I am not an expert by any means, but wanted to give you a little peace of mind until the REAL experts get here. As long as a PNM does not sign a bid card after pref, then she should be eligible for the ADPi colony recruitment. If she is released prior to pref, she is also eligible to pledge the colony. I am 99.9% certain that this is correct. I don't see any reason why she cannot go to pref. She just has to decide prior to signing the bid card.

I am sorry that this girl was released from so many houses, but she DOES still have one. You know what to tell her... it only takes one :)

Aren't you sweet!! I am not always known for a positive attitude ;)People get to me and occasionally strip my "cherub-like demeanor" away.

No, no, no. If she is released by all chapters, she is eligible for colony recruitment. The only thing that would make her ineligible would be to sign a bid card after pref, match to a chapter, and decline the bid.

DeltaBabyDelta is correct. Only if she signs the bid card after pref and matches to that group is she ineligible.

For those who will be in Oxford Saturday night, I'd like to suggest going to support Ole Miss Theatre's production of The Laramie Project at 7:30 pm at Meek Auditorium.

For those not aware, there has been news media coverage of some students' behavior while in the audience of the play earlier this week, including shouting gay slurs aloud during the performance.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...-play/2915257/

The football players apparently were in the audience as required by their taking an Introduction to Theatre course. The timing is pretty bad, too, as this happened right after Creed Week which focused on accepting everyone ....

I usually watch Ole Miss football games every week, but this week I'll be at the theatre!

Thank you so much for your help. I have passed along the information and I hope she decides to at least go to skits tonight, and hopefully prefs, before she makes her decision.

PNM made a reference to the colony being a "sure thing" and not getting rejected any more. I told her that, even though colonies take women from each class, it is far from a sure thing. She is an academic sophomore, out-of-state with no legacy, so I had told her at the beginning that her options are very limited.

On the plus side, she had several friends from women in houses call her to say how sorry they were that she was released and encouraged her to continue in recruitment.

I am so confused. I've read through the thread and I still don't understand. If a PNM goes back to 3 prefs, does that mean she will get a bid to at least one of them?

@ggforever - sounds like she fell victim to the "no upperclassman quota" this year. Tough year for upperclassman! I could be wrong here, but I heard that Adpi will not be taking anyone with a gpa below a 3.0. If she has the grades, she sounds like a good candidate for them!

@GCBB - there are no guaranteed bids at ole miss.

Okay, so explain what happens next. Today is the second skit night, and then is there another cut before tomorrow night?

Yes. Tonight the girls will rank as before and list the 3 they would most like to return to and then rank any remaining ones they have left. The sorority members are voting as well.
Tomorrow afternoon around 1 pm, I think, they will meet their rush counselors and get their schedule for the afternoon. Girls can go to a maximum of 3 pref parties. Of course, some girls might only have 1 or 2 and that's fine! As everyone says "it only takes one!"

Correct.

Good luck mommas! Getting into the stressful part of recruitment.

Is it possible two will bid? Then what happens? I will be so happy for her when this week is over. I know she is exhausted and worried and all of that. This time next week she will know where she has landed.

So if there would be one she would really not like, don't rank in the three and then that won't be the bid?

*paging Titchou/ksuviolet/DBB/carnation/AZ-Alpha xi/all other GCresident experts on RFM!!!!* We have some confusion here, please explain! I would but it's too hard to type one-handed.

There are better people to ask about RFM than me, but I think I can explain this one.

If she doesn't list a group on her bid card, she is not eligible to receive a bid from them. It's the only time in the process that a PNM is actually cutting a group. That has consequences, though, so all PNMs are encouraged to list all of the groups that have preffed them.

If she attends all parties that she is invited to attend, and lists all of the sororities that she prefs on her bid card, she is guaranteed a bid somewhere. If she doesn't match on the bid lists, she will be placed somewhere. Different schools handle that differently. Some place the "extra" women in their first choice, and some use other methods. They try to keep the chapters balanced.

If she doesn't list all of the sororities that she preffed, she is not guaranteed a bid. If she doesn't place, she doesn't place. She will remain eligible for COB (informal rush, open rush, whatever you want to call it) and eligible for colony recruitment.

