I think it should be something that comes naturally, not that you set out to do. I mean, I might meet lots of people I like, but that does not necessarily mean my sisters will like them - in some cases I KNOW my sisters won't like them. We had one member who was great but continually invited her friends to open bid parties - and they were WEIRD. (I think she rather liked being queen of the dorks, to paraphrase Sixteen Candles) She knew the rest of the sisters didn't want them to join but kept inviting them to parties anyway. Needless to say the poor girls thought they had a chance to join.

If I invited a woman to an open bid party it was because I thought she was special and my sisters would like her too - and there weren't many that I put my neck on the line and did that for.

The "5 step model of rush" does not take and should not take 5 minutes and I'm afraid it's been marketed to make people think it should. You optimally want to get a friendship to the point where they feel so comfy with you and the bros/sisters that they ask YOU how to join.

You make a good point. Women would need to be encouraged to follow your model, not the other sister's model. I think that most of us, while in college, meet 2 women over the 4 years who would make great sisters but just didn't think about approaching them or exposing them to the whole greek atmosphere.

I encourage you to contact your Membership Recruitment Advisor or the International Director of Recruitment, both of whom you can get email addresses for at www.dphie.org. They will definitely be able to help.

I was in NO WAY suggesting that they just hand out bids to girls. I was suggesting that sometimes women are not approached in scenarios like this:
"Oh I know her-she wouldn't be interested. She's a "insert sterotype here" major".

"Oh she wouldn't have time, she's on the soccer team. You know how busy they are"

"Naw, she wouldn't be interested, she's from Japan. She wanted to know what triangle K meant on my jersey!"

" I hang out with her all the time. If she was interested she'd have said something by now"

"she's friends with all the XYZ's. She wouldn't want us"

"I think she'd prefer and NPHC group because she's friends with so and so and I know so and so is a Delta"

That's the kind of stuff I am talking about. I remember one day seeing a BEAUTIFUL girl sitting my herself in the quad one day and thinking I'd invite her to something and a sister of mine was all like "Oh I have class with her and all she talks about is her boyfriend and modeling.Like she's a real model!" It was obvious to me that my sister was intimidated by this girl. She had nothing nice to say about her. Another girl I wanted to invite was quite fat-but very nicely pout together and cute. They didn't want me to ask her either. Both girls ended up joining a different group on campus at formal the next year and were great girls. That's the stuff I am talking about.

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained!

Dumbest question is the one never asked!

Just because the outside package may project something, the thing is to try to find out about what is in the package.:)

Sometimes it may just surprise you and others.:cool:

Try doing this as I did, one person trying to start a Local full of National GLOs.:o :eek:

Well in Feb, We will be Celebrating 40 Years from Founding as a Local, Affiliation with LXA and loving every minute of it!

While We may have been a bunch of cast offs and rag a muffins as one Brother posted on GC, We are still thriving.

Some you may think are not availabe, could turn out to be the Gem in the rough and be a Star and Leader!:cool:

Never say Never!:)

I also wanted to add, that I find it quite interesting that many girls who were in my chapter who bad-mouthed potential members for whatever reason, as well as treating sisters who joined who weren't "stereotypical sorority girls" (or whatever other reason) as less-then them, are the ones who are now MIA and I never see or hear from anymore. Yes they are still my sisters and I don't really want to talk bad about them, that's not the point, but it just goes to show that from an alumna standpoint, you will see who the TRUE meat and potatoes of your chapter will be, who will not only support you in their time as actives of the chapter, but also down the road as alumnae of your chapter, and finally, in daily life. I think this ties into the discussion that while numbers are definately important, QUALITY is more important overall then QUANTITY.

Dear Brit,

My chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma began the 2001-2002 school year with four members. Yep, four. HQ never came right out and said it, but we knew that if we didn't have a stellar year, it would cost us our charter. I was the rush chair that year; I was a junior. When I graduated, the chapter was at twenty-five (campus total is sixty). Now my little grandsis tells me that everyone is certain that we'll take quota during formal recruitment this year. Kappa went from a dying ember to a roaring blaze in just a few years. I want to tell you, it can be done. The women just have to want it badly enough. As best as I can put it together right now, here's a list of ten things your chapter can do to turn itself around.

1. Make the decision. Put it in writing. Just saying, "Yeah, we wanna get bigger," isn't going to do it. You have to make it a priority. You have to commit. The ACTIVES have to do it. As much as alumnae might weep to see their chapter close, as much as they might prod and help and beg and plead, in the end, it's all about the actives. Make the decision, right now, that during the next formal recruitment, you are going to take quota. Do not allow anyone to say anything otherwise. I outlawed all such talk in my chapter. "We are going to have all three Pref parties and we are going to take quota. If anybody has a problem with that, she can leave right now."

