To my knowledge, I think that this is at least a Panhellenic rule on our campus that any PNM that is invited to sorority's pref night must be on that org's bid list ... I'm curious, is this the case elsewhere?? ...

A snap bid is where a sorority extends a bid to a girl who didn't get picked up by a house during Bid Matching at the end of rush. Houses are allowed to extend snap bids to girls who went through rush but were not invited to pledge a house. Snap bidding occurs right after bids are given out, and that person can chose to except or decline. A person can recieve numerous snap bids. A house can extend and except snap bids untill they reach rush quotta.

That's how it works on my campus

I find all of this so interesting...i never had a full understanding of formal recruitment. On my camous there are 2 npc and 1 local bglo. Us 2 npc do not have formal rush because it does not work...we only have about 10 members each, and greek life is not really important to a lot of students here. we have tried in the past to do formal and have failed miserably. So we just stick to having 2-3 info nights and a pref...keep things simple. the girls decide if they want to come back to the parties or not.

now i really understand the challenges that my sister chapters go throught to recruit.

Jen

What does GLO stand for?

Okay, I'm going to answer a few questions that have been asked throughout this whole board.

Suicide, et al....
At my school, if a woman signs her card after preference night, she is obligated to join one of the two sororites if she is given a bid. If she is not given a bid she is free to go wherever. If she gets a bid, and does not accept it, she may not rush again for one calendar year. I personally suicided my chapter because I knew it was where I had to be and, although I respected my other pref, I just knew I wouldn't put my all into it. I am very happy with my decision.

PX and suicide...
I was also a PX last year, and our advice to women was not to suicide, BUT if they were very seriously considering it, they were not penalized, we just had to explain that there was a higher chance of them not getting a bid. It was their decision to make and we could only help them in the process. After pref night, we counseled women who needed help, and then they were sent off to a room to fill out their cards without us (PXs) so we never knew their choices. Every other night we saw their cards so we knew how they would react the next day i.e. if they were getting their top choices or last choices.

On being a PX...
It was hands down the best experience of my life. We had a huge form to fill out, with 8 essay questions, plus general info, and an interview just to be selected. People talk about the bad things like disaffiliation, but I truly believe that being away from your chapter makes you love it more. Plus you form bonds of sisterhood with all your fellow PXs. You go through so much together. And helping the women go through formal rush is one of the most exciting feelings in the world. Being there for the highs and lows, answering their questions. In a way, they become your children. You take all their feelings to heart and you get to live one of the most exciting times in your life all over again.

Suiciding--a good topic to discuss in the couple of months before rush!! Should you or shouldn't you? Did you or didn't you?

When I came through in the Fall of 99....we were given the decision to suicide or not. We were never told not to, but we were all aware of what would happen if we suicided and did not get extended a bid to that chapter. I think that I spent a good 15 minutes trying to decide what to do. I had went to pref at DG and ADPi that day. So it was really between them. I knew from the moment I began rush that I wanted to be a DG but I kept running it through my head. However, I decided that I would suicide DG because I knew that was where I wanted to be. Of course now....I am a DG and I love every minute of it and wouldn't have changed my choice at all back then.
My advice to PNMs would be to do what they want....I did. Whether it is suicide the chapter they really want to be in or be happy with a chapter that they put down as second choice. It is their decision and theirs only.

BTW.....I'm sure everyone knows this but just a reminder that the name PX is not to be used anymore. It is to be Recruitment Counselor or something else. We have changed it to Rho Gamma at Akron. Has anyone else changed theirs??

I suicided chi-o, by the time it got to pref night i knew it was chi-o or nothing, i didn't want to take the chance of putting down chi omega and another house and getting the other house when i really wanted to be a chi omega...i HAD to be a chi omega..there would be no other way, i figured it would be all or nothing, i wasn't going to settle. So i took the risk, and luckily..it worked out :)

Just a sidenote- I knew almost nothing about the rush process when i went through, i didn't know that if you didn't get a bid they would call you so needless to say i was still a complete wreck of 'did i or didn't i' right before they took me into the room to give me my bid

I went through informal recruitment, so this was not an option for me. At my school, though, the Rho Chi's discourage suicide bidding. The Rho Chi's do not even discuss this option unless a PNM brings it up. At my campus, the main focus is to recruit a girl to go Greek, not to recruit girls for a particular sorority.


