For our bid distribution, everyone in our rush group signed up for a time to go meet up with our rho chi (sorry, sorry, recruitment counselor :p ) the day after prefs. The rho chi would call you by 10AM that morning if you had not received a bid. If you got no call, you were supposed to go at your scheduled time (but I got to go a bit early because it didn't take that long.) I met up with the rho chi one on one in a room, and she handed me an envelope with my bid card in it. The next day, my big sis dropped off a little gift and a note for me at my dorm, and she called me to tell me what time she would pick me up that night and what to wear for the whole bid night thing. That night, I got to meet all of my wonderful new sisters :).

I was one of those girls who got cut, for the most part during rush in college. (For an idea of what rush was like at the time - 1987 - the thread is "How is rush supposed to run?")

I must have been a real fish out of water. The chapters I *thought* I was getting along really well with didn't extend a bid. I received a (reluctant, I found out later) bid from the one chapter I knew I didn't get along with. It wasn't a knee-jerk reaction, I put as much thought into this as I could given the circumstances.

To receive bids, we were told to go to the Student Activities Office on a certain day and time. No PX or anything, just pick the group you wanted that picked you, or not. When I saw that one disappointing card, I had to suck it up. I'm not good at fighting back tears but I think I held some dignity together, even though it was clear I was upset. It was a tough choice for a sophomore alone on a humongous campus: join a chapter you didn't feel you could bond with, or go GDI. I went GDI.
The second "sucking it up" was back in the dorm. The other girls I had rushed with all got their bids. I'll not elaborate on that part.

I've done a lot of things in life, but this is one episode I've wished many times I could do over. Even though I have no clue what I could/would/should do differently, if anything. Sometimes life works out for a reason--it took a *lot* of years before I could say that with some conviction. <g>
Today, I'm ready to try again, this time as an alumna. If I do get initiated and work with a chapter, I hope the hard experiences I had can be put to use to help other girls who also have to make those tough choices, or who had them made for them.

Hugs,
Adrienne
:)

.

Don't know how they do things at my school now as I pledged eons ago. At that time, we all gathered in an auditorium and received our bids (don't recall if girls with no bids were called ahead of time or not). We would open our bids and sign our pledge card if we planned to accept our bid, then the rush counselors (not called Rho Chi's in those days) revealed their affiliations. We then met up with the counselors from our house and headed over to the house. Now, I don't know how the other houses did things, but we did the same thing the entire time I was active. The sisters were all lined up inside the front door and up the front stairs. The rush counselors let the house know that they arrived. Then one new pledge at a time would come in the house. The girls in the house had no idea how many were outside. Following pref, we would assign a sister for each girl on our pref list. If your girl came through the door, you would greet her, and start to get her acclimated to the house. After all the girls were announced we would then have lunch at the house.



DaffyKD

I have seen many of you ask what do you say to someone who didn't get a bid. I was a Rho Chi this Fall. One of the women in my Rho Chi group did not get a bid. When I called her to tell her, she was okay. She told me before I could even finish that she knew that was probably going to happen.:eek: (She has Single Intentional Preferenced) When I had offered her a snap bid, she turned me down. I really didn't need to comfort her. She was picked up by the sorority that night during COB. (LONG STORY. :mad: )

As for how we handled giving out the bids...The PNMS arrived at University Center at 5 PM. We recited the Panhellenic Creed, since they were joining the Panhellenic Community first. There were some speeches. Then the Rho Chis handed out the envelopes to their women in their groups. If anyone was upset with their choices, they could talk with their Rho Chis. When the PNMs filled out their cards, they signed it then saying they would accept whatever sorority was listed on the card in the envelope. When we were sure that everyone was okay with their bids, we headed to the front of the University Center.

