ. The Seattle Alumnae Chapter offers three membership levels: General, Life Loyal, and First Year on Us. By paying dues, you are supporting the fraternity's growth and continued success. By paying dues, you are investing in the future of AOII (our collegiate membership) and ensuring success on the local alumnae level. Our chapter leadership is hard at work refocusing our budget to better serve our alumnae members. We want our membership to feel fulfilled with their $50 annual commitment. Here’s a quick breakdown: First Year on Us ($0): The first year after graduating college, your international alumna dues are paid through our international "First Year on Us" program. The Seattle Alumnae Chapter also waives local dues for a graduate's first year. If you have graduated in the last five years and have yet to join an alumnae chapter, this would also apply to you. General ($50 per year): General membership is broken up in to two categories – local and international dues. International dues cover our operating fee, education and training, technology and archival fees. Chapter dues are $15 and stay with the local chapter for administrative costs (mailings, website, etc.) and chapter events. Life Loyal ($34 per year): Per AOII policy, Life Loyal members are exempt from the $16 operating fee. Therefore, Life Loyal dues cover the education training, technology and archival fees, in addition to chapter dues. Again, we’ll break this out even further in a future blog post. If you are ready to become a dues-paying member of the Seattle Alumnae Chapter, please visit our chapter website. A group of AOIIs already gets together pretty regularly, but we’d love to have more! This is great! We already know and appreciate that many groups of AOIIs are already meeting. In fact, we want to encourage and celebrate that. As Colleen and Shannon mentioned in their Presidents’ Note, our goal is to focus on those small groups and host 2-3 larger all-chapter events during the year. If you are already hosting or attending an event full of AOIIs and wouldn’t mind welcoming a few more to tag along, please email your event details to seattleaoii@gmail.com. We will help create a Facebook event, if one hasn’t already been done, and promote it via our private Facebook group and/or through email and other online resources. I have a great idea for an event…but what do I do? As you may have noticed, we’ve started posting several happy hour and brunch events on our Facebook page spanning different areas of the Puget Sound. That said, there are still so many areas that we have yet to cover. Do you want to do a brunch north of Seattle? Or maybe a picnic at Island Lake on the Kitsap Peninsula? What about a book club in Olympia? Let’s do it! Please email any and all event ideas and information to seattleaoii@gmail.com. We will do our best to disseminate the information to all of the alumnae in the area to ensure success and sisterhood! What collegiate chapters do we support? While Upsilon at the University of Washington is closest to us, the Seattle Alumnae Chapter is proud to support the Tau Gamma and Alpha Gamma sisters at Eastern Washington University and Washington State University. We look forward to strengthening our bond with these chapters as our own alumnae chapter grows. ---- What other questions do you have, sisters? Please always feel free to email us with any question, large or small, that you may have. Roses!
0 Comments
On May 29, 2014, Seattle alumnae and collegiate AOIIs gathered at Safeco Field to Strike Out Arthritis! (SOA!) with the Seattle Mariners, raising $780 for the Arthritis Foundation. AOII’s Strike Out! events are Fraternity-wide outings that contribute to the overall total of SOA! funds that are donated to the Arthritis Foundation. A portion of each ticket sold will go back to SOA! to fund research, education and programming for the Arthritis Foundation and will help us in our joint mission to one day find a cure for arthritis. In 2013, AOII raised over $4,500 from three SOA! events with Major League teams (the Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox). In 2014, AOII has already passed our 2013 total, and has more than ten events scheduled through the remainder of the season. Go Mariners! Caty is an initiate of Tau Gamma chapter at Eastern Washington University in 2009. She currently advises for our Tau Gamma chapter as financial adviser. Caty lives in Shelton with her husband and two beautiful children. Why did you pledge AOII? I was looking for friendship. I was a VERY homesick freshman at EWU that didn't know many people. My close friend from high school, Tiffany, and I lost touch when she graduated, and we discovered we were both attending EWU together when we ran into each other in the cafeteria one day. At the time we found one another, she was going through formal recruitment, and later joined AOII. Next quarter, she brought me to a continuous recruitment event AOII was hosting. I immediately fell in love with so many of the members I met that night. Shortly after, I was extended a bid and it was one of the greatest moments of my life What has been your most memorable AOII experience? Tiffany, who later became my Big, was serving as Chapter President, during her first Ritual we both looked at each other and started crying. It