Virtual Recruitment
 

How does virtual recruitment seem to be working out? I haven't heard about frequent equipment fails but I have heard of girls and moms blaming it for outcomes they didn't like.

I feel like a lot of those outcomes would have been the same anyway,

My dd liked it, especially when the alternative was wearing a mask in an already hot and loud room.

Is she a member or a new member?

She is a new member, but many members were commenting the same.

Obviously, pref was not the same online, but it somehow worked.

Reveal was done with their rush group instead everyone together. Chapters started with a zoom bid day, then were allowed to have very controlled face-to-face events later in the day. My dd’s pledge sisters got to “run” to the house in small waves, maybe 3 or 4 shifts?
Who knew that cute masks would be part of 2020 bid day gifts, lol! No guests were allowed, which is a huge departure from the norm. I was looking forward to going, but just like everything else this year, it is what it is.

It wasn’t ideal, but everyone did their best to make it work.

My neighbor, an Auburn PNM (now new member), said the process went very smoothly with no tech glitches that she knew of. As noted in another thread, all chapters met quota. I think the biggest impact virtual recruitment had on the process was minimizing tent talk. Eliminating the big groups of pnms walking and waiting around together, lists in hand, comparing their results, could have only benefited the chapters and pnms.

I guess I figured that they were all texting what they thought of each group to each other, but I can see how it would be less than if they were in person.

I wonder if the PNM drop rate will be higher because it will be harder to get to know your PNM class?

From the chapter side, I'm hearing from other advisors that you can tell what chapters practiced the zoom calls and which ones didn't. The technical people in charge of the breakout rooms really have to know what they are doing.

If that person(s) hasn't practiced, then rooms were closed or dropped or whatever. If the person was on their game, then no real issues other than some PNMs had better WiFi or internet connections.

My daughter just finished up Virtual recruitment from the PNM side of things. Day one all she did was watch video's of all the chapters and then had to rank her top 11. She said that was the hardest because she didn't talk to anyone that day. Being out of state and not knowing anything about the chapters she did the best she could.

Day two she actually got to talk to the chapters on her list and this round was interrupted by the Derecho that hit Iowa so recruitment was paused for 2 days. During this round she only had 1 bad experience where the chapter she was talking to showed zero interest in anything she had to say but otherwise it was a good round. Ironically, this chapter happened to be her Rho Gamma's chapter so I wonder how that conversation went when she put them last on her list after having them higher at the end of round 1. Outside of her top choice, her entire list changed after actually getting to talk to the houses.

Pref was originally to be in person but at the last minute changed to Virtual because of the University rules and partly due to the storm damage. But overall she felt like it was a good experience but was a little disappointed in not actually getting to go to the house.

Bid day was again a modified process. Her Rho Gama Group (10 Girls) all met in person, outside and at when the clock struck one they all opened their bid cards. There was no running to meet your new home, no group of sisters waiting to greet you and no running off to the house. Instead it was a small celebration with her Rho Gama group. Quickly after that she was assigned a temporary Big Sister who reached out to her to welcome her and meet up later that day. There was also a chapter Zoom call to welcome all the new PNM's to the house.

The experience she had worked out just fine and in a way she was happy she didn't spend the day in the hot sun walking all over campus. She was disappointed that she didn't get to meet in person for Pref round but after opening her bid she has been to the house and they did manage to get a group picture (with masks) of her class.

I honestly think having to go on-line to finish out last year was a good preparation for the virtual Rush experience. The main thing was fewer girls did go through rush and quota was about 15 fewer than previous years so there is an impact in that way.

The virtual recruitment experience at my chapter was overall pretty positive. Everyone practiced their Zoom set-ups in advance so tech issues were minimized. The actives really enjoyed getting to focus on one-on-one and small group conversations with PNM's, instead of spending so many hours making balloon arches, practicing songs, and flipping the house between rounds. I worried that my chapter, and the others on campus who opted to do 100% virtual, would be at a disadvantage when compared with the chapters who opted to do in-person Preference (all other rounds were virtual for all chapters). But every chapter made quota, and many chapters had quota additions, mine included. We had a "summer camp" Bid Day theme, which included games and a campfire on the back patio with burgers, hot dogs and s'mores. Everyone was able to mask up and socially distance in the back yard.

As BBH noted, the biggest difference/issue was a significant decrease in the number of women who signed up for recruitment (25% fewer, in fact). This was attributed to decreased enrollment for the Fall semester and a healthy percentage of students opting to do classes online from home. I've been told that a larger percentage of women dropped right before Preference than in years past. Some women just weren't ready to commit to a chapter until they could spend more time seeing them up close and personal. I imagine general COVID concerns that the campus might have to close and send students home mid-semester was also on the minds of some parents. The end result is that quota was 40% lower this year than last year. NPC has advised that campus total should be set at the same number as it was in Fall 2019. Even with the quota additions, the lower quota means that all but one sorority on campus is under campus total. Most of the chapters are doing COB and holding small events outdoors and online this week and next. I won't be surprised if there ends up being greater interest and participation in informal recruitment come January, after all the new students have had time to adapt to their new normal.

I completely understand why the system is the way it is, but I can’t imagine making such an important decision based on very short videos, as a PNM or an active member.

A lot of the chapters would have known who they wanted ahead of time. Also, many of the PNMs know dozens of women ahead of time and have a good idea of where they want to be.

Wow, that’s interesting. Seems like those PNM’s that are not “in the know” would be at a disadvantage.

Some are if you're talking about a huge rush. However, a recruitment list is not set in stone because girls you think will surely pledge you go in another direction so there's always room to bring in new favorites. Still-- it's next to impossible to meet about cutting down a list of 2000 to say, 600 once recruitment has started. Or even 1000 to 400.

Grade cuts and QR cuts can easily be done ahead of time but then if you're at a school like the University of Georgia where all freshmen meet the grade standards, you need to somehow cut those numbers.

One thing that I try to do yearly is bring outstanding small-school girls to the attention of my sorority's chapters and I give their names to my friends in other sororities. This way, these girls don't slip through the cracks.

Also, even if the first round is in person, many cuts are based on something arbitrary like gpa or not having a rec.

Yeah, I know the grade cuts are large in the first round (and that makes sense). But outside of that and other resume items, 1 minute videos just don’t seem like enough to judge. I know cuts have to happen and it’s a numbers game, I just can imagine some ladies slip through the cracks.