Phoenix of Alpha Sigma Alpha: Volume 1: Number 9

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VOLUME I

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P H G E 'N I X

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January 1, 1915 •

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NUMBE3 9

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THE PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL

There can be no structure that will endure Unless it has a broad and subst~ntial foundation, unles s it has a solid framework, unless the u;rkmansh1p that goes i~to it is good, ~less there is careful superV1Sion ~ rin t ~ build1n. recess. The reorganized ASA has a splendtd oundat1on on wh1cli o bu1ld 1n i s new Ritual and the framework of governmental plan is adequate for the strain of a big organization.

Careful supervision and good workmanship are all that are necessary to raise a structure of which we shall all be proud. At the opening of this new year your Council calls upon you individually to give of your best and in full measure, as an aid to it in its efforts to make 1915 a year of wonderful accomplishment in ASA. A word about OUR GOVERmlNTAL .PLAN

The Convention elected four members of its Council, a rresident, a Secretary, a Treasurer and an Historian. No specific duties were assigned to those officials, it being understood that the usual duties· appertaining to such positions should be ~eirs, together with any other responsibilities that they might care to assume or that time might hap pen to thrust upon tnem. In organizing her Council, your p·resident has · given special work to different officers, and has placed them on certain I}Ommi ttees. All this ha·s been ser forth in the preceding issues of ·t he ~t_J}iQ]!NIX, or in the letter that was sent out to the Cmmoil in December and which was ·r ead to the dtfferer1t Pndergredue.te chapters. For the benefit, however, of such alunrr1ae as are unable to hear these instructions read, it may be we 11 to summarize. ~he President has a general supervision over the sor~ity, publish~ es the- PHOENIX and is Chairman of two Comm:1.ttees, Extension and Finance.

The Secretary attends to the general correspondence of the - sorority, is custodian of the badge, serves on the ~t~nsion Committee and is Chairman of the Committee on Education, which for the present attends t o the annual sorority examination, but which ·is to be developed in the future on .very broad lines. The Treasurer has the dutie s that go ~ ith such an office, but she is also on the Filiance Co:tnfuj_ttee and on the Publications. Committee. To the Historian has been assigr.Led the ~ork Of co:cpiling a History, a Song-Book and a Directo.r.y. It will be seen,then, that the Council has had mapped out for it a wonde:r·ful work. Whether it can all be accomplished is dependent upon whether the sorority is going to give the necessary support financially that vTill make it possib~• to realize the many ambitions that all this 1ivork implies.

Such an arrangement, broad as it is, does not cover the fiel ds of · opportunity or possible development in the est ~~at ion of your President~ so she is calling into the service other workers. She has - craat~d a ~ Cabinet and she has evolved a plan of ~tate Secretaries. By means of the y;u:r President is hoping to do muoh toward the development o~ the ASA t:d:m

Which is the physical,intellectual,moral and social we~~are bf the membership. With this in vie\7, she bas a:rrange d for a Ca b~net ~f four m~~· ·­ bers, each in charge of a -parti~ular -phase of the sore . ~ty al.IIl. App o1. c.t -

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·ments have from ~yery that t~ese :rBOENIX is

not yet been made, but recommendr ti.ons h'" ve teen asked for ~ne of t~e Ch~f~ers. anf i t is hop~d by the Central Office l.mportanv PO Blwl.Ons ~ l.C.Y oe filled by the time that this in your hailds. Now about the STATE SECRETARIES

Under the plan as evolved by your President there is to be a secretary ~n every State ju~t ~ soon as there are four resident ASJ.s. fho~e 1n Ohio , Missouri, Pennsylvania and Virginia are to be appointed mmed1ately and the olher places are to be filled just as soon as Volunte,e rs can be found~ One has already been ~ecured for Georgia, and · there is a good poss1bility for North Carolina. There are several p~om­ inent ASAs in the Atlauta City Panhellenio, girls whom the Central office hopes to reach thru per~onal friends, so as to organize an Assooiatioa. This Panhellenic is 1.n the G~~rgia Federation of women's Clubs.

