Call to eliminate recruitment skits
 

I've been wanting to hear what y'all think of this as soon as I heard about it coming down the pipeline a few months ago. Have I missed a thread about this or is it not as big of a deal as I think it is?

I rushed before they were used at my school, so to me it's no big deal.
A couple of years ago I saw the skit our current chapter sisters are/were using, and it didn't resonate with me at all. I don't see the appeal of skits.

They've been moving in this direction for some time. It's just lately becoming reality instead of theoretical.

Most of the women in the chapters I'm working with are very disappointed about it. Especially those who felt they had strong skits. I think many of them want to try to incorporate their skits into a sisterhood video, but I'm not really sure how that will play out.

My personal opinion is that the skits were a waste of time, ridiculous productions and wasted an opportunity for the chapters & PNMs to get to know each other. I am glad they are being eliminated.

Wonder what the chapters who built rooms with a stage for the skit will do with that now?????

I think skits initially had a really good purpose - to give the rushees a few minutes to relax and stop talking and have a laugh or two - but as with most everything else, the importance and the production values got blown out of proportion.

Although I'd much rather see a skit than a generic made-by-nationals video.

Ugh, the generic made by nationals videos get very old after a while. That's part of why I think my chapter does so well in recruitment-we have custom videos for both philanthropy and sisterhood day and they do a much better job of showing who we are than a video simply sent to us.

My chapter is unhappy about the skit/dance because a lot of girls enjoyed doing them, and while I wouldn't say I'm sad about it I remember enjoying the skit a lot when I went through recruitment because I thought the chapter was close and funny when they did it. Still, more time to talk to PNMs is never a bad thing.

skits
 

I agree...although it took working as a national officer in the membership department to get me to step back and see how much valuable time and energy was being wasted for skit rehearsal. And how many great chapters who had "funny skits" had not practiced for preference ceremony or conversation for more than an hour or two....compared to 20+ hours of skit practice.

And I am sure that there are chapters who had a great balance between skit preparation and preference preparation...but I did not see very many of them.

I have seen more chapters who have a great balance between sisterhood round and preference. And they have managed to incorporate the chapter's personality into these rounds.

I pledged in the mid sixties in the age of skits. I don't mean one round. I mean ALL rounds. Round 1 German Beer Garden where we sang among other things, our drinking songs (Let's drink a toast to Kappa Delt as the final song) Round two was KD's Hades ( which included in the skit black and red tights with horns on our heads) Round three Wizard of OZ ( you know the story, little pledge finding her home) and then Preference (all white, pearls, diamonds emeralds and white roses).
I am so glad they are doing away with skits and going to substantial conversations. When I think of the expense of all of that fluff it boggles the mind.
I saw the budget for a chapter, not to be named, and the price for one skit was unbelievable.

With the number of girls going through rush and the growing number of chapters at more and more schools, I think skits are a luxury of time that the chapters simply cannot afford. I think a good skit can hold a chapter in the memory of a rushee but not improve their reputation, but a bad skit can damage it. Better off taking those charming girls who are great performers and turn them into star rushers.

The two are not always contained under the same roof.

The chapter I worked with spent significantly more time on conversation prep than skit prep. And most of the women in the skit were the better recruiters. I was always surprised how much information about the chapte they were able to pack into the skit in a fun non-preachy way.

To be honest, I wish they would get rid of the incredibly stupid philanthropy crafts. I watched one chapter haul out bags of their "crafts" to the dumpster as soon as the round was over.

the chapter I advise stuffed panda bears- but who wants a bunch of germy stuffed-unstuffed-restuffed panda bears.

The crafts are a bigger waste of money than the skit.

But think of all the rooms at children’s hospitals across the country that must be wallpapered by now with cheerfully magic markered greeting cards drawn by anonymous sorority members and prospective sorority members as they nervously chit-chatted about where they’re from and what their majors are.

I hate videos more than skits.

I pledged early ;70s. We had a skit day (3rd day if I remember right). My chapter did KD Hades some years and Wizard of Oz other years depending who was our rush chair and which skit they preferred.

DaffyKD

Oh HELL yes. Not to mention the philanthropies that do not lend themselves at all to a craft. It would be nice if the rushes and sisters could all just get together and build a house for an underprivileged family, Amish barn raising style.

Agree 1000%. The craft idea was a good way to "encourage" Philanthropy Day round way back in the 90's when it was mandated but its time has passed.

When I took over as HCB president in 2006 we found stuffed in every available closet
from the guest suite on bags and bags of "Boo Bears" Wash cloths made to look like bears. We undid the bears and donated the wash cloths to a homeless shelter. (we told them they needed to be washed first) I imagine they are still handing out those wash cloths today. We couldn't bring it upon ourselves to just dump them. I hate the videos, too.

I'm disappointed about skits being taken out. They're fun and light. And as was mentioned, a good break from the monotony of constant talking and shouting over everyone and losing your voice.

I agree about the philanthropy craft. Hate it. Pointless, waste of time, energy and money. And many chapters throw their 'crafts' out.

LOLOL! German Beer Garden!

To me, "no frills" = no fun.