I do know of three girls who went through formal recruitment (who did not know each other at the time) and wanted to join Alpha Phi. We were their first choice and they put another sorority as their second choice (which was the same sorority). I do not know what happened, but we ended up not giving these two awesome girls a bid and they bid matched with their second choice.

These girls became really close after joining the other sorority. One of my sisters used to room with one of the girls and in several of their late night discussions, the other girl would tell my sister that she wished she would have suicided and tried to join A-Phi during informal recruitment. She also told my sister that the other girls wished they had waited also. Although we missed out on three great girls, there was no changing the decision that we made or that they made. Ironically, two of these girls have been president of their sorority. They have embraced what they joined. Although they may have regrets, they do love their sorority.

Valdosta State will have Gamma Chis this year instead of Rho Chis.

Many years ago, the rush counselors said nothing about suiciding--if you did, it was fine with Panhellenic, I suppose. We weren't required to attend a certain number of parties, either. If you wanted to go with one sorority out of 14 from day one--fine. Auburn being what it is, I'm sure that some did exactly that.

Actually, I did a form of that from about the middle of rush. I took stock of the groups I had left and then cut everybody except Pi Phi and Kappa. Years later, I realized that I probably would've been happy in about 4 of the groups I cut but thank God that rush ended happily for me.

PNMs, please don't do that! Nobody is saying that you have to pledge a group you don't like, but please give each group every chance you can! And I hope to heaven that my PNM daughters don't read this thread and try to copy the dumb thing I did.

GC
 

GC's at Valdosta? Coincidence?? lol

Carnation, out of all the PNMs, your 2 I would definitely bet money that they don't sucide!;) :D

Re: GC
 

yeah, I had to snicker at that one. ;)

I went to a school with a fairly small Greek system (less than 1%) so most of the girls ended up where they wanted to be. We have had a few occasions where girls got "screwed" during bid matching and then view the Greek system negatively.

We strongly encourage the girls to ONLY put down the sororities that they can see themselves with. We only have 3 sororities on our campus so quota is usually under 10.

I always use our sorority as an example to the rushees and tell them if you can't see yourself with AOX don't put us on your bid card. You have to go with your gut feeling. We want the girls to join the right sorority...even if it isn't ours.

Rush counselors pretty much have to say "don't suicide - here are the dangers of it" - because that's Panhellenic's official stand, and they are representing Panhellenic.

Was my school unique in using young alums as Rho Chis instead of undergrads?

And to the guys who are confused and don't like our system - yes, it is confusing, but most of us like it better than your system. With formal rush at least every girl gets to explore all the choices the campus has to offer her. She knows what she is choosing. With the fraternities, most guys go to only a few houses (we had 17 total) - how are they sure they are in the right place for them? It's different strokes for different folks, I guess, and we like our system well enough for now.

I have a question that I would like to pose. How do y'all feel about chapters that give bids to girls that have suicided? I mean, if the girl has suicided and has been rejected, doesn't that put her in a really vulnerable position? It happens a lot on my campus with the other sorority. Does your school have rules against this?

Do you mean, if she suicides ABC and XYZ gives her a snap bid?

It's one thing if the girl is someone XYZ really liked and for some reason they didn't end up at the top of each others' lists. It's another thing if XYZ is just trying to get their numbers up and goes around to all the girls who didn't get bids "preying" on them. If the latter happens, I would wager they'll have a very high pledge dropout rate if the girls just joined in the heat of the moment.

The chapters don't know who has suicided, unless someone tells them they did. Bidmatching is supposed to be a pretty secret process - it's not anyone's business who I put down on my card, which choice I got, or who the sororities wanted most.

