Congrats to your sister and Kappa!

Oh man, I was totally off on Danny Zuko! But at least I got Harold Hill correct.

There were two incidents while I was on Panhell Exec at Illinois that we found and then subsequently punished.

One was that as soon as a PNM walked into the house the President would greet her and tell her to join a sister waiting in either the room on the left and the room on the right.

One of these rooms was designated as a "cut" room, so if the left room was the cut room, they got all the index cards the PNM gave the rusher and they would cut them all. This was done very early in the first or second rounds so judgment was purely based on looks and before any conversation.

In another sorority as each PNM left the house, their rusher would introduce them to the chapter President.

This is going to be hard to do without showing you. Imagine you are seated at a table and you have to pass a dish to someone next to you. The movement is sort of similar to an introduction to someone. "Jane" (with hands pointed to Jane, "I'd like to introduce to our president Barb" (hands move across the body to Barb, similar to the movement you make when you are passing a dish at dinner from the person on your left hand to the person on your right. Make sense?

So each PNM received this introduction. IF the rusher did this motion at the top of her body (so boob level) this meant that she liked her and was silently communicated it to the CP. IF the rusher did this motion at waist level it meant that she wanted to cut her.

During the recruitment while on Exec Board, we heard about the first story but weren't too involved with it, the Greek Affairs handled this one. I'm not sure why they did other than it is cruel and perhaps was not allowing the PNMs chances.

But for the second one, we were sent over to that house (We acted like Rho Gammas but could actually go inside the house and observe watching for infractions) as we stood outside as the women exited, sure enough we saw sisters introducing PNMs to their President - the typical cookie cutters got the hands at boob level, and after seeing the PNMs being introduced while their hands were at waist level, it was obvious that this was a system. That chapter also got in trouble.

I'm not an expert at what constitutes private membership selection and when Panhellenic gets involved. But I'm pretty sure both were deemed recruitment infractions due to the fact they both chapters were severely limiting PNMs chances from the outset instead of sticking to release figures.

This was 8 years ago so who knows what has happened since!

Congrats to dawgsis and Kappa Kappa Gamma! I want to know if that girl she met during the first round becomes her big! She is lucky to have known (and gotten) what she wanted all along!

I don't realize why those are needed. For example, making a craft with a PNM if the rusher is bored. Maybe she didn't click with that particular rusher, but why does she need to broadcast her opinion to everyone else? The next girl to talk to the PNM might click with her (might have more in common or is a better rusher) and she could end up being a keeper. But if an active is giving "no" signals, then the next rusher is going to think "Oh great another painful 7 minute conversation". The only "signal" that I could think of that would be useful is to have a "help me conversation is slow" to let actives who are "floating" come help the conversation. Even for chapters that have to make the biggest cuts, why do they need to signal? They can just share their opinions later.

I totally agree with this... I mean, do they not get to share their opinions on girls later on? Many of these systems seem very complicated to me.

None of the systems mentioned make any sense to me. All they are going to do it make guest feel uncomfortable. The chapter gets to share information with each other about the guest later; it's not like it has to be telegraphed during the party.

But I'm just as baffled as why Panhellenic would be involved in preventing them as I am with chapters using them.

If the chapter wants to treat guests at the party differently before they do their invite lists, it hardly seems like something that an outsider can or should control, seeing as the chapter is eventually going to be able to use whatever method that they want to in selecting members.

I can see a logic behind using these systems. Let's say you're a chapter of 100 girls and 75 girls are coming to each party. 25 sisters are left that don't "have" to rush someone and instead are floating around to meet as many other people at the party as they can. If you're with a girl who says "I'm a PDQ legacy and I don't even WANT to be at your house but my stupid Rho Chi is making me" why would you want your president or recruitment chair to waste their time with this girl? She's obviously not somebody you want and they can go talk to the sister who's rushing the triple legacy to your house, the football coach's daughter, etc.

Well, I guess that could kind of explain the standing on one foot kind of thing, which makes sense if you have a VIP guest too. But not the cut room or cut sign system. At that point the investment has been made, right? She's met the president and still has a rusher. You can wait until MS to tell that you want to cut her.

Back to dgdramadawg - congrats to your little sister and KKG! :)

Geez, I go away from the computer for a day and I miss the only Kappa rush story so far this year!

Congratulations to your sister!

The result made this one worth the wait! MSKKG and I were discussing Friday and wondering about this one and here it turns out to be Kappa - Yea!!!

