How to Start Your Own Fraternity or Sorority on any Given Campus

Fraternities and sororities are Greek organizations that build lifelong friendships, provide service to the community and teach leadership skills. Some fraternities and sororities are part of a larger national structure and others are local organizations that are started by interested students. If you want to begin your own Greek organization, check into campus guidelines and gather a group of interested students to help you start the process.

Write out exactly what you want out of a fraternity or sorority. Choose 10 ideals and goals that represent your new organization. Compare these with other fraternities and sororities that have similar values and vision. If you find one that is a match, go to your student organization representative on campus to find out how to start a small club, which will then become a petitioning group for that National or International Greek status, once they agree to take you on a trial period basis. If no such fraternity or sorority was found, you just stumbled on the right article.

After getting approval by the dean to start your own club/fraternity, try to get a list of recruitment dates for Greek organizations from the Student council or Organization leader, so you may go out and recruit the type of men or women that share your values and vision.

Once you have the right amount of men or women (or both); roughly about 7 to 21 of them, then draft a book of rules, and principles that the members should abide, learn, and live by. you may get some ideas by looking at Delta Upsilon. This is a non-secret fraternity and they actually have their manuals, rituals, and rules on their website, for you to look at. Your idea of a fraternity or sorority might be full-on secrecy, but these will act as guidelines for rules of order and conduct that they have been working at since 1834, and they therefore know their stuff.

Come up with a 3 or 2 letter motto in Greek that summarizes in 2 to 3 words what your Fraternity or Sorority stand for (these 2 or 3 initials will be the ones that your shirt will bare for eternity, so choose wisely). Come up with a Coat of Arms (West or East European Style).You may also choose 2 to 3 official colors.

Participate in Sports, competitions and other Campus games against the other clubs and Greek organizations, it is the only way to become known to the rest of the clubs.

Now that you have participated in Campus events, and proven that you are a serious group of people, you may approach the Greek or Pan-Hellenic council President to allow your group to become a part of their circle. you will never be taken seriously even with Greek Letters if the Greek Council does not recognize you, as a matter of fact, they are the ones that decide if your group deserves to be Greek, or banned from Campus, so make a good first impression, don't upset anyone with Greek letters until you become recognised by the Council.