That makes sense. I was thinking of campuses that gave PNMs the choice between regret and regret with interest.

You obviously weren't interested. I guess at your campus there's no way for the groups to really tell.

-wondering if anybody else had heard of this happening over the last 2 years-

So, this hasn't happened in my chapter because obviously, I'm not NPC, but it kind of happened to my sister. She attended Philanthropy day at AXO and AGD. She shows up at Pref to find that she has been invited to AGD and DZ (who had dropped her the day before). I asked her if she knew if DZ gave her a bid--of course she doesn't know, but she said she didn't even list them on her bid card.

And, I don't know if this all happened in the same year, but there were three girls in her chapter who were not bidded by the chapter, but showed up at bid day. They found out later that their LC bidded them because she wanted them to have the numbers (they were below quota at the time). One of them was a bump on a log for six years (yes, it took her that long to graduate). One went on to hold an EC position and the other has had her badge yanked by their IHQ.

Honestly, who the eff are the consultants who think that does anyone a favor - the sorority or the PNM??

I want to say "if you think she's such a prize, take her back to YOUR chapter."

bumping for 2010, wondering if this is still happening--

This happened to me as a PNM as well. Exact same situation except that I wasn't friends with the RC whose chapter I was cutting, though I did know it was her chapter. It was uncomfortable every time.

It's been a year since I've heard this story, so I'll try to get it right.

I know of a young lady who went through recruitment in fall of 2007. Pref was on the 4th day. She only preffed ABC because all week, she felt like the ladies of ABC were telling her that she was an ABC and was going to get into ABC. She was absolutely certain that she was becoming an ABC.

Morning of Bid Day, she hadn't been called and told that she didn't have a bid, so she joyfully went to get her bid card. The embarrassed Rho Chi took her aside and told her that there had been a snafu and she should have gotten a phone call because ABC did not give her a bid. She cried and cried until the Rho Chi told her that there was another group who had liked her very much and she hadn't disliked- would she accept a bid from them? She wiped her eyes and accepted the bid- which was from XYZ, who she hadn't visited since day 3. She'd liked them well enough but they just hadn't been in her top 2.

This young lady went on to enjoy her experience, living in the house and holding offices for two years. In fall of 2008, her younger (bio) sister joined her as a sister of XYZ.

It's not exactly the same thing, but my third little sis had a similar experience. She went to pref at AOII and YZ. She was close friends with lots of YZs and really thought she would get a bid to YZ so she SIP'd YZ. I was her Rho Chi and had to knock on her door to give her the bad news. She was honestly less upset than I was. She'd just made a bad decision to think that she had a guaranteed in into YZ.
Jump to two days later, one of our NMs decided to drop out. She decided that sorority life was "evil" because she was very religious and didn't know that we had parties. :rolleyes: I don't know if she wasn't paying attention during recruitment or what. Anyway, the first person I suggested was this girl. The chapter questioned me, but I assured them she liked us but thought that all her friends were going to get her into the other chapter. They let me offer her a bid, and she accepted it and went on to be a great member.

A personal experience... my junior year, we extended a bid to a girl who dropped us after open house and first round. A lot of people loved her (I didn't) because she was an RA in an upperclass dorm (she was a sophomore). She bad mouthed other specific Theta's and I know for a fact she didn't think we were good enough for her (we both had a mutual friend who would not have lied to me). She preffed 2 different groups, and didn't get a bid from either. Sigh... so we gave her a bid. I was shocked that she accepted. She was assigned the alumni relations officer position later on. My senior year, she put together a slideshow for us graduating seniors to be played during our "Senior night." She contacted all of the parents and asked them to write letters to their soon-to-be-alum daughters (to be read out loud) and send in any pictures (childhood, college, etc). Oh, except she forgot to contact my parents. The night of senior night, I sat in my chair and cried my damn eyes out, because there was no letter for me, no pictures of me from my parents in the slideshow (Thankfully I was surrounded by my pledge class sisters, one whom penned a letter to me to be read aloud once she realized what was going on). I'm still a little bitter. That's my only experience with this kind of thing.

Where I was a collegian, "snap" bids were offered to women who had accepted at least one prior invitation and went unmatched during bid matching. But it was done either in person or by phone before bids were distributed.

We had a situation where a PNM released us because her best friend wanted to go XYZ, but then regretted her decision. So she dropped herself out of rush entirely so that she wouldn't be bound by the preference/bid rules.

Just one of those crazy years where our chapter - that never misses quota - missed by one. and freak of nature situation, there were no more girls left on lists to place, so no snap bids available.

