Service Learning - Chi Alpha Kappa to Delta Gamma

     Every Sunday night our women's social club Chi Alpha Kappa has a meeting; however, tonight's meeting was different than any other, because at tonight's meeting the three founders (myself, my roommate, and our friend) announced to our girls that we received the okay from the national sorority Delta Gamma (DG) to colonize at Montana State. This past summer, we got a group of girls together in the hopes of bringing DG to MSU, but we were told we couldn't yet, so we made Chi Alpha Kappa instead. Finally bringing DG to campus is extremely exciting for us - probably the most exciting thing to happen to any of us all year. But we had a delicate task at hand: we had to announce to a room full of girls that their club, Chi Alpha Kappa, wouldn't exist anymore, that we would become DG pledges. This involves learning new, strict traditions; knowing and loving new colors, new themes, new mottos and chants. Most importantly, though, it involves offering a lot more commitment to us and to our girls and to DG.
     My co-founders both understood that they were not too adept at making speeches or conveying delicate information, so at 11AM this morning, I was delegated the task of coming up with a way to convey all of this to our girls. I needed simultaneously to offer excitement, caution, and elevate the importance. I needed to explain to these girls why this information mattered, why we need more time from them, and why they need to make this decision only after intense consideration. We have a lot of girls who have been with us since we first started (back when the main goal was to bring DG to MSU), but we also have a lot of girls who have joined along the way and have only ever known Chi Alpha Kappa. I spent hours trying to formulate the right speech. I would soon have an unstructured room full of girls sitting on the floor in front of me. The venue is my living room - it's not at all formal or important - and I had to preach these girls things I could barely comprehend myself; and I had to do it quickly, lest I lose their attention.
     So I just started writing, because that's what I do best. And I came up with this:

Those of you who have been with us since the very beginning will remember that we started this group of girls because we wanted to bring Delta Gamma to the MSU campus. Then we were told that we couldn’t, but we didn’t just drop everything and quit. We became Chi Alpha Kappa. And we have moved through some shit this semester, but we’re still Chi Alpha Kappa. We just had seventy registered participants in our first ever philanthropic event: that’s big. And now we can finally be Delta Gammas, but this means we’re not just a club any more. We are a colony of an actual, national sorority which means we need more commitment from you fabulous people than we have seen so far. Most of the girls here have shown us great passion and we love you for that; unfortunately, it’s a lot of the girls who aren’t here today who I wish would hear this. But I want everyone to know that we’re asking you to help us, to be our sisters, but that means we need your word and your time and your passion. What we’re doing here and what we are working so hard to succeed in is the true definition of sisterhood. We are bringing DG to Montana State. I just want you to understand how important this is. If you don’t feel excited about this, if you don’t want to or don’t think you have the time to give us your full effort, then we are so sorry to see you go, but we need girls who will give this their all. Because this means everything to us: this is why we started and it has happened so much faster and more spontaneously than I had ever hoped it would. We are DG, will you join us? 

     We didn't let anyone make any decisions right away: even those who were just as psyched as we are, because we need them to understand what a big decision this is and how much time and effort it will take.
     It's been a few hours since meeting ended and we've now heard from a few girls - so far only those who do want to join. We expect to lose a few, in some extreme cases, we hope to lose a few, but that's important because we need girls who will be dedicated to this. It isn't a club anymore, it's a sorority: a sorority with an important image to uphold.
    At the end of the day, I feel like I did my job well. I let the girls know that we cared about all of them, even those who don't want to join us. And I let them know in a kind and delicate way. I'm so excited to see where this goes and I can't wait to be DG!