Spring Structured informal recruitment

fire1977 · #1 11-07-2002, 10:52 PM

Hey everyone, sorry this was so long, but I need to find out how some campuses do their informal recruitment. Meaning that panhel plans it but only the chapters not at total after formal recruitment participate. I need details all the way up too how you give out bids. It would be a great help!! Thank you all so much!!

This would be for NPC sororities

kddani · #2 11-07-2002, 11:32 PM

This is going to be interesting to see how it's run this year at Pitt. Last year, only DZ's didn't spring rush. This year, there should be quite a few that won't need to rush (my guesses/assumptions: DZ, XO, Tri Sigma, KD, Tri Delta, and KKG?)-So only 5 out of the 11 would be recruiting? Maybe a few chapters are close and might lose some sisters after this semester, but I know a few are definately well over total.

Could be interesting. May affect rush numbers in that the "bigger" houses aren't rushing.... unfortunately a certain amount of dirty rushing goes on in that girls from the houses not rushing will try to tell PNMs to wait until the Fall to rush so they can rush their house.

But it might also help build up the smaller houses. Which could be a very interesting effect. If some more of the smaller houses get at total or very close, it could give reason for panhel to want to raise quota or possibly expand (i.e. bring back Theta).

I think it'll be interesting to see how this plays out on our campus this year, fire1977. In the past few years, it's only been 1 or a couple houses that didn't rush.

Who knows what's going on though at Pitt. Without a greek advisor and with them doing this "evaluation" of greek life.

Let me know any dirt you hear!
On a separate note, I went to KDs initiation tonight. I'm a very proud alumna

KillarneyRose · #3 11-07-2002, 11:39 PM

Cheyenne,
Here's how they did informal recruitment at Pitt when I was there...

The sororities that weren't at ceiling had rush parties starting, I believe, the second week of class in January. They were very informal; maybe something like a "make your own taco" party or a movie night. Nothing nearly as structured as a formal rush party.

The PNMs would just arrive with the sister who was assigned as their "contact" (no singing or chanting as they enter the suite). The contact would always be a sister who lived in the suite so that she could sign the PNM in. Then the PNMs would mingle with the sisters and get introduced around. The parties usually lasted an hour; maybe an hour and fifteen minutes. Then the Rush chair would get up and make a little speech and the contacts would get the PNMs' coats and everyone would line the hallway and the landing and the steps and sing. Then everyone would meet to talk about their impressions.

The sororities would usually have two open parties, then a pref party and then give out bids the next day.

Oh, and Panhel and IFC would publish a rush calendar in the center page of the Pitt News.

Hope this helps a little

fire1977 · #4 11-08-2002, 05:55 PM

lol....Im actually trying to find out for another school that I advise. But I can't remember about bids at Pitt do they get them all at once? That's what one of the girls that rushed in the spring said. I can't remember.

Thanks for responding though, you are awesome. If anyone else is out there please please post!!

Glitter650 · #5 11-08-2002, 06:54 PM

My School did spring rush this way last semester... There was an open house where the rules were discussed, each chapter's pres. gave a speech and the Panhel. Pres. gave a speech about NPC and each chapter got to set up a table with Paraphanalia and such which the girls were broken into groups and rotated around to and met each chapter. Then a schedule of each chapter's parties was given out and the PNMs got to attend whatever parties they wanted. (very informal parties or even outings off campus to go bowling or something like that) Bids couldn't be given out until that Friday... but each soror. got to do it their own way....most kinda found out where you would be in a sneaky way and found you at 12 on Friday and gave you a bag of goodies and flowers and such... (that's what mine did) I know another soror. Just called to extend bids and then had a gathering of the new members that night. All the rules applied about No contact w/PNMs outside of rush parties still applied.
The way we are doing recruitment this spring ( I believe) is basically every sorority for itself.. except we will write on our fliers that we are part of the NPC, explain a bit about that and list the other chapters as well. Depends on how structured you want to be.

sweetie adpi · #6 11-08-2002, 09:53 PM

hey kddani, what's total at pitt?

ok well fire1977,
at allegheny, since there are only four chapters, panhel doesn't really coordinate informal rush (which is in the fall here) except for runout day and when bids can be extended -- they just kinda try to make sure that recruitment events don't really overlap much so that pnms have the opportunity to go to as many parties as they are invited to.

it's all very relaxed here, there's no real introduction to greek life, because we have deferred recruitment to begin with so by the time informal recruitment rolls around in the fall of their sophomore year, they usually have become somewhat acquainted with greek life. it is up to each organization to make up their own invites and invite whomever they want to invite to their parties throughout the few weeks of recruitment, and have however many events they feel are necessary, and have whatever type of themed recruitment event they want -- it's not the same with every chapter for each round of party like it is during formal.