The five sororities were outside making as much noise as they could. After a very short countdown by the Rho Chis, the new members ran to their new sororities who had t-shirts and gifts for them. Then the Rho Chis had a short skit to reveal themselves. After which we joined our sisters again. Then everyone went off to celebrate with the new members at our Bid Day parties. :D

I posted on this thread back in June - but after reading how various schools handle the situation where a girl is cut across the board or doesn't get a bid, I have to express my frustration at the way my school does things. PNMs are NOT called or visited ahead of time. The PNMs all show up and wait in the corridor, and one by one their rho chi takes them into a room and hands them their invites/bids or tells them "we're sorry, you were cut". So when someone is cut, all the waiting PNMs see her leave in tears. :(

I'm also a bit frustrated that we don't have a big rho chi revealing event - I think that would have been fun - but we allowed PNMs to defer their decisions for 3 days, so rho chis had to stay deaffiliated for 3 days after bid day.

ZTABullwinkle - I assume you mean she was picked up right after formal rush by the sorority she ISP'd. I didn't think that was allowed... or is that one of those things that varies from school to school?

At Iowa your rho chi tells you the night you sign your card to be in your room by 1pm the next day because that is the time when bids are going to be distributed. The next day, your rho chi then comes to your room with the envelope and you open it in front of her and accept or decline, and she reports it in and then the sorority comes to get you. Waiting for my rho chi was so stressful because things were running late, and I could hear some girls in the hall getting taken away by their houses, and I WAS SO NERVOUS! Even though my rho chi and I aren't in the same house, she was so excited for me, and we hugged, and I almost cried. She was so sweet. In terms of those who didn't recieve a bid (which I think is rare unless you suicide or there are unusual circumstances or something), I think our rho chi said that she either would call them in the morning or come by and tell them in person. I know she called if one did not recieve any invites, but I think she came to tell you personally if you didn't get a bid. As for our rho chi revealing, she had us write down what we thought she was, and why... I saw her name on a webpage for the house, so I knew, and a few other girls new, but kept it a secret of course. Then later after we signed our cards, she told us.

I think that it is terrible how other schools that make everyone go into the auditorium and open their cards. That would make everything 100x worse, I didn't even like getting my invites back with my group even though it was confidential between you and your rho chi.

I liked the way we did it - last pref parties were on Thursday night and women signed pref cards Friday 8 - noon. They started matching when that period was over, and you had to stay in your room because if you didn't get a bid you got a phone call. Pledge Pickup didn't start till 6 PM. This was nice because if you didn't get a bid and didn't want to view everyone else being picked up, you could get the hell out of Dodge.

aephi alum-

I PMed you!

ZTABullwinkle

Right back at ya :)

I'll assist with the bumping of this thread. :)

At Hillsdale, on the last day of formal recruitment, after pref parties, all the PNMs go up the hill to the auditorium and rank their first and second choice, then back down to their dorms to wait. They are all told that if they have received a bid, a Panhel member will knock on their door between 6pm and 6:30pm (or whatever). When the girls get the knock, the Panhel member says, "Congratulations, you have received a bid," but they don't tell the girls what house. The girls all gather with their friends as quickly as possible and run "up the hill" to where the dean's office is.... All the PNMs who have received bids gather there. For some reason, Pi Phi is the only group who waits outside of Central Hall where the dean's office is - the other groups wait at their houses. Anyway, Panhel hands out envelopes and the girls open them all at once, run out of central hall, and either into the gaggle of Pi Phis at the bottom of the steps or down to their houses. It's very much fun. :)

@UNT it gets nerve wracking, its so drawn out.
rho gammas call girls that dont get bids beforehand, but i believe this year every woman that went to pref events was extended a bid.

so we all had to get to the lyceum around 11am on bid day, which was a saturday, and we had to wait around for an hour talking nervously, and listening to the rho gammas sing all the chapters songs (saying "can you guess what we are now?")

luckily my rho gamma group was number one, because we went up on the stage in our groups. our rho gamma was behind stage, and she would call us back one by one and hand you your bid card, you open it and she would say "do you accept?" and then hand you a panhellenic ribbon and a ribbon with your GLOs colors.

