Well for one our school is a lot larger than yours.... grads/under-grads = 73,000 ish. If you have 11 chapters and each pulls in roughly 40-50 girls (if thats quota), then with 12 chapters quota would be around 35-45... I don't see that as a significant impact. Finally, if your chapter is strong in sisterhood and has those numbers, who cares what the other houses do? Just don't get caught in the numbers game.... quality before quantity.... if you think of a PNM in terms of how many girls that would give you before what you think the PNM will give to the chapter you got the wrong focus.

Yes, it does depend on the amount of women that go through formal recruitment. It also depends on how many COB's you give out throughout the semester to get to total. That's the only way I can see anyone going above the quota set for formal recruitment.

IMHO, Angels&Arrows has summed up the entire Greek system in this paragraph. I was also (over-)involved with Panhel, and it's darn near impossible for a small group to go big, unless they recolonize or (and this has happened!) pledge a field hockey team or the sort!

No matter how hard Panhel tries to help the smaller chapters, it can't be done at the expense of your own - and once the pnm gets the idea that ABC is desirable and XYZ isn't, it's awfully hard to change her mind.

The only way I've seen it work is when, after formal rush, a member of ABC (who is at quota/total) has a friend who didn't rush and is panhellencally minded enough to say to her non-Greek friend, "You know, we're not taking anyone else this year - but why don't you check out XYZ or PQR? The important thing is being a Greek, especially with Greek Week around the corner!" This is how TRUE Panhellenic Recruitment is supposed to work, isn't it?

honeychile

Heck, I've done this even when my group WASN'T at total. I know some women who are great, but would not be a good fit for my group. Why talk someone into pledging your org who is going to hate it, just so you can get the numbers? It would be nice if everyone could stop focusing on the almighty quota/total and concentrate on trying to give the rushees the best Greek experience.

OK, here's a question for those of you who really know their green books. If chapters close or are added to a campus, how does that affect release numbers for the remaining groups?

I don't know anything about a green book, but in the middle of 2001 recruitment at the University of South Carolina, the Theta chapter decided to relinquish its charter. I'm not sure about the other groups, but the Kappas were allowed to invite back a number larger than was previously set. What a mess--we had to basically go through the whole list to see who was eligible to be invited back!

Who knows what the numbers would have been had the Theta chapter relinquished its charter before recruitment. What a sad day when any chapter closes!

Also, I think USC is considering adding another sorority in 2004. Not everyone is at total or at quota--I don't like the idea. This new group might be at a disadvantage since most of the groups will be in a house by then. I could go on and on about the Greek Life office at USC, but I better not!

AFAIK,

If you look at how release figures are calculated, you can see that they are based on number of PNMs, number of chapters, and percent return rates in previous years.

So, if one more or one fewer chapter is participating in recruitment, the new number of chapters is used in place of the old one.

Of course, in the event of a PHC colonization, the new colony generally does not participate in recruitment its first year (except an informational during the first round), so it would not affect things in that case.

Has anyone else heard of a "sophomore bonus"? We used to have it and are getting rid of it for next year. I rushed as a sophomore but didn't know about it until after, but basically you can have freshmen girls up to quota, and then a certain number of additional sophomores if you want. It has to do with the fact that we have an old Southern system and 99% of girls are placed as freshmen.

OUCH. My head hurts after reading this thread...

I hear ya on that one!!
Nichole

i'm going to attempt to reply to this...

when you hand in your bid-list it is ranked, that way if a girl is "with-in" quota she will get a bid, esp. if she puts them first on her list. the way a girl gets her second choice is if she was "with-in" quota of the second group on her list and not the first one.

so if i say my first choice is ABC
my second choice is XYZ

and i am in quota of XYZ and not ABC i will get XYZ...this is esp. if everyone who is in ABC's quota but ABC first (therefor not giving those out of quota a chance to move up a spot).

does this make sense at all??
i hope so
greek love
violets

From an IFC / Guy point of View, Jeeze What a Cluster F!:(

This is like Abbot and Costello, Whos on first! :eek:

That's exactly how it can be!!!

It all comes to who the PNM puts first and whether the GLO ranks her on their first list. If she isn't on their first list, she can still get a bid if not all the girls on the first bid list put then first.

Say, PNM-1 wants ABC first and XYZ second. PNM-2 wants RST first and ABC second. If ABC put PNM-2 on their first list but she gets a bid to RST (her first choice, then ABC has a place for PNM-1 if she's ranked high enough on their second list. If not, then PNM-1 receives a bid from XYZ depending where she is on their list.

At universities where he PNMs are told to rank all the houses whether they went to pref or not, it's possible to get a bid from someone you actually cut to go somewhere else!

