Your rho chi is right. The girls in the chapters you loved may have loved you, too, but, for example, the number of legacies going through may exceed quota.

I'm glad you gave that one house a fair chance by returning to its party.

And you never know what could happen with COB. It seems like your situation is happening to a lot of good girls this year.

My inside info at Madison tells me that there are definitely chapters who plan to COB even if they make quota.

Okay, now I am confused!
 

DeltaBetaBaby, how can a chapter that makes quota do COB???Are they under the prescribed campus house total? Is that how?

If a chapter made quota and were under campus total, then yes they are able to COB to total. (Example: ABC made quota which was 20, bringing their total membership to 45. Total is 60, so they can COB 15 more new members.)

If a chapter didn't make quota and were already at or above campus total, they could COB to quota. (Example: DEF got 15 new members during recruitment, bringing their total membership to 65. Even though total is 60, they can COB 5 more new members to attain the quota of 20.

If a chapter didn't make quota and weren't at campus total, they could COB until both quota (first) and campus total (second) were achieved. (Example: GHI started recruitment with 30 members and got 10 in recruitment, total is 60 and quota is 20. They can COB another 20 new members, the first 10 would count toward quota numbersand the next 10 would get them to total.)

Crystal clear, right ;)

Christin

Can you guys explain to me exactly how you go through the process of COB? I think I understand the concept, but at the same time, not really.

Oh, DeltaBetaBaby, I sent you a private message about your post...I really look forward to hearing from you soon!!! :)

You sure? There is nothing in my inbox.

Hmm...I guess it didn't work or it's slow?? Anyway, I'll just ask it here and then if you want you can just reply here or send me a PM. I was just wondering if you could tell me which sororities you knew were going to do COB. Also, I know what COB is, but I don't know the process, so I was hoping that maybe you could tell me how I'd go about COB-ing. Thanks for your support and I hope to hear from you soon!

COB-ing?
 

Can anyone tell me how COB works? I've heard of it, but I don't know what the process is like. If you get offered a bid through COB, do you still go through pledge period and get a big sis like if you went through formal recruitment?

The way that we do COB, you receive a formal bid, attend all new member meetings, have all the same ritual ceremonies, get a big sis, everything. Last spring we had about half of our new members join through formal recruitment and the other half through COB. Nobody was treated any differently than anyone else...I think COB is the way to go if you're truly interested. From my perspective, you're not really going to miss out on anything, but, as I said, that's how we do it. I can't imagine that it would be really different anywhere else though...

I don't know much about COB but the pledge period and big sis stuff is still all the same as if you went through formal recruitment. COB is just the same without the pressures and time spent. Good luck with COB and sorry I couldn't be more of a help! Enjoy!

I believe that if you COB this week, it'll be just like you had joined on Sunday except you won't get to participate in Bid Day activities. I know there are girls checking out COB right now -- call your Rho Chi's and hopefully they can help you out!

I'll let somebody else who is more informed than I am explain the specifics to you, but I do know that there are several chapters at Madison that are COB-ing right now.

Hey sugar and spice, can you e-mail me with the chapters that are cob-ing??? I'm really interested in finding out if you know some or if you have a contact that could better help me...my e-mail address is nikkis02@hotmail.com and if you want, I use both msn and aol messengers under that e-mail address! I e-mailed the sororities I'd be interested in, but I'm going to call one of my rho chis tomorrow!

and thanks to you 2 girls that just responded about cob! :) You really were a help since I really don't know anything about cob! Thanks so much! :)

COB = Continuous Open Bidding, also known as informal recruitment.

For a chapter to be eligible for COB, they must either be under campus total or did not make quota during formal recruitment.

hey UWgirl - any updates on your COBing?!? What chapters are doing COB? Which ones are you interested in? Best of luck to you - you'd be a great addition to any chapter :)

I haven't filled out a withdrawal form for recruitment yet, but I gave my info to the panhellenic recruitment chair, so I have gotten two phone calls so far from Tri Delta and Kappa Alpha Theta. I decided to e-mail a few of them that I am interested in, and so far I've heard back from three out of 5. Gamma Phi Beta doesn't know if they will, but they will get back to me. Pi Beta Phi gave me a contact phone number for their advisor. I look at these as good signs because they would turn me down if they knew definitely they couldn't do COB. But I do know Alpha Chi Omega is not doing COB. I haven't heard back from Chi Omega or Kappa Kappa Gamma, but they're popular ones to get into, so I doubt they would be doing COB, but I could always hope. There's no real news so far, but I will keep you updated if/when I find anything out and if I go to any COB events!!!