I think she is saying that if you sign a bid during COB in the spring, you shouldn't be allowed to participate in formal recruitment that fall, meaning that the COB bid is bound for a year just like a bid received during FR would be? (correct me if I'm wrong)

So if you COBed in January and dropped, you shouldn't be able to go thru formal recruitment until August of the following year - a year and a half later? Oh my....it's worse than I thought. How cruel.

The "stigma" of COB is the issue, is my take on what 33 is communicating. I can't see a way around this, myself. Unless we abolish formal recruiting and all we do is COB. All of us. Isn't that how we all started, anyway?

Yes I am being annoying.

So making the woman wait 1-1/2 years to participate in FR is taking away the stigma of COB? If that's what she's thinking, she needs an adjustment. All that would do is generate more animosity towards the Greek system. Talk about exclusivity....

Yes, we are talking about making the woman wait 1-1/2 years to participate in FR IF SHE WAS GIVEN AND ACCEPTED A CONTINUOUS OPEN BID.

Oh my! Even my metaphorical pearls may not last.....

Just throwing in my two cents coming from a campus that treated informal recruitment like formal, with a few exceptions.

We had a structured week of parties, registration, rho chis, etc. There was no disaffiliation, members could speak to PNMs outside of parties, no MRABA, and PNMs could receive bids to both pref parties they attended (same amount of parties as formal). Not once did I come across any additional chapters offering bids to PNMs that did not attend a pref party. As a deferred recruitment, informal was held in the fall and specifically meant for upperclassmen.

Despite no MRABA, if PNMs accepted a bid during informal, they could not participate in recruitment again for a calendar year. On this type of campus, it was "equal" because there was very little difference to the PNMs during which type of recruitment they participated in. This was the only way COB was conducted - additional new members were distributed bids as a COB only prior to any new member education began. The option was there for us to extend bids year-round, but none of the chapters participated in doing so.

CPH has been doing incredibly well the past few years - at least one or two chapters (out of 5) during informal are at total and do not participate. It will be interesting to see if they move away from a structured informal recruitment, but I believe they will still hold the bylaw of accepting a bid = bound for one year.

Exactly. You made a promise to a group. You signed a bid. You are bound. It makes ZERO difference that you didn't go through formal rush to get that bid. A promise is a promise, and saying "well, since this wasn't a bid given in formal rush, we can just flush it so you can go through formal rush again. " That ramps up the stigma that is already there.

FWIW, I do NOT think it's a good idea to give women who are complete virgins to the Greek system (first semester freshmen, women who know no one in the group) open bids without their having been through a formal rush. That pledge class of 40 I was talking about upthread shouldn't be strangers, it should be women you know who for whatever reason didn't join during formal.

How are smaller groups supposed to be able to grow if they can't be assured that the bids they give during that "catch-up" time will be respected? I can just hear it - "hey, let's pledge ABC. If it turns out we hate it, it's no big deal. We can quit and go through formal next semester." If anything is "cruel" it's having to fear that with every bid you give.

Chapters that are appreciably smaller than the others (with a few exceptions) simmply CAN NOT make it all up during formal. They must hit the ground running. The best way to do that is with a second pledge class that brings their numbers closer to that of other groups.

And yes to everything luv n tpa said. To me, a once a year pledge class is still just odd. It's like shoving all 3 meals for the day into your mouth at breakfast.

Addendum, for those who will say "why didn't you just give them bids right after formal and integrate them into the fall class?"

Think about the state of mind of these bidless women. They are shellshocked. They have just gone through a week or two with NOTHING to focus on but rush and failed. The last thing they want to hear about is a group that didn't make an impression or made a bad one (even if the girls themselves are nice).

After a month or two, when they've actually gotten to know Greeks and how the system works outside of rush, they may be a little more receptive to getting to know that "unimpressive" group. People need to heal. You wouldn't recommend someone run out and sign up for eharmony the minute the ink is dry on her divorce.

I agree with what 33girl is saying. A lot of you are clutching your pearls, but you're doing it from huge houses on large campuses with competitive recruitments. You think that waiting a year and a half is detrimental to a girl ever joining a chapter, but think about this: What's the typical recruitment situation on your campus? I'm willing to bet that for the most part, girls clamor for spots in formal recruitment, some are dropped or drop out themselves, and those girls contemplate whether or not they should go through recruitment the following year. The girls who received bids and dropped have to wait a year. No harm, no foul. A year is a year.

Now put yourself on a smaller campus where no recs are required and COB is done on the regular. Recruitment events aren't about 15 minute conversations and bumping groups, but about lunches out and study groups and getting to know someone in "normal" situations. Potential members spend time with sisters and are essentially brought into the chapter in every way possible, except formally through a bid.

Then... they receive a formal invitation to join. They spend days, then weeks, with the chapter... And then they drop. Two months later, they're going through formal recruitment, joining another chapter.

Does that sound OK to you? Does that also have you clutching your pearls?

One of the few drawbacks of RFM for small chapters is that the smaller/weaker chapters often have far more PNMs in their invitational rounds than the strong recruiting chapters.

The strong chapters know that they'll have a majority of PNMs choose to return for subsequent rounds, so they might only need to have a total of 80 PNMs in their first invitational round, where the smaller chapter may need 120 in order for both chapters to hit quota of 20 on bid day. This really exacerbates the problem.

The extra parties really have the ability to help out, but it seems that usually this is geared to making party sizes more manageable for all of the chapters, with no special consideration for a small chapter. What smaller chapters need is often a couple of extra parties that the rest of the chapters don't have (i.e. - 15 party time slots for PNMs to visit a max of 8 chapters, strong chapters use 12 time slots with 3 breaks, smaller chapters use all 15). Do any campuses do that?

At Clemson we are only allowed to have as many sisters as the smallest chapter can provide on the floor for the first round, in order to even the playing field somewhat. I actually didn't even attend recruitment one of the nights because my bump group wasn't on the floor for that night. I don't think this extends past first round, but it's better than nothing.

I also know that we normally only hold three Preference parties when there are four time slots, which I believe gives smaller chapters the chance to hold four parties if they want to or need to.

This is an extremely nice idea. It helps with that first impression that is so important. Bravo to your Panhellenic for their kindness.

I have never heard of this, but that is an amazingly Panhellenic approach.

That's the kind of thing I'd like to see NPC push. That's great :)

As for the one year or next formal recruitment issue if you back out- It is different for deferred recruitment schools. In those cases, there is not a whole summer to separate informal from formal. You could decide the night before Initiation in December that you're not going through with it and then participate in formal recruitment in January. Perhaps 6 months would be a better time frame? Or one full school term?