Pass It On: Recommend a member to Delta Zeta

By Guest Blogger, Ashley Patton Anderson, National Recruitment Chairman

Like one of our songs starts, it only takes a spark… and that is how we grow! Delta Zeta is a thriving membership driven organization and the time when our collegiate chapters grow the most is during the formal recruitment process. With some campuses having over 1000 potential new members (PNM) participating in the formal recruitment process, it is more important than ever for our members to submit recruitment introduction forms.

This past fall we launched a new online version of the recruitment introduction form. There are many advantages to using the online format. By submitting the form online, you will no longer have to mail a paper copy and will save the cost of postage. Once you fill out the form online and hit submit, the chapter receives your recommendation in real time.

You will find the new online form mirrors the traditional paper version that chapters have received in the past. All Delta Zetas are encouraged to use the online format, but will still have the option to submit the paper form. Delta Zeta alumnae or any active member in good standing can and should submit a recommendation.

Recommendations are needed for legacies as well. Don’t take them for granted or assume that the college chapter will automatically know that a PNM is a legacy. Without the recruitment introduction form, the PNM cannot be considered a legacy or receive the privileges associated with being a legacy.

Deadlines to submit forms vary by campus, but mid-summer to early August would be the norm for many chapters with August recruitment. It’s never too early to start submitting your introduction forms for recruitment this fall.

We hope that you find this new format user friendly, more time and cost effective. In turn, I hope this new online format will encourage you to submit many recruitment introduction forms. After all - our best recommendations come from our amazing alumnae who want to pass their Delta Zeta experience on!

You can find out more about recommending a potential new member on the Delta Zeta website at http://deltazeta.org/join/recommendamember.

Top Secret! Don’t Open Until Directed…

Shhh… don’t talk about it. Wait – put that away – they can’t read it yet. Oh no – we can’t tell you that secret.

What do you think we are talking about?

This is how many of our Delta Zeta chapters and members approach our Ritual. That it is a top secret thing that cannot be discussed or talked about outside of the ritual room the few times a year that the ceremony is performed. Many times, new members will not be able to recall what just happened after they leave the Initiation room because they were overwhelmed – or maybe underwhelmed if the officers performing the ceremony are not well prepared – and just cannot take everything in. Do we then take time, like Delta Zeta suggests, of doing a review of everything the Initiation Ceremony represents?

Delta Zeta’s Ritual is a something more than words to be read or half-way memorized. The rituals, not just Initiation but everything from our Pledging Service to a Formal Chapter Meeting, symbolize Delta Zeta’s values and beliefs. You can find them clearly enough in our Purpose:

The purpose of this sorority shall be to unite its members in the bonds of sincere and lasting friendship, to stimulate one another in the pursuit of knowledge, to promote the moral and social culture of its members, and to develop plans for guidance and unity in action; objects worthy of the highest aim and purpose of associated effort. Constitution of the Delta Zeta Sorority, Article II, Section 1
Delta Zeta’s Founders valued their friendship and wanted to pass it on. They did that by inviting new members to their group, like Elizabeth Coulter and Noble Miller who were the first members initiated on February 8, 1903. We continue that legacy by initiating women like those that were initiated yesterday by the Omicron Chapter at the University of Pittsburgh or the Alpha Alpha Chapter at Northwestern University. We celebrate our sisterhood in everyday ways, through helping a sister study for a test, supporting another with planning a chapter event, and though it might not seem like a super big, top secret thing, we are living the Ritual of Delta Zeta.

So, this week, in celebration of National Ritual Week, if you have not had the chance to reflect upon the thoughts included in our Delta Zeta Rituals, take a moment to go back and really look at what they mean. Gather a few sisters in the chapter room, dust off the Ritual Book, and read it for inspiration on how you can be living your best life as a member of Delta Zeta.