Not Making Quota

dphies00 · #17 10-03-2002, 12:47 AM

Hey - time for my two cents and a story...

Some chapters choose to invite women back to keep their retention rates high. ABC invites back the maximum amount allowed during formal recruitment. They're a very popular chapter on campus, so their parties are always full. Pref Night rolls around and their parties are full - but they're surpirsed to find that a few of their rush crushes went to other houses. They have some of the best and the brightest women going through rush. Oh and oops, they have a couple of people that slipped by, but hey, they had a 87% retention rate on their invites back.

Then Bid Day rolls around. They are shocked to see that their bid list is made up of three girls from their first bid list and the rest of their new members are from their second bid list, and some barely made it. They got quota but most of their rush crushes went to other houses and they have eight new members that they never even wanted as sisters. But - they got quota.

So then there's another chapter, XYZ on this campus. Throughout rush, they've been consistently cutting about 35% of the women that come to their parties. This is harsh cutting for them as their retention rates are around 25-35%. They did not make quota - 2 short. However, they don't invite back anyone they do not want to "pay to be their sisters." (yes, we use this phrase as a standard during rush - would you pay to hang out with this rushee?) After rush ends, sisters of ABC come up to three new members of XYZ and ask where they were on bid night. Eight days after rush, four new members of ABC depledged - two that were hated and two that ABC liked but were friends of the unliked new members.

Who wins in this situation? Slippery slope...

Not making quota is not the tragedy that some sororities make it out to be. Sometimes its worse to make quota and not get the new members you want. If anything, if a large amount of sororities make quota on campus - as mine did last week - then it shows that Panhel is doing something right. Sorority rush is being promoted, not specfic chapters. Greek Life is attractive as many women feel comfortable signing up for rush. And the chapters themselves have confidence and realize that women want to join them.

Quality comes first and quantity follows.