If she hates one of her pref groups, she should understand that she may get a bid from them if she lists them.

She should think very carefully about whether she hates them or whether she just doesn't like them as much as her other choice(s). If she lists a group on her bid card, and then refuses a bid from them, she will not be eligible for COB for one year or for colony recruitment this year.

^^^ Yes! Calling all of the above to come on over here and explain the situation to these poor worried moms!!

Yes! The consequence for not "maximizing your options" and listing all of the places that you preffed at is that you are not eligible for quota additions. Quota additions is set up to help more PNMs get bids AND more of them to get their first choice from pref night. The way quota additions works is that if you do not match the top of one of your pref groups listed, the RFM specialist will still place you in one of the places you preffed. As long as nothing SUPER AWKWARD comes out pref night, QA rules say you should get a bid.

^^^^^^^^:D:D:D:D:D

All the groups at Ole Miss are awesome! - but maybe she would rather try for ADPi? She is not assured of getting a bid if she applies to ADPi - they will pick founding mothers carefully.

Yep. Lots of us didn't get our first choice and turned out fine. Maybe you didn't hit it off with one girl who rushed you but you would be a superstar and the next Elle Woods in their new pledge class?

ETA: Another way to say it - we're almost home! Early rounds the chapter is making a lot of the cuts. Pref night - a lot of the choice switches to the PNM where she needs to think about which one is her favorite of her pref groups

KDCat's information is spot on... this is how RFM works.

And just to clarify, "hates" does not mean "these girls are OK but I'm not sure I click with them." "Hates" means "I would rather eat ground glass and be exiled to a desert island than be part of this group." At super competitive schools, you really need to be on that level of not wanting the group to not put them on your card because it may be your only shot of getting a bid.

And the chapters are HUGE and the new member classes are HUGE, so most women can find friends if they just bide their time and look around. Recruitment is the start of the process of finding a home, not the end.

That is what I told my DD.

In a group of 100 girls, there will be all types from the party girls to the studious ones. Surely you will find some like you.

The chapters at Ole Miss, once recruitment is over, are mostly in the 250-300 member range. If you can't find 6-8 women to be friends out of that many then something is wrong with you, not them.

Nor does it mean "these girls are OK but I listened to too much tent talk and think I'm too good for this chapter." Every group at Ole Miss is huge, has a gorgeous house, and will provide an awesome experience to its members.

Do they go back to grove/union today or just first house on their schedule?

Today is Day 2 of Skit Parties. They already have those invitations, so they won't be meeting at the Union.

A little curve off the topic but ADPi has their sign up for the new house!

To be located across the street from Kappa Alpha Theta on Rebel Drive!

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...r/IMG_6626.jpg

Lane swerve/question:

So do all campuses that use RFM and operate under quota/total now guarantee bids to PNMs who make it to pref and maximize their options? Or is there still a minuscule chance of getting released? I thought only Texas and a few other schools explicitly guaranteed placement.

At many schools there is a minuscule chance just in case the PNM ends up being a serial killer or something. There are few schools that actually guarantee placement.

That is, if a chapter a PNM preffed found out something bad about her on Pref Night and they would not want to extend a bid to that particular PNM. If the PNM was low on both lists and each chapter where the PNM preffed already got to quota, that PNM would not receive a bid.

This is very rare, but it could potentially happen. Extremely low percentage. (For the Ole Miss Moms -- don't go into panic-mode -- the chances are probably a fraction of a percentage).

wait... isn't this where quota additions would come into play? Assuming that the PNM had maximized her options and listed all groups where she attended preference on her MRABA?

This may answer some questions, or it may create more questions. Click on the underlined portion to see the original web page.


