What Would You Change About Recruitment?

[tinydancer]

I never did see anything wrong with calling it rush, but then a lot of efforts to make things "PC" annoy me. Recruitment makes me think of companies coming to campus looking for new employees.

[PhoenixAzul]

I agree. The "big job" for the Panhel VP this year was to change all the words in the recruitment handbook from "Rush" to "Recruitment" and "rushee" to "potential new member". No, sorry. These girls aren't potential new members, they're potential pledges. The use of the word "member" even with "new" ahead of it, implies an initiated status, full knowledge of ritual, and complete maturity in sisterhood. In my eyes, these girls are pledging to learn these things, to make them selves worthy of knowing and practicing ritual, and they are earning the right to be trusted with said knowledge. I wouldn't trust a girl to be called "member" after only knowing her from a total of 2 hours during recruitment. I know it is semantics or what have you, but when I was a pledge, I understood that my oath was being tested, that my word had to be proven to have value through discretion, loyalty and secrecy before I was worthy enough to be called Sister.

Also, your "new member period" here consists of the time between your initation and the initiation of the next group (mine ended in March). Girls pledge Jan- first week of march, are initiated, and then are considered "new members" through spring quarter, fall quarter, and then during recruitment of the next year to the initiation of the next pledge class.

[honeychile]

Originally posted by AchtungBaby80

Also, whoever said PNMs should have time to access a mirror and a potty between rounds is right on the money! We had 10-minute breaks between each round, and many times I needed every last second of that time just to get to the house I was supposed to be at...and it was 90-degree August heat. I'm sure I smelled great and looked even better. Seriously, I would have been so much more comfortable had I been able to blot my oily face and retouch my lipstick before going into the next house...not to mention getting a restroom break, 'cause you can only drink so many icy beverages before you gotta go! That's why I never looked down upon a PNM who asked to use the restroom, because believe me, I could understand.

I forgot about the potty!! When I was Chapter Advisor, I found out that the PNMs had to go to the TENTH FLOOR of an older building (read: 22 steps to a flight), and then walk down for the first few rounds!! I don't know about anyone else, but when I climb 220 steps in the non-windowed stairwell, I look nasty! AND, (since my chapter is on the 10th floor), we were NOT permitted to put a mirror, a bench, tissues, and/or bottled water out for these PNMs who just made the climb!! I can remember a Panhel Advisor meeting, and the DZ, Kappa, Theta, and Theta Phi Advisors just gaping in amazement! If I did nothing well while I was CA, I am happy to have had that little business changed!

As for the potty, let's face it - we're women. MANY PNMs have no choice but to use the facilities during rush! It's supposed to be fun, people, not a trip to the Gulag!!

[kddani]

Originally posted by honeychile
I forgot about the potty!! When I was Chapter Advisor, I found out that the PNMs had to go to the TENTH FLOOR of an older building (read: 22 steps to a flight), and then walk down for the first few rounds!! I don't know about anyone else, but when I climb 220 steps in the non-windowed stairwell, I look nasty! AND, (since my chapter is on the 10th floor), we were NOT permitted to put a mirror, a bench, tissues, and/or bottled water out for these PNMs who just made the climb!! I can remember a Panhel Advisor meeting, and the DZ, Kappa, Theta, and Theta Phi Advisors just gaping in amazement! If I did nothing well while I was CA, I am happy to have had that little business changed!

As for the potty, let's face it - we're women. MANY PNMs have no choice but to use the facilities during rush! It's supposed to be fun, people, not a trip to the Gulag!!

Ick. Yep. Hi, that was me. Had to walk up the 10 flights of steps for the sorority that wasn't in the same building as everyone else. Forced to walk because the elevator was stuck (with PNMs on it!). I HATE steps. And I think i didn't give that sorority a fair shake because I was so annoyed at having to take the steps, and never went back after first round because I didn't want to do the steps (we had the weird hybrid rush for my rush where there were no cuts until Pref invites (which sucked!).

[PhoenixAzul]

I never quite understood why the hell girls aren't allowed to use the can during recruitment. Do they think girls will be swayed by ABC using Charmin and XYZ using Cotonell? Seriously folks, it's JUST SORORITY RECRUITMENT!

[honeychile]

Originally posted by kddani
Ick. Yep. Hi, that was me. Had to walk up the 10 flights of steps for the sorority that wasn't in the same building as everyone else. Forced to walk because the elevator was stuck (with PNMs on it!). I HATE steps. And I think i didn't give that sorority a fair shake because I was so annoyed at having to take the steps, and never went back after first round because I didn't want to do the steps (we had the weird hybrid rush for my rush where there were no cuts until Pref invites (which sucked!).

