Can someone explain generally how the matching process for RFM works?
Which way does the matching lean towards, the PNM or the Chapter?

For Instance, it will match all the PNMs to their first choice (if possible) even if this means that the chapter gets girls lower on their carry list. Or it will match the top x number of PNMs on a chapter's carry list even if its the PNMs 2nd/3rd/4th choice.

I hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance.

KSUViolet06 .. I concur ... RFM deals with how many PNMs can be invited to each round of events and ultimately to preference. Bid matching hasn't changed with the exception that if the campus uses RFM they aren't restricted to the 5% limit on quota additions.

As always its a mutual selection process. Bid matching attempts to match a PNM with her first choice until it is clear that she won't match there.

Thanks for the clarification, I thought RFM had its own matching process.

Neither. It balances both. I'll use a visual example to explain.

Let's say quota is 20. The A list is the first 20 members on the list, and they are all tied as the chapter's #1s; order does not matter. Think of this as a "box". The B list is in order of the chapter's preference. Think of this as a "line". All PNMs in the "box" that rank that chapter first are matched. PNMs who match elsewhere are removed from the "box" and PNMs from the line are moved into the box, in order, beginning with #21. If she ranked the chapter first, she is a match.

So if a PNM is in "line" for her first choice and in the "box" for her second/third, her spot is held there until she matches with her first choice or until her first choice fills quota. The myth of being "cross cut" suggests that you're missing out on your second choice while your first choice fills quota. Not true. If you are "cross cut" it means you are too far down the list on all your chapters and your school doesn't have a guaranteed matching policy for PNMs who maximize their options.

Basically, a PNM gets her first choice unless the chapter makes quota before reaching her name on their list.

This is for bid matching after Pref night, but what about for Day 1 to Day 3? Is the matching process generally the same?

Every sorority is going to be different due to their past return rates for rush parties. Some groups can invite projected quota x 2 back, some can invite projected quota x 5 back. The more popular sororities just need to start deciding who they REALLY want earlier, rather than stringing along the "maybes." I'm sure at first it's a bit of a cluster, but once they realize that "throwing lots of @#$% to the wall and seeing what sticks" is no longer a viable invite strategy, it's probably a lot less stress for everyone involved.

What it boils down to is, the most popular sororities are going to cut more people and cut them earlier. If a PNM comes into rush with only those groups in her sights, she'll probably be disappointed.

What do y'all think about the release figures now? Any changes?

Carnation, honestly, I think the only issue with the RFM's that I see is that the first round is totally based on first impressions. There is not enough time to really get to know a girl. I think this hurts PNM's the most who are shy and reserved. I think it helps PNM's who might be very attractive, but not have a lot of the other qualities your looking for. I think you could fix this by having 1st round parties be a little bit longer, which is hard at a lot of universities or have your releases not be so drastic so you could actually meet these women a second time and get a better feel for them.

I wish that PH would prep the girls too but as time goes by, several of us have decided that a lot of groups at competitive schools have their "cut after first round" list made well before recruitment. A lot of these girls aren't grade or reputation releases, they're simply unknown to the members. Come to think of it, several groups probably have most of their "cut after second round" list finished well in advance too...you know, the legacies and heavily recommended girls they're sure they don't want.

Also done ahead of time: the ranking of multiple girls from 1 city or high school. This is known as the 'there are 10 girls from ABC High School or ABC City and we can't take them all" list.

Agree with you 100% on all points! The Greek system misses lots of great girls that way.

On the other side of that coin, if Susie is THAT shy, she would probably be uncomfortable in a chapter so full of overly vivacious girls. "You'll end up where you were meant to." As far as the PNMs who are cute but crap otherwise...I'm sure they get cut very quickly.

Ditto all this to the girls who don't get into ABC because ABC only takes girls from certain cities/high schools. Why would you want to be in a group that's going to have a bunch of inside jokes that you don't understand and that every other thing they say they have to explain to you?

