Bumping would probably work best with our group. We hold recruitment events in our chapter room and it's pretty filled with 40 women, not counting the pnms so I'd imagine it could be had to navigate without bumping into someone or accidentally interrupting someone else's conversation.

The other issue now I feel comes with matching the sisters, if they are going to be meeting a higher volume. Obviously now, we put 2-3 sisters who work well together but also won't get distracted talking to each other and place them with PNMs with similar interests. I'd imagine the more sister's you add to the group/PNMs the harder it is. Should we group sisters based on something in particular, and try to match them up with the PNMs that work best?

With matching, sometimes, you can only try to match the PNM with the first girl who picks her up. Then it is random after that. I don't think I could wrap my head around putting together bump groups with similar interests AND then match the PNMs with those matching interestes to that group. (But, I am old and that could be the trouble!)

IMO, when bump groups are too similar, then it can backfire. You need diversity because this group has to go back and rank/vouch/etc the pnm. If everyone is from Hometown USA, and their PNMs are all from Hometown, USA, then the actives are not going to be very objective with their comments.

Better to let Hometown USA active pick up another Hometown USA pnm, then get bumped by BigCity USA.

One other point about putting bump groups together. At the minimum, I would think about putting the group together so they compliment each other. Active 2 and 3 are a good match, as are Active 3 and 4.

Finally, depending on how large your recruitment is, trying to effectivle match can be tough for open house rounds. It is easier once you thin out the pool some. For Open House rounds, the personality of the bump group is more important. (especially if making heavy cuts.this group needs to work well as a team)

That tough match seems to be what we're running into. Our recruitment is broken down into four rounds, with all PNMs having to attend the first two. It goes Open house, Phil., Skit and Preference. Skit is definitely our strongest night with Pref. a close second and we generally do have a decent enough pool of PNMs to pull from after the first round of cuts. However, as our return rates get better, we will have to release more girls after Philantrophy night which means that we need to be better at getting the PNMs excited about us to insure we are staying competitive.

Does anyone else have any general tips on how to make a good impression quickly in open house and phil. rounds?

Try to make the bump groups sisters who get along well together, but NOT who are BFFs. Or, as gee_ess, not from the same hometown, etc. If you do have a lot of girls from the same major/hometown/what have you, you want to sprinkle them among the groups.