Yeah, don't worry about how many girls come to another group's parties. Out of those 25, they may have only bid 2.

Just tell the sisters if they ALL aren't going to go out and meet women and invite them to COB events, you're going to cancel the events, because you all have better things to do with your time, and you'll all have plenty of time to do it once the chapter is closed due to low numbers.

Honestly, it sounds like they need something to wake them up. If no one else is doing their job, why should you?

Has your national org offered you any help on this?

They send consultants and everyone gets all these good ideas from them, but there is never really any follow through. I get to meet with one tomorrow so I am hoping that she can give me a couple pointers. I just feel very lost about this because I am getting no help from the previous recruitment chair.

I do like what you said about people having tons of free time if we get shut down. I feel like people never really think of it that way. I might bring that up to my chapter if things don't start turning around.

Do you have a Recruitment Committee?

A small group of hard-working, dedicated girls will have more success than 25 girls, most of which aren't making an effort.

Tell your chapter that you're starting a committee, and that you want people to join who truly want to see the chapter grow, and who will do almost anything to see that happen. Then brainstorm!

And read these three blog entries from Phiredup.com:

"Big Events: When They Work and When They Don't"
http://www.phiredup.com/index.php?op...p=476&Itemid=2

"The Fun Theory"
http://www.phiredup.com/index.php?op...p=447&Itemid=2

And this last one... I actually put on a recruitment workshop for my chapter not too long ago, and one of the things I did was read this blog entry ("Be Nice to People (at least for a week)": http://www.phiredup.com/index.php?op...p=418&Itemid=2) and then asked the sisters to come up with some of their own "nice" ideas, or to expand on the ones that were mentioned.

Instead of trying to make skits and decorations more exciting, why not trying to make RECRUITMENT more exciting?

Do something different, bold or daring. Do something that people will remember. Do something that you actually ENJOY doing.

And when the rest of the sisters see your committee having so much fun and making a difference, maybe they'll want to join in, too!

Do you get a commission from Phired Up or something? ;)

Haha. I should! But sadly, no.

But come on... they're awesome! And they know what they're talking about. And her entries scream, "I need Phired Up to teach me how to recruit!"

:p

While 6 is great, I see the OP's concern. I came from a chapter that struggled with numbers and eventually closed. (They did recolonize, but the was prearranged with our closing). As much as you want to be excited about the 6, when your charter is up in the air (which when a chapter is struggling and possibly has been struggling for a while that is probably going to be a question from HQ, "should we keep this chapter?"), you can't help but be worried and say things "crap that other chapter got 25". Because you are all competing for the same PNM's.

First, sit down with the PR sister and no holds barred ask her why she didn't advertise the events? PNM's can't come if you don't advertise. Word of mouth will only get you so far. What kind of advertising can you do on campus?

OP-I've pm'd you.

I have a few comments and questions about your PR, as well...

The key is making yourselves look bigger.

Keep in mind that there is probably a HUGE number of female students on your campus that know nothing about Greek life. Absolutely nothing. They've never thought about joining, because they don't even know what it is they would be getting themselves into. And they also don't know that you're the smallest chapter on campus. Meet these girls!

If your sisters are sweet, talkative, and really down to earth, they should have no problem BECOMING FRIENDS with some of these girls.

Don't blame your PR chair! If you leave everything up to your PR chair when it comes to "advertising" for recruitment, you're going to be disappointed. Are the two of you working together to come up with the best ideas for the chapter?

This I will disagree with.

At the workshop I recently put on, I asked the sisters a question: "How many of you joined the sorority because of a poster you saw on the wall, or because you approached a group of girls wearing funny letters on their shirts?" Guess how many people raised their hand... One. And she was only intrigued by a poster which talked about our philanthropy successes.

One girl even said, "I never even noticed any recruitment posters until after I joined."

PR (when it comes to recruitment) shouldn't be about posters and wearing letters, it should be about MEETING NEW PEOPLE. How you go about that is completely up to you. (Refer back to the links in my last post).

I understand being concerned, but what does worrying and being all "OMG XYZ got 25 girls and we only got 6" do for you?

Nothing. It just discourages you and makes you not want to even try.

Same with thinking "OMG we're going to lose our charter" all the time. Just makes you sad and makes you want to give up.

The point I was trying to make was not that you should just be cool with getting 6 girls and stop trying, but you have to think positively and take actions toward improvement.

Think "ok, we have 6, and that is 6 more than zero. If we got 6, we can easily get 6 more. What can we take from this that can help us improve and translate into more effective recruitment?"

I've been in the situation of having less than ideal numbers and having to work hard.

Bemoaning the number of girls you get and counting the number of girls everyone else gets doesn't contribute to that.

This is the only reason I ended up at a recruitment event. A sister (who eventually became my big) said that she'd meet me at my dorm and walk with me to the event. Offer the same to your PNMs!

And expanding on the Recruitment Committee ideas... once the new members get settled, ask them for their help! Everything is new to them and they're excited about everything right now, so offering to them a larger sense of involvement in the chapter early on will probably thrill them. They can definitely help you execute recruitment/PR strategies and activities throughout the semester, and if they're younger, they probably have younger freshmen/sophomore friends who you can start getting to know now for the following semester's recruitment.

Well, in this case, yeah, I WOULD blame the PR chair.

It just sounds like the OP is being given all of the responsibility of rush and getting numbers up, but being continually hamstrung with 1) sisters who insist on doing things the same way they have always done them, even if those methods don't yield jack sqaut 2) sisters who volunteer for things and don't follow through 3) sisters who don't understand rush is THE WHOLE CHAPTER'S job.

I'm sure there are more than a few closed chapters of your org who would happy to tell your chapter sisters in no uncertain terms that if they keep going the way they are, they are headed for EPIC FAIL. While I agree with KSUViolet that thinking "OMG we're going to lose our charter" all the time and always comparing yourself isn't good - it seems like the chapter needs that kind of wakeup call. It's like they think "well, it hasn't happened yet, so it never will."

Right, it's the whole chapter's job. So just like the OP doesn't want to get blamed for only getting 6 girls, she shouldn't place the blame on only one person, either.

Essentially, almost every position is a position of the entire chapter (or at least of a committee). Everyone needs help, and everyone needs to communicate with one another. And if the Recruitment Chair would like things done a certain way by the PR Chair, then they need to communicate and work with one another.

I think we need more information about the situation in order to decide who dropped the ball on that one.

(But again, PR isn't the sole reason that new members join).

And let's face it... I'm sure that the OP isn't the ONLY person in the chapter who isn't completely apathetic. If that was the case, they'd already be looking at an inactive chapter. There have to be some sisters who are willing to help.

I just wanted to say that we do actually have a Recruitment Committee with 5 women that I head up, but it is hard to get these women to be hardcore recruiters as well. One of the reasons for this is because the PR chair is on my committee and she is slightly negative sometimes. Another is because the old Recruitment chair is on my committee and I think she is just sick of the position. The other three girls are very enthusiastic about recruiting. It is a hard committee to work with sometimes because the other three girls are new and don't know how things are run yet.