The whole point is: do your homework!! This is a generation that studies, compares, contrasts and preps for college admission to the nth degree. Especially when looking at competitive colleges (which these days, just with the sheer amount of college age students) is most of them. They need to look at rushing a Greek org (because I think guys also go through similar things at competitive schools) the same way.

I mean, if you can find out that Vanderbilt likes you to write your essay about a family member that died and how you grew from it (regardless of what their website says), you can certainly find out that they need recs for sorority rush (regardless of what the website says).

I don't agree with this. If those chapters won't give those "unknown" women a chance they aren't missing out on being Greek, they just go to chapters that will take the time to get to know them or are better at researching PNMs. The Greek system is only missing out on those great girls if those great girls decide to not accept invitations to chapters that do want to get to know them. With release figures it seems that it would be rare for a great girl to not get invites from any chapters.

I'm not advocating that chapters only take girls they know, but frankly that is their business and how they do membership selection. They are only hurting themselves in the long run if they miss out on great members and more conscientious groups take the time and effort to procure recs for women without them.

Exactly. The Greek Community probably won't miss out on the great "unknown" girls, just certain chapters will.

This is the challenge that popular chapters at competitive schools face. They have to figure out how to have quality conversations with PNMs to get the most information in their limited time so they can make the best decisions in membership selection. Chapters can choose their members however they want. If they are only taking girls they know or going to cut everyone who isn't a "10" (looks wise), that's their prerogative.

Ditto. Also, I don't think RFM changes the process for those chapters anyway. These chapters made their bid lists before recruitment started before RFM was even invented. They know who they want, and making them release women they don't want early in the process hasn't changed that in the least.

Ain't that the truth. They just have to deal with the fact that more people are going to realize it and that those people will stop kidding themselves with "I know ABC would have taken me if they didn't have so many legacies but they are still super nice!"

/Pardon my lane swerve/

Is RMF working? If I am correct, the idea of RMF is to get girls interested in chapters that they normally wouldn't look at a second time. Isn't the idea to also help chapters that have traditionally been struggling with numbers and recruitment?

I had a conversation with a GC sorority member where I asked if RMF is helping with retention. On a couple of campuses (I won't mention them publically, pm me if you want specifics) it seems as if chapters that have traditionally not met quota are now meeting quota, but not retaining their pledges. In these situations, is RMF really helping the chapters?

That sounds like a chapter problem rather than a recruitment problem if a chapter is experiencing a lot of women depledging/withdrawing. That's not something RFM can address. Those chapters need to identify why women are depledging and fix those problems. If a chapter is truly doing their best to integrate new members into the chapter, depledging should be pretty rare and for clear-cut reasons.

Or, do you mean that chapters experience a lot of no-shows on bid day, meaning women feel "forced" to rank all of their preference chapters and end up matching with a chapter they don't intend to join? I know someone from a chapter like this (not my alma mater, not my sorority). She told me that Panhellenic tells the PNMs they have to rank all of their preference chapters, so her chapter MATCHES quota, but they get a lot of no-shows come bid day. She said one year, only a third of those that matched came to bid day. That's just really deflating for a chapter that doesn't need any more blows. Panhellenic isn't doing them any favors by trying to force PNMs their way.

I have heard this about a lot of campuses. I'm wondering if girls are being pressured to stay in recruitment when they want to drop out. Maybe they're half-heartedly taking bids to join in the excitement, then dropping out soon afterwards? Maybe some Panhellenics are under pressure to see that everyone gets quota and they're leaning on the RCs.

It's so tough to be an 18-year-old PNM and not know if you should really take a shot at that bid or back off for another year. Every situation is different.

Oh--violetpretty, yes, several schools are seeing lots of no-shows who had accepted bids.

I think retention may have nothing to do with sorority membership, but to do with the kinds of people who are attending college now, and the schools they attend. Maybe there is an influence with membership, but I think a lot of under-prepared people are going to colleges with very liberal enrollment policies and just not doing well in school. I am not saying that all first time college students aren't capable, but honestly there are lots of people who shouldn't be in a four year college straight out of high school and could be helped by a year or two at a community or junior college so they aren't taking remedial english and math courses.

