My school sounds almost exactly like yours. We have 4 local sororities and frats at a small-town school. Our girls try to "spread out." Talk to girls from your sports teams, classes, clubs...anyone you already have something in common with. If you have spring rush like we do, then start recruiting as soon as the school years starts. I know you're looking at upperclassmen (I pledged as a junior), but don't forget freshmen either.

Ideas

1. Invite a speaker on personal safety and invite all women on campus to attend.

2. Have a program on resume writing, interview skills and networking, and again,
invite all women on campus to attend.

3. Do philanthropy projects either on campus or in the community and open it up to all who wish to attend.

4. Ask some professors to attend a dinner (or lunch) and have discussion about their area of expertise.

I think you get the idea. Do interesting things, invite others to attend, and then you can see if they are interested in joining your sororioty after they've gotten to know you and your sisters.

Good luck.

Our sorority was like that. We had issues because we wanted to remain a tightly knit group, but we needed enough members to ensure survival. There were many points where we dipped very low in numbers. Now, we have an excellent number of sisters and are continuing to thrive.

What worked for us:

1) Talking to classes. If you go to classes on the second or third day, and ask the prof. if you can talk to the class for a minute or two before it starts, you'll often find several interested women. Even if you don't, it puts your sorority name out there.

2) Bring your friends! Initiating your friends makes your bond stronger, increases the cohesiveness of the group, and adds another pool of people. (Beware of cliques, though....)

3) Work on making your sisterhood fun. PNMs can tell if you have an exciting, fun sisterhood and that will make them want to join. Realize that your sorority is terrific and people do want to join. It'll show as you recruit.

"Regardless of whether a potential member becomes a member of your sorority or not, she must always leave your sorority with the feeling of friendship and love, and that your chapter truly cares for her as a person. A new friend, regardless of the affiliation, can be the greatest public relations tool your sorority can ever have"
- Maureen Syring

Whiskey.

Talk to the fraternities! Ask if you can briefly speak at one of their meetings, or just to the chapter in general. Have a couple (or all 4) of you go to talk to them. Dress nicely. Give a short presentation about what your sorority is about. Talk about academics, philanthropy, goals, etc. Hand out pieces of paper. Ask them to write down names of 5 girls that they know that might be interested. (Also, try this presentation at other meetings on campus. Student government meetings, as one example). Then seek out these girls. Write them a formal letter outlining your accomplishments and aims and purposes. Tell them that you'd like to get to know them. Invite them to contact you about the sorority. Tell them about something you do as a group that they're welcome to come to. Maybe a sporting event on campus. Or maybe you want to play an intramural sport, but you need more teammates. Ask them to join you! My chapter used to eat lunch together at 12 on Tuesdays in one of the eateries on campus. We'd invite PNMs to come. It can be anything!

And like everyone here has said, do normal, everyday things to attract people. There are only 4 of you, so getting everyone together shouldn't be too difficult. Eat, study, or play a game outside together in your letters. Just doing something like tossing a frisbee in one of the high-traffic areas on campus is good. Let people see you!

And use the suitcase school environment to your advantage. Not everyone goes home on the weekends. There have to be a portion of girls on campus who stay, or who don't desire to go home every weekend, but do anyway, because there's nothing on campus for them to do. Find them! Show them that there are perks to staying around on the weekends when you have sisters.

And as for the house... the sororities at my school don't have houses either. If you only have 4 members, DON'T GET ONE. You'll run the risk of not having anyone wanting to, or not being able to afford to live in it. As was previously mentioned, get an apartment together or something to that effect first (an apartment on campus is a good idea to start, if you have them). You'll all have a place to go together and it will be less of a hassle than getting a house. And if you're just becoming affiliated with campus again, your main concern should be that, and gaining members.

My sorority had issues with recruitment as well. We pretty much required each sister to join another on-campus organization (something they cared about and were interested in... not just a random organization) and when recruitment came around they brought freinds that they made through the other organization. Worked well for us!

Yeah, that couldn't happen in my chapter -- there was NWIH we could "require" members to join another organization.

Odd that you would have to "require" members to join at least one other organization.
Also odd because in my experiences, there were very few members who only belonged to the sorority and nothing else. Most of the members were active in at least one (in many cases, several) other campus organization(s).

I am not sure what's more common, only doing the Greek thing and nothing else, or participating in a bunch of activities on campus?

ETA: My main point was that in my experience, Greeks tended to already be pretty active on campus, therefore making it "mandatory" seemed odd to.

