The Woman behind this Website

Lorna Cheney Lorna was the (silent) founder, visionary, and financial support behind the Sorority Mom website. She started it in 2006 and was involved until her passing in 2021. Her best friend Mona lent her name as the public face and did the customer support since Lorna never wanted any credit for her amazing service. Colleagues used her website to find a job, but Lorna never let on that she was the force behind it. She always preferred to remain in the background.

In fact, Lorna could have stepped forward into the limelight on her own TV show. Instead, her website facilitated a search for national House Mother auditions for a new reality show. A dynamo House Director from Oregon won — she was flown over to England for the show about starting a sorority in the UK. Lorna was so happy for her and enjoyed watching the show, too!

Over the fifteen years of its existence, Lorna felt strongly that the website remain free to use for women job-seekers like herself. So she was personally subsidizing the job search for thousands of women through her sorority paychecks. SororityMom.com has always been a DIY jobsite. Lorna was not interested in becoming an intermediary or screener. She was busy doing the job she liked – being a Sorority House Director. Her goal was to bring the potential new House Director and the women of a Sorority’s Board together through her website. 

Lorna becomes a House Mom

By chance, Lorna discovered this hidden career at a very low point after her devastating divorce at age 55. It happened that a daughter-in-law was active in her own sorority organization; she suggested looking into this career as a more permanent option after Lorna had to start her life over from scratch. After a year of substitute teaching (Lorna was a credentialed teacher and librarian), she landed her first Sorority House Director position in 1993 in Idaho. 

Like many women, Lorna had never heard of this job. But having raised four kids — including one son who lived in a frat at college — Lorna wasn’t daunted by college kids. She had been a professional mom for decades! Was it much of a leap to become a House Mother? Turns out, it sure was! But it brought her a lot of delight during her retirement years.

Most importantly, by being a Sorority House Director, Lorna maintained her independence and spirit of adventure. She was always entertained by life on campus — attending college basketball games, concerts and lectures. She felt fortunate to find a career she loved, working long past the normal retirement age. Lorna passed in 2021 and requested that SororityMom.com continue on as long as possible. Please pay it forward to the next deserving woman.

Lorna creates SororityMom.com

Lorna worked in the sorority world until she was 75, after nearly 20 years. During that time, SororityMom.com evolved into the job-search engine she hoped it would be for single, mature women.

After thirteen years of being a House Director in four states, SororityMom.com was launched when Lorna wanted to move closer to family. She was looking for a new House Director position and figured there must be something in the area. Her daughter suggested job-hunting online. That’s when she discovered sorority jobs were not posted in a centralized place where they were easy to find. It was a slog reading through Help Wanted ads in the local newspapers. Job-seeking was still done by cold calling on the phone and sending out resumes through the mail to individual sororities. Even all financial transactions of the sorority were penciled into physical ledgers! And menus for cooks were written out by hand or typed on a typewriter (remember those?).

Another way to find jobs was to call up national sorority organizations or to use a professional job placement service. Actually, Lorna had used such a service before and was glad to find it when she needed it.  Lorna believed there were many jobs available in the region she wanted to move to if there had only been one place to look for them!  That’s the reason SororityMom.com was born – to make it easier for women to find jobs!

By that time, Lorna was a very experienced House Director. In doing her own search for a new job, she knew how to look for openings through the sorority organizations and Greek Life offices of the universities. It was a lot of work. Lorna collected valuable information, which eventually became her first Directory. That information proved to be golden! 

SororityMom.com adds valuable resources

To shortcut the learning curve that Lorna knew brand-new House Directors faced, a series of SororityMom ebooks were written: two Directories, a definitive guide to what the job entails, a food service support, and a booklet about common eating disorders experienced by young women. Together, these answer the most-asked questions from her original blog.

These ebooks have been updated, along with new covers, in 2020-2021. Lorna’s favorite colors are used. These ebooks are infused with Lorna’s years of experience working with the evolving needs of, perspectives, and demands on young adult women. 

It always been a challenge to find the right Greek-inspired gift for House Directors. With new print-on-demand technology, a cute line of mugs and products are the first-ever designs specifically for this niche. They are available on the website and Sorority Mom’s Etsy store. Every purchase of all SororityMom products has always gone right back into maintaining the website for the public. It isn’t free! Fees are paid every month to keep it viable. Please use it.

Still to be published is Lorna’s novel about her life in the sorority world. There are some pretty crazy stories she lived through! She was always reluctant to identify real-life characters who caused them. Sometimes Lorna felt like she was living an American-style “Upstairs/Downstairs” kind of life. She sure loved the life of being a Sorority House Mom and hoped you will, too!

The Face of the Website

Mona O. Meyers*

Mona has been helping SororityMom.com since the start and also loves the lifestyle of a Sorority House Director. Her best friend Lorna had been a Sorority Mom since the early 1990’s and shared hilarious stories from her unique job. Who wouldn’t be intrigued? Mona found her niche providing customer service for this website Lorna founded.

Mona’s Team

As the internet grew, so did the need to keep up! To put up the eBooks and products, we hired tech support to keep the website going. Even our founder’s daughter and granddaughter helped update this website! As the older generation of Sorority Moms retire, the demand remains steady for qualified House Directors. The purpose of this position hasn’t changed much in 125 years! And here to stay for the long run is SororityMom.com — your best resource supporting future Sorority House Directors.

If you found a job through SororityMom, then Lorna fulfilled her mission while here.
This website is Lorna Cheney’s legacy. We cheer your success as a Sorority Mom!  

*Name changed to protect privacy