At my school suiciding is actually normal. We always get 2-3 suicides for each house. The rho chis discourage it, dont get me wrong.. but some of those women are wonderful sisters.
We have had sisters that suicided other sororities join us through COB and they have never regretted it!
I personally suicided my prefs. I know I could remove names of sororities from those inviting me, but I also knew I didnt want to be anything but an Alpha Gam. So at the other parties I politely told the women that I thought I had found my home and I didn't think it was with their sisters. None of them were sad for me or mad or upset, they were all genuinely happy that I thought so much of that one chapter. So the next day the only house that invited me back was AGD. I didn't want to spend time at another party and take up space where someone else that WANTED to be there could have been! So, I ended up suiciding my bid card too. The next day it was AGD.
We had a girl join this year that wanted to suicide us but her rho chi was from our BIGGEST rival and told her she had to put down her other pref parties somewhere. When her rho chi showed up the next day the girl told her that if she didn't have a bid for Alpha Gam then to go away (of course she did!!!) but then went on to tell her if she had a bid from XYZ (which was the rho chi's sorority) she would rather her burn it. SO the rho chi threw it on the ground and stamped on it as she walked away. That made for an interesting topic!!!
I don't think that suiciding is for everyone, though!
I was a sophomore when I went through rush, and I pretty much had it narrowed down to two houses when I signed up. One was the popular pretty girl house (in the view of non greeks) and the other was the largest chapter on campus. I ended up not wanting to be a part of them and found my home in AGD only AFTER i visited them. I didn't really know alot about them when I joined.
So in the end I think it works out for everyone except for those rushees who get cross cut. I hope they find homes too!

Oh and 33girl, my house snap bids anyone that we have found to be a suitable sister, including women that suicided other houses and we have a 99% Initiation rate for the past 4 years. Some girls are, (for lack of a better word) really DUMB about sororities until they see them outside of rush!

how can you snap bid a PNM who suicides? From my understanding from the bidmatching workshop i had to attend as a member of the recruitment team, that you can only snap bid after the PNM does not match with a house, she is not on your chapter's bid list, but she puts your org down on her pref card and you have not made quota yet?

I'm not sure what you are asking xok85xo. What 33girl described is usually what happens at our school. The greek system at our school is relatively small. We only have three sororities. For some reason, most of the rushees are pretty vocal when they are suiciding...so we know. So we also know when the other sorority picks them up after they wanted to join another sorority.

It's quite normal at mine too. I remember in the Fall of 1998 quota was 8 and 7 of the 8 girls on our "A" list suicided us. We only found this out because one of the Rho Chi's from another sorority made a big deal out of it. She was telling everyone that we told the girls to do this which is entirely not true.

Hm, most of the snap bids I knew about went to girls who dropped out of formal rush or didn't fill out a pref card.

Please don't take what I said the wrong way - I'm talking sororities giving snap bids to women that they don't have a CLUE who they even are, just to get numbers up. If you've met them in rush and remember them and think they're cool, that's all good. :)

Actually that is not correct according to the Greenbook. It used to be that if a women SIP (single intentional prefereced aka "suicides") a house she was ineligible for Snap Biding an only eligible for COB. But NPC changed that a ew years ago.

As far as the pnm needing to write you down on her pref card or the pnm needing to be on your bid list it is simply not correct. Try working with you Greek Advisor or NPC Area Delegate to get the workings on your campus corrected.

I hope that helps to clear things up! :)

I wasn't trying to sound harsh, 33girl but some people think because we have bid girls that we only met the first night that we are desperate for numbers.
You also have to keep some things in mind:
like EVERY chapter, no matter how low in numbers, will not bid women that they don't want to. Yes some chapters with lower numbers do not bid the highest quality sisters, but who is to say when I joined, or you joined, or anyone else, they did not think we were lower quality sisters? Each of us has to prove it to the chapters after rush, just as much as during. Pledgeship isn't quick because of that.
I am not jumping on you, I hope it doesn't sound like it anyway. I just don't want girls to think if they get a snap bid it is because the houses are desperate. I also hate how some members of IHQs (multiple sororities that I know of) tell girls to snap bid girls that they have met, so long as they had the MINIMUM requirements, in order to make quota. I hate that. Not every girl clicks right away. Although there are those rare diamonds in the rough!

OK, we are SOOOO on the same page with that one...;)

RedHotChiO sounded somewhat unhappy at the sorority that was doing this, that's why I thought it might be a situation of the other group saying "Does she have a body temperature? Does she have female organs? Cool, let's give her a bid." We too had women that the first night we met them - couldn't wait to bid them, and did! Sometimes, you just know. What I am against is chapters bidding girls that they don't like, or know, or don't care if they get to know, just for the sake of numbers. That is not what sisterhood is about.

What I was really trying to bring light to is why a sorority would bid a girl that has already decided that only one sorority is right for her? She has obviously considered her options and decided that she only likes one. When another sorority decides to give her a snap bid or a COB, they may like her, but she may not necessarily like them. So if this girl gets rejected from the only sorority she wants to be in, and the other sorority gives her a bid she is put in a very vulnerable position. My chapter prides itself on the fact that every girl in our chapter put Chi Omega down first. I'm just not sure I understand how a sorority would want to bid a girl who doesn't have her heart into it.