How many schools are opening up new Greek systems from what was a community or junior college a decade or less ago? In some areas the college or university still offers classes for the community/junior college set and those students are in school and joining orgs. I kind of wonder how many students leave after the fall semester because of failing out, because I know it happens at my University and we do have a lot of support and involvement, so other places I can't imagine how many fall through the cracks and that is just accepted.

Of course I'm supporting my idea of not letting freshmen join before school starts and giving them a semester to orient themselves and succeed with events put on by Panhellenic/Greek Life to garner interest and promote academics and for life membership.

I wasn't referring to academics in my discussion of depledging/withdrawls. I was thinking more of "I just don't think I fit" or "It's not worth the money" type of depledging. The people who voluntarily leave their GLOs.

Gotcha, but I still think academics affects retention and membership. If you can't bid women, initiate them, have them active, or as officers, you have issues with (wo)man power and chapter health. If people can't be involved, or lose financial aid, that has an effect.

I guess I didn't really think of that because my school does not have a liberal admissions policy and because our recruitment is deferred, so the people who really go crazy first semester and flunk out aren't going through recruitment. During my time as a collegian and as an adviser, I can't think of anyone who withdrew/depledged because they flunked out of school.

The other reason I though of voluntary withdrawls/depledging is because I interpretted Lane Sig's question as certain chapters experiencing higher amounts of depledging/withdrawls than others. Though, at a school with a liberal admissions policy, there will be a wide variety of GPAs and you could argue that the "popular" chapters are getting the PNMs with the higher HS GPAs and therefore, less likely to flunk out, but you still never know with just the high school GPA to go on. I'm not sure what he was getting at.

YAY deferred recruitment!

Hopefully he will come back and tell us.

I also have thoughts about the influence of living in a dorm first year as opposed to a chapter house, and how RAs and other people who are not members can see behavior or warning signs we may not, or we may not want to deal with for whatever reason. I fully admit many sororities have issues with PR & RM when it comes to dealing with issues (alcohol for example) and that we often don't handle things until there is a huge incident. On the other hand we have a lot of over programming and requirements that don't work with today's college student and are not effective.

It could be the emphasis on filling your bid card without an equal emphasis on NOT listing a chapter that you would NOT want to join. That explains a lot of the bid day/first week no-shows and drops. Whether that's an issue of the NMs not fitting in or NMs wanting to be in a "higher tier" chapter is uncertain. My level of disgust for the "tier" system is high though so I may be biased.

I'd say that if it further along during the NM period that people are dropping then it's an issue of retention and the chapter should be looking at what they're doing wrong.

Well, same, but I won't pretend like it doesn't matter to some people.

I know it does, I just want to slap them upside the head until they realise how stupid and counterproductive it is. (Oh but it's ok because we're top tier. *slap* No *slap* it's *slap not. *slap*)

It hurts Greeks as a whole to perpetuate the idea that some of us are better than others, just as it hurts us to claim we're superior to the great un-washed Non-Greek masses. And it's something that the chapters AND the PNMs need education on.

The worst part is, that someone, upon reading this would say that I'm only jealous and miss the point entirely.

/meh sorry, pet-peeve

That is exactly what is happening. Rho Gamma's and Panhel are persuading
these girls to stick it out even though they got dropped by their "favorite" chapters early on. They go through the whole process and pressured not to suicide and on bid day they accept a bid from a chapter they didn't really want. Lots of these girls never really open up and give it a chance. Sometimes there is nothing really a chapter can do to make a girl want to stay. Especially when they see their friends are in the chapters they wanted to join. Surprisingly this past recruitment we had like 10 girls who had pledge chapters the year before go back through trying to get the chapter they didn't get the first time. 10 girls is a lot of my school which is fairly small.

