"From the outside looking in you could never understand it"
 

I've decided to calm myself down fro this upcoming recruitment, I am going to do a recrutiemnt story from an active members perspective. I've been in tri delta for three years now and its been one of the greatest decisions of my life. Most of you know my school so I will be very very careful about revealing too much about the PNMs I meet, as well as how we vote, etc.

Today we had our mandatory panhellenic workshop. I woke up late and now have to pay a $50 fine for being late. Oh well it happens right?

The workshop went pretty well. We did an ice break with the other sororities where we had to go up to someone in our group and say "baby i love you will you please just smile?" and they had to reply with "I love you baby but I just can't smile" without laughing. I was pretty good at it but some of the girls could barley get out eh "i love you" without starting to giggle. We then went over rules of recruitment, and by far the most one poeple had questions about was "No letters during recruitment week". This year panhellenic decided that the sororities on campus cannot wear their letters, philanthropies, ANYTHING outside the rooms. I understand the idea of this, greek unity and all, but I am extremely proud of my letters and have never signed a disafillation contract, so how can they tell me not to wear my letters?
Not gonna lie, kinda upset I can't use my vinyards vine bad next week, especially since i spent so much money on it. :(But what can you do right?

I got to see a lot of my friends that are disaffiliated, two in particular that aren't in my sorority, so it will be harder to see them on bid day after reveal. I miss them mucho.

After the workshop we showed the Panhellenic exec our skits and slide shows then I went home and took at 5 hour nap. OOPS! :) I went to joann's today and got some poster board, and these really cute stars that I'm going to paint for the girls I pref and (hopefully) see at bid day, or maybe the rho gammas. I haven't decided yet.

There are three sororites on my campus, Tri Delta which came on in 2003, Zeta Tau Alpha which came on in 2004 and Chi Omega which came on in 2007. Over the past year I believe that the sororites have come together more than in the past. You coud really tell at the workshop. One of the quotes I like from today was that "We all have sisterhood, philanthriopy etc, but its our people that make our sororites different".

Here is the recruitment schedule:

Monday-Orientation, just for PNMs, panhell and rho gammas.
Tuesday-Ice water night
Wednesday-Philanthropy night 1
Thursday-Philanthropy night 2
Friday-Sisterhood night
Saturday-Pref night
Sunday-BID DAY!!!

I can't wait for Tuesday. It seems like it was forever ago when we were even talking about themes! I will reveal our theme after Tuesday night's party because you never know who may be lurking :D

Last I heard we had over 200 PNMs signed up (FSUZeta if you're reading this and have peaked on ICS you have a better idea)
. I really hope our pledge class isn't over 70!!! Last year quota was 59 and we took 61.

More later GC loves.

Wooo so the three presidents met with the Panhellenic president and the membership director yesterday because they were unhappy about the "no letters on campus" issue, and they came to a compromise. We can wear our letters today on campus, and then saturday. Its not exactly what I wanted, but I guess some letters is better than none.

Last ICS check, 255 girls. INSANE.

Today is orientation for the PNMs while the rest of us get ready for the long week of setting up/tearing down ahead. I'm so pumped!

I love this (so far) short thread. Hearing from the other side is great.

im intrigued too - keep it coming.

Sounds like your campus is due for an expansion! Holy cow that's a lot of PNMs for three sororities!

No letters during recruitment! Has anyone not looked at the Green Book where they want silence to only be from the end of the last Preference Party to Bid Day?? They also have a section where it is the RIGHT for every woman to wear their pins at any time. It sounds as if your Panhellenic needs a Green Book lesson before you expand!

I agree...How do you promote Greek life if no one can wear letters? These are not secret organizations.

wait, for clarity: the school's Panhellenic is saying NO member can wear letters until rush is over?

Thats pretty ridiculous. If there's only 3 sororities, PNMs are going to remember who is in what house outside of rush parties and such.

Or am I missing something?

Panhellenic (sp?) encouraged us to wear the Pan Unity shirt (they wanted us to wear it for the first social at welcome weekend because they said all the letters overwhelmed PNMs but it got voted down). Our chapter of course encouraged us to wear Greek stuff :) Outside of our house we are not allowed to talk about our individual chapter, as in "Go Delta Gamma", it's supposed to be a Unity thing so it's just "Go Greek".

Believe me, I share all of your opinions. We're working on correcting this. I have read the green book over and over again but as of right now our panhellenic isn't budging. I don't want to release any information as of right now because its a process we're going through.

I will let you all know how it pans out.


And yes you are correct, no member of any panhellenic sorority is allowed to wear her letters or insignia starting today until Saturday. I can't use my vinyard vine glasses, my sunglasses, etc. It sucks, I know. again, we're fighting it.

And yes I have seen the section called "Right to wear badge" in the MOI. I wasn't in the meeting with the three presidents so I cannot tell you exactly what was said, but I made sure our president had all the sections from the MOI that clearly stated what they are telling us is wrong (the right to wear badge, that we're soverign organizations, unanimous agreement C, etc).

I agree about the not being able to tell who is rushing/who is in a sorority. I can only hope that the other organizations will follow the no talking rules during recruitment. Which I'm sure they will.

All I can say is that its being worked on.


