Starting the month of September with an expansion project was something that Cam and I were hesitant about, but excited for the experience. Since both of us has never done in expansion before, we didn’t know what to expect.

It got off to a rocky start because of the lack of communication between us and the sororities on Campus. We had Andy from Phired Up on the ground to help us out and  get us pointed in the right direction. We met with the SGA president and sat in on an SGA meeting to introduce Phi Sig back to campus and recruit potential prospects from SGA. Cam and I also attended an IFC meeting to meet all the presidents and representatives from the other fraternities.

After the meeting, we gathered there are major rivalries at this school but the fraternities were happy to have Phi Sig back. Slowly, we sat down with several sororities’ president and vice president to discuss scheduling a presentation we would give to each of their chapters. The presentations went well, and we received a ton of names of potential new members from the ladies. All the sororities were very welcoming and excited to have Phi Sig back on campus.

We sorted through our names list and uploaded them to Chapter Builder each time we would present to a sorority. We collected around 60 names from each sorority. We started contacting people after we uploaded the names. It was difficult to get people to pick up the phone or respond back to our text messages. We found that most people responded back to texts instead of calls.

Another challenge we overcame is that some sorority women would give us fake numbers or people numbers that didn’t go to school there. Fortunately, we only encountered this a few times. I did have a meeting lined up with a potential candidate but it turned out he went to Chattanooga, which was an awkward phone conversation. One-on-one meetings went well, most people were open and honest about their interest in Greek life, which helped us determine who was really interested in joining.

One of the hardest aspects in Greek culture to overcome at Martin was not having a house. The Greek community relies heavily on the fraternities houses to host events.

Along with not having a house, we were challenged with finding an alumni advisor. Zac Morphis, who was a president at the Tau Teteron chapter, stepped up and became their advisor. He really wanted to be involved and see the chapter come back to campus successfully. We recruited two veterans as well to help establish the colony back into the Greek community.

**Interested in becoming a Chapter Consultant? Apply HERE.**