Though it is unfortunate RFM doesn't have much to do with it. Truth is most of these flaky girls would have probably gotten cut from the top chapters anyway. The problem is with the types of girls in this generation.
Now I just graduated from college this year so these new girls are in my generation but I dont understand the way they think. I was a rho gam this past recruitment and I have noticed a lot of these girls feel entitled to receive bids to chapters they want. And these arent the girls that are legacies and have 3 or 4 recs, these are the girls that just decided they to go through yesterday cause all of their friends were doing it or registered for recruitment late even though they knew they want to rush before school even started. I dont know how many times we kept saying keep an open mind. My sorority wasnt my first choice or my second for that matter but I gave it a chance and it turned out to be the best group for me. Until girls learn to keep an open mind there will always be retention issues. Cause closed minded of girls never make good members.

Not just the sororities and PNMs, but the fraternities as well. I think fraternities are the ones who decide "tiers", and they decide based on looks. It's sad, because there are plenty of chapters who would cut a PNM who has the personal qualities (GPA, activities, commitment level, personality) they are looking for but is overweight/unattractive/a lesbian/etc--- things that MEN find undesirable---because they don't want to be labeled the fat/ugly/lesbo sorority.

This is what I was getting at. The girls who drop because they can't let go of the fact that they were cut by their faves during recruitment, still dreaming about being in a "better" sorority, and missing out on the chapter that actually wanted them.

I was a Rho Gamma my senior year, and I told my group up front that I would really like it if everyone stuck it out through preference. I promised them I would not pressure them to rank a chapter they wouldn't join. They all listened to me!

I think this is where we need to get with recruitment, because in the end, I don't really care if these self-absorbed girls don't get a bid. I care more that the chapters get strung along with a bunch a brats who will fill their spots and drop out later. It's not RFMs fault; it's the PNMs' fault and the Rho Chis' fault.

At the very least the fraternities encourage and continue it. But the chapters themselves perpetuate it because even if they say they know it's silly, they really enjoy being on top. There's a lot here about how our society expects women to please men in looks and actions and how women are complicit and socialized into the sexism. But that's another thread. (Or a lifetime's work.)

Yup. I was going to say RFM is working well at schools where the girls don't have their heads up their asses, but this is a nicer way of putting it. :)

The kind of girls bu1904 is talking about just can't deal with the fact that they've gone from being Miss Everything of their high school (oftentimes with very little effort) to, in their minds, failing. This is another reason I think deferred rush is better. You learn that lesson a bit more slowly over a semester, rather than getting gobsmacked with it before you've even taken a college class. And on the other side, the girls who WEREN'T a big deal in HS get a chance to reinvent themselves. Everybody wins.

So, because it's been brought up several times: Do we really think girls of "this generation" are all that different from girls 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago? Are these really new problems or just repackaged old ones? Or even a cyclical one?

This is what I was primarily referring to; the voluntary withdrawls/depledging.

Example with changes in names: Southern State University's Alpha Beta sorority chapter is on a big campus with a competitive rush. All the other chapters begin rush with 150+ girls. Alpha Beta begins rush with +/- 60 girls. Before RMF, Alpha Beta never made quota. In the last couple of years, someone posts how all the chapters at SSU made quota (which is a good thing). However, when the spring grade report rolls around, all of the other sororities have 200+/- members, and AB, which should have 100 +/- members, still has about 60.

I guess I'm asking is if RMF is truly working, wouldn't AB be building their chapter instead of remaining the same.

I think it depends on when the depledging happens for us to be able to judge. But RMF is primarily aimed at achieving quota I think and doesn't address the other related issues. (So it solved one problem and revealed another perhaps)

Like many things, RMF doesn't exist in a vacuum. There are lots of other issues that weren't there 30 years ago, like shortened pledge programs, economic issues, tightened risk management and more emphasis on maintaining larger chapters (or at least on all the chapters being the same size).

The only thing that I think is really of "this generation" is the "OMG I've been in the sorority 2 weeks and I'm still not BFFs with everyone and I still don't fit in!!" I certainly didn't expect to be best friends with everyone after such a short period of time. Then again, this also doesn't exist in a vacuum - you have to factor in increased social interaction online and things like that. It's hard to tell which came first, the chicken or the egg.