So we COB'd her to make quota. It was the craziest thing and at the time totally checked out according to the area NPC adviser, etc. When we called her to offer her the bid - she was crying and we were crying.

She made it back to campus just in time to "run" to the house with all of her pledge class sisters.

Now - another situation entirely - I was sent off to help monitor/manage an alum-less collegiate chapter in another part of the country. The panhellenic office kept deciding who would be on our invitation lists. Right up to preference and our bid lists.

It was so infuriating. We kept releasing certain women, and they kept showing back up on our lists. It didn't matter how angry I got, or who I called, this girl ended up at our house on bid day.

I know it's impossible to do bid matching and invitations by hand at big schools, but it is really the only way to make sure that random invitation screw ups don't happen.

:eek::eek::eek:

Was the chapter stuck with her as a member or did she drop out?

I hope you reported the Greek advisor/panhel office to NPC and your national office.

I heard of this kind of situation occuring with a PNM I knew personally. She went through recruitment and ended up getting cut after the first round by every chapter but "chapter A", a smaller, newer group that was considered lower tier. She was a fun, sweet, pretty girl but had made the mistake of ticking off some greeks by not keeping her nose clean during her first semester (they have deferred rush).

To her credit she was consistently polite to chapter A's rushers, but obviously felt that she was "above" them. She dropped out after pref but was snap bid the next day by the higher-tier chapter B, who had cut too heavily early on and missed quota by a few (which is rare for them). She accepted and the you-know-what hit the fan. Usually no one knows or cares if someone was a snap bid, but earlier in recruitment there were girls in that chapter that did not want her there and fought hard to have her cut, so when she showed up on bid day everyone was shocked. The advisor knew this, but had snap bid her anyway without consulting the chapter so they wouldn't miss quota. The really sad thing is that this PNM knew all of this (she shouldn't have, but she did) and STILL decided to join and stick it out. She had a pretty rough new member period because of all the drama and still has few friends in the chapter outside of her big & little. But she gets to wear the letters! :rolleyes:

It was just so disappointing to me that a PNM would drop of out recruitment to avoid getting a bid from a lower-tier group that obviously wanted her, and then take a snap bid from a higher-tier group that just needed a warm body and had a sizeable contingent of girls who made it clear to her that she was not welcome.

By the next day you mean bid day, right? I got a little confused.

My question is what happened to the advisor. It's stories like that one that make me kind of glad our chapter had fairly clueless non-Greek advisors.

Most of the girls snap bid at UK are girls who have dropped out. Some are those who went to pref but didn't receive a bid to any group but that's pretty rare, especially if you attend more than one pref.

Over the years, I have gone to many Bid Days where numerous chapters seemed shocked to see certain girls run to their house. I wonder what happened.

bumping this for the current discussion--

^^^ Thank you Carnation. I see that this thread was started back in 2006. I wonder if someone can confirm current practices with regard to getting a bid from a chapter the pnm did not list on the MRABA? And I'm talking about the " opening the bid card in the envelope at the common place when and where NMs meet to pick up their bids" bid, not the phone call extended bid. Just to clarify.

My general understanding is that a PNM could potentially get a bid from any chapter she lists on the MRABA, regardless of whether or not she attended their preference party. Personally I've never ever heard of a PNM getting a bid from a group she did not list, and I can't see how declining a bid offered by a chapter the PNM DID NOT LIST could be binding on the PNM's part, nor should it be. That is a totally different scenario from declining a bid from a group the PNM listed, even if she only listed them in hopes that it might improve her chances of getting a bid via quota additions.

I agree. The PNM is only bound to the groups she listed on her bid list. If she had some random group on her card, she could turn them down and COB the next day. This practice must be some odd form of Snap bidding where the girl is not called and given a heads up about the situation. Not a good practice, IMHO.

If there's a situation where a PNM will be placed to a chapter as a quota addition, and there's a decision to be made as to which of two chapters of exactly equal size, then I would think that would come down to a mini conference with the RFM Director and the reps of the two chapters involved, with the pnm either being placed where she preferred, or with the chapter that had her highest on their list.

As far as snap bids you are talking about offering bids from the chapter's perspective right? I agree with you totally- no chapter wants to hand out a bid to a woman they barely met once on the first day of recruitment. The combination of snap bidding and informal recruitment are designed to help chapters below total to meet that goal and absolutely offer opportunities to women that may have dropped out of recruitment or never participated. Snap bidding and informal were never intended as a "back door" plan to help women who ISP or decline a bid get into the chapter of their preference if they were not matched in the formal matching process.

No campus Panhellenic can force a chapter to offer membership to a PNM without their consent. No PNM is going to get stuck in a chapter that did not vote that woman into membership.