I personally don't like the sound of no frills recruitement.. it sort of takes the fun out of it although I do see the reasoning... I just see it as if a girl wants to be in another sorority because they have cool shirts or cool themes then I don't want her. Girls going through that are quality and have honorable intentions aren't going to care about that stuff. So why not just let us do it?

One more thing...I don't know how rampant rush violations are at other schools, but at mine they were practically non-existant. Probably because of how orderly no-frills rush tends to operate. The first year there were several, mostly because people were unfamiliar with the rules, but after that I don't recall there being many issues.

Well, I guess it depends on what your chapter sees as "fun." Some chapters enjoy doing the skits, but many don't. My chapter would have hated it. In our case, taking out the skits made things more fun. When it came to identical outfits, that really wouldn't have worked on our campus, where each chapter had women of all shapes and sizes. It was hard enough convincing my chapter that we should coordinate colors/outfits. Sure, it would have been fun to be able to decorate the whole room, but any of us that had spent hours decorating the preference room knew how long it took and we were happy to spend those hours earlier in the week sleeping.

I think the biggest advantage of "no frills" is financial. You've got to consider the return on your investment. The money we spent on food, favors, name tags, invitations, etc. was outrageous and my school was a mid-west, blue collar type of school. Without all those expenses, we actually had more money to cover formals, mixers, and sisterhoods. And, as several people pointed out earlier, the time involved in all that planning and implementation. It was exhausting. And, you can spend more time during each event actually TALKING to the PNMs so they get to know you and you get to know them.

I still find it a little odd that, no matter which sorority you got a bid from, each PNM had numerous favors with letters on them from all the different groups. It seemed ok at the time, but seems strange in retrospect, especially when the debates go on here about whether new members can wear letters.

Even at the "lowest frills" campuses that I'm familiar with, they still dress similarly, sing their songs and have formal preferences with ceremonies.

LOL. Then clearly you have never been a teenager.

That sounds great to say, and it's true that it's a stupid reason to join just because you liked a chapter's outfits or decorations. But it's not reality. People DO look at decorations and such when they step into a recruitment party, they look at how everything is presented. If having no frills puts every chapter on more of an even footing than girls will be more likely to choose based on the connection they felt with the women they met. (In theory)

Some schools have taken "no frills" to mean counting balloons, calling rush infractions on other groups because a PNM walked out w/ confetti on her shirt, etc. That is NOT what it's supposed to be about and completely violates the whole spirit of the idea - just as making ridiculous rules about sorority members having any contact with freshmen completely violates the intended point and spirit of deferred rush.

I honestly think it would almost make things easier if the sororities could all get together and say "we're going to do so and so, show this movie, this is our skit" and be fair and open about it. The reason you have silly crap like counting balloons is no matter what, everyone's afraid they're going to be one-upped somehow. It's easy to make rules about no frills, to actually make people understand WHAT THE REAL POINT IS is the hard part.

Let me say I've got no problem with things like skits and songs - they're fun and let the rushees relax and just be spectators. But when you only have a total of 5 hours to spend with women in rush (i.e. a girl rushing you from Meet the Greeks on through till pref will be in your company a total of 5 hours) and you eat up 45 minutes of it with a skit, then is when you should stop and think. Especially if the rushees are 95% freshmen women you've never set your eyes on till they walked in the door.

The Kappas at USC (S. Carolina) had to remove something out of their centerpieces because the centerpieces could only be 8" tall (I think). The actual flower part of the arrangement was, but they had these gold twirls coming out of the arrangement that made the centerpiece exceed the limit. Things like that seem kind of petty to me.

Doesn't surprise me. For example. the U. of Kentucky Panhellenic guidelines for 2006-07 recruitment go into detail about the size and number of floral arrangements. I'm having a vision of a dedicated Panhellenic officer or recruitment counselor marching around with a tape measure.

The UKY guidelines are in PDF:
http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/Greek/06RECGUI.pdf

Right, and this is why I wonder sometimes if "no frills" is actually worse. In full-frills rush, are there rules like this too, but we don't here as much about it?

A couple thoughts on no frills:

The year I went through recruitment, they mandated that the PNM's wore the designated PNM t-shirt. Obviously, most of us paired it with some variation of jeans/khaki pants/skirt. So, when I walked into houses where the sisters were wearing sundresses, I felt ridiculous. It just makes sense for the sisters to be wearing something equivalent. (BTW, what other schools give the PNM matching shirts? In retrospect, it is a great idea, and Illinois is still doing it)

Yes, it was expected that most of the stuff you wore as a sister, you already had in your wardrobe, i.e. black skirts, pink tops, sundresses, etc. However, it is CRITICAL that you do a fashion show a week early and let the recruitment committee see everyone's outfits. You probably do this for pref dresses anyway, but let me tell you, there is always that one girl who thinks the slit all the way up the side of her skirt is not a problem.

If your first round lasts for more than one night (as ours does), and you all have matching t-shirts that you ordered, you better believe your rush chair is not going to let anyone wash those shirts in between. You won't want to show up on day 2 with eighty different shades of pink. Therefore, you spend about eight hours in the August heat wearing your shirt, and can do nothing but febreeze it overnight.

We went through a back-and-forth every year, because we hated doing a skit at open house. We only had 25 minutes, and when you have approximately 50 PNM's coming to each party, that is barely enough time to do an opening song, introductions, talk to the PNM, and get her back out the door. However, most other chapters did skits, and with as many groups as we had, we needed to do something that the PNM's would remember. It was even better if a chapter had a theme that they repeated for each stage of recruitment.

From the PNM's side, the skit is usually the part where you get to sit down in a real chair and zone out. If you get caught doing this, however, you may get released because they think you are not interested. It is like they've set a trap, and the more grueling the rush schedule, the harder it is to stay alert and smiling while someone dances around to "we are family".

One nice thing about decorations is that they sometimes hide flaws in older houses. Of course, if you are still allowed to hang photos and stuff like that, it can accomplish the same effect.

And finally...if you do no-frills for three rounds of rush, it makes pref that much more special. Remember the first pref you went to, and what the house looked like? I would never want decorations to overshadow the meaning of pref, but how many PNM's are certain they could only join one chapter, and pref helps them see all chapters in a whole new light? Pref night is magic, when you give the PNM's a glimpse of ritual, and it should be as special as possible.

At Auburn during Philanthropy round (2 days) the PNMs all wear the same shirt, provided by Panhellenic.

I love the Panhellenic t-shirts for PNMs during recruitment. UCF doesn't do that. They give the girls t-shirts for registering, but they're never required to wear them. It just seems like a nice way to begin the week on a somewhat more equal playing ground.

That's cool that they've change that. You used to get all of that stuff at Greek Forum. On bid day, some girls would wear them and some wouldn't. I like the uniform look and I was implying that using them earlier in the week would be a nice addition to a no-frills recruitment.

The matching shirts are a great idea... as long as Panhellenic doesn't ask the PNMs to wear them during Round 1! It would be impossible to remember what girls you met if they were all wearing the same shirt, I think.