then the sitting continued, and we learned a chant for our group. we then headed over to the super pit (basketball arena) and were given our shirts and got to know our pledge sisters, before each group of girls went out into the arena shouting their chant and ran to their sisters. they knew ahead of time who they got, because we got cute little pre-made name tags when we ran out. this wasn't until about 1-2pm, several hours after we first showed up!

oh, the rho gammas reaffiliated at a panhellenic-wide candle light ceremony later that night, but that was the first time they had done that, so I dont know how it was done before.

I didn't go through formal, but lots of my sisters did:

Bid Day is usually on a Saturday.

If you didn't get a bid, your Rho Chi called you that morning around like 8-10 a.m. The girls who did go to the Campus Life office and get their bids at like 11.

They are free to accept/decline. After that, the girls go to the MAC center (b-ball arena) where all the sororities are waiting with their balloons, signs, goodies,etc. They run to their group, the Greek Life advisor makes a speech, and the Rho Chi's are revealed.

Then everyone goes outside to the fountain for pictures and back to their houses to celebrate. :)

NAU does a lot of what these other schools seem to do... Our rho chi's or the head of greek life (depending on how many women get cut, most years none) call the women who are cut... Then all the other women at around 10am meet at the soccer stadium... It is at the bottom of a hill, and the top of the hill is the all greek res hall... They all sit there, and then the sororities come down sings and cheering at the top of their lungs. When the pm's show up they are given an envelope. They do not open it yet, and are told to sit on it... So they sit up in the stadium seats on their bids, while the sororities are down on the field... Then the Rho Chi's do their revealment (usually they were layers and layers of other sororities letters then theirs on the bottom)... They all take each layer off to the music... It is very entertaining, and each of the sororities cheers when they see their letters, even if it isn't one of your sisters... Then after the rho chi's join their sororities the pm's are told to open their envelopes... Then they run/walk down to the field to join their new sisters... The women who don't get a bid from the house they want will sometimes slip out the back during all the madness...

Overall it works pretty well... Having been the sorority who normally doesn't take too many women during formal recruitment we are always there excited to take the women we get... The other factor that works ok, is that women who decide they are very unhappy will generally just leave and walk off in the maddness...

I wasn't able to attend bid day activities because of marching band, but being on Panhellenic Exec and from what the Rho Chi's have said, this is how Iowa State's goes. (This is also coming from 6 years ago, so it may be different now)

Pref night is usually on a Thursday. PNMs sign their bid cards and go back to their dorms. Bids are matched late into the night. Early Friday morning (5 am or so), chapters get the lists of girls who are elegible for snap bidding and call Panhellenic regarding the ones they'd like to extend bids to. Panhellenic then calls the Rho Chi who then calls the girl who can decide if she wants to accept it or not. After all that mess is resolved, the bids are finished and distributed to the Rho Chis. Around noon (or whatever the time table is set up for the year) She takes her group to a private area and they open their bids--that way if there is a disappointment, it can be handled prior to the revealing. Then, about 1 pm, all the rush groups make their ways to central campus where all of the sororities are waiting in letter shirts, holding signs, usually singing and cheering. A short speech from the Greek Adviser, a speech from the VPs of Recruitment, the revealing of Rho Chis and Panhel Exec and all of the girls are let loose to go to their respective groups and enjoy the rest of their bid day. There's only a certain number of girls from each chapter allowed to go to central campus, so the rest of the chapter is back at the house, eagerly awaiting their new members.

