Once upon a time, only the Sorority had Achievements and Requirements in order to advance in grades. Later, the Fraternity had Achievements followed by Accomplishments in order to join the Fraternity. Today, the Fraternity has Accomplishments to advance in grades and the City has Activities in order to move up from Tourist eventually reaching Citizen.
For those in the Sorority, the number of Achievements really hasn’t changed. There are a couple minor differences in lower grades, but to graduate, you still are required to have 100 Achievements along with your hosting and attendance requirements.
For those in the Fraternity, you no longer need to get Accomplishments to join. Instead, like the Sorority, you will advance from grade to grade at approximately the same rate as a Sorority, ultimately requiring 100 Accomplishment points with which to graduate. If you were in the Fraternity prior to this change, all your previous Achievements and Accomplishments will remain, so you won’t have to do them again.
For those who wish to remain in the City Group, we now have Activities in order for you to move up in the City, ultimately moving to Citizen. The first level, from Tourist to Denizen, is roughly equivalent to a Sorority Sister or Fraternity Member advancing from Pledge to Freshman to Sophomore. After that, the remaining levels are roughly equivalent, requiring 100 Activities in order to become a Citizen. If you have any previous Activities from advancing to Denizen before this change, those Activities will still be applicable now.
The biggest difference that affects everyone is the increase in the hosting and attendance requirements. You might be asking why we have increased that number. The point is advancement in a particular group should not be seen as a goal to reach as quickly as possible. It is not a race to graduate. Rather, it is a journey that is meant to be fun and to help you get settled into the community. There are no real benefits other than the title for advancing from one level to the next. Each group is roughly the same when it comes to advancement as well, so one group is not “better” than another. What we are hoping is that you aren’t looking at “how much more do I have to do” but “what can I do that is fun?” The answer to the second question is easy, and the events and parties are the way to have the fun. If it is causing you to stress or worry, then you aren’t looking at the advancement the way that we intended.
We have City Wide events that Meri organizes a few times out of the year. These events are a great time to have fun with the community and get to know people.
We have anywhere from one to three DJ events at Stray Cat Lounge each day. These are more relaxed events in terms of RP, and a time to come together to enjoy music and dancing, sometimes even horizontal dancing.
In addition to DJ events at Stray Cat, there are DJ events at the Sorority and the Fraternity. These also are good places to have fun, enjoy the music and dancing.
The above three listed events are fun community events, but they don’t contribute to any requirements toward hosting nor attendance.
Parties, of which there are several types, are hosted or attended. If you’re hosting a party, you can count it toward your hosting or your attendance requirements, but not both. If you’re attending a party, it only counts toward your attendance requirements. These parties include: Sorority Parties, Fraternity Parties, University Class Parties, Business Parties, City Parties, and Gaming Parties. Note that DJ events at the Sorority or Fraternity, as mentioned previously, does not count toward the requirements.
Discourse is another type of requirement in which there is only attendance requirements not hosting requirements. A discourse is a type of discussion/teaching class where a topic is shared/taught by the host and the attendees are invited to comment and ask questions. Anyone can teach a Discourse if they want, but there is no requirement for teaching, only for attending.
Finally, there is the Sorority Open House, Fraternity Open House and City Greeting. These are hosted by representatives from the appropriate group as a way to introduce new arrivals to the city to what the city, sorority and fraternity have to offer. A required training class must be completed before hosting can start, and hosting is required for upper levels of advancement.
As stated, anything done prior to these changes does not go away. Any achievements, accomplishments, activities, hosting, attendance remains in effect and counts toward the new requirements. There is only one exception to that. If you choose to switch from one group to another, you will start over for that new group. As an example, I graduated in the Sorority, but am now switching to the Fraternity. All my achievements, hosting and attendance remains with the Sorority, so if I were to switch back, I would still have all that I earned before. With the Fraternity, though, I am starting with a clean slate as a Pledge and working my way up from there like everyone else. Tana is doing the same thing in the City group.
Now, we want to encourage people to pick the group that they are best suited for. We recognize that over time maybe that might change, which is why there is no shame in switching from one group to the other. It is encouraged. One thing we request, though, is that you don’t do frequent group hopping. It will be difficult for you and for us to keep track of, and just cause extra confusion that no one wants.
More details about the events and parties can be found on the Events and Parties page. The Sorority Achievement and Fraternity Accomplishment Lists are already updated on the blog as well. The city Activities will be updated in the next couple of days.
Remember, this is not a race, but a journey. The journey is to have fun. If you’re not having fun, talk to an Admin or Student Union member. They’re here to help!
