Ha, ha, I hope this post hasn't jinxed anyone - I just had a vision of a rushee spilling an entire tray of drinks on the 70 year old past national president that just happened to be at pref for the colonization. :p

Since I am sure they'd be adhering to "no frills", there would be no tray of drinks...;)

we like frilly rush at fsu.

I was under the impression that it is actually NOT ALLOWED to release after preference unless the national HQ approves it, and that this is a National Panhellenic rule.

It's phrased differently, but yes, chapters are expected to be willing to accept as a member anyone who attends their preference events. But obviously will only be able to accept up to quota (plus whatever additions etcs)

Just didn't realize I answered this fully:

After bid day in Sept '08, we had a longer "new member period" as we were doing lots of things like selecting officers, writing chapter bylaws/code of conduct, etc. We were initiated and installed on March 14, 2009.

"Be able to accept" and "must accept if they match" are different. Which one do you mean? I was under the impression that the second is mandatory.

The language says that chapters* must be willing to accept everyone invited to pref. I added the second line to clarify that attending pref does not necessarily guarantee a bid with a particular chapter as a chapter may reach quota before hitting any particular PNM on their list.

*The agreements refer to the organizations as a whole which then make the rules for chapters, I'm simplifying it.

So just to clarify ONE MORE TIME:

If Susy Sorority is your last choice and she gets to you as a QA because she was cut by all other chapters, even though she is a QA and NOT part of your quota, you CANNOT individually reject her? You MUST bid her because she was invited to preference and you were the only chapter who invited her?

Like I said "unless you really blow it"....things do happen and women find they are not on the bid list....

She's only your QA because she was on you preference/bid list in the first place. So yes, there's no going back and changing your pref/bid list after the fact and trying to refuse individuals who attended your pref or who were QAs.

Whether bid lists are provided after pref or before (it seems like this varies) everyone who attends your chapter's preference should be on your bid list.

This is how I understand it at least.

That appears to violate the rules agreed to by NPC chapters. I would have to say that it would be a rather exceptional case. Like, she shows up and starts yelling racial slurs or something...

You invited her to pref. By doing so, you thought she was worthy of a bid at some point. If you really didn't want her, you should have released her before pref. That's the way it works.

OK, I thought we were talking about colonizing pref and that's really not the same thing as regular pref. The chapter really isn't a chapter yet and as such doesn't have to follow regular formal rush rules. Which is why I made the comment I did and that's what I thought Titchou was talking about as well.

My understanding was that it is the bid list that is the thing that is binding on the sorority's part. We had a smallish discussion last week about when the bid lists are turned in, but I don't see how you could turn it in before pref when you never know, maybe 50 rushees will go to the Justin Bieber concert and get arrested the night before pref, and you obviously don't want to give them bids then. I really don't see how you could force a sorority to put everyone they invited to pref on their bid list - especially since

1) some pref ceremonies are part of ritual and who knows, maybe there's something in ritual that the rushee was supposed to do and didn't. Unless you know everyone's ritual you really can't stick your nose in it.

2) if groups are being forced to ask rushees back up to and including pref and rushees can't reject the invitation, it's basically telling chapters with lower return rates that they HAVE to take the women. They could pitch a bitch and say that Panhellenic is overstepping and denying them the right to select members as an individual organization.

This all being said, you should (you being a normal chapter, not a bunch of women from national HQ) cut them loose before pref if you don't want them to join.

Either way, colonizing pref or regular, while everyone there should be on your bid list, there are times when someone is dropped. Honest...I've seen it happen and for very good reasons.