There are several NPC groups that have this requirement (I thought A Xi D was one of them, actually). I think it's a superb idea. It's not "controlling outside activities" any more than requiring a certain GPA is "controlling." The point is that the members should be well rounded and have other interests besides the sorority. It doesn't matter what, as long as they're in something. Too many women do nothing but their sorority and it's really detrimental at rush time.

You would hope that you are taking members who will be active in other things, and I think that is the more common scenario, but some people are lazy.

Oh, and to comment on the post below, for crying out loud, don't all 4 of you get an apartment together. You will kill each other in a very short amount of time. If one person has a place they are willing to have be the "home base" that's one thing.

Agreed. And last I checked, AXiD does have the requirement of belonging to an outside organization.

It was never required for us to be involved in other organizations on campus. I just think greek women in general are social and highly involved on campus. This not only helps you as an individual, but if your sisters are involved on campus, it helps put your Sorority's name out there. I can't even begin to count the times I heard people say ... "Oh, she's a new student ambassador and she's in the ABC sorority" or "The new student body president is also a XYZ sister".

This may be far down your list, but does your university have a greek council? If not, I think it may be to your advantage to form one with the other greek organizations on campus. Maybe you can formally assist each other in recruitment. Schools that have a "unified greek system" are always stronger...in numbers, in quality members, etc. Just a thought.

The only drawback I've seen about requiring or encouraging men and women of fraternities and sororities to join outside orgs. is that some do it to fulfill that requirement, and don't actually contribute to that org. I fully remember being in a student group and two women came, signed in for meetings, never came to any events, and though I know that was just those two frosted flakes, it left a nasty taste in the mouths of people who aren't Greek and passionate about that group.

I think a lot of things could count as outside involvement, but I'm just thinking of my own campus (peer mentoring, student government, internships, research teams, club sports, University athletics, etc.), and that it isn't just clubs.

I will also add that you should read I Heard Recruitment, because the philosophy is all about non-traditional recruitment. I saw a presentation from Phired Up! (the company that essentially wrote I Heart Recruitment and the fraternity companion book), and it was filled with ideas about:
-Getting your name out there
-Recruiting people who never thought about going Greek before
-Making as many friends/contacts as possible around the campus
-Sit down with your sisters and write down the contact information for EVERY SINGLE FEMALE STUDENT who is not already affiliated. Then call each of them and personally invite them to hang out with your sisters. Explain that you think she is really cool and you'd love to introduce your sisters to her by doing a "Normal Friend Activity" (going out to dinner, getting your nails done, lounging by the pool, having a study party, studying at your local coffee shop, volunteering for a clean-up, any kind of volunteering, cheering for a school sports game, etc.)

Having ice cream socials and fun recruitment activities only work if you have a group of women on campus who are inherently interested in joining a Greek organization. If no one is interested in joining a sorority, then advertising recruitment events is not going to attract anyone. Get it?

Requiring (I mean... strongly encouraging) sisters to get involved in outside activities is a great idea. Why? Because struggling chapters often get SO involved in saving the chapter, that you stop being as involved on campus as you used to be. Personally, I LOVED my sorority and was so passionate about it that in college I preferred to spend my time in chapter pursuits. I had friends outside of the chapter, but by the time I was a senior, I knew very few women who weren't affiliated AND whom I hadn't already tried to recruit. By that point, my good GDI friends were mostly from freshman/sophomore year.

Make your chapter (and Greek Life) relevant to campus life
I completely agree that you need to hold non-recruitment events on campus! Show that your organization is doing something FUN and USEFUL for people. I love the suggestions above about having speakers for: resume-writing, job hunting, picking a major, self-defense, etc.

Lastly, make sure that the 4 of you are RECRUITING AT ALL TIMES ... WITHOUT being overbearing about it. Recruiting is about showing people how amazing your organization is, not necessarily telling them over and over again. Exemplify your ideals 24 hours a day, look cute/well put-together/approachable/fun on campus as often as humanly possible. Make friends everywhere and anywhere! You want to be the 4 women on campus who know and are loved by everyone.

It will be a lot of work, but it sounds like you're up to the challenge! Good luck!

If there's a member in my chapter who can't find one other thing on campus to be involved and interested in (and that includes athletics, peer counseling, RA, ANYTHING campus related) then I would severely question what kind of contribution a person with such limited interests is making to the organization.

Exactly. That's why this is so important. And if the only thing you do is your sorority and that isn't always a positive thing, you're going to see more and more members leaving because they don't have an outlet.