Are you allowed to dorm storm? We have been trying that and it seems to work. We just knock on doors and say "Hi, I'm so and so from ABC. I'm just passing out fliers about our recruitment. If yuo're interested, you can call the number on the flier." We don't try to pressure them or anything. Most of the time, they'll talk to us for a bit about our org and recruitment in general. If they're not interested, we thank them and move on. As long as the girls don't feel pressured into coming, it seems to work well.

Question....why are you stepping on other people's toes? Shouldn't your Recruit chair be looking for help, not you. I would be careful, you may be stepping in something sticky, and this may cause a rift between you and the Recruit. chair those things can be hard to close.

As an alum of the Chi-O chapter at WIU, I know that spring rush in Macomb isn't very easy. While Western is a very pretty campus in the spring and fall, it's just plain gloomy in January and February. Getting PNMs out of the dorms is hard, but it can be done. I do know that your VP of Recruitment (DH - who happends to be a very good friend of mine) has some good ideas and spent her Christmas break thinking about rush and picking the brains of the sorority girls she knows.

Here's a few ideas -

1) Try getting a group of sisters to go to dinner in different residence halls. When I pledged, I was one of only 2 Chi-O's who lived in the north quad. My pledge sisters and I would meet for dinner at a different dorm before every meeting to increase visibility.

2) Consider having a recruitment event in the Union. The houses tend to be a bit far from the dorms (and, really, who wants to walk across Q-lot in the winter?!) It's centrally located, and you may attract drop-ins that wouldn't have gone to the house.

3) Wearing letters all the time is a great p.r. device - as long as they are clean. Nothing says "Ick" more than old dirty shirts. Personally, I don't like seeing letters on the rear of sweats, but that's my personal bias.

4) You've got a great resource in your housemom. Ask her about any ideas she may have. WIU hasn't had a ZTA chapter since the late 70's early 80's, so she won't be competing against her sisters.

5) Continue to ask your Panhellenic sisters for help. I think it's great that the Delta Zeta chapter came over for a rush workshop. They have always been great at recruitment, and I think it's nice that they were willing to help out.

6) You've got a great national office. I'm sure they will be willing to help out in any way.

7) Once you guys can get them there, you have a lot of things going for you. ASA was the first sorority at WIU and they have always been involved, classy women.

Good luck with spring rush...



---Sue

Wow... that came across as a little catty...

The original poster said that many members of her group had resigned their e-board/exec positions, though the VP of recruitment was still there. Dunno about you, but if my chapter had 23 women in it, and total was 80, I'd be asking *all* of my sisters for input, and I'd expect *all* of my sisters to be looking for ways to get PNMs interested.

Maybe her VP Recruitment doesn't like to use the Internet, or doesn't have time for GC. Maybe the original poster is part of the COB team. Maybe her chapter doesn't have issues with stepping on toes. There's nothing in her post that suggests that she's stepping on anyone's position.

As an alumna of a now-small chapter, I know that our chapter is looking for ways to get interest, and looking at the pros and cons of each method. Even if *you* may have had issues in your chapter with people stepping on others' toes, a good suggestion is still a good suggestion, and there are many people here on GC who want to hear them.

Okay. 1. Looking for ways to improve recruitment does NOT a bad sister make.

2. By far the best idea on here has been be your own best advertising. Make sure every girl is wearing her letters on specific days -- suddenly, ASA is everywhere, and being Greek is what everybody does.

3. I disagree -- posting does not make you look desperate. It makes you look organized and, depending on how you manage the fliers, like creative, fun girls. Did it not occur to anyone that girls can't come to COB parties if they don't know there's a COB party to go to?


Good luck -- ASA's a great organization. You girls will work it out perfectly. :D

I'm on a campus with 22,000 students. Not what I would consider small.

Thank you for all the input & thanks chitownxo for the personal touch!

As for the stepping on toes...I don't know about everyone else's chapters, but if you can help someone we think it's wonderful...exec board and many other postions are big jobs and it helps to work together. Our VP of Recruitment is one of my favorite sisters and I want to do anything I can to make this a sucsessful rush!

Breathesgelatin has a point about being too aggressive and offending or scaring people away. I have seen this a bunch and it happened to me. When I was cheering, this one group kept calling me to come to events and I kept declining and I guess they thought I was playing hard-to-get because of cheering. Next thing I knew, they came over and offered me a bid and I only knew a few girls in the chapter! I spent the rest of the semester hiding from them.

Definitely play it cool, like she said. Don't reek of desperation.

it sounds like your chapter needs some leadership help. I suggest going to:
Dean of Students
Director of Student Activities
Director of Residential Life
and any other student affiars person you can think of and ask them for names.

Go after class council members, student senators, people who write for the paper, etc.

Good luck!!!