SCRIPT FOR POTENTIAL NEW MEMBERS SIGNING THE MRABA

Script to be used immediately before potential new member signs Membership Recruitment Acceptance Binding
Agreement (MRABA)

Explanation for Potential New Members

Signing the Membership Recruitment Acceptance Binding Agreement

The members of the National Panhellenic Conference want every potential new member to be informed about her
options for joining a women’s fraternity. To be certain that each woman has this information, this script must be used
immediately prior to signing the membership recruitment acceptance binding agreement. The script may be used for
either a two- or three-Preference event schedule.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Good evening. You have just completed some of the busiest days of your college career. Now you have the opportunity
to make a decision that will broaden your college experience and introduce you to a nationwide network of friends.
Please carefully consider the following points as you complete your membership recruitment acceptance binding
agreement.
1. Your options when considering your agreement are:
• Youmany choose notto complete an agreement atthistime.
• Youmay choose to list any sororitywhose preference (last) event you attended and fromwhomyou are
willing to accept an invitation to membership (a bid).
• Youmay choose to list onlyone preference, but youmust understand thatthiswill limit yourpotentialto
join any other NPC group during formal recruitment should you not be placed with your single (only)
choice.
2. When you sign this acceptance agreement, you are agreeing to accept an invitation to membership from any NPC
fraternity/sorority that you have listed.
3. Once the acceptance agreement has been turned in to the representative of the College Panhellenic Association, it
cannot be altered or changed.
4. If you receive an invitation to membership (a bid) from any NPC group that you have listed, and you choose not to
accept it, you may not pledge any other NPC women’s fraternity/sorority on the campus until the beginning of the
next primary recruitment period. [Explain the Unanimous Agreements and show the NPC Manual of Information,
18th Edition. Then read III: The Panhellenic Compact, No. 4.]

If you do not receive an invitation to membership (a bid) from any NPC group that you have listed, you are eligible for
continuous open bidding. You must understand that not all NPC groups will have available places for new members.

No, this is where Quota Additions come into play. If the PNM has played by all of the rules, she should be placed in a chapter and receive a bid.

To the earlier question on "guaranteed placement:" AFAIK, Tufts is the only school that guarantees women a bid. At all these other schools, a PNM could be dropped after round one, or right before pref, or whatever. It's only if she gets invited to pref and attends all preference parties that the odds of not getting a bid effectively disappear (save the Friday the 13th scenario).

^^^thank you.

Dues/fees/housing costs info on each sorority was just posted on the Ole Miss Panhellenic page on FB.

I got to Oxford yesterday and found my daughter having mixed emotions. She had great returns from philanthropy and was fortunate to have a full schedule for skits. Some of the friends in Martin are not faring as well and she is struggling with that. She says the Gamma Chi's are enthusiastically promoting ADPi and she said visiting them at philanthropy was a highlight for her and for many girls.

The gift giving? Don't get me started. Lilly Pad suggested I should spend $400-500 for bid day because that's what "everyone" will do. I had to politely not try to laugh and am totally regretting spending what I did. I found another store that had a smaller but really cute selection but they didn't do a mailer to parents so they weren't as well known. Hey moderator! Next year a great thread would be one that included names of stores and ideas for gift giving, especially around the south. There have to be other, more reasonable options out there. I truly feel that my daughter is having a successful rush; piling presents on everyday (many girls in Martin were getting gifts AND flowers everyday) is over kill. It reminds me of the grandparents that buy stacks of Christmas gifts so there are tons of presents to open. One really thoughtful, nice something would be better. <end of rant>.

The girls are in long lines to rank for pref and fingers crossed for all.

OK, folks. How many times - and in this thread - do we have to disect the MRABA and how bidding works? Besides, they've been doing this at Ole Miss for a long, long time and they will get it right. Let's not obsess over the minutiae. If one attends all the parties to which they are matched and lists all the places where one attends pref, one will get a bid unless it's determined between the time the invitation was issued and the time the bid list is due to PH that one is an ax murderer or a convicted felon or the "best friend" of the entire varsity football team....if you get my drift..

Let's trust the system, folks!

LOL, Titchou, you know what'll happen now--someone's daughter won't get a bid after attending 3 parties and they'll wonder how that could be and think, "Wait a minute! Titchou said...oh no..."

So if I understand. If u get one party for pref you are 99.999% certain to get a bid if u sign the bid card?

Yes. If you go to the maximum number of parties to which you are invited and you list all of those chapters on your bid card (so, just one chapter if you were only invited to pref at one chapter), you have maximized your options and are eligible for a quota addition, which means you have a VERY high probability of getting a bid.