My organization was in a comparable spot two years ago. The key to being a success is to win the freshman. For the most part freshman have no clue how the greek system works so in there eyes they cannot discern between the biggest and the smallest fraternity if both can make themselves equally visible. Yes the smaller organization wont have as much exposure in terms of people wearing letters but its still possible to hide your numbers and appear bigger than you are. Since the organization had many guys graduate there should be an influx of recent alumni willing to come down and help. The next step is to throw big parties. Now this may vary in difficulty depending on where you go to school but it is the opportunity to show the freshman a good time. 10 guys can run a party but a good ammount of preparation is needed and chances are you will only break even cash wise unless you can support a massive rager which is hard with 10 guys.

If you throw a good party then the freshman will have a good opinion of you guys and with all the alumni it does not need to be known how big the organization active list is untill pledge season and at that point they are commited. The mixer scheme will probably disintigrate with only 10 guys but thats ok as long as you have a base of people which will come to all the "open parties" they can fill the void for mixers until you have more members.

Next is to put on a lot of stupid little programs that wont necessarily garner much attention (if they do then great) and thats fine because you will constantly have some sort of flyer with the organizations name on the boards of the residence halls. If you start at the beginning of the year and make some strong friends you can have a big pledge class by the spring.

Honestly now is the time when the organization has nothing to loose so it can go balls out and risk it all otherwise they are done.

Using this strategy we have been able to triple our organization size back to healthy numbers at a school which is not greek friendly and filled with giant tool box organizaitions who let anyone walk in there society.

Recruitment
 

My fraternity is in a similiar problem as i have seen others describe. We are a national fraternity with good numbers but my chapter is now down to 8. My school is very antigreek and incredibly blind to the fact that all social life revolves around the greek community and their involvement. Despite this i know that recruitment for some organizations is not a problem, the sig pis, while all assholes here, get 15+ men pledge classes, while we get 2. Obvisously we are not rushing correctly. Our image on campus isn't huge outside of the greek system. The sororities love us and love to party with us.

so i have 2 questions: What have been the best things to attract perspective pledges. What drew you to your respective fraternity/sorority and why them over another?

AM

An informal cook out. These can be done on the smallest of budgets and either during the week or over the weekend. If your college team (or a local sports team) is playing on t.v. (make it an away game) invite rushees over to watch the game at the house. Or you could have a poker (game) night. Go bowling and have members invite friends.

Events may get a rushee's attention, but it is the brotherhood and friendship that seals the deal. As such, members should also be rushing their friends. And friends of their friends.

True to all of the above! Be yourselves and down to earth with any possible new members.

One thing that has always stuck in my mind was at Homecoming. The new kids (Fraternity) on the block was Phi Sigma Kappa. No house and just a small group of members. They were at the game in letters and all hung together. They were the only letters I saw. That was @ 8-10 years ago and are still there with a little bigger membership, and while a rental house, they have a home.

Don't hide your light under a basket. Show togetherness and what your organization means.

Are you at WSU? I had some really good times at that house. If so I can tell you whats wrong with your rush program: You don't have one. Theta Tau has always aligned themselves with the social greeks in every sense other than how they rush. I know a lot of the guys back in the day didn't want a huge fraternity, and didn't want to have an extensive recruitment program, but if you guys are now at only 8 members thats kind of dangerous. And even though you guys may be a much better group than sig pi, they have a much better rush program.

Glick - do people know you don't have to be an engineering major or something in that field to join (if that is the truth)? That may have something to do with it. If I was a guy w/ an education major and heard "engineering fraternity" I would automatically think I wasn't eligible and not pursue it any further.

One thing thats terrible about low numbers and rush is that numbers really contirbute to your image on campus as well, and guys can be turned off by few people. The president of our local alumni chapter (im active right now) was active during the 80s and was experiencing this problem as well. They were down to 6 or 8 guys in the chapter and discussions were abound about the chapter going inactive. However what was done was through contact with the chapter at the University of Puget Sound, a few hours away, they actually came up, in numbers, and helped them during fall rush. SO instead of 8 guys you had 38 guys in the house for rush. That fall they got somewhere around 25 pledges, and saved the chapter.

What im trying to say i guess is dont dispair, like someone above mentioned me here mentioned, make sure your chapter brohood is really strong, then try talking to surrounding chapter who may be quite strong and talk to them about rush teachniques, and possible assistance

Hey all!

New guy here. While low numbers are an obvious problem, it isn't the kiss of death. You are able to offer new members leadership opportunities that larger chapters will not be able to offer. You essentially are offering the guy you are recruiting the chance to rebuild a chapter. For a lot of type A personalities, that has a definate appeal.

It did for me - I pledged a dying chapter and made it the top one on campus.



pd