I'm going to guess that there were not "hundreds" of released PNM's. There may be quite a few who released themselves, but that is not the same thing. Someone who knows UF can confirm/deny this.

Keep an eye on the school paper, let your friends who are in sororities know you're interested, get/stay involved in activities on campus where Greek women will get to know you, and touch base with the Greek Life office in a month or so if you haven't heard anything. Some may be doing some COB in the fall but they also may be waiting for spring, in which case you're just going to have to wait. They won't announce any parties until much closer to when they will actually happen. It's not like formal rush when the date is set months in advance.

If it were me
 

and I wanted to join a sorority and I could (no restrictions from rush, etc.), I'd email council and each sorority. I know one sorority who just added a girl that didn't go through rush (forgive me not good with the technical terms).

Altho I think the rush experience is fun based on the stories I heard!:)

We discussed this before...emailing ALL the sororities in this case may not be a good idea, as some of them may be at or over total and may actually get offended at the idea that they need to COB.

The best way is to ask the Greek life office which sororities have told them they are COBing, and if there are (say) 4 out of 12 that are doing so, just email those 4. There may be others who are one or two girls short of total, but are keeping it quiet and most likely issuing those bids to girls they already know well.

COBing shouldn't be a shameful thing, especially with release figures really throwing a monkey wrench (but a good monkey wrench) into some formal rushes, but unfortunately at some campuses it is, and it's an area where you need to tread lightly.

I just found out from my friend that a certain sorority is conducting COB and just gave bids out to 4 or 5 more girls, however she is not sure if they are still looking for more bids.

How might I approach this situation to find out if they are still conducting COB or how I can get involved?

Start by reading the above in this thread.

if you know a member of the sorority it would be okay to ask her. otherwise, i would suggest contacting the panhellenic office and seeing if you can sign up for cob.

at uf it would not be a good idea to email the sororities.

I disagree that it would be a bad idea to email the sororities - maybe to email ALL of the sororities, but the ones COBing might be willing to have you over for dinner just to meet you and see if you'd be a fit. Take a look at the Greek Life website and if you look at the grade reports from the last one or two spring semesters, you can see who participates in COB. No guarantees, but it's a way to start. Contact the recruitment chairs.

Also, don't wait! Most chapters are getting near initiation time and will stop participating in COB if their initiation date is close.

Also, to clarify, just because a chapter participated in Spring Recruitment does not guarantee they will do COB nor does it guarantee they'll participate in Spring this coming semester. However, there's usually overlap and at least it is a place to start.

That's pretty much exactly what I said in my post. :confused:

If I found out some sororities that were COBing, I would email the recruitment chair asking about if they are still conducting COB and that i'm interested? Is that okay for me to do?

I'm sorry! I was referring to FSUZeta's post who said "at uf it would not be a good idea to email the sororities."

Oh ok, for some reason I didn't see her post before. fsuzeta - would it even be bad to email the ones who have told the GL office that they're doing COB and welcome all interested girls?

I wish I had seen this earlier! Life is crazy!

I am going to caution you that if you haven't already taken action to get in contact with any chapters that may be COB-ing, you may be too late. Most chapters have already stopped inviting women to their chapter to meet or have even had their Big-Little reveal (which usually means they are less likely to COB any women after that point)!

My best advice to you is email them, and now.
If no chapters are still in the process of COB, you can always participate in Spring Recruitment (which is generally rather informal and is done by COB policies, usually). Waiting until Spring, at this point, may actually be easier, because chapters who are just at or above total (thus, not COB-ing in the Fall) may have enough women who graduate in December to go below total. So, they may participate in Spring Recruitment even though they are not taking COBs this Fall. (I think I'm making sense, today is crazy!)
Hopefully that helps!

i yield to ufgatorlove's excellent advice! good luck to the op.