NO!!!
I mean, who could remember?
Especially at the big recruitments...you're lucky to get a seat at all, much less "preferred" seating.
Years ago we had a chapter who wound up with a 2-room chapter room. Yes, rumors abounded as to which was the "preferred" room. It was a lie. There was no preference.
That's just the sort of thing that convolutes into "tent talk."

And congrats to dgdramadawg's little sis and KKG!!

Congrats to your sister! Hooray for a new Kappa!

I do know of one chapter of my school where a girl has flat out told me that there are different "rooms" that they will bring rushees into...that is, all the VIP/legacies/scholars/bombshells, etc that they really really really want will all be led into the same room while everybody else is in different rooms. Not that the girls in other rooms won't have a shot, I guess it's just more of a psychological way of having girls look around and seeing everybody in their room be either the best from their rush group or the best, most accomplished and best rushers (cynically, the most attractive) of the chapter. That kind of made sense to me.

This is VERY similar to what my chapter did during rush as well...top rushees were kept in the house as long as possible, sat up front during skit day, and were usually taken upstairs during serious night...those that "lacked luster" were usually the first out and sat in the back.

My chapter does the same thing...with the exception of Serious Night as that's now considering Hotboxing and therefore illegal. When you have that many girls coming through, you have to come up with an efficient system that enables you to rush the girls you know you really want while providing an opportunity to meet potential rush crushes.

Would it be possible to take all this talk about "signaling" and the like to another Alabama-related thread? Or even quit it altogether?

It's beginning to get detailed and that's bordering MS discussion. I'd hate for a future PNM at Bama to read this thread and base her decisions on where she was told to sit at the chapter house.

A big, fat thank you.

That is ridiculous and don't think that the rushees don't know what you are up to. I bet you lose a ton of top girls this way. Frankly it sounds disgusting.

I think it only serves to make the rushees uncomfortable, whether it's true or not... for example, in this thread I talk about Sis being unable to fully enjoy herself at a house she previously really liked just because she heard a rumor about sitting in a certain location and was too busy counting rows from herself to that spot to let loose and have a good time. I'm sure the houses who do it have their reasons, but I wish they would keep it quiet so it didn't get passed around as tent talk that could upset PNMs.

On a happy note, Sis is really hoping to have the girl who rushed her day one for a Big! :) She is loving KKG!

Funny, when I went through rush it was common knowledge. I think it would be ridiculous for the rushees not to have some idea...

I'm sorry for undermining what OTW said, but I'm really curious HOW you do it? Do girls get matched by name to a rusher who knew in advance who she was getting at the start of a party and knows, then, how to treat her?

I'm used to a system where until pref, you just kind of pick up a girl from the PNM pool. Unless you made the whole chapter actually memorize 1200+ girls, how would a member know when her guest should exit during the first round or second round?

Similarly, unless you match up rusher and pnm in advance, how could you prearrange skit seating really, without it just being weird that some girls were seated in back rows while other front row seats were held for 'top' girls?

Is this kind of stuff MS? Does the national organization know that your chapter has made up a local system of treating pnms according to a prearranged pattern of status in the public aspects of rush?

I understand that chapters have to work to get their top girls, but dumping some guest out of the party early just seems jerky, especially considering that you've designated a rusher to her already. A VIP room, as long as other PNMS are also given a fair consideration, is no problem to me, but other aspects seem counterproductive to having a good reputation for hospitality and friendliness on campus.

Nevermind, I decided to PM instead. Congratulations to your sister for pledging Kappa! They're great girls.

The houses have lists of what girls are coming to what party. At my house, before each party the Rush Chair would read us the list of girls coming through and you would raise your hand as to who was going to pick her up. Now, this only worked with the girls we already knew (top rushees or hometown girls) so the other girls were just picked up by whoever. All of the girls we didn't know prior to rush were definitely given a fair chance. Sometimes we found Rush Finds by looking through our hometown recs and choosing girls we wanted to meet. Hopefully that doesn't give too much away and doesn't seem mean...

I've gotten a couple of answers in pm and they make sense except for the pure logistics of it. But I'm from the last days of lawn chants and parties with 50-75 pnms each (and maybe even bigger 2nd and 3rd round, since it was before you had to release a lot unless you wanted to) and not much time between them. Other than only assigning your best rushers to rush at all, and having a fairly limited number of VIPs, it's just really hard to figure out how a member would know how to treat her guests in the kind of elaborate hierarchy of desirability.

I guess though, even though I think most of the techniques have been around a long time, that release figures probably makes the numbers easier to handle after 1st round.

bump!