Yeah, that's my thought: that they miss the window of opportunity, as opposed to just grabbing someone on bid day.

Chapter total, as I read through the NPC list every year, bugs the hell out of me. Either the numbers aren't updated here (please help the OCD among us by providing any data you have), or they just don't change it. So systems who have fallen on tough times and have pledge classes of 20 still have total at 110, or more commonly, campuses with total of 110 have pledge classes of 90. Or 110. If they don't want total to be a number reflected in real life because it's absurd to think of a sorority having chapter total at 350+, then it's time to start expanding with gusto. But fix the number in the meantime. Even if you set total at the size of the smallest chapter on campus so nobody could do any informal rushing at least until the next semester, it would have SOME basis in reality.

Dubai, trust me, they are NOT being updated here! I try the best I can with my list, but it is way easier to stay on top of quota. Total just isn't reported that much. Last year quota at Arkansas was 130 and I think total was 125 or something like that. Ridiculous.

Oh Irish, that was NOT a jab at you. I know you do a stellar job with what you are given. That was me begging for people to submit that information when they know it at various schools.

I didn't take it as a jab - just wanted to make sure you (or whoever) knows that I don't have any official resource for 99% of my information. I just take what I can get! And total is hard to get!

<3 Irishpipes and her work on GC!

Yeah, and while I do agree it should be updated fairly often (every 3-4 years seems right to me, unless there is something that is going to stick around that made the school/system get huge overnight), I think doing it after every rush can be too much of a knee jerk reaction.

I think at big recruitment campuses, every 3-4 years would be too infrequent. I have noticed changes in campus total of 20 or more at some of these schools in 1-2 years time. With a lot of chapters, that can add up to a lot of spots that could be filled via COB. It also can mean smaller groups are doomed because they can't COB up to average chapter size because total is too low. Plus, how hard is it to adjust total? Calculate average chapter size, vote on it, and let the groups under start COBing.

But it also works the other way, if adjusted annually. I know I have both been frustrated hearing of campuses that don't adjust their Total down when necessary. I've worked with chapters whose Chapter Total was set at 45 but the average chapter size was 21. They were afraid to lower it in case one chapter had a great year and would be unable to grow more but it led to a lot of dirty rushing and "if you drop, we'll pick you up as a COB" types of issues. If they know it will be evaluated annually, there's a lot less of that too.

My campus has adjusted Total every year for the past 3 years. It went up twice, now it's gone down. Every chapter was CORing in the spring for 3-4 members, which takes a lot of time and resources for not much payoff, so a vote was taken to lower Total back down slightly. There have been 3 colonizations in the past 6 years, and the second stacked sorority from the last expansion is coming on next fall. That will probably mess with numbers again. I'm glad they're actively working on it, because it benefits everyone. It's an ongoing process of finding a healthy, but manageable, chapter size that meets the needs of interested PNMs and chapter resources.

I think the expansions make continually modified total imperative. Because, again, I'm a fan of real life numbers. I would think there are several campuses who would LOVE for total to drop by 20 or 30, but even 2 would be something.

What MaryPoppins brought up (i.e. that Panhel might not be as stringent in doing this in a timely manner as they should be) coupled with Dee's mention that too-high totals don't get adjusted down quickly enough is why I said what I said.

If you're going to do something like not let Panhel use any money until they get it together and adjust total :D I think doing it would work fine on a yearly basis. You just have to make sure it GETS DONE.

You have to be able to differentiate what is something that's going to be a lasting change (i.e. the school just completed a huge building push and can now accomodate the students it had to turn away for lack of room) and something that's a "blip" (i.e. high birth rate for the year).

I have another RFM question:

I, admittedly, am not an expert on RFM. I was a recruitment advisor, so do have a handle on the theory, methodology, etc. So, It has been my understanding that one of the aspects of RFM, is if a pnm maximizes her choices on pref, that she is guaranteed placement at one of those houses who returned her to pref.

Why, then, has Arkansas told their pnms for the past two years that it IS possible to make it all the way through pref round but still remain bid less?

I posted the quote from the NPC MOI once before. The bottom line is that the PNM "should" be on the chapter's bid list if they were invited to pref but PH cannot require that the chapters do that. And the woman has to list all her pref chapters on her bid card.

I suppose that although policy for everyone as far as I've ever heard is if you are invited to preference you are on the bid list somewhere is technically MS information and is therefore secret. So the MOI can't say it as a pat answer since they can't state private member selection information.

Does anyone know of any school where they use RFM, a girl attends preference, fully fills out her bid card and ISN'T guaranteed a spot? The exception may prove the rule.