I don't think I did include an email, so they must have looked me up on the website. I don't think I need an acknowledgement beforehand, but I definitely think it is appropriate to write something afterwards. I don't even need to know where she pledged, but I think it's courteous. The reason I want it afterwards is because during recruitment the active sisters have much better things to be doing than writing me a note!

Yeah, that's the thing: you know that they are pretty overwhelmed, and yet, you worry that they might not have gotten the glowing recommendation you wrote. A good rec. from someone who knows the girl personally can matter.

Good points that you and others are mentioning. The time and money involved can vary widely from chapter to chapter. Are there chapters that have success stories about alumnae help in this area? Donations of sheets or rolls of stamps, for instance, or a few boxes of note cards / thank you cards, or volunteering a few hours of time to write, address, etc. cards or notes? If permissible under national or Panhellenic guielines for recruitment, a little alumnae help might lighten the workload of the collegians, as well as being a not-too-burdensome gift to the chapter.

What if the girl they sent the rec for was a real hosebeast and the chapter spent the whole time of rush praying she'd drop them so they didn't have to do it? Just having some fun with the question :p

But seriously, I would think an email would more than suffice - the rush chair could just write a generic "thank you for your rec" email and blind CC it to everyone who sent recs. The thought of those poor girls having to fill out 1500 postcards is just dreadful.

One or two girls doing 1500 is dreadful. 150 girls each doing 10 seems about right, especially if they are using the fill in the blank cards that I've seen in the past.

If you compare the work of preparing the rec with filling out a fill in the blank post card, it seems only fair to send one.

Alums helping out if you have them locally seems great.

Email responses would be fine for me.

For women who write recs for girls participating in deferred recruitment, this lack of response is even more worrisome. They interview the girl before she heads off to school for the fall and then worry all semester wondering if the rec arrived. The women are afraid to contact the chapter so as not to adversely the PNM's chances.

Speaking as someone who writes Greek recs and college admission recs, the amount of time it takes me to conduct an interviewand/or write the actual rec far outweighs the writing of a postcard.

many alums. break their backs assisting during recruitment, as recruitment advisors, tallying votes, washing dishes, taking out the trash,replenishing food on trays, arranging flowers, running errands, helping decorate,etc. they often are up as late as the collegians during recruitment AND have jobs And have families. now you want them to send out the rec. acknowledgements?

i don't think the issue if that hand written notes thanking the alums. are expected. the issue is that the alum gets NO acknowledgement at all and therefore the alum. has no idea if the chapter got the rec. on some campuses it can greatly influence a girls rush, if she has a rec.

email acknowledgement would be an acceptable way to communicate, and even some of our oldest alums have email addresses. it costs but a moment of time.i guess my southerness is showing but, just as i expect a gift recipient to acknowledge receipt of a gift, i expect a chapter to acknowledge receipt of a rec.

large chapters often have one or two girls who are recommendation chairmen. their job is to keep a rec. file, acknowledge recs. that have been sent in, and to solicit recs. for girls for whom they have not received recs. seems that small chapters could do the same.

as stated before, for fall formal recruitment, recs. trickle in thru out the summer, and there really is no reason that one or two girls could not check the appropriate box on a preprinted postcard, slap on a stamp , address the psotcard and put it in the mail.

***APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE***

FSUzeta, I totally agree.

Blueviolets, that's the kind of card we'd love to get after rush!

alum, I'm sending you a PM.

I was the person responsible for sending these cards out in my chapter one year. I think they are an important courtesy. Granted, we did not have 1000 members going through recruitment.

Some of the larger alumnae Panhellenics would provide one postcard for their entire packet of RIFs and that way we could use one stamp and confirm as many as 10 or more RIFs. It was very much appreciated.

I got something similar from our USC (CA) chapter a year or two ago as well. They even told me where the girl ended up.

It's easy to do if you keep up with them from the beginning when you receive your first rec. The second we would get our first rec we already had our post cards printed. We would address them and then write the PNM's name on the card and then save it until after recruitment to fill out the rest of the information. Then they were mailed. I know from personal experience that many AOII chapters do this. I also know that some alumnae would be mortified if they didn't get something acknowledging them that collegiate chapter had received their rec. We also would write down the alumnae’s address to update our own database.

Our's said something like this and similar to Blue Violets:

Our Chapter appreciates your recommendation on (insert PNM Name)
(Check box for one of these 3 options)
She has joined (insert name of sorority)
She did not pledge (yes they want to know this)
She dropped out of formal recruitment.

Sincerely,

VP of Membership Recruitment
(email and chapter website as well on the card