Oh I didn't mean to imply that PNMs were being told any details about QAs etc. Just anything from the implication that you wouldn't have a chance of getting any bid if you didn't put all three choices down or your chances at the chapters you wanted were somehow better if you put all three down to OMG THE COMPUTER WILL TOTALLY THROW YOUR NAME OUT IF IT SEES YOU DON'T LIST ALL THREE!!!!! I don't think very many people on either side understand it at all. I certainly didn't before I started reading GC.

i believe it is either "you stand a better chance of getting a bid if you list all three" or "the computer will kick out your card it you don't list all three", more often told than not.

i made sure that my daughter realized that while i did not encourage her to do so, if she only wanted to list one choice on her card, that the computer would not kick her card out. sure enough, her recruitment counselor told her group that if they didn't want the computer to kick out their cards, they had to list all groups where they had attended prefs.

Yes!!! Boy, you're good, I couldn't even think of key words in the title! Thanks!

How nice to know that you and your chapter have been in this situation and know exactly how to make everyone feel superrific 200% of the time. Please share how you accomplished this feat, because it's knowledge that a lot of people would like to have.

I think that can depend on how regimented your national NM program is and how it compares to other groups' NM programs on your campus. Obviously there are instances where two chapters can run the exact same program in the exact same way and one has been at total plus for forever and the other one can't ever make quota or has women dropping left and right. That's when you need to say to your advisors and national rush poobahs "so and so component isn't having the effect it's supposed to have to instill pride in our NMs. How can we change it up and stay within the guidelines?"

I agree. Back in the old (terminology) days, we had a catch phrase KROP.. Keep Rushing Our Pledges. I think a lot of chapters make PNMs feel very special during Recruitment and then, when they become new members, they focus on other aspects of running the chapter and forget to reach out to the new members to keep them engaged.

I think it's very useful to have an advisor meet with new members who choose to terminate to find out why they are leaving. I'm talking about a sisterly type of conversation rather than an interrogation. "We're sorry to see you go, is there anything that we can do to change your mind?" type of talk. Even if the talk doesn't lead to keeping that young woman, it may give some insight as to why the new member is leaving. You may find out that it is all about campus status, but you may also find out that the real reason has to do with sisterhood, poor decision making on the part of the members during member selection, inadequate information about finances from the start, etc. There can be a myriad of reasons. It's important to find out what these are. This goes for chapters who are losing initiated members as well. Is it finances? Would it make sense to have less expensive/ornate formals and mixers or get fewer t-shirts if a number of members are having difficulties with costs? You can really only know this information if someone talks to the women who are leaving.

*whoosh*

Not sure where you got that from what I said at all. The attitude of the chapter is, ultimately, up to them. I never claimed to have unlocked the secret, except perhaps with those pills that Jessie took on Saved by the Bell.

It's in the best interest if the chapter to try and have the upbeat attitude because worn down, worn out, tired of COB-ing chapters struggle to COB because they're - shocker - worn down, worn out and tired of it. Is it easy to shake off that feeling? No, I speak from experience there. Is it a good idea to try? Hell yes. Did I claim to have the magic spell to cause that? Not at all. It requires leadership from within the chapter and HQ support, not just pressure to meet numbers.

Blah blah blah, it's all nice to say here, but it has to be taken to heart and implemented at the chapter level. Only each chapter knows what it takes to get its members motivated - unless the officers are so lost or burnt out that HQ really does know better.

But not trying at all will lead to that downward spiral that we've seen happen to so many chapters.

You came across the complete opposite way - like a Teen magazine article that says all you have to do to get boys interested in you is be interested in them. Just saying.

But you are right in that people have to be inspired to rush for the right reason - because what they have is awesome and it's too awesome to keep all the awesomeness to themselves and they want to invite others to share it. Not for money, numbers or campus reputation.

ROTFL! And they said that in the sixties too.

Okay, back to the thread!

Yeah, I still don't know where you got that from what I said.

I work with a really strong recruiting Chapter. For us quota additions are usually not a blessing. 9 times out of 10 QA's come from way down under and are used to maximize the placement of women into Chapters.

As for the struggling Chapters, I also agree that RFM typically gives them a lot of NM's who don't want to be there. I don't know how you fix that unless you let the PNM's not go to pref - which I think would be a better option for struggling chapters then to have them go to pref and not put them on their bid card. I would think you would want to have PNM's at your pref party who wanted to be there.

Finally, my advise to PNM's is always if you don't see yourself in that Chapter don't put them on your bid card no matter what Panhellenic says. Although, Panhellenic on many campuses instructs their counselors to tell the PNM's they HAVE to list them. I find this dishonesty to be the root of a lot of the problems with retention.

I do too. Why are you inviting women to your pref parties who you don't want, then? The blessing of being a strong recruiting chapter is that you don't have to invite that many women to pref round.

It may be the idea that they are QAs. I've worked with chapters that feel like it makes them less exclusive. A QA is someone who didn't make the cut, so why would they want them.:rolleyes:

This. The rule of pref is you don't invite people you don't want on your bidlist to pref.

And, if your recruitment chair and advisors are doing their job, no one else should know WHERE on a bidlist specific people are, or who was a QA. Snap bids are the only type of bids given in formal recruitment where the NM might stand out simply because she arrived later or wasn't at bid day festivities. (And then only in cases where snap bids aren't all handled earlier, although sometimes people are harder to get a hold of for snap bids.)

But QAs should show up with the rest of the class and no one should know whether Suzy or Annie or Becca was on the first bidlist or was the last QA.

This. Even "top tier" chapters who pride themselves on their exclusivity must be prepared to welcome every single PNM they invite to Pref as their new sister. This really needs to be emphasized to all members, no matter where their chapter happens to be in the pecking order on their campus.