Thanks, DBB!

This was also written pre-RFM or early before widespread use of RFM. I know that many more people ISP'd when I was a new member than do now.

In my experience hand bid matching within the last ten years, the majority of PNMs ranked the exact number of pref. parties they attended. If they attended two parties, they listed both groups. Some did ISP, but no where near the number mentioned in the article.

The rules were very different in 1991 when this article was written. There was no such thing as QAs. ISP was more attractive then because if you really didn't like the "other" sorority, it did no harm to ISP. Now, they still have a chance at their first choice, even if they don't get matched, because they can be a QA.

I don't know if they explain that to PNMs. When I did bid card signing for U of A, we were not supposed to talk about QAs with the PNMs. They mention that you have a better chance of getting a bid if you maximize you options but don't go into more detail except to expand on the fact that you will be held to whatever bid you received for a full year.

I think some do explain it this way, to everyone's detriment. The girl doesn't ISP because she has a better chance of getting her first choice if she lists both (not accurate) and then drops and is mad because they lied to her (not true but it's too late to fix the misunderstanding). I don't know if there's any way to explain it to a girl who is up to her eyeballs in stress in a way that won't be misinterpreted. What she hears is blah blah blah blah first choice blah blah blah.

Well, there is a small increased chance that she can get her #1 choice, so that isn't a lie. The problem comes in that PNMs don't hear the part about more likely getting their second or third choice. It's a poker game...you have to take your chances. Some people just aren't cut out to gamble.

Maybe the best way to explain listing all of the chapters on your preference card would be to back into the numbers. Discuss first that the vast majority of QA folks get their #2 or #3 choice and that very few get their #1. That might get the PNM's attention.

I think U of A had the right way of thinking. PNMs don't understand basic bid matching rules so QAs will blow their mind. We explained that listing all of their choices gave them the best chance of getting a bid. They were given the MRABA to read and sign. If they didn't want to list one of their groups, I'd ask them, "So, you'd rather not be Greek than XYZ?" A few said they wouldn't, but the vast majority said they hadn't thought of it that way and put the other group down.
Planning on being a QA may make them do something they wouldn't otherwise do.

Alumnae Panhellenic Council members who don't have chapters on campus help out on Preference Night at UNC Charlotte with the PNM card signing. I have used the "So, you'd rather not be Greek than XYZ?" question many times. Typically only 1-2 of the women that I see will end up SIPing, and I can't promise that anything I said made the difference. But I can promise that every woman I meet with that night understands how her choices impact her likelihood of getting a bid to her first choice and of getting a bid at all.

What I find the most exciting is a woman only attended one Preference Party, and it is exactly the one she wants. On that campus, and with QAs, she almost always ends up in the chapter. I love it when the women walk out happy and hopeful.

That's exactly why I was at U of A. Such a great experience!

I did the same thing with Duke preference in 2012. I had to go over the MRABA with them and have them sign it. Then, if they needed more discussion on their choices, we would talk about it. This didn't happen often as by the time they came to me they had spent time talking to their Pi Chi/Rho Chi/Rho Gamma...whatever they are called at Duke.

I had a maybe 1 girl ISP even though I encouraged her to list all her choices and even after I told her that she would not be guaranteed a bid (Duke does guaranteed bids to all the PNM's who list all their parties on their bid card).

For me the exciting part was when I met PNM's who put ADPi as their first choice. I wasn't allowed to share that I am an ADPi so inside I was shouting with happiness. I actually texted myself the two names of PNM's that put ADPi first and when recruitment was over I emailed the Recruitment VP of the chapter and asked if they received bids. They did, and I wrote them little congratulatory letters welcoming them to ADPi.

I'm really hoping that I will be able to help out this fall with either Vanderbilt or Austin Peay.

There is something else that RFM changed abut ISP. I will be blunt.

Before RFM, many "selective" campuses had many large sororities, many medium ones, and a couple of really small ones that were known as "those" groups. Lots of PNMs, especially after tent talk, did not want to be seen at their parties or in their letters. Setting quota after first or second parties made this far worse.

Let's say a campus had 510 PNMs and 10 groups and quota was set after first parties after 10 girls dropped out; it would be 500/10=50. But--back then, the big cuts of PNMs came much later in recruitment. Therefore, a system might end up with 400 after prefs but quota was still 50 and the more "desirable" groups would've ended up filling up first, leaving very few PNMs for the smaller groups. (Let's say that 5 groups were the really desired ones, so 250 girls go to those groups, leaving 150 to be fought over by the other 5.) Not to mention that huge numbers of women had already cut the smaller groups because back then you could cut as many sororities as you wanted early on, so that many of the 150 had already cut the "less desirable" ones. Students would look at these much smaller pledge classes and surmise that they must stink to be so small and the cycle was repeated year after year.

Nowadays at those campuses, primarily because of RFM or whatever the best term is, there's a much more level playing field. Sometimes all the groups make quota (they may lose a lot of new members but that's another story). There are many more women who are open to pledging any of the groups, often because they've been released by so many in early stages. Many women do have to decide if they'll go XYZ or not be Greek.

I also wonder if heavier cuts earlier in the process put women more in a "choose for themselves" mindframe. I remember when I got my really harsh round of cuts (second invitational), it still seemed like EVERYONE I was talking to on my dorm floor was still going to all the same chapters without me. In the end, almost none of them pledged together, but it sure felt like that was what was about to happen.