There was a go~d deal of feeling on the part of some, when the· Panhel~ lenic.was organ1~ed, because the membership was compos&« of soma people who d1.d not belong to sororities on the N.P List.· Your President is of the opinion that ASA can be made tpe peer of anything in Hallas, and that its membership should be eligible to an~:Panhellenios, but before she will push that m~tter very forc:J.bly, she will want to see the sorority on a strong basis. There is no reason, however. why the Atlanta ASAs, · who wear their badge so proudly, should not be glad to be on the inside and renew their pledges to the reBrganized sorority. This same thing applies to ASAs in other Panhellanics. e c:i.ty ) It is expected that the State Secretary wil l do four things, (1) Soour her terri t,..,ry for ASAs, (2) Push extens :~on ·both of chaptex·s a:c..a· as sociations~ (3) Be m;.nes of information on the fraternity system 87.\.d situati'1n, (4) Ser~e as dynamos of insp~.ration for all chapters , assoC>-· iations and unattached ASAs in her distr:J.ct. This kind of wo:rk pr·esupp-oses that the State Secretary will keep a. card cata logue of aJ.l members resident in her territory, that she will welcome cordl.alJ.y all that may move into her State, that she will serid letters of recommerJ.d.ation, when a girl changes her residence, to the one in cha:r.ge of the State to which the member goes. State Secretaries are to rega:r.d themselves as the guardians of all chapters and associations vlith j.n their territory. It is to be their duty to develop ASA interests in the State and they should be on the ale~t always to inoraase the efficiency of every ASA organization within their borders. State Secretaries shou1i take no important step without consulting Headquarters, but in work that in no wise interferes with the plan of the administration or with duties assigned to specific officers, they will have a free hand.

Where it is impossible to form an Association, ow1ng to the very scattered ex-schola membership. it is recommended that the State Secretary shall have circulating letters that will go to the isolated girls and keep them in touch with all the advance m~vements ~ade by the soror- · i ty. One special atm should be to secure the subscription to the PHOENIX, for in that will be .many of the new ideas, as well as mention of progress made. There is no reason why the PHOENIX should not be made an 8-page_a~ fair weekly just as soon as there is sufficient support for the magazJ.Le. 100 subscriptions will give us 25 issues per year of four pages each,but 200 subscriptions oould give us an S-page issue for the same number of weeks. Everything depends upon the amount of support given. There is no reason why the sorority should not have the right kind of baoking, for menr bership can be made to mean one of the most precious things in a girlts life. There is no sorority in the countrywith finer ideals than ours, none with a higher aim, none with a better gove~ental plan, none with?a more devoted Council. We oa.n make ASA what we WJ.ll. What, is 1our. WILL.

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EXTENSION The average sorority girl is apt to think that the word at the bead of this paragraph means on~y one thing the growth that comes from chartering- petitioning locals, but Vle ha"·e ~lready explained in what bas gone before, what the right kind of sorori t~· should do aiong the line of alumnae organization. The Central Office believes that this sort o~ Extension is by far the nost importaut, so it has given its first attent1on to this matter by providing the system of State Secretaryships.

A sorority's strength is in its alumnae far more than it is in itsunder~rad~ates, for ~t is the alumnae who carry the teachings of the soror1ty 1nto the th1ok of life, making a test that will prove whether the ideals of the order are really well worth while. If a soror'ity can bold the interest of its alumnae, if it can devise ways and means of making sorority affiliation absolutely indispensable to the complete happiness of the g~rl who has left her school days far behind, it will have demonstrated 1ts value far more than it ever can by merely adding more girls to the bottom of the list as fast as they retireat the top.

A brook that runs away as fast as it receives new contributions .from its sources will never be any thing but a brook, but the brook that is dammed, so that there can be no leakage, may become a great lake full of dynamic possibilities, needing only direction .for its conserved energies to become a blessing to the community. · The other kind of extension is, of course. also necessary, but care must be exercised in arranging for such growth. The Thanksgiving Convention did much to safeguard this kind of extens1.o:t1 by deciding n.ot .. to enter any institution that does not require 14 entr.ance units, which is the same as saying a thoro four years high school course. Such inst~ tutions as this would therefore rank with the best colleges in the land, and this requirement, if adhered to strictly, will place ASA abreast of the best colleg1.ate sororities in the country. It is on this g:r.ound that your President expects to make the claim that .ASAs are elig:i 'ble to • membership in any city panhellenics that may be formed and which they may care to JOin. The city panhellenic idea is only just beginning to be worked up and your President is very anxious that ASA shall attain to the dignity of such panhellenic membership at the very earliest possi ble moment before the bars are raised. ~at is why the Central Off1.'.Je :r.e r)ommended that the Kirksville ASAs should get under way a city panhel.leHiJ to look out for the interests of the Normal girls, for whom "the State has proviaed no dormitory. The same thing is desirabl~ also in o~her states where we have chapters and all ASAs should be keen to take ad~ vantage of any such possibility, even going so far as to organize oity panhellenics where such do not exist.