My Bid Day seems to be similar to everyone elses. Our Pref night is on a Friday night and is not over until around 9 PM. All the PNM's go to one of our Administration Buildings and rank their choices (1st and 2nd--suiciding is not recommended, but some do anyway). The Bids are matched later that night, and if a PNM doesn't recieve a bid, her Rho Chi calls her between 1-3 AM. Saturday morning, Bid Day, all the girls who have received bids meet in front of the Greek Life Building and the Rho Chi's reveal which sorority they are a part of. Then each Rho Chi group is taken to a different area around the building, and each girl's name is called to recieve her bid--she can at that point say if she wants to accept it, decline it, or wait to talk to her Rho Chi after everyone else opens their bid. After we got our bids, we ran to the parking garage on campus where we got our Bid Day Shirts. At my university, we don't have houses (we have a sorority dorm where each floor houses a different sorority suite) so all the sorority members put banners and balloons outside of the dorm and open up the windows on their floor with signs for all the new girls. As we run with our new pledge class to the dorm, all our new sorority sisters cheer for us and do all of their chants and cheers on our way up to the suite. Also, the year that I went through, the Fraternities had the same bid day as we did, so all the fraternity guys and their new pledges stood outside of the dorm and asked us which sorority we had got and would cheer for that sorority as we ran through them. Once we made it up to the suite, we got all kinds of Alpha Gam goodies (cups, pencils, stickers, cameras...etc...) and then we started our bid day celebrations. Later on that night, our whole sorority went as a group to the Fraternity Bid Day parties and toured and hung out at all the houses on campus. The next day, we watched the video of Bid Day and us running up the stairs in the dorm and into our suite! My Bid Day was a very memorable experience, and it was so much fun! :D

Snap Bidding
 

How does snap bidding work?

1. Can only chapters that did not make quota be able to extend a snap bid?

2. Could a girl get more than one "snap" bid?

3. If so, is it "first come first serve"? Or does each eligible chapter - after review and voting to extend a snap bid - then inform Panhellenic by a specific time. And then the girl is presented with the snap bids and picks the chapter she prefers to join?

Re: Re: Snap Bidding
 

Thanks. Quick follow up to number 3.

I'm sure there is a deadline regarding accepting snap bids. So is it possible for a girl to receive a snap bid from ABC first and wait until the deadline to accept? Basically waiting for XYZ to possibly extend a bid?

I'm thinking of the girl who maybe went to three preference parties (ABC, DEF & XYZ), but only listed DEF on her bid card. (i.e. suicide) She does not get a bid from DEF, and ABC snap bids her. But if offered, she would prefer XYZ. In other words, had she completely filled out her bid card it would have been 1-DEF, 2-XYZ, 3-ABC.

Thanks. Makes sense to me. :)

Well I was a Rho Chi my Junior year, and we did bid distribution the same way all four years I was in school, and still do it this way today.

Pref is held usually a Monday or Tuesday night-it ends at 10 and girls have until 12 to sign their pref cards. Then the next day, the girls come to the Union between usually 11:30 and 2 where all
the Rho Chis are set up around the room at tables. Panhel
allows one girl from each group to go in at one time, and there
the girls decide if they want to sign their bid or not. Even if you
didn't sign, though, most of the girls were convinced to at least go to bid day. If you didn't recieve a bid, you were notified early, early that morning. Luckily, I did not have this problem with any of my girls. Then, at 5 pm, everyone gathers at memorial chapel-the girls, the rho chis, panhel, and the pres, rush chair, and new member mom from each chapter. There is a breif ceremony where the PX's and panhel reveal themselves, and then the girls are dismissed by chapter, and everyone RUNS down the huge
hill under the chapel, across Rte 1 (which is a VERY busy road)-and down to the houses where they are met by the chanting,
screaming sisterhood. It is always really fun :)

At my school, after pref day you and another girl are sent to a dorm room and have an hour or so to fill out your pref card. Then, the rho chi's pick them up and take them over to Panhellenic Central (some designated spot on campus). If you don't get a bid, they will call you in the morning but otherwise, they tell you they will come to your room between 11-1. They slide your card under your door and if you slide it back, then they know you haven't accepted (they give you some time to decide). Then, the rho chi will yell that everyone can come out of their rooms and you run up to your groups meeting place which is usually the lounge of another floor in your dorm. They always put two or three floors in a rho chi group. Anyways, at that point, they give you your bid day shirt and you go down to the lawn where all of the seniors of the sororities are waiting. Then Panhellenic says a few things, the rho chis reveal themselves and you run to your house! Its pretty awesome and yes, you can figure out who didn't recieve a bid but they have a chance to leave before the other girls recieve theirs. It makes for a great day.