I think I won my battle when I was able to prove that the largest sororities were all on the second & fourth floors or off-campus at the time!

This is also why I go ballistic when the @#$%^&* elevator is broken, and I do the stairs, and no one offers the poor alumna a seat or a glass of water!!

[Drunkie679]

I think guys recruitment should have some organization, like the girls, but not complete like the girls. I feel it is better for the guys to see all the houses, not just one house. What happens alot is guys only meet one house and rush them, then they wish they could have gone another house because it wasn't what they thought. Many of my friends from different house wished they would have gone TKE, because they are honestly the most real during rush. Other house pull a lot of shade stuff and ended up losing a lot of members. In some ways to, i kind of like bid matching, even though it seems like you dodn't get the house that you like, but it seems girls are always happy at the end

[tunatartare]

Originally posted by tinydancer
I never did see anything wrong with calling it rush, but then a lot of efforts to make things "PC" annoy me. Recruitment makes me think of companies coming to campus looking for new employees.

I agree. On my campus, instead of calling the girls rushees, since Potential New Members is too long to say, most people call them "recruits" which just makes me think of the army. Plus, how many freshman girls who go to a school where Greek Life isn't big (I'm not talking about places like Ole Miss and Clemson) and are honestly familiar with terms like recruitment, and new member?

[doves95]

Originally posted by Rio_Kohitsuji
I wish Rush here was a bit more structured. Seriously, we are just given a date for a open and the rest is up to us. Also I think it would be nice to have Rho Chi's and to have girls signs up for rush and be able to visit EACH sorority.

There are like 4-5 types of recruitment forms you can have and I agree there needs to be some form of structure even in MSR (minimally strcutured recruitment). One of my schools has PSR-partially structured and its going to hurt the 2 smaller chapters since PNM's dont have to go through to each chapter! They go where they want after day 2 and then at day 4 there is bid matchingl... how we dont know this is new and we have no lists really so we can have different girls each day! crazy!

1) I would eliminate frills recruitment or put a limit on all dec's or money spent and have house checks. Some rich chapters I know spend like 5K on rush!

2) BUT I dont agree with the strict silence. I love it! Yes its hard but if rho chi;s can explain it well then hey the PNM should understand. There is ALOT of dirty rushing! and strict silence helps! We had a chapter promise bids to girls and had them drop out of rush, screwed quota from 25 to like 8 that fall and then they got like 30 girls b/c of that right after. SO .... more clear and structured it is the fairer itis for all chapters.

[PinkSigma3]

3) Info cards with fees included I think having each PNM get a card/sheet on each house with the basic info, pic of the house (if there is one) or room (so they remember which goes with what) and most importantly, the fees for joining on it. Some people don't want to ask, so it'd be nice to get them beforehand. [/B]

we got one of these during rush, but i SWEAR every sorority was like "oh, the costs on that sheet are totally wrong"
even though they sent in those numbers the summer before rush (i just did it yesterday)

Also, we have a budget of no more than $400 on recruitment. We are a school with about 15,000 undergrads, so we're no huge southern school, but I cant IMAGINE spending more than $200 on rush!!



i hated:
1) our suites arent air conditioned
2) having 6 girls staring up at 1 me
3) the songs...im sorry, i think they are lame
4) answering the same questions OVER & OVER
5) strict silence

hmm...thats about it. im in charge of recruitment this year and i have some AWESOME ideas, I can't wait!

[Zillini]

Originally posted by doves95
1) I would eliminate frills recruitment or put a limit on all dec's or money spent and have house checks. Some rich chapters I know spend like 5K on rush!

Compared to some campuses, $5,000 is cheap. Panhellenic sets our budget at $6,000. I know for a fact that one house on campus spent upwards of $25,000 and it mostly came from alum donations. They only turned in receipts that totalled $6k. There's no auditing. I would love to do away with the ridiculous and frivallous spending on Recruitment. (At the same time I am envious of those houses that have alums who are willing and able to give that kind of money. Must be nice!)

