I'm all for this and I think it should be done even sooner in rush. I've known so many girls who dropped or were dropped from recruitment and they were too far from home to go home so they had to sit in the dorms and watch all the happy girls go to parties, get bids, and come in with gifts and door decorations.

Thanks....didn't know:)

I think it is downright cruel to let the non-matched PNMs head over to a public arena only to find out the bad news. At my D's school (a competitive, heavily-Greek LAC with 5 NPCs), the Rho Chi would knock on the rushee's doors to deliver invites and/or sad info. At least the girls were in their own rooms to hear bad news. I second Carnation's approval of Cutie Hootie's idea!

I wonder if there would be a way to have non-Greek women available to speak with. It is hard to hear that a sorority isn't everything from your Rho Chi, who is obviously in a sorority.

Our Pref night is on a Sunday and Bids are available the following day from 2-4pm (though we know who is getting what bid the night before). We inform PNMs that we will call before noon on Bid Day if they did NOT get a bid, but if they don't get a call, come to the bid pickup and ceremony. Typically there are a very small number of women who don't get bids, if any, and most are ISPs so they are typically the ones to expect the call.

I LOVE the idea of giving the option to get a phone call or personal visit, but that might be difficult with my campus considering we have a high number of commuters.

Regarding the counseling thing, we make sure to at least notify our campus Counseling Center that recruitment is occurring and how the process works for PNMs so that they are aware in case anyone comes to them upset. I don't know if it's ever happened since counseling sessions are confidential, but at least being able to prepare their staff that there might be a few women coming their way has been helpful to them (they say).

I really, really like this idea, with one exception: the snap bid. What if one of these women is off campus when the snap bid is offered and she's not there to accept or reject it?

Hmm.. As far as I know, the whole situation is determined by the RC. Most RC's have the girls meet them at public place to pick up their daily lists each at a specific time. This can be a big issue I think if a girl was dropped. Seriously, they have to stay put together because it is in the public and the next girl could be comming right up behind her.

This year had the most people that were dropped because there were fewer houses and there were even more girls rushing. I think the avg. pledge class every year is 35 people.

I dropped myself out my freshman year just before pref. (I had a bad experience I let get to me). I didn't fit in those orgs. at all (they told me crazy and weird things). Still, it was really rough to watch your best friends come back and then have to hear every "Pledge Week" story complete with gift. I was really happy for them, but I admit to crying when I called my mom.

My mom was in a sorority, as are nearly all the females in my family. I felt like I somehow let them down, but later realized that I had done it for some of the wrong reasons. She told me during that conversation that some things in recruitment can just be petty and done for petty reasons. She told me how proud she was of everything I had done and that no lack of an organization could make be less of a person. Mother does know best.

Then there were all the girls who were dropped this past year, having numbers may have helped them. The whole thing can be done either very well and situated, or heartless.

I would say what a person I knwo who was dropped said to me:" You know the Olympics. Those pair skaters are together for like, 10 years or more. You have been world champs for two years. Then, in the final round of the Olympics....your partner falls... and all your hopes are dashed away. You have to watch the others join on the podium, but not you."

I spent a lot of time with her during that following week. Her RC told her when she went to get her bid (something that they never mention could happen) and was told the situation. It was in a public place and the RC offered to help her, but then the next girl came in early. There should be some sort of official policy IMOP!

Wouldn't the snap bid be offered before bid day began?

My school had the rho gammas/gamma chi's/rho chi's/whatever call the PNM's the night before (after bid matching/snap bidding had occurred which was usually around midnight) and notify PNM's that they did not receive a bid. This way PNM's didnt show up and get upset when everyone got bids in their rush group except them.

VP of membership's however were on the phone calling PNM's at 6pm on Bid Day to start offering COB bids. This process of COB'ing as many girls as you needed to meet quota/total on bid day became about as competitive as formal recruitment!

Technically, it should. But now & again, we've had sororities who are STILL calling bidless PNMs five minutes from the time Bid Day festivities start! Thankfully, release figures have greatly decreased the incidence of that happening.

And therein lies the second problem, if the bidless PNMs are out to dinner. UNLESS there are a lot of cell phones and a private room available.

If you don't make quota on bid day itself, can't you keep snapping a few days after that?

Technically that would be a COB, but I don't see why not. Any chapter that doesn't make quota and/or is under total can COB at pretty much any time, including right after FR.

yeah we never really differentiated between cob & snapping. There were times we gave girls bids on bid day who hadn't been through rush, but they'd been to our open bid parties. This was a long time ago though.

I would think that at some point you would say OK I'm going to bid day now, and stop worrying about snapping/cobing.

Although it's hard for me to imagine recruitment going on a SEC schools while classes are in session (I know that a couple of them do it), I do think of the big disadvantages of rush before school starts is that PNM have no perspective. Almost every single person you talk to is drinking the NPC Kool-Aid. (On some campuses, aren't the dorms only open to girls participating in recruitment until maybe the last weekend.)

I think having non-greek campus folks make contact with PNM who get cut or drop out could be a great step. There are always some campus activity leaders who aren't Greek who might even be honored to be asked to do this. Because they'd clearly be happy, involved, successful people, the PNMs would see that life goes on just fine.