was such an emotional moment for me to see my Big doing Ritual. It was that moment that really showed me what being an AOII was all about. I’m a firm believer in that everything happens for a reason and I knew that God purposely reunited us at the cafeteria that day, put us together in that moment during Ritual, purposely guided me to become an AOII, just so I could experience that perfect moment. I cherished my entire collegian experience and to this day, some of my closest friends are my Tau Gamma sisters. It is very amazing to see how far we have come since those college days. I know that my memorable experiences are far from over Why do you volunteer for AOII? I absolutely LOVE giving back to my chapter. The first and biggest reason being that I put forth my best in hopes that one day my daughters will join Tau Gamma. I love the feeling of knowing that I played a part in helping the chapter succeed and helped guide them, so that it will be there if/when my daughters decide to join AOII. When I first started as Financial Adviser for Tau Gamma, the entire group of women was desperate for help, wanted to understand what was going on with their finances and what they could do about it. It was a struggle to learn my new position because I knew NOTHING about the position, nor did I have a background in finances, but I was willing to learn the position through and through, while trying to guide these ladies at the same time. After a lot of hard work, it is incredible to see what it has become. It was extremely rewarding to receive thank yous from members AND their parents in my first year as FA, which was an amazing surprise. Once everyone finally had a good understanding about where their money was going and having a billing schedule that they could follow, it was amazing to see attitudes shift from finances being SO stressful to more relaxed because there was finally some clarity. To this very day, I still deeply love what I do for Tau Gamma as an adviser and hope to be one for many more years. What would you say to an alumna member interested in joining the SAC? What are you waiting for?! J I know for me personally, being involved as an alumna has given me a far different experience from when I was a collegian in so many great ways. Being an involved alumna just brings a whole new level of what being an AOII is all about; you’re not just focused on what’s happening with your chapter, but you find yourself looking more at the organization as a whole. It gives you an amazing opportunity to connect with other AOIIs around your area/the country. It really makes you see that AOII is for LIFE and doesn’t just stop at the college level. -- If you are interested in being our next sister spotlight or would like to nominate a sister, email Meghan Granito at aoiimeghan@outlook.com. Roses! Our first sister spotlight is Emily Goddard, AOII Seattle's alumnae chapter treasurer and panhellenic delegate. Emily initiated into Alpha Gamma chapter at Washington State University in 1994. She currently lives in Redmond, WA and professionally serves as a project manager for T-Mobile. Thank you, Emily, for all you do for the Seattle Alumnae Chapter and Seattle area Panhellenic. We couldn't do it without you! Why did you pledge AOII? I had some friends in sororities at other schools and it seemed like fun. It also seemed like an easy way to meet a bunch of girls at a new school who had similar interests. Why did you join the Seattle Alumnae Chapter? I moved to the Seattle area and wanted to connect again with AOII. And as the years went on I have really enjoyed helping out in different roles as well as meeting other really great ladies through being the UW Panhellenic delegate for almost 14 years now. What has been your most memorable AOII experience? One of my many most memorable AOII experiences was having my real life younger sister join the same chapter and getting to share those years with her and have that extra special bond. Why do you volunteer for AOII? I think sororities can get a bad rap from movies and ladies who didn’t have a good experience and I want to make sure that the right information is getting out there and that sororities don’t disappear. It’s not just a way for girls to party and go wild at college. It’s a lifetime experience. Some of my best friends still today are AOIIs who I meet while at WSU. I volunteer so that my friends daughters, my niece and, if I am lucky enough to have a girl, can also have those same fun memories I did and make lifelong friends who have been there for the good and bad times in my life just as I have been there for all the good and bad in their lives holding their hands, crying, laughing and just sharing all the memories life has to offer. What would you say to an alumna member interested in joining the SAC? Give it a shot. I know I was a little nervous at first because I did have some not so fond memories of Monday night chapter; however this isn’t anything like that. We do a lot of fun activities and you get a chance to hang out with some wonderful women and hear the fun AOII stories from where they went to school. -- If you are interested in being our next sister spotlight or would like to nominate a sister, email Meghan Granito at aoiimeghan@outlook.com. Roses! |
Archives
February 2016
Categories |