if there is a pnm who is interested in greeklife and wants to kinda make sure that all the orgs know she can approach the greek life advisor or the panhel vp recruitment programming and they will notify all the chapters of that pnms interest, but orgs are not obligated to invite anyone... usually, the members of the org know who they want to invite that they are interested in and who is interested in them...

informal recruitment can start whenever from the beginning of the semester until usually a thursday night a few weeks into the semester. then on that thursday or the night before, preference ceremonies are held, but no one can hand out bids until 8pm that thursday (my org sends out groups of a couple sisters to extend verbal bids to pnms). the pnms have 24 hours (which is also a silence period between sisters and pnms) to receive whatever bids they are going to receive and make up their mind about whose to accept or can accept or turn down their bid as soon as they are offered one if they know what they want. then, runout is that saturday, which is a tradition here, all the greek orgs run their new members into the brick circle in front of the girls dorm, circle around them and cheer to them while they stand in the middle. then after that bid day events are up to each glo...

i hope this might be somewhat helpful... if you have any questions feel free to pm me! esp. if you need ideas for parties or activities... or org has done informal in the past and i have some experience...

kddani · #7 11-08-2002, 10:01 PM

Total at Pitt is 60.
I know KD's at around 70 and i don't think we're losing anyone this semester.
Several of the other houses are also in the upper 60's and 70's, so they wouldn't be participating in spring rush.

Cheyanne- I don't think anybody out there does greek life quite like we do at Pitt, lol

sweetie adpi · #8 11-08-2002, 10:53 PM

thanks!

fire1977 · #9 11-09-2002, 11:28 AM

thanks so much to everyone. The campus that I'm trying to assist, doesn't have a very strong panhellenic and the advisors are going to try to give them some options. Their ceiling is 65 and none of the houses are at it currently, so I'm trying to get some ideas on how everyone does informal, because I only know PItt's!!! lol

As a side note: Hey Danielle, I think AEPhi and maybe Chi-O's will be rushing in the spring....so not too bad!

honeychile · #10 11-09-2002, 03:16 PM

Back when I was at Pitt, spring rush changed from the "free for all" approach to a mini-rush. If the Panhellenic is in charge (which it should be), then there should be an Open House day, a Pref Day, and a Bid Day, with informal parties in between.

Good side: Panhellenic is in charge, does (pays for) the advertising, a quota is established, and dirty rushing is kept to a minimum.

Bad side: When parties aren't coordinated, you'll have pnms leaving your party to go to another house - NOT a warm, fuzzy feeling! And yet, you can't blame the pnms for wanting to visit as many places as she can.

So, if total is 60, a chapter with 59 sisters can still take quota.

Just my $.02...

honeychile

33girl · #11 11-09-2002, 04:28 PM

Cheyenne - structured informal is how I came in, only all the sororities participated. We spread it out over 2 weeks, Monday through Thursday only. The first Sunday we had Meet the Greeks in a classroom building, all rushees had to go to every sorority. They also got a brochure with each sorority's basic info and a schedule.

The next week was theme, you went to whichever sororities you wanted to go to. Parties were scheduled one every hour, if you were slightly late it was fine.

The week after that was pref and you had to be invited back to those. Parties were, I think, 45 minutes.

Friday morning was bid signing. In the evening was pickup and the sororities went from dorm to dorm collecting their pledges, although this could easily be done at the student center.

Hope this helps. It is definitely better when the parties are coordinated with no overlap.

fire1977 · #12 11-10-2002, 09:09 AM

Thanks everyone, these are definitely some ideas that I'll throw out there for them. To be quite honest I don't know what will and won't work for them. I have my advisors meeting today, so we'll see how it goes!!

Thanks again!!

Peaches-n-Cream · #13 11-12-2002, 01:03 AM

fire1977. I'm wishing you the best with rush!

shadokat · #14 11-12-2002, 01:29 PM

Cheyenne--

We have this at my school, and sometimes, it can be BRUTAL for small chapters. When they did it at my school, they used the rounds of parties and had women cut from 10 to 7 to 3 as in normal formal recruitment...BUT, at the end of the day, there is no quota or bid matching, so a PNM may end up with 3 bids. At my school, the smaller chapters got totally hosed in this system, and so did the PNMs, because they all went to like the same 3 houses, but those houses only had say 30 slots open total for 80 girls. In theory, it sounds great, but it can be really screwy too, and I'd advise you take a look at all of the possible ups and downs before deciding...

Good luck, and as always, if you need anything

Heather

33girl · #15 11-12-2002, 01:39 PM

Heather - you mean the panhel didn't do bid matching at all??!? In other words, the PNM trots up to the Greek life office and they present her w/ her bids and she picks which one she wants? Yikes...

Ours ALWAYS had bid matching by Panhel at the end.