By Kelsi Peace, Features Editor
Women’s social club Tri Kappa Gamma is ready for more members.
After being re-chartered in spring 2005, TKG has been working to increase its numbers, said Brittany Groves, the club’s president.
Groves said the club had four pledges this year, one more than the previous year.
“This year we really need to work on getting our number up because a lot of our girls will be graduating in May,” she said.
TKG officers have been brainstorming ways to encourage membership, but “it’s hard to find ideas that work,” Groves said.
“I think one things that’s kind of overlooked is that every club is special and unique,” Groves said.
Groves said members of TKG are close friends and she is proud of it.
To maintain a sense of comaradery, Groves said it is important to integrate the new members.
“We don’t want there to be any segregation between the pledge class and club members,” Groves said.
Because she is a re-charter member, Groves said she didn’t go through the rushing process.
Groves said she gets ideas from the social clubs at other Christian schools and she likes the way Harding University’s rushes work.
As for the small clubs at ACU, Groves said, “I feel like the system as it’s set up for girls to rush and pledge is part of the problem.”
Groves said when larger clubs exceed the membership caps they set it hurts the smaller clubs. She also said girls who don’t get a bid from the club of their choice often rush again their junior year when the chance of getting a bid is much higher.
Club officers and the social club office members are meeting to work out a solution and find a way to increase membership of the smaller clubs, Groves said.
Mauri Westbrook, coordinator of student activities and organizations said the pledging process would be re-evaluated once its over this year.
“We’re trying to encourage girls that don’t necessarily get their first choice to consider some of the smaller clubs,” Westbrook said.
TKG vice president Kenna Baskin, junior nursing major from Helotes, said most people want to be members of a larger club for intramurals and Sing Song, and she called the larger clubs the “popularity contest of ACU.”
Smaller clubs have their advantages, Baskin said. As a transfer student, she attended Sigma Theta Chi, Delta Theta, GATA and Tri Kappa Gamma rushes before deciding she felt most comfortable with Tri Kappa Gamma.
Baskin said she became involved immediately as the rush director, which gave her a voice in club decisions.
This year, Baskin is both rush director and vice president. As rush director, Baskin said she worked tirelessly to increase membership and felt encouraged when 37 women attended a TKG rush in the spring.
The low number of pledges this fall was disheartening, she said.
This year, the club plans to participate in everything it can and will most likely do several service projects, Baskin said.
Because TKG was founded in 1986, the club is just now old enough for children of alumni to pledge.
For that reason, she said she expects the club to start growing during the next few years.
