Its not an NPC policy...its a campus policy and to exist on the campus you have to play the "who ends up with HER" game every year.

And yes everyone who has to get placed does. Sometimes it takes awhile - a little hair pulling, the loosing a few teeth but never cussing because we are ladies, after all!

I happens at my university. We don't have a system like Generally Assured Bidding, however. Essentially how it works is that if a girl is cut right before pref, and it turns out she doesn't have a pref to go to, greek life gives chapters a call to see if they will invite her back to pref. The chapter has a choice on whether or not to invite her back. If they really don't want her back they can say no, or give her another go. The catch is that if Greek Life ask the chapter to take a girl back for pref, they don't have to out her on the bid list. Sometimes it works out and a girl who was cut for less than legit reasons gets another chance, and a bid. Other times it is just cruel, and they end up bidless even if they went to a pref and chapters are under quota.

Sorry - should have said in the instances that it occured it was a request made to all chapters - not just ones with low numbers.

That's when you put them in a hat and draw.

I had a friend that was and andvisor for another GLO and she always thought we should just put all the names in a hat and draw an even for each group on campus. She thought it would save a lot of time, expense and tears.

:D

Re: Re: Sorry - second long post
 

You hit the nail on the head. If only 18 year old PNM's (or collegiate members for that fact) would understand. :(

Now if a group would just figure out if they all joined XYZ "small" chapter . . . hmmm. . . not small (i.e. "bad") anymore!

This may be a good idea from both sides of the aisle. Chapters that NEVER have to COB because they always take quota during formal will be forced to learn how to COB. That way, if Greek Life takes a slow turn, as it often does with changes in the economy, social climate, etc., these chapters will be comfortable with the COB process. Also, if even the strongest chapters participate in COB, even for just a few spaces, it may remove some of the stigma associated with COB on some campuses.

ETA: After thinking more about this, it may actually encourage PNMs to drop out of formal when the almighty ABC drops them. Her thinking may be that they can still get into ABC if they drop out and then COB since every chapter will be forced to take some PNMs in COB. Hmmm... Something like this may neccesitate even more rules. :(

Jocelyn-
That's my point. Since everyone on your campus COBs, it is no big deal (prestige-wise) to either the PNMs or the members. On some campuses, unfortunately, if a group has to COB, they may as well take out a full page ad that they sucked at formal and need to beg for members. Consequently, some groups refuse to COB even though they need to in order to maintain adequate numbers for vitality.

But if everyone had a spring quota it wouldn't be COBing, it would be a semiformal recruitment. There would be party schedules and prefs etc, just like formal. The only real dif btwn this and formal rush is that 1) people aren't anal about how many ballooons, where parties are held, etc and 2) the rushees don't HAVE to attend any event.

It wouldn't help at a big Greek school because like you said, people who got dropped from the groups they want would say "well I'll wait till spring and be one of the 5 they have to take." It would make things worse not better.

Everyone takes COB the wrong way. You can get an entire pledge class through COB without having a single party and advertising that you didn't make quota or whatever. Ask people over for dinner, to campus events you are attending, make sure all the sisters get to meet them and vote on whether or not to give them a bid. COB is supposed to be easy and casual, not necessitate constant parties that take as much planning as formal rush.

I am not sure if this is the case now, but at The University of Kentucky, there use to be an "informal" recruitment in the spring by all the chapters. What may be considered COB I guess. And all chapters publicized this via UK's Panhellenic Council.

While I do not recall the particulars, my understanding is that it was to get the chapters up to total. i.e. there was a limit to the number that each chapter could take. So even the so called "top" chapters would do some sort of spring rush.

The thing is that not every chapter would be eligible. Or be able to take the same numbers. Again, as I recall, it was based on chapter total and not any type of "spring quota". So a PNM could not (should not) "wait" to be picked up by a particular chapter in the spring since there may not be any guarantee that there would be a spot for her.

In any case, since all the chapters COBed (is that even a verb?) in the sping to get to total, it was not considered a "bad thing".

TSteven - what you are describing I think it what is normal on many campuses. The chapters that are not at total after FR are allowed to COB up to total. So at UK I guess that is done officially in the Spring. Some campuses it may be right after FR, whatever. The issue still exists though, as you pointed out, that the big chapters would not COB because they are at total, and therefore not eligible. I think it is wonderful if this is embraced at UK, but unfortunately at some campuses, this same situation (the big groups don't COB, the ones with openings do) leads to the stigma which some GCers are familiar with. So, if that isn't the case at UK, their Panhellenic is doing something right to get the word out in a positive way. Other PHs should take a look at what UK is doing to get PNMs to consider COB chapters even on a big Greek campus.

Exactly. If the PNM is rushing for a second time (or third, or maybe even a fourth time (especially in southern schools)), and she knows that she's not going to get a bid, and she's complaining about the rush fees, then she should not waste her time and money, because there's a good chance that she'll be dropped. She should try informal recruitment or forget about joining the sororities.

I don't like guaranteed bidding, but I think the "call-back" method is a good thing, at least when you are talking about larger recruitments where chapters have to cut girls they would prefer not to. For example, Suzie PNM's older brother is the XYZ house sweetheart. Everyone knows this, and assumes she will go XYZ. Even though they like Suzie, nobody is going to waste an invite on her knowing she will go XYZ. If a chapter found out she had been dropped everywhere and still wants her, that is VERY different from Patty PNM who was in jail in high school and got dropped everywhere because the chapters know this.

Also, I have said this a million times on here, but I will do it once more: chapters make mistakes. When you have 1200 PNMs coming through your house in one day, you WILL mix some of them up. The year I was president, we had two Suzie Smiths, two Jennifer Joneses and THREE Amy Andersons (names obviously changed, but you get the idea). Sure, they had different PNM numbers, but you try putting together an invite list at 4am after rushing all day.

Oh, amen to this! This has happened to so many PNMs I know this year.