In considering the olaims of a petitioning group, then, the first requirement to be demanded is that the school shall be of A rank. The second point to be considered is the type of girl, and the EXTENSION Committee intends to exerciae great care, when in receipt of petitions, that this imperative requirement is also met. 1:·o ur President i -s not particularly keen upon the subject of this kind of extension the present school year, preferring rathe~o perfect our present.organization by getting all the various departments into smooth runn1ng order. There am· many questions that have arisen in the month since Convention, all of which should be answered before new charters are granted, before ~here are more chapters to add complications. It is necessary to decide on what charges shall be made to grou~s, so as to p~ov~de for.the covering of the expenses incidental to installation. It 1s 1mperat1ve ~lso to. _ arrange for some system of training locals before they are adm1tted, 1n order that they may have had the kind of o~ganization that will make them less of· a problem after admission. Then too they should have had suffi cient time in which to collect the nacess~ry finances to meet the expense

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installa · ~ion.

There_is l~ttle need of hc~ t e i~ t~'s ~ar t er . ~ e field that we }lave entered lS almost virgin ~oil. Tl. . ere uill be no dearth of pet i.t ions and little ri'f'alry, for ther~ l.S only o:..1e other normal National, at· pres ent. There are several sect1onal sororities, but they have confined themselves to New York State and t 11ey laak the right sort of outlook or organization to make them even a menace. Our one rival is sss which was, like ASA. founded at the Virginia State Normal School and'which has had, like our own soro:ity, a ch~ckered career thro losing a number of its chapters to oolleg1ate sorori tn~s. SSS has at the present moment 4 chapters in Normal Schools. Thes• are lo.cated at Buffalo, Miami, Oh1.r.

(Athens) and Virginia. In speaking of Ohio it is always necessary to qualify the name with either Athens or Columbus for the state has thre e universities under its jurisdiction, two of whi~h are known as Ohio. ~e third state university i.1'J Miami, but that name is distinctive,while the others need qualification·.

ABA and SSS are about evenly matched at present, so our chapters which meet it ought to experience no difficulty in holding their own.

As it happens, you~ President knows personally a number of the SSS Bat1onal Offioers, so she hopes that there will never be an~hing b~t the pleasantest relations between the two sororities locally, as is oertainly the case nationally. Your President belie·9es that this is a case where ·two can work together be ·tter than separately, and she haS already takcm steps to cement a fil:m friel'l:!shipl between .ASA and sss·,now that she is at the head of the Oounc:f.l . Your President has also been studying the SSS field sharply, as ·iii:•J !fat1.o:nal Presicie:u t of SSS has { already suggested. that ASA enter the two plac~s tJ.ot on our roll, but on that of SSS, viz. Ohio (4thens) and Buffalo. At Athens there is the 1· keenest kind of competition! for there are a number of collegiate sor- } orities on the ca=pus and a 1 take from the Normal Department, an arrangement which makes the field most UL.desiral:.l e in the eyes of your President. At Buffalo there is also keen competition, as SSS is up agains t the sectional sororities already referred to, which in some oases date back to the early '~Os. .

- SSS issues a magazihe known as the ~RIAKGLE. It is like the usual type of sorority magazine. bu.t appears only twice a year. Copies of i-t should be in the .libraries of Virginia and Miami and Alpha Alpha should get hold of these and read the number just issued, comparing mentally with our own PHOENIX. ~he TRIANGLE makes a good appearance, because it is attractively printed, but the December Number contains only 50· pages of reading matter about 10 of whioh are taken from other magazines. · The TRIANGLE pag~s contain only 35 lines, while ours hold 69. Moreove r, t.he TRIANGLE lines do not carry so many letters as does one of the ?HOEmiX so A.SA ha.s in two months equalled the output of SSS so far thie year and at from half to one-third of t he eA~~ns e, for printing costs outrage o~sly. ASA, moreover, has the acvant agP. o~ e~tt~ng something . from Headquarters very frequently, of b·3.,_ng }:-.~:? t 1.n 1ntunat~ touch wit~. all that is ·b eing done in the sorority. If S~S should use 1ts TRI.ANGL.I!i ~s rushing material, . our girls can point with priae to its WEEKLY out u.1i .1.n attractive files.

CONVENTION RULINGS There a:re seve!ml of the Convention Rulings that need oonsideratior1o One of these is the on& referring to the Gra a:::~.a.te Emblem. A reference to the sorori ty• s Regulations will show thf=,l t j ~ w~s decid~d to ~a!e the emblem for graduates guard pin of the chap·c:':3 r let·.,er. ~h1.s decl.Sl.on v:a s bly reached with the idea perhaps, that such a guard p1n would make 1t quite clear to what chapt~r the wearer belonged in each case. The idea (Continued in J?ROElHX trl ·))