exactly!

Thank you for clarifying. In that case, the answer is eff no. Epic fail will result. If the girl in question wants to help with recruitment, there are other things she can do.

I advised a chapter that had this happen. She was a great VP, did a ton of communication from afar, and her BFF in the chapter basically took over the role for that semester. It was pretty smooth actually, and it ended up a fantastic recruitment where the chapter more than doubled their size. So, it's definitely possible. I wouldn't recommend it unless all those involved are not only fully committed but also very very good at their roles.

This.

With an emphasis on this.

The way I look at it, these are two outstanding opportunities (VPR & studying abroad). It's also one of those times when a person has to pick one of the choices, and live without the "what ifs?" of life.

and put the welfare of the chapter above personal desires.

Yes, which may mean resigning from this office so someone else can step up so you can pursue study abroad.

Study abroad. Everyone I know who didn't says it's their biggest regret.

Not me ;) But I've had the ability to travel in other ways.

Still, I wouldn't be the VPR if someone paid me so there's that.

Fortunately I had the chance to study abroad AND hold an office, but both at the same time is way to much. If you want to be an officer, I assume you want to perform the best to your ability, and when studying abroad, you just can't.
Studying abroad comes with a lot of extra effort (not in a bad way) because it takes time adjusting to the culture (even between "rich" countries) and language.

Conversations that will never happen:


"Hey, Emily! A bunch of us are going to take the train to Liverpool and maybe the boat to Dublin this weekend - wanna come?"

"No, I'm going to ordering t-shirts and make name tags for recruitment."

Studying abroad is amazing, and I am sure being recruitment chair is as well, but living in a foreign country is an opportunity that gets harder later. Conversely being recruitment chair is something one only does as a collegian, but having your beliefs challenged and living in a different culture really blew my mind.

If you have ideas for the position you can always offer advice and assistance and think of what you can share with your sisterhood and PNMs upon your return.

We also did this once. However: we had deferred recruitment in a small system, the chapter was struggling with only about 20 members, and this person was a very strong leader who was passionate about recruitment. She was gone third term (we were on trimesters) and was able to start some of prep from abroad while someone stood in for her locally for COB events. Then we all had an entire trimester together to plan before recruitment in January. Realistically given the size of our system & chapter, we wouldn't have done much in the spring anyway.

With that said, I agree with everyone else that if there is another option, choose that. Unless you have a very small chapter and literally there is no other option, hold a smaller office where a proxy can fill in for you with less churn. Whomever is considering this should let another sister who is motivated, capable, and logistically available handle that.