I just saw this post - we had numbers issues and COBed all the way through the fall and spring, but I don't think they would have allowed us to COB before rush. I see what they're getting at, going into rush with less numbers can make it an uphill battle...PNMs can see which sorority is the smallest, and they start assuming (sometimes rightly) that because of that, it's the struggling one. Most people don't want to join a struggling chapter. So, in order to let this chapter get to where everyone else is, numbers wise, they're going to let them pick up girls before rush even starts. Here's the problem though: I think having a bunch of girls who aren't prepped for rush and don't even know your sorority's basic facts would be more of a detriment than the numbers issue. I suppose you could set them up doing "behind the scenes" things, but sooner or later, the PNMs are going to notice that there's a whole group of girls who have no idea what's going on.

The greek advisor may NOT know...sometimes they are guys who aren't familiar with NPC rules...sometimes they have never been an NPC member and don't know...sometimes it's a staff person who's been given the job with no additional pay and they couldn't care less...
Those rules should be written down somewhere.