There are some who just refuse to change! The "We've always done it this way" mentality. And I was part of that, and to a certain extent still am. When the campus has only 3, 4, 5, 6 chapters and only a couple of hundred PNMs, it really only takes about an hour or two. The part that I like best about it is being able to fix problems on the spot. Here's an example:

In 2005, a PNM ranked my chapter #1. She was on our first bid list. When we did hand bid matching, she matched immediately - no problem. But then when we ran the computer program, something caused her to match to her second choice. We don't know what it was - a misread on her scantron, whatever. But she would have assumed we didn't want her, and we would have assumed she didn't want us. (We used D&D that year.)

In 2006, a PNM showed up for bid distribution but didn't have a bid anywhere. When she was leftover, the GA discovered that for some reason she entered her Pref rankings incorrectly the night before. Turns out she wound up wanting us, so we got her. But if we had been hand matching, we would have noticed that her name and card had never been read off - because she would have still been on our list as unmatched to anyone. As it was, when she wasn't on our new member list, we assumed she ranked another chapter 1st. Could have saved her the "embarrassment" of going to bid distribution and not having a card. (We used ICS that year.)

I participated in hand matching for several years, and every year the advisors were able to talk out things like gridlock, quota additions, etc. We all got along well and knew how our chapters felt about each PNM, so that we could make the correct decisions for both the chapters and the PNMs. But we only had 4 chapters and about 120-150 PNMs each year.

It just isn't practical for campuses who have more OR for campuses where the scheduling is too tight to allow for it. Like if they have Preference in the morning and Bid Day later that afternoon. There are pros and cons - no computer system is perfect and it doesn't allow for human error (like what we experienced in 2006).

So it's really all determined by campus culture. If you have overpowering advisors and a Greek Advisor who isn't willing to stand up to them, they'll generally get their way. I don't think hand matching is bad - as long as the alumnae are willing to sit through it, it has some positive benefits. The only downside I've seen is the time it takes. But someone else might have other opinions - and I'd love to hear them!

There are several campuses that have only two or three groups and have less than 100 PMs. The costs associated with a computerized system like ICS might be cost prohibitive and it might be easier to do it by hand.


jwright was too quick for me!

It really seems that it would be worthwhile even on a big campuses to spend sometime double checking any unmatched names just to make sure. You never would have caught the girl who matched to her second choice, but maybe more people and groups could be matched without going to snap bids and COB.

Do most campuses already do this when they do QAs?

we hand match at fgcu but there are only us and tri delta-with chi o colonizing after formal recruitment in the fall. it is cost prohibitive right now, and i do not anticipate computerized bid matching for some time.

I think it depends on the campus. Most with RFM already match the quota additions through the specialist. They match only the ones who maximized their options (i.e. didn't intentional single preference).