Shannan, this post is incredible! You really struck the proverbial nail on the head. It would be good required reading for all Rho Chi applicants :)

I'm gonna be one!!!
 

Hey!
I'm going to be an Alpha Zeta (what my school calls Rho Chi's now) this next year! I'm soooooooooooo excited!!! Since my school does deferred recruitment, I'm going to be disafilliated for a whole term...the only down side. I'd love to hear more advice from people who have done it, and talk to people who are doing it this year!!!

Panhel love,
Julia

Congrats to everyone who has been selected to be a recruitment counselor for 2004! One little suggestion though, if you go to a school that normally is talked about during recruitment, you might want to take your affiliation off of your profile/sig. Or you could make up a new screen name like "Pi Chi '04" and keep it a secret until after recruitment and have a GC revealing!

ETA: I'm only suggesting this because some PNMs are overeager to figure out what chapter recruitment counselors are from (at least at my school), and some might figure out how to do through GC!

Re: No ruffle here. :)
 

That would make so much more sense. Scraping letters off your car, modifying your wardrobe and not being able to hang out with any women in letters (your sisters or no!) was insane when I did it! You felt like you were on the run or something!!!

Has anyone ever seen problems with their Rho Chi's (in your entire Greek system) not completely disaffliating? By this I mean calling girls in their chapter to let them know what PNMs are saying, or what return numbers are looking like for other sororities. It seems every year on our campus we have a problem like this arise, but then again, we are in no way a Panhellenic-minded campus.

our campus was so psycho about the buddy system-- you literally couldn't go into a one-stall bathroom unescorted by a non-sister-- that we were never in a position to call our chapters.

I think it has a lot to do with the Panhellenic working to instill strong relations between the chapters. When we work together and have lives and friends outside our own sorority, our Greek System is stronger and more well-rounded.

Re: No ruffle here. :)
 

Yes. You are no longer holding up your commitment to your organization. While I understand its for the good of the Greek community, your sororitiy loses a member for a period of time.

With a smaller chapter it IS really hard to lose one or two members for a while. But from what the women on here have said, when they return to the "fold" their commitment to their sorority is even stronger.

I wanted to be a PX so I could experience rush from all sides (rushee, active, disaffiliate) and also so I could get out of rushing for a year! :D That wasn't my only reason, thought, but it was one of the benefits. I had no problem remaining unbiased, it was just part of the job and I lived up to my responsibilities of being a neutral person they could go to. Everything was going swimmingly until the girls started snooping through my things one night when I wasn't in my room and they found my SK credit card. :mad: :mad: :mad: But anyway...

At elon, we extend the rho chi application to women in the NPHC organizations as well. One woman from Alpha Kappa Alpha applied when I was head rho chi for panhellenic. The AKA was the best rho chi, she was so helpful and supportive to all the PNM's that were going through. She even won the Elon Greek Life woman of the year award. Her sisters were also very supportive and allowed us to use their house for the PNM's when a freak rainstorm occured and would make cookies and treats for the Rho Chis.

As for the interview process, about 45 girls applied to be rho chis that year. two or three are usually chosen from each chapter for a total of 20 Rho Chis plus 2 head Rho Chis. The interview process consisted of a form, an essay on being greek, and what you think are important qualities in being a rho chi and then a interview process with the Panhellenic Recruitment Chairs who are also dissaffiliated, but not actual Rho Chis. More often women who have held leadership positions in their org or panhellenic were considered more than women who had not and a letter or reccomendation from the chapter pres or advisor usually helped.

The head Rho Chis usually are former Panhellenic Officers or former Recruitment chairs from their respective chapters. They cannot be from the same org though. I was paired with a Phi Mu who I had never even met before and we were the best of friends by the end of spring semester- we even shared the same birthday! Head Rho Chis don't have groups of PNM's. They basically oversee the whole scheduling process, work out kinks, and speak with either girls who are heartbroken and their Rho Chi. Generally we coordinated a lot of stuff for the Rho Chis and were there as a support system for them.

I wanted to be a Rho Chi because I was the former Recruitment Chair and Membership VP from my chapter of AZD and I am a total recruitment nerd. I think Recruitment and membership should be a priority of every greek woman, without new members the orgs can't grow and flourish. So being a part of the more generalized panhellenic process was awesome for me. I loved and became friends with all the other Rho Chis and it helped me learn more about each org. Dissafiliating wasn't a problem. I felt like I had new sisters, just in another way. We had our own pins, rituals, t-shirts, date party, and social functions. We even had spa day where we all went and got facials and massages right before recruitment started.

Ok, sorry for this question but can someone please explain what a Rho Chi is cause I am lost as usual.:D

Rho Chi stands for Recruitment Counselor, although they are called many other things also. They are sisters of some or all of the different sororities on a campus. They disaffliate from their own sorority for a period of time before, until after formal recruitment. They assist the PNMs going through recruitment - taking them to the parties, answering questions, etc. They are the contact people (along with Panhellenic officers) during recruitment for the PNMs. They often also have the unpleasant task of tellling PNMs that they have been cut from recruitment.

Oh,ok I get it now. Why are these Rho Chi's necessary? I am just trying to get a understanding.

You have this big group of girls going through NPC Recruitment (sometimes a GREAT BIG group - 1200 or more on some campuses). You have to have people to help get all those women to the right places at the right times, answer their questions and generally keep order. The PNMs are divided into groups (sometimes called Rho Chi groups) and they have one or two Rho Chis assigned to them to assist them during recruitment. They also give (unbiased) advice to PNMs and guide them through the process, which can be confusing even if you thought you knew what was going to happen. That is the purpose of the Rho Chis. They are disaffliated because they are promoting "GO GREEK" not just "GO XYZ or ABC".

At my undergrad. campus, we never had problems with that. The only "questionable" stuff we had was when the rho chis would come to pick up their rush group and they'd arrive a few minutes early...they'd talk to one of the sisters who wasn't involved with what was going on and let her know, "XYZ's skit was AWESOME!" or "ABC's outfits for this or that were cute." Not all the time was it a sister of our own org who was telling us this stuff either!