Oh, honey! You did exactly what I had in mind, only I was gonna use 52 PNMs, 4 sororities, 2 pref parties, and a quota of 10. I may have done mine differently, but never better. I salute you for beating me to the punch! (And if I inspired you, I salute me too!!!)

This is excellent. I may have to borrow it too.

Okay, I am old and I have done hand bid matching, so I understand the process and love RFM and computers. But, I seem to remember in my aged brain that there was a time when campus total was the rule rather than quota. Each house had a different quota depending upon campus total and the number of women who returned after summer, removing all the graduates, women who dropped out of college or got married. I am just imagining it???

It certainly sounds plausible.

OK, I rushed in 1963 and we did not do this. Maybe it was just your school? Indiana still has a bed quota so it varies from house to house. Also, Arkansas has a two tier quota system. So it's not unheard of but it's not been the norm.

I apologize for the dumb question, and I apologize because this probably makes no sense, but let me take a stab at it.

Is it possible for no chapter to make quota in their top bid list? So, for example, sorority #1, #2, and #3 all have a top 87, but none of them make quota in their top 87. So, they are kind of at a standstill because no PNM's in their top 87 are matching elsewhere, making room for PNMs to move up and match with them. Do they keep going down their bid lists to reach those PNMs that weren't in their top 87, but ranked them first, until they reach quota? Or do they meet quota by matching the PNMs that ranked them 2nd or 3rd? Or - does this usually not happen because most chapters make quota from their top bid list?

Its very seldom that chapters make quota within their first bid list. What happens is that as PNMs that are on their first bid list match to their other preference at their first choice selection(ie this chapter is their #2 choice), then that PNM is removed from the chapter's list and the next PNM moves onto the list. Once the chapter has matched quota, then they start looking at the 2nd choice of the remaining PNMs that attended the chapter's preference and are somewhere on their bid list.

Yes! It is absolutely possible to reach a standstill. In fact, the basic programming of the program is easy, it's the error handling that gets complicated. I don't know exactly how it works, but I know I've heard of this happening in the hand-matching days and the advisors would do some horse trading to get it worked out.

Or "house" trading!

You WERE the inspiration for this! Thank you! But I still think there needs to be a proper video done with more PNMs, quota additions, and more explanation (voice over) of what's going on.


When I was setting up the example for the GIF, I actually came to a standstill a couple of times. I would have girls "stuck" taking a place on one chapter's first bid list, but she was just out of the money (not quite to the first bid list) of her #1 chapter. With my very small example of 12 PNMs and 3 chapters, I easily got all three chapters stuck. I imagine this is a more common problem in small systems than in larger ones, but that's just a guess.

As to the question of chapters making quota in their first bid list - RFM is designed so that each chapter invites* ONLY the number of women to preference that will allow them to take quota. Now, in practice, there's usually a buffer since the RFM specialist is estimating that number based on the chapter's past performance. So, theoretically, each chapter should close their quota somewhat close to the end of their total list of PNMs who attended preference.

The RFM specialist will look at where each chapter "closes" it's bid list. If Chapter A always has 100% of their pref PNMs rank them first, then they typically close their bid list at 1x quota and only need to invite* about a quota's worth of women to preference.

If Chapter B is weaker, they may close at 2x quota, and will thus need to invite* at least 2x the estimated quota to preference.

*And my "invite", I mean the actual number of women who attend preference for that chapter, not necessarily the number they extend a preference invitation to, which will be larger.

OK - double checking all of this with everyone else. If you see any errors, lemme know.

That's called grid lock and it can happen. And often does. In that case, the PNM causing the grid lock first is pulled and they move to the next one and match her. Then the pulled one is reinserted and things begin anew. It could happen multiple times and that's basically how it is done.

I've read about Strong Recruiting Chapters (SRC) and Weak Recruiting Chapters (WRC). But I don’t believe I’ve read about Middle Recruiting Chapters? Is there such a thing (term)? Or is there more or less a 50/50 breakdown? Simply put, that for every SRC there is a WRC.

No, there are definitely middle recruiting chapters...especially in the South. They'll be a good chapter on campus, but don't have that traditional "southern" name recognition. So PNMs like them but tend not to know much about them before they're in the party during Round 1.

At least in my experience.

Okdin ... I'll work on a video.

I vote for the video! Or a detailed manual. Thank you, LABGPhi. That was a fabulous explanation. I've searched the Internet for information. What's out there is minimal and doesn't explain the process half as well as you did. I'm a numbers/stats person. I need to understand the process. I'd love to see the intricacies explained. Looking forward to your video, Loyally Kappa and thank you.