2. Contact your HQ. They need to know about the situation. Demand whatever support they can give you. We got a CCD (Coordinator for Chapter Development), something which usually only new colonies get. In our case it was a chapter alumna. She was a hands-on advisor with tons of Kappa resources and even more ideas. Ask your HQ to waive whatever fees it can so that the chapter has more money to play with. Get their help rallying alumnae to support the chapter. HQ also hooked us up with other chapters, who gave us leftover rush shirts & letters, old theme party ideas, etc. One chapter even lent us bodies! It was great.

3. Use your alumnae. Get a list of your chapter alumnae who are still in the area. Contact them and let them know what's going on. It's impossible to sit there and watch something of yours, something that once thrived, wither away and die. That's exactly what our alumnae saw every time they looked at us, so when we asked for help, they were there to give us whatever we needed. And I'm here to tell you that we couldn't have done it without them. Our local alumnae association is nationally recognized for being exceptionally involved with our chapter. They assist in every aspect of our functioning. When we were down to our smallest, the alumnae were our committees for us. We delegated responsibilities to them, like going shopping and making decorations. They donated money, because our income from dues was barely enough to cover fraternity fees. They made all the food for our rush. They painted the window of our room (we're not housed). They were moral support, almost like surrogate mothers. And they wouldn't let us give up. We couldn't have done it without them.

4. Confront Panhel. Have an advisor come in if you can. We were fortunate that we have a ZE Kappa alumna who works on campus. She came into our Panhel and laid it out. If we folded, our sorority system would die. They knew it, even though they didn't want to admit it. The whispering and rumours didn't stop, and the dirty rush didn't end, but they all cut down a little bit. The Recruitment Counsellors actually encouraged people to think that they were Kappas (we didn't have any Kappa RCs 'cuz we couldn't spare the women). They did a decent job of running a Kappa whispering campaign. Make it clear to your Panhel that if you go, one of them is next. All the infighting HAS GOT TO STOP. Single out the chapter that only got 8 women where the others got 10. They're next. Ask the other groups to hold off on COBing for the rest of the year (if you can swing it) or the rest of the semester at least. There was a year of which we do not speak in which Kappa got NO pledge class. None. After that, the other two didn't COB. Instead they pushed all the unmatched women to go Kappa. It worked, sort of (a bunch of them wound up dropping out of school for personal reasons).

5. Strengthen Panhel. This year we're getting an NPC consulting team in to help us raise Greek spirit on campus. We need to get more women to go Greek, plain and simple. And the point is that, just as a chapter's obviously not healthy if it's low in numbers, Panhel is obviously not healthy if it's let a chapter get that low in numbers. Something is foul here, and it needs to be fixed. Again, make it clear to Panhel. If we go now, one of you is next. Who's going to be on the bottom then? Whom will you pick on? Whom will you gossip about? I'm assuming that there were a bunch of women who went unmatched at this past formal recruitment. That means that something is afoul with the system. The quota system is designed so that each chapter gets about the same number of women. If that doesn't happen, then structurally, something is wrong. Encourage them to evaluate and fix the broken parts.

6. Evaluate your weaknesses. Low numbers are not the problem. They're the most obvious symptom of a greater problem. In our case it was twofold: poor organization and poor rushing skills. Stop blaming others and acknowlege that you have changes to make. Figure out what your structural problems are and fix those. Your HQ can be a huge help there. We had a Travelling Consultant come in and help us train our officers. We now have a great Chapter Council and tons of our administrative issues are gone. It left us free to focus on rushing. We also recognized that we couldn't rush, so we had sisters from Chi Chapter at the University of MN come to help with our rush. We paired up a ZE with a Chi and worked PNMs that way, with the Chi to help with conversation and the ZE to get to know the PNM. (Then we went on a neat weekend trip out to visit them and stay in their house in the spring. It was great fun.)

7. Improve your rushing. Stop blaming dirty rushing and others' badmouthing you. Yes, dirty rushing happens. But you can help stave off its effects by presenting an even stronger case for your chapter. In our case we didn't know how to rush, plain and simple. I know I'd never been taught. We'd gotten to the point where the last member who joined through formal recruitment had graduated several years before. We were all COB, and we'd gotten defensive about the fact that we couldn't do a formal rush. The most common line I heard was, "Well, we just don't want the sort of girls that come through formal recruitment. They're looking for a sorority girl experience, and that's not what we are." HELLO? We're a sorority! The hard thing for us was admitting that we were a sorority and that it was not a bad thing. Sorority women are cool! They're strong and intelligent and independent and charismatic. Our reasoning wasn't true at all; we were just rationalizing the fact that we couldn't recruit to save our souls. Our practices were years out of date and our hearts weren't in it. We solicited ideas from other chapters and redid the way we ran recruitment. We ran conversation workshop after workshop. And it's not just enough to be able to sell "sorority." We practiced selling Kappa; you need to practice selling DPhiE. Every member should be able to articulate why she chose your organization over any of the others, and why she's staying.