Re: Re: At Virginia Tech...
 

At WIU they put you all in the Murry Cafe (basicly a cafeteria), then hand everyone sealed bid cards...then they say 1, 2, 3 open them and then after the noise has calmed down they call in alphabetaical order the soroites...(ASA's your sisters are here for you, AST's your sisters are here for you, DZ's your sisters are here for you, etc..) and two sisters take you to meet up with all your other sisters in the Grand Ballroom where they do Rho Chi reveal.

i always get confused by this. what if the pnm does not live on campus? then what do you do?

At Florida Tech, the two sororities (will be 3 in 2 years when Phi Sigma Sigma participates in Formal Recruitment) set up camp at opposite sides of the plaza outside the Student Union from about 12-4 on Bid Day. The new girls go inside and receive an envelope and open up their bid. I don't think we even tell the RCs if we're going to accept, but maybe we do (I was so excited I was jumping around and screaming that I think it was pretty obvious that I was accepting). Then the girls go outside to the tables and tell the sorority if they're accepting.

The girls are usually so bad! They'll walk towards one and then zig zag over to the other one and then finally arrive at their table. It kills us! :mad: :)

The only problem I really see with this is that there was one time a girl didn't get a bid (if you get to Pref, you're going to get a bid on this campus) and no one called her. Instead she just showed up and the RCs were like umm... there's no bid for you.

They put the girls who don't live on campus in temporary on-campus housing.

When I was in college, the PNMs met in the student union building to open bid cards all together. Those with no bid were visited earlier in the morning by their Rho Chis, and did not come. Then everyone who received bids all ran out of the front doors onto a big open quad area where each sorority had a corner. The NM ran to her sorority. There was a lot of chanting, balloons, stuffed animals, etc..... It wasn't a far run, so if someone wasn't real thrilled with her bid, it wasn't very noticeable. In all of the confusion a person also was not able to tell who got more girls, pretty girls, and such. NM got Bid Day shirts as soon as they reached their new sisters, so they blended in immediately.

It was very noisy, exciting, and wonderful to watch. The Rho Chis then came out one at a time, pulled off their Rush shirts to reveal the Bid Day shirt underneath, and ran to their sisters. After about 15 minutes of celebrating the groups split up to go to their Bid Day celebrations at private homes or swim clubs.

There were always lots of fraternity members, alums, teachers, parents, and unaffiliated college students there to watch.

At my school, if you didn't get a bid they will call you around 9am or so to tell you. If you did, you just report to Union and you line up single file. One of the Rho Gamma's is in the front at the door to the room you're going into, handing out these big brown envelopes which are closed but have your name on it, and you get one as you go in. All of the girls outline this large room so we make one big circle. The woman in charge of recruitment, then goes around and shows off her amazingly awesome memory, by introducing us all by our full names... she memorizes all of this in about a week (she also supposedly memorizes what sorority we were all placed into as well too). We had about 90 girls or so go through recruitment this past year. (my school is small compared to most). After this, the Rho Gamma's all get up and show who they really belong to us... after confusing us a couple of time by swapping their letters around between each other. When they're done teasing us they all group off based on sorority and finally while your anticipation is at it's highest, they let us open our brown envelopes. That's of course really fun since the bid card is rather small compared to the large envelope so you've got to dig in deep when you open it and everyone just wants to get to it ASAP. Then of course there are a lot of screams, and everyone goes to their respective sorority.