Stand firm to your view and make your case to panhellenic. And, if bringing on another group is inevitable, it is ESSENTIAL that your chapter uses this year to continue making improvements and have a chance to get as STRONG as you can before the new group arrives! In a system like yours, only the "strong" survive....it is Darwin at work here because, unfortunately, in Texas, memories are LONG when it comes to a chapter's reputation...even if the chapter is a new and improved version of what it once was.

On a side note... check out the Aggie yearbook...are you aware of how many groups on your campus have been "lost" to this tactic??! It is frightening! And it will keep happening for as long as this pattern continues.

In the meantime, COB your rear ends off so that you are prepared and comptetive in size and look by the time the new group is rushing! It is your very best chance for survival and chapter health!

Hey all-

I have a few questions; some of them may be basic, but bear with me...its the first time my sorority is particiapting in formal rush. I'm the Panhel delegate, so everyone keeps comming to me with questions- and I left my Green Book at school!!!

Ok, when we make a 1st choice bid list, do we fill the list until quota? IE- quota is 20. Do we list 20 girls, in alphabetical order, then place the other girls on the second bid list?

How many girls can we put on the second bid list? Is there a limit?

As a side note, most of the Panhellenic is NOT being supportive. They kinda look at us like "You don't know this?!". So asking them is not going to be very helpful.
Thanks for everything!!!

On your 1st bid list you list your top 20 (# for quota) in alpha order. The 2nd bid list is all of the rest of the women who attended your pref party in preferrential order.

As NutBrnHair says the first bid list is always in alphabetical order and is the number of woman that is quota (in your example 20).

On your second bid list you may put any number of women to whom you would be willing to extend a bid. This list is in the order you would like to bid the women. It should contain the remainder of the women who attended your preference party that didn't make it onto the first bid list but may also contain women who didn't attend your preference.

By adding in the women who didn't attend your preference that makes the list a good starting point for offering snap bids.

Question: Hypothetically, then, if 200 women go through recruitment, and quota is 20, you can list the top 20 in your A list (alphabetically), then list the other 180 if you'd like?

This caused a bit of a donnybrook at one bid matching I attended.

To answer honey's question: yes, you can.

A note on the other issue...nothing in the Green Book says your first bid list has to be in alphabetical order. Most groups have this system so that nobody except those preparing the bid list (usually a very small number of people) know exactly where each girl ranked.

/splitting hairs

DolphinChicaDDD,

Best wishes with recruitment! When it comes to creating your first and second lists, you will also want to be sure you follow Tri Delta's legacy policy (if any legacies attended your pref parties). That policy is stated on the HQ web site, in the recruitment section, and it could affect the arrangement of the second list. Your alumna advisers and regional / national representatives / officers should be able to assist you, of course.

Again, all the best!

I am not sure if this was asked earlier....are snap bids and quota additions the same things?? If not, explain the difference. We never used to follow the rules on that correctly at my school....it has changed since...but being the old rush chair I am still confused!!

No, they are not the same thing.

Quota additions are done immediately after computerized bid matching. If a woman did not match, she can be hand-added to a chapter's bid list. This is done by the people (Greek Life?) doing the matching, and nobody knows who the quota additions are outside that room.

Snap bids come next. Chapters that did not make quota have the option of picking up women who did not match. Generally, the Rho Chi calls the woman and tells her she did not match with a group on her bid card, but XYZ would like to extend her a bid, and she has the option of accepting. You can receive a snap bid from more than one group, in which case your Rho Chi calls and gives you your options.

So basically, if you are a quota addition, you will never know, but if you are a snap bid, you will.

Ok...next question. I understand that quota additions and snap bids are meant for groups under quota...but what is the 5% rule. Is that only for quota additions? Or can people at quota snap bid also??

I believe that you are right. Even if the chapter is under total, if they meet quota, they cannot snap bid. That is what COB is for.

Quota addition is the addition of women who did not match to bid lists of chapters who have made quota. The 5% rule is that the number of quota additions is not to exceed 5% of quota. So if quota is 20, any chapter should not have quota addition of more than 1. If quota is 35 than quota additons should not exceed 2 (1.75 rounded up).

So ... say quota is 20 and a women attended preference at chapters AA and BB ( 2 being the max she could attend). If both AA and BB make quota of 20 before the woman gets a bid, she doesn't match and would not get a bid. She can, if she meets certain qualifications, be a candidate for quota addition. She would then be added to the bid list of either chapter AA or chapter BB depending on which chapter is the smaller and that chapter would then have 21 new members.

Snap bids are to assist chapters which didn't make quota to
reach quota. Quota addition only applys to chapters who make quota. A chapter can snap bid to quota even if that would put the chapter over total. A chapter that has reached quota can not issue snap bids. The chapter can only issue COB bids if they are under total.

(Edited for spelling)

Thank you so much!! BTW I have three friends from High School that were Alpha Xi Delta's at Ohio University!!