Well, I think there's a long distance between them wanting your chapter first and dropping your chapter first chance they get. I know that I for one would have been perfectly contented in my second-choice sorority. (But then again, that's why I didn't suicide!)

If they dropped you right away, though, they probably really don't want you. It is possible that they will see over time that Chapter "One" won't give them the bid of their dreams, and they will find out they really fit in somewhere else - maybe your house - but at snap bid time they are still pining for that one house.

The way I look at it, any girl who ends up in Alpha Xi Delta has been granted a terrific gift. They may have dropped us because they used poor judgment, but anyone truly worthy of our sisterhood will soon realize that they're better off in AXD than anywhere else!

Not every house has the luxury of having every member desiring them first and foremost. If your chapter has that luxury, great, but lots of other chapters have to work harder to get rushees to look beyond their less-glamorous house, their smaller numbers, their willingness to accept not-gorgeous girls, their status as a local, etc., things that don't in any way make them a truly worse sisterhood.

Well of course, there are as many different answers to this as there are girls.

Two of our sisters were roomies and went through rush together. One was a legacy (thru mom) to XYZ. She suicided them and they didn't give her a bid. The other put us down first. We gave sister #1 a bid just because it was evident that she liked us and had fun with us - I think she just felt pressure from inside herself, because of her mom, to suicide XYZ. But she was more than happy with the way things turned out, and her mom was too.

*bump*

Interesting read for the pnm's (and for members, as well).

This is kind of weird, but i just figured out that the "other chapter"
RedHotChiO is talking about is MY chapter. I'm not offended, especially since this conversation is old and the poster is an alum, but I would like to explain the mentality of our chapter (at least from my personal point of view). Chi Omega is a great chapter on my campus, I mean GREAT. They have quality girls, they are VERY involved on campus, and they have a very desirable image nationally, (plus they always put on a killer rush). So it is inevitable that alot of girls are going to like them (as well they should), and choose to be a part of their sisterhood. they are the only chapter on campus who never has to have COB and rarely snap bids. Our sisterhood is also AWESOME (I put Sigma down first and actually quit rush the first time when they cut me), we have the highest panhellenic GPA and a very diverse membership. We are just different. We are the only Sigma chapter in GA and sometimes we do have to snap bid and COB (it's not even an issue of HAVE, it's that we want to, who doesn't want a great girl to join your group?). I can honestly say that we don't have trouble with numbers and that we do get a healthy pledge class from formal recruitment. We have and probably will again snap bid or COB a girl who has suicided another chapter if we know that she is a great girl and has something to contribute to our chapter. Even if a pnm has decided that she doesn't want us, that doesn't mean we don't want her to know that we think she's great. It's not an issue of pressuring or desperatly struggling for numbers. It's not begging for scraps (not that it was implied), if we meet a girl whom we all love, we will bid her. there are girls who suicide other chapters that we do not bid as well. it may seem that many suicides recieve snap bids from us, but that is because we are dealing with a rush pool of 30 or so and many girls who make it through the week choose to suicide. therefore, most of the girls who are eligible to even recieve a snap bid are unbidded suicides. So, it's not like we're trying to be sneaky, we're just doing what the ol' green book allows us to do to aquire new members. Again, this isn't meant to be aggressive and I have soooo much respect for the women of Chi Omega on my campus, they are my friends and deserving of praise (I promise, if I didn't like them, I would tell you). i just wanted to explain the situation from another perspective.
p.s. i also want to add a note to the pnms: just because a chapter COBs or snap bids doesn't mean it it a weak chapter, every chapter on my campus could choose to COB if it wanted (to gain at least a few members) They just choose not to. COB is a great opportunity for women who miss out on formal recruitment to become greek
;) I know, cuz I COBed!!!!!

Great post, trisigmaAtl! I agree, I don't think that chapters should feel embarassed to snap bid or COB women that they truly want as part of their chapter. You wouldn't offer a bid to a woman you didn't want, and I think snap bidded women who suicided another house should think about the fact that this chapter can overlook their initial decision and give them a second chance at sisterhood. (BTW, I was COB'd, too! :))