This is why you don't like it. You're doing it wrong.

For one thing, make your COB events INVITE ONLY. When you flyer and chalk, you get everyone under the sun showing up and you end up with women you have no interest in. COB events should be filled with women who are already your friends or acquaintances. Everyone asks one person (that they know has grades) and then whoever comes, comes - but you know at least one sister likes them. And definitely no one who's been voted down should even be allowed in the door!

Also, COB "events" shouldn't be a huge strain. Are you already going to, say, a sister's music recital as a sorority? Ask the COB prospects to come along and then they can come over to the house afterward to just hang out. Boom, you've got a COB event. They may have to come to an official "open bid party" under your sorority's rules, but by the time you are ready to bid them it should just be a formality. You shouldn't be planning COB events that are as stressful as formal rush - although I think that's what many chapters do because they don't understand what COB ireally is about.

At our school, the sororities who are having COB turn in a list of names and SSNs to Greek Affairs. I look up their grades and tell the sorority whether or not each girl has the grade requirement for their chapter. I think I would need a signed permission to give the actual GPA. It keeps the girls from inviting anyone who does not have the grades.

Exactly. If you think COB is stressful, you're making it way to complicated.

Sometimes we'd do things as simple as having a few sisters go out to lunch with a PNM... sometimes a restaurant, but most times just in the cafeteria. Much less stressful environment, something you've gotta do anyway.

If you're having open parties you really aren't going about it the best way... and certainly not the most efficient!

How would you "suggest" to a chapter to do COB. We have a chapter who is almost half of total (39/73). The other 4 chapters are all at or above above total. They are desperate to keep us from raising total because they have trouble reaching it, but are not doing anything to raise the number of girls in their chapter. We are having Partially-structured Spring Recruitment to get more girls involved. They are not even attempting COB before Spring Rush. They only brought in 4 girls after Fall Recruitment last semester. And initiated only 10 out of a pledge class of 18.

It is one thing if you want to stay small for your own reasons (better sisterhood etc). But why would you want to keep the rest of campus from growing as they wish to do?

I don't think that's exactly right to say. How is it any different than formal recruitment, then? Formal recruitment is advertised on campus as open to everyone. Yes, you may have girls show up to formal recruitment that you don't want to bid. So you don't. We've gotten great sisters who have just "shown up" to COB events. But if a girl shows up that you aren't interested in, you just don't bid them. That's not so hard.

Thanks for the tips. If you go about COB in this manner, how do you get a pledge class together in a small amount of time? It seems like this would result in a few girls per week... by the time all the spots are filled, the first ones would be in like the third week of their new member period. I agree that we try to plan COB events that are like formal recruitment- themes, decorations, planned events... a lot of work for nothing. Again, thanks for the advice.

Edited to add: We recently changed our COB plan anyway. We are using "ribboning teams". They are groups of about seven sisters. If someone knows a girl she likes and thinks would make a good Phi Mu, she plans a get-together with her group. Those seven sisters meet her. Then she rotates to a second group of sisters (usually the girl who is "in charge" of her also comes along again). Once two groups have met her, they present their recommendation to the chapter. If someone really cares about meeting her outside of the groups, they can go that extra mile and do it, but the concept is trusting your sisters and their membership decisions. We shall see how well this works- I think it will be much less stressful!

I have to agree greatly here. If my chapter didn't just have anyone show up to some of the COR events, I would not have become a member of the chapter. In my years in college, I did not have classes with women in sororities. This is what happens when you are in the physics and astronomy department. I did not take most of the classes I needed to fill my liberal studies requirements until my junior and senior year and by that point I don't believe I would have been interested in joining a sorority.

I agree that some of the events need to be laid back and get those women who sisters know from classes and other outside activities. But I think also, you need to find a way to publisize and get your chapters name out there some of the time. Setting up booths, sidewalk chalk, flyers in dorms, etc sometimes can greatly bring women into greek life you never would have found before. The nice part then, is after you have had them at a big event, then you invite them to the smaller events and get to know them better.

COB - my two cents
 

I think how you go about COB should probably depend on how many spots you have to fill. If formal is in the fall and now it's spring and you have 5 spots to fill to get you up to total, then you might stick to just having chapter members invite people they know are interested. If total is 50 and you've only got 25 members then you might want to go with chalk and flyers. You can also call Panhellenic and get the names and numbers of anyone who dropped out of formal and invite them. And sometimes people who saw all the fun happening during formal will contact panhellenic and let them know they are interested in COB if any of the chapters are holding events.

We did COB this semester to fill spaces (and yes we did make quota in the fall). We had two events - one was a casual ice cream party, the other a more formal appetizer party. They both lasted probably 1.5 to 2 hours. If someone was at both parties then they probably talked to us longer than someone who went through formal.

I think you have to give yourself a deadline and say "Okay, we're going to do COB until <insert date here> at which point we will proceed with educating and initiating our new pledge class" otherwise you will drive yourself crazy! In our situation, more women were invited to the parties than we had spots for so once the week's activities were over we handed out the number of bids we had open spaces for and we were done. Those women are now on their way to becoming initiated members.

Regarding the struggling chapter that someone mentioned on their campus -
I think a good idea for this chapter is to try to COB right away once formal is done. If they get some members during formal(even if they get less than everyone else) then most of their new member class will be excited and could probably get some of their friends interested too. There are always those women who decide not to go through formal but then when they see their friends joining sororities and all the excitement, they regret their decision. Right after formal recruitment is a great time to try to capture those women.

Regarding whether or not it's "fair" for some women to get in through COB or not - we each make our own choice about whether we want to pursue membership through formal recruitment or through COB. If I choose to participate in formal recruitment, I have no right to say it isn't fair for someone to get in through COB when it was my choice!! I could have chosen to go the same route she did!

This will probably sound mean, but oh well. When you have formal rush, the women know that everyone will be taking a pledge class - so in their minds they have an equal chance to join each sorority (even if that's not true). There are quotas and totals involved.

When you have open COB events, some of the women may show up knowing they have you over a barrel, so to speak. They know that 1) you're the sorority specifically that's rushing 2) you need new members, or you wouldn't be having an open bid party. This makes it very hard if you have an open bid party where anyone shows up, and you decide not to bid any of them for whatever reasons. You can't say "we didn't bid you because we filled quota" because that's not true. So they know you didn't bid them because, well, you don't like them or find them otherwise lacking. That can be very awkward for all involved.

This is no offense to people who have gone to open COB parties and gotten bids that way, it may work on your campus, I just in my experience have not seen them be very successful.

As far as it being time consuming to get together a pledge class - you should start thinking about this way before the actual time that it's going to occur. Like I said, ideally you should know these women well enough just through hanging out and such that when they come to an actual "party" and giving them a bid it's a formality.

Can I just speak for all Phi Sigs when I say I LOVE VISION !! :) :D