Videos are goofy as well. Most of them are made by the same company in town and all look very similar. Which is why I am always amused when people talk about one being better than another.
There is only so much blown glitter, helium balloons, fountain dancing, and drone shots of the house/ philanthropy event that one can watch.

The Chapter I advise got rid of them several years ago. They were relieved. They thought the skit was fun but the lack of practices and late night/early morning set ups was worth it. They had way more energy, were more focused on conversation and connection and the videos can be a cute way to replace that dynamic.

I thought for sure they would pitch a fit because skit night was always their strongest night and a big seller but they ended up being perfectly happy.
This is also a school that does deferred recruitment with it happening during classes and only having one small room to stage everything in so I guess it's not a surprise they enjoyed more time/freedom/space.

I can see both sides of it. As a senior, though, I was relieved that I would never have to practice the can-can at 1 AM again.

I'll preface my comments by saying that I COB'd at a school that only held informal recruitment (when I joined back in 2004). However...

I understand both sides: not wanting skits/crafts because they're lame and a lot of work, but also wanting to break up recruitment week with a day where you don't need to start a conversation with "What's your major?" and hope it takes off from there.

I'm not saying this would work at every school, but... what about a game night? It could be board games, or larger group games. I went to an insurance industry Christmas party this past year for work, we did something similar, and it was a ton of fun. We had 8 groups of 6-7 people (all of us being randomly put together from different insurance carriers and agencies so we had to make new friends), and all the teams competed against each other in quick little games. Most of the challenges were simple, too (in that there was little to no prep, and they required few materials). At one point, each person was given an Oreo cookie, you had to put it on your forehead, and when someone yelled 'go!', without using your hands, everyone had to try to move the cookie down their faces and into their mouths. First team to eat all of their cookies was the winner.

Interestingly, things like that can also show you who is really supportive, who is competitive, who is impatient... and who is downright mean. :p I didn't really come across the impatient and mean people when I did this, but ya never know!

My school had two skit days when i attended. As a rushee, I thought they were so dumb and couldn't wait for them to be over. I couldn't figure out how the skits had anything to do with life in a sorority (and still can't). As a collegiate member, I hated the dancing but did enjoy all the AOII songs we had from all those skits. A lot of our chapters have very few songs or chants anymore because the skits went away in the 90s.

I never went through formal rush as a rushee, but I sure hated them as a sister. lol I wish we'd spent more time on conversation skills than rehearsing and decorating for a skit. The craft idea is still good, but if I was an active, I wouldn't cry over no more skits. :D ASTAlumna's idea of Scrabble sounds fun and can be a good ice breaker.

videos>skits
 

We got rid of skits years ago (over 10) I was thrilled. Skits took so much time and they were beyond stupid and outdated. Videos on the other hand take less then 10 minutes and are a great way of showcasing your chapter and their members. We have never done a craft thank god.

Me, too. Especially those professional slick, glittery ones. Oy.

Ugh. When I went through Rush, THREE different sororities did the same craft. NONE of them looked very good!

I agree, however, I can understand that putting a cap on the spending would be a good leveling tool.

See, I had forgotten that part! We usually did such basic skits, with only about 3 women with actual lines. We did the Charleston, but I don't remember the can-can!

Bottom line, I'm not wild about banning or not banning anything that's under the monetary amount set by Panhel. How much do these "let's make sure that non-greeks think we look silly & sexist" videos cost? They surely don't come very cheap, do they?

I think the criticism of skits is more about the amount of time spent on them (preparation and during parties) than it is about money.

There weren't skits at my school when I was there 9-13 years ago, but the chapter I advise has them. I honestly was surprised at their use of skits since a philanthropy day would be far more in the spirit of this campus. Though I did find a bag of the cheesy craft we did when I went through in the attic of the house my sophomore year lol

As someone who was a collegian and now advises at a university where chapters are between 12-25 girls for formal recruitment (total is currently 28), I think that the videos are a waste of time for everyone involved. It's either expensive and drains the modest budget or is clearly made by an amateur. I have to say, one of my pledge sisters filmed all of us answering quick questions, and edited that- and it looked great. It wasn't random people dancing, it was aerial shots of things, it was just us talking about Alpha Gam in easy-to-digest chunks. It doesn't seem to be the way things are done now.

On small campi, skits aren't even possible. For the chapter that was at 12 this past recruitment, what would they have done? Had a skit of 3, or left the majority of PNMs sitting without a collegian? Either way, what is actually the point anymore?

Fall 2016 was UCLA's last formal recruitment for skits. Instead of a skit, the day will focus on Sisterhood. Chapters can still show a video.

My sorority was one of the 2 nationally that voted no to eliminating skits...interesting to see who voted to keep them and why that may be the case.

Instead of skits, our chapters did a song and dance. They're stopping that this year though to focus on a "values based recruitment."

Here's my prediction for future recruitments:
Videos will be banned, because chapters will spend too much money on Hollywood directors and stars making "cameo" appearances in their "daughters'/nieces'/cousins'/neighbors'" sorority video.
Someone will come up with a brilliant idea for Round 3 - skits!

Where is the like button?