Did anyone really chose a house because of the floral arrangements? Or professional lighting and sound system during the skit? How about the engraved napkins? Let's set budgets at $200 max to cover printer paper, toner, nametags and other office supplies. That's it, no more. No special outfits for actives or PNMs. Just come as you are and get to know each other. Drop the silly skits and limit the songs to Hello and Goodbye. The rest is just pointless. (But I'm enough of a realist to know that in order to be competitive, we'll keep doing things as we. At least until we are forced to change, either by the Administration or NPC. I sincerely doubt change will ever come from within.)

Let's drop the silly rules like for us accidently crossing the threshhold of a door to wave goodbye. Strict silence is silly because it is better to know the PNMs ahead of time and them to know your GLO in order to make good choices. But at the same time, we must enforce the rules on "real" dirty rushing (like promising a bid and then breaking the PNMs heart) and inappropriate/unsafe rushing (like taking PNMs out to parties and bars).

For our campus, I'd love to add more parties to each round so that there are less PNMs in each. As it stands it is way too crowded and the noise makes it almost impossible to hear yourself think, let alone hold a conversation. From the rumors I've heard, the number of PNMs going through will dramatically increase this year and there's no plans to increase the party numbers. Another thing, I'd bet the Fire Inspector would have a fit if he ever showed up during Recruitment.

As for Recs, most PNMs here know they need them. Not because they're required but rather because it's so competitive. They also know it's their responsibility. But I'd like them to know that 1 Rec is good, 2 better, but 5+ is excessive. We get so many in that we simply don't have the time to deal with all those extras and it doesn't improve anyone's chances to inundate a Chapter with Recs.

[honeychile]

Originally posted by PinkSigma3
we got one of these during rush, but i SWEAR every sorority was like "oh, the costs on that sheet are totally wrong"
even though they sent in those numbers the summer before rush (i just did it yesterday)

Also, we have a budget of no more than $400 on recruitment. We are a school with about 15,000 undergrads, so we're no huge southern school, but I cant IMAGINE spending more than $200 on rush!!



i hated:
1) our suites arent air conditioned
2) having 6 girls staring up at 1 me
3) the songs...im sorry, i think they are lame
4) answering the same questions OVER & OVER
5) strict silence

hmm...thats about it. im in charge of recruitment this year and i have some AWESOME ideas, I can't wait!

I can't even imagine having only $200 for a rush budget! For a COB budget, sure, but not for Formal Rush!

I'm thrilled to see how many people are sick to death of saying "Recruitment" and are using the word "Rush"!! It is sooo liberating to not use NPC-speak!!

But as for the same questions over and over: all Rush Chairmen should tell you how to handle that one by now! You just say all the answers right up front, then get down to getting to know the PNM!

(ps: Zillini, I swear my teeth go on edge when I'm at a rush function that doesn't use the engraved napkins! They're there, they were in budget, use the #$%^&*() things!!!)

[tunatartare]

At my school, the rush budget was set to $200, that included all nights of rush, PLUS decorations and food for Pref. That was pretty difficult to do, and people had to get really creative with stuff. This year, they finally changed it, so now our rush budget is a whopping $450, $200 of that comes out of the school budget that the school gives you, and the remainder of that has to come either out of members' pockets or out of carryover.

[IvySpice]

Did anyone really chose a house because of the floral arrangements? Or professional lighting and sound system during the skit? How about the engraved napkins?

Yes, I think they do, which is why it's a problem -- it'd be really good for the Greek system if PNMs weren't easily wowed, and didn't take those details as signs of a super-strong institution, and just chose based on sisterhood. But marketing works. When a group appears professional, organized, and wealthy, which is what those detail can do, it works.

Of course, the fact that it works is the reason why stopping the madness has to come from Panhellenic, not from chapters. Think of how the chapter's philanthropy fund would benefit from the $20,000 currently spent on ballons and flower arrangements.

[AGDee]

As I was reading about the recruitment budgets, I thought the same thing about Philanthropy. Then I thought.. how about if chapters' recruitment budgets were based on their philanthropy efforts? So, you could only spend half of what you'd earned for your sorority's philanthropy the prior year? That would at least help them get their priorities straight, I would hope!

I'm all for no frills recruitment. Terminology doesn't really bother me one way or the other, although I find PNM's to be a difficult term to use.

I always hated recruitment and I wasn't good at it. Talking to people I don't know isn't a strong point of mine if I'm not in the proper mood to do so. I always volunteered to serve the punch. Then I could observe everybody and get a feel for what was happening in the room.

I think NPC has come a long way in the area of recruitment with all the different types they are promoting. I think what works on one campus doesn't work at all on another campus and I'm glad they've built in flexibility.