This is how it's done at Syracuse...

Pref night is on Saturday, and you get your bids Sunday morning. The Rho Gammas will call you by 9am if you don't get a bid. We meet at 9:30 with our Rush Groups, and they don't let you open your bid card until 10am, which was awful. At 10, they gave out our cards, and we had to sit on them until everyone had a card. Then we all opened them up at once...and the room practically explodes. Then, they take us all, still in our rush groups to the auditorium where all the sororities are waiting, we all recite the Panehellenic Creed, and the Rho Gammas reveal themselves onstage. Then we all run to our sorority houses, where they have food and activities.

all the girls go into a big room, open them at the same time, and rush to the corner their new sorority is at, then they all go to the sorority suites..

We have everyone gather at the steps on Bid Day, which is a Monday afternoon. If a girl has been dropped from recruitment or offered a snap bid she has been called the night before or early in the morning. Snap bids can show up, but they don't run.

They all sit on the steps and are handed closed envelopes containing their bids. The recruitment team has a reveal, in threes. Then the Greek advisor will usually stall one or two more minutes to build anticipation and also to let the gamma rho's get their hugs in and get ready with the chapters for their new girls. Then at her signal they open their envelopes and run to their new chapter.

Most of the time even if a girl doesn't get her first choice she isn't devastated by her second. Sometimes she is, though...every year there's always that girl that doesn't run.

Most girls do get bids, especially with snap bidding. The chapters take their girls to their halls and then to their bid day parties. It's fun, but I can't imagine not knowing...because I had "suicided" I wasn't nervous. I think I really would have been if I didn't know what was in that envelope.

Can you explain?

Yeah, it seems a little heartless not to try to treat them as much like the others as you can. If they've accepted the bids before the ceremony, why not pretend they were matched the regular way?

They just join the group instead of sitting on the steps. They don't have envelopes to open, obviously, since they already know where they're going.

Wow, that sucks for them.

Maybe it would be misspent energy, but it would still seem like it be nice to fake the envelope part even it there's no suspense on their part. I say this only so that they get as close to the same experience and enthusiasm as the other girls matched in bid matching.

I think snap bid girls may feel a little second class already, so it might be worth it to be able to let them have their moment.

The way your campus does bid day sounds pretty fun generally though!

Yeah...you'd think that a girl who was already upset about her bid [since she obviously didn't pick that sorority] would maybe have more of an open mind if she was treated just as lovingly as the rest. I think she'd be less likely to drop, too; I'm not sure I'd want to accept a snap bid if I knew that everyone would know I was dropped from everyone else.

IMO, anything where the rushees open their bids in public (public being more than 2-3 sisters or Rho Chis) is barbaric. Besides the girls who don't get their first choice - what about the girls who DO, who are standing next to their best friend who didn't? You have to bottle up your emotions so your friend isn't even more devastated. Or if you see that a girl you can't stand is going to be in your pledge class and you just want a private moment to say "oh, CRAP."

No, it's not fun to open your dorm door and see XYZ standing there when you thought you were getting ABC, but at least you aren't in front of the entire sorority population and if you want to decline gracefully or cry you can...plus when we did this, the women picking you up were usually girls you'd bonded with in rush and that you could be honest with.

I can kind of see what you are saying, but they did list all the groups on the bid card. So, to me, it seems like they ought to be pretty excited about what they got.

As long as the girls who didn't match know in advance, I think public events may lead to a more panhellenic enthusiasm about joining in general.

That's easy to say when you got your first choice, or when you've had years to look back on it and are happy things turned out the way they did.

But when you are at a school where freshmen rushees are heavily favored and upperclassmen don't have a very good chance at bids, and your choice is kind of you pledge a sorority you're not crazy about or don't pledge one at all - it's a little hard to get jazzed, especially when there's a bunch of people around you. I mean, some girls are in the happy situation of having 2-3 groups they love on their pref cards, but some definitely are not.