8. Play to your strengths. This goes back to the rushing point. Why would a woman want to join DPhiE when she could easily be an ABC or an XYZ? Well, going DPhiE will give you a smaller, closer, more intimate sisterhood, and immediate leadership opportunities. You can be an officer right away. You can personally be involved in re-shaping a chapter. We talked about our chapter's founders and why they'd opted for the Kappa colony instead of DG, Theta, or Pi Phi (which were on campus at the time). Simple: they wanted to be a part of something new and different. They wanted to make a mark, a lasting impression, and be remembered. Everybody in chapter knows our chapter founders, and I'm sure that twenty years from now, sisters are going to remember us and say, "Yeah, ZE Chapter almost died then, but they worked their butts off and we're still here thanks to them." Even if they don't know our names, they'll know that our efforts are what made them able to have such an experience.

9. Get involved on campus (wearing your letters, of course). That's the best way to quash rumours. Just be out there and let people see for themselves that the stories aren't true. Have socials with other groups, both Greek and not. Hang out and study in the library. We have deferred recruitment, so we had an entire term to show PNMs that, even though we were only four women, we had an incredibly strong sisterhood and a fierce determination to succeed. We brought groups to campus. We studied together. We ate lunch together every week. We lived in our letters. We went to campus events and hung out all over the place in our letters. We were walking Kappa billboards. We networked our way through freshman women so that even if they didn't know us personally, they knew who we were. We put up a bathroom newsletter every week, just a single sheet of paper in the stalls of the girls bathrooms. It had a Calvin & Hobbes, a few inspirational quotes, random things like "Top Ten Reasons to Go Greek," a mind game or word puzzle (something that didn't require a pencil, obviously), random fun facts, and a riddle or trivia question (the answer to which could be found on our website). Most importantly, the bottom read, "Brought to you by the sisters of Kappa Kappa Gamma, www.lawrence.edu/sorg/kappa."

10. If you build it, they will come. In other words, don't forget to have fun. If people around campus see that you have a good time, they'll want to know what it's about. To quote a song we used to sing in chapter, "They'll know we are Kappas by our love." If you strive to live your lives by the ideals that Delta Phi Epsilon holds dear, others will want to follow your example.

I admire the energy and optimism you have. Just remember that your chapter sisters have to want a turnaround every bit as bad as you want it for them or it's not going to happen. Make them realize that they have to commit. For us it took having tons of members resign/transfer/drop out and having HQ threaten to pull the plug in order to realize that we needed to do something. It required a lot of effort and an entire mindset change, but it worked. We're well on our way to being a force to be reckoned with again, and I hope you will soon be following along with us. I wish you the best of luck and hope that you'll keep us posted.

Yours,
KKC

Diamond Delta - since you're a member of Delta Theta Tau - which I gather is not a collegiate sorority, how is it that you tried rushing women in the quads and then they joined other sororities on campus through formal recruitment?

KKC -- that's an awesome post!!!!! Kudos to you for taking the time to help and offer your experiences!

Woohoo! KappaKittyCat!! I wish my chapter had this back in F03 when we were struggling.

Wow, an incredible amount of super information here!! I especially agree with adpiucf & KappaKittyCat - because I've seen those methods work first hand.

As an alumna, I watched my chapter soar from 12 members to Total in just 3 years - because they made the decision to do so! I don't have much advice of my own, other than echoing that of what I've read. I really like the idea of combining a philanthropy event with PNMs, with or without a fraternity (which I think has to be without a fraternity, if y'all are NPC).

Good luck!

Texas Princess-I Pm'd you;).

This is awesome advice and an amazing action plan! Being alumna of a once struggling chapter, this advice taken to heart will definetely get your chapter to where you want to be.

I know this has been said many times already in this thread, but it is so important that it's all about "Quality over Quantity." Don't bid women, just to bid women.

Another important thing that you need to remember is retention. Getting a large new member class is great, but if they don't stick around, then it's all been for nothing.

Continue to strengthen your sisterhood. I am continually amazed by the chapter that I advise that every time I go to the house how much the geniunely all like and care for one another and it really shows. make sure that your chapter buys into the 'larger chapter' concept. Continually when I was in college and even after, some of the members were afraid to become a larger chapter because they thought that it would detract from their sisterhood and they wouldn't know one another. Now that they've grown they realize that this isn't an issue.

I think the rest of GC are wondering the same thing as well.

Care to enlighten everyone?

I have to admit to being curious to as too, as to how someone can give advice on rushing, talked about things that they've done to rush (the kind of stuff that is collegiate sorority rush), but they aren't a member of a collegiate sorority?