Spring 2022: Semester in Review

Hello sisters, 

In January, I shared a semester in review of Fall 2021. In that update,I shared that I felt like we were really on the cusp of big changes and transformations. As we end the Spring 2022 semester and the 2021-2022 academic year, I truly believe that our sorority has made great strides to grow membership, strengthen our sisterhood, and increase our service impact. We are entering a new academic year which could lead to our highest membership levels in more than 5 years! It is very exciting to see our contracted staff and volunteers work tirelessly to create innovative programs and resources that benefit all members. 

New Resources

Our team of volunteers on the Operational Leadership Team decreased in size this semester, but not in effort! Our team worked to improve or create the following resources:

• Updated Membership Status Request Forms
• Standard Operating Procedure Updates (all available on OPAportal to all members)
• New Alumni Workshop

Our Chapter Health team also worked to create new processes and resources for chapters including:

• Chapter Wellness Training
• Chapter Budget Training
• Chapter Communications Training
• Officer Transition Training

The chapter health team has also been working to put together an Officer Leadership Academy for chapter executive board officers that will launch in August! This has been a long-time goal of the sorority and we are very excited to offer role-specific training, leadership development, and opportunities to connect with officers at other chapters. 

Our Service Impact

Our collegiate members completed 21,380 hours of service this semester. This equates to $315,285 of potential labor costs at a living wage of $15 per hour. 

The chapter with the highest number of service hours was Alpha Rho at Virginia Tech with almost 2,200 hours of service. We had 9 other chapters complete over 1,000 hours of service. 

Two members completed over 100 service hours from chapter-planned service projects:

• Megan Shoop (Alpha Iota) – 106.50
• Laura Holified (Alpha Nu) – 103 

Twenty two members completed over 50 service hours from chapter-planned service projects:

Jazz Flores
Grace Allyson
Katelyn Lam
Mailys Angibaud
Rachel Black

Chapters are seeing more participation in service projects post pandemic and our national service team is preparing resources for chapters to transition from virtual and donation based projects back to hands on service. 

Membership Growth

As we continued to return to “normal” amidst the ongoing pandemic, it was very exciting to see many of our chapters have great success with recruitment this semester! Our chapters extended bids to 314 potential new members and we welcomed 252 of those into Omega Phi Alpha this Spring. This represents a 26% increase in new members than the previous spring and very close to on-trend with our pre-pandemic levels. 

Additionally, the number of members who took Leave of Absence or disassociation were the lowest they’ve been in many years.

Incoming Year of Expansion

It’s safe to say that 2021-2022 has been the year of growth within the expansion team! Summer Ray (Alpha Pi), Corey Goodburn (Alpha Kappa), and Sam Booth (Omega) have worked to improve the expansion process to match the current university landscape. The team has been extremely innovative and deployed new tactics to increase interest in expansions and it has paid off! We currently have three prospective new chapters that have started the expansion process:

• Auburn University (re-founding of Omicron)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Tennessee at Knoxville

We also have two interest groups that are in the process of acquiring the minimum number of students to submit a petition for expansion:

• Binghamton University
• Marshall University

We anticipate that Auburn, UNC, and UTK will be inducted this fall and Binghamton and Marshall in the Spring 2023 semester. 

If you are interested in serving as a mentor and big sister to any of these founding members, please complete this form. We will need more than 100 alumni to serve in this role! As a founding member of Alpha Zeta chapter with an alumni big sister, I can say that it was really beneficial to have that connection as I was going through the founding process. 

As more information becomes available about dates of inductions, we will share with all members. All members are encouraged to attend the induction ceremony and help us celebrate our new chapters and members! 

Member Experience and Engagement

Our volunteers have led many events for our members including alumni trivia, yoga, a national service project, and opportunities to engage with our partner, RAINN. 

As attendance continues to be very low for planned events, we will continue to seek feedback from members on the best engagement practices and opportunities. If you have feedback for the organization on how to best engage members, please let us know. 

We are very excited to return to in-person events with Convention in Fort Worth this year and look forward to connecting with so many. 

Progressing Forward

We plan to continue to focus on growing our collegiate membership and improving chapter health through the expanded chapter health support team. Chapters will receive more in-depth assistance, training, and engagement to improve chapter operations and member satisfaction. 

Beyond collegiate membership, we plan to continue working to engage alumni through all stages of life. The national team will support the planning of alumni events in each alumni region in the upcoming year and encourage alum connections. 

The Diversity and Inclusion team will be offering many development opportunities for both collegiate and alumni members in the upcoming year including a Queer Inclusivity Training and a Disability Ally Training. 

Stay tuned to social media and your email to get updates from the sorority! 

In service and sisterhood, 
Alyssa Bernhardt
Managing Director