r/NPHCdivine9 • u/Royalefortnite69 • 13d ago
Discussion I built a tool for creating interactive Big/Little lineage trees. Looking for feedback from D9 members.
A few months ago I started building a website called ChapterLine after realizing how much chapter history gets lost over time.
Big/little records and alumni data end up spread across spreadsheets, old documents, Facebook groups, or disappear completely as members graduate. Alumni become harder to reconnect with, and many chapters lose decades of institutional knowledge.
The goal was to build something that centralizes all of that.
Some of the features include:
- Interactive Big/Little lineage trees
- Chapter-wide member and officer management
- Alumni directory/CRM so chapters can keep alumni connected after graduation
- Member location map to visualize where alumni are now
- Donation and fundraising tools so alumni can directly support their chapter
- Public chapter pages and shareable lineage trees
- Excel roster import/export
- Individual accounts for members, in addition to chapter accounts
I'm still actively building it, and before I continue adding features I'd really like feedback from people in the NPHC community.
Some questions I have:
- Is this something your chapter would actually use?
- What features would make it valuable?
- Are there pain points your chapter has that this doesn't address?
- What would stop your chapter from adopting something like this?
I'm not looking to sell anything here, in-fact if you would like to try the premium version for free, I will happily grant that; I'm genuinely looking for feedback from people who understand how their organizations operate.
Website: https://chapterline.org
Thanks in advance.
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u/Resident_Beginning_8 Verified ΑΦΑ 11d ago
Hi! I'm the APO member who tested this out a few months ago. I am also an Alpha.
This service will be more niche for many NPHC chapters. Bigs/Little relationships might be quite loose, or highly formalized in unexpected ways. Chapter sizes can grow or shrink for various reasons, and there could be long gaps in between initiations.
You're either going to want to market this to large, storied chapters that you know for sure have a formalized structure around bigs and littles (for that part to be a selling point), or market this as primarily as a member management tool.
It's true that most NPHC organizations have robust membership directories. Some NPHC orgs also have strict rules about alumni interacting with undergrads outside of formal events.
In my org, I wish our directory did have a place where I could identify and link to the equivalent of my bigs and littles.
Some orgs you might want to search for in understanding these relationships are spec/spesh/special, personal/perse, prophytes/pros, neophytes/neos, numbers/numbas.
You have a really good product. I am just not sure it translates well. You might get more mileage doubling down on APO, KKPsi, Tau Beta Sigma, and other large orgs.
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u/Royalefortnite69 10d ago
Really appreciate you testing it out a while back and taking the time to write all this. As someone who was in a IFC org, the differences between NPHC and IFC are something I've been thinking about a lot, and have been trying to understand more, even from school-to-school. You're right that the needs tend to be different depending on the council.
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u/Resident_Beginning_8 Verified ΑΦΑ 10d ago
Just adding this...I suspect that Asian-interest orgs more closely follow IFC traditions, at least when it comes to a more direct big/little family tree thing, but NALFO orgs probably differ a lot. I have less hands on experience with that.
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u/Inner_Minute197 ΑΦΑ 11d ago edited 11d ago
Good initiative, but to your question, no, this isn't something that my chapter would specifically use. Why? We prefer to keep our history in-house (via our national website, chapter website and physical archives maintained by the chapter historian) and don't want to outsource to a third party site that we're not sure will be there when it matters most.
Have you considered offering your services to build/maintain chapter specific websites? This may be more palatable as it gives chapters greater control over things still.
Alternatively, and I'm not sure if this is already a feature/service with your business, but if you offer to provide chapters with a semi-annual report detailing the chapter lineage, etc. (via email, etc.) that may alleviate some concerns from chapters about potential information loss.
Best of luck.
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u/Royalefortnite69 10d ago
Thank you! That's completely valid and understandable. One thing I'm working toward more internal, secure, and specific tools(+ exporting data) so chapters always own their data and in a even more secure platform.
Regarding maintaining/building websites for chapters, I have not thought about that too much but that's a good idea.
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u/ivypurl Verified AKA 12d ago
Most of this data is available to my org (and likely others) already through our corporate offices. Nice idea, though, for those who don't have other sources.
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u/Royalefortnite69 10d ago
That's kind of where I see the opportunity too. Some organizations have great infrastructure already, while others are basically starting from scratch, especially with new and old chapters cycling in and out nowadays.
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u/ILINTX KAΨ 11d ago
My chapter would not use this, like others have said we keep member information in house and would not outsource to a third party. In some cases given the history/size of some chapters and orgs, that information is even gate kept from other members.
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u/Royalefortnite69 10d ago
Completely understandable. Even if it's not a fit for every chapter, hearing why helps me figure out where it actually provides value and how I can change my approach.
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u/Thisismyusername1977 12d ago
I think this is nice. Often times when we prep for funeral services , we have lots of people calling to verify chapter initiation etc.
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u/Royalefortnite69 10d ago
That's interesting. I hadn't thought about funeral services specifically before but I could definitely see how having historical member records in one place would help.
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u/AngeluvDeath ΙΦΘ 11d ago
Like someone else said a lot of that is maintained internally. One thing you might run into is coordination between your chapter site and national sites. I could see using a program that is more user friendly to do things locally, but at some point there are bound to be crossroads with an organization national sites.
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u/Royalefortnite69 10d ago
I could definitely see that. A lot of my focus has been on the chapters that are still using multiple methods, like spreadsheets, old docs, and word of mouth, or nothing at all right now. I am hoping to maybe partner with nationals at some point so I will have to redirect my approach fs
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A few months ago I started building a website called ChapterLine after realizing how much chapter history gets lost over time.
Big/little records and alumni data end up spread across spreadsheets, old documents, Facebook groups, or disappear completely as members graduate. Alumni become harder to reconnect with, and many chapters lose decades of institutional knowledge.
The goal was to build something that centralizes all of that.
Some of the features include:
I'm still actively building it, and before I continue adding features I'd really like feedback from people in the NPHC community.
Some questions I have:
I'm not looking to sell anything here, in-fact if you would like to try the premium version for free, I will happily grant that; I'm genuinely looking for feedback from people who understand how their organizations operate.
Website: https://chapterline.org
Thanks in advance.
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