Well I have to be up in 4 and half hours so I will see you all later :)

I can't believe that no one has ever heard of this policy before. At my school, we all go "neutral" the week of recruitment. We don't have our individual letters on ourselves at any time during the week. If we are seen with letters, and it is reported to Panhellenic, our house will receive an infraction. We're allowed to war anything that has Panhellenic or each organizations' letters on it, but not the individual organization. It is a push for "Go Greek!" instead of "Go Alpha Chi!" or whatever.

This was a little different for us though. Previously, recruitment had been held during orientation week- therefore, one week without letters wasn't so bad (and one where you weren't in classes!). Because we moved our recruitment dates, we were allowed to wear our letters for the first week of classes (last week). This week, however, we aren't.

Jenny, I'm relatively sure I'm on your campus, but this policy is meant to discourage "dirty" rushing. PanHel wants to promote "Go Greek" as others have said before me, hence your button you had to wear.

O&B Forever :)

yes i understand why they've done it. It was a shock to us all of a sudden "no letters during recruitment week". It was only made a rule, probably about 3 weeks ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about greek unity, I love the other organizations on campus. But doesn't this kind of promote dirty rushing? Not saying the other orgs will, but I don't know everyone. its much harder to see if a soroity member is talking to a PNM if they are wearing their shirts.

I'm extremely proud of my letters and have never signed a disafilation contract, so its still kind of odd to me that panhellenic is saying i cannot wear my letters.

Enjoy the week and just have fun with the pnm's and your sisters!:)

I can't wait to hear this story! :)

Quick update for right now, because I have to get to the room. Last report I heard was 301 girls last night! It was crazy!! Thankfully they had more parties this year, so we didn't have to double rush girls.

Last night went super super well. Besides some issues with transitions, my group did FABULOUS. It really was a great way to kick off the week. I don't think anyone cried hahaha.

The girls I met, oh boy. They're really trying this year. Only 2 awkward girls. We have a bunch of legacys, with 5 being sisters of girls in our current chapter. I got to meet three of them lol. The 2 that I met I knew before (one is my little's sister).

Time for shower and getting ready for philanthropy night. I <3 st. jude!

I like reading the stories about actives in chapters! Good luck jennyj87! I'm rooting for you all. :)

My school also does the "no letters during recruitment." I'm not really sure why, but it's been in effect since at least the time I went through, and probably longer. I think it's probably to promote everyone and prevent dirty rushing.

Our campus Panhellenic is pretty new, but we were allowed to wear letters during recruitment and before it. We had to wear Panhellenic shirts whenever we were handing out flyers, but that's different.

Good luck to you and your chapter!

This is exciting! I cannot wait to hear how it goes!

The "no letters" thing is a little harsh, I would be crushed...I feel like seeing letters helps PNMs get excited and interested, but I do support Greek unity! So maybe its a good thing?

Good luck!

WOOO so the first 2 rounds are over with. Wednesday night went really really well. Since philanthropy was 2 days, we didn't have to set up anything today so everyone got to sleep in and get homework done. the girls i met were all really great except for 2.

Tonight went okay. Round wise everyne did fine. THe girls i met however were not great. Only about 3 i could see being in my sorority. It was kinda a downer, that mixed with a lack of sleep, an the news my favorite football player is retiring, not my favorite day.

I have fake nails on so its very hard for me to type. more later gc's :D

Okay so I was wrong, you don't go to the school I thought you did :). Well anywho, you should really push for your PanHel office to let you guys promote Greek life in general, by wearing a pin/shirt/etc.

Alright so more details.

The first night was Ice Water night and our theme was "DDD <3's FGCU". FGCU's colors are blue and green so we were all in blue and green dresses and our whole room was the schools colors. We got done really really early so most of us hung out in the room.

The girls I met were great. It was hard because the conversations were quick tonight but I could already tell the quality of girls going throught this year was insane. My rotation group was AMAZING and all worked really really hard. We ended the night very happily becasue of how smooth rotation and door pick up went well. We started setting up for philanthropy night, which was St. Jude, but got kicked out of the union at 12.

The two philanthropy nights went really well. I met a couple of girls who I liked a lot. One girl was rolling her eyes when I was trying to talk about our philanthropy and that upset me a lot. One of the girls I met loved musicals and I absolutly adored her! We couldn't stop talking.

No matter how many times I watched our St. Jude video I creid every time. Thank goodness for water proof mascara.

After night one we didn't have to set up since the theme was the same so we kind of got a good night sleep.

Night 2 again went really really well. I connnected with one of the girls in my group becasue we found out her house was right by my cousins.

That night was the first night for cuts. I knew it was going to be tough because how easily all the conversaitons went. I was very anxious about who would be invited back, especially since I knew a bunch of the girls going through this year.

Sisterhood night again went extremely well. Our return rate was the BEST we've ever had and I about cried when I found out. I met a lot of great girls, my musical girl was back, and I met two other girls I really really liked. I met this one girl again who was great, but I could really see her in another sorority. It was EXTREMELY hot in the room, espeically since it was skit night, and I was in the dance, so I was pretty much out of breath when we started rotation.
The girl who was rolling her eyes the night before was back which kind of shocked me. Of course she was in my rotation again and I was nervous about speaking to her. She did try harder I will admit but I still wasn't feeling it.

We started setting up after the party for pref night which I knew would be beautiful. We got a lot done and went home around 2am. A bunch of people got back to the union at 7am but unfourtunatly my alarm didn't go off so I didn't get tehre till 9am. We got done around noon for set up so I had one of our members curl my hair. At 2 our MSC came in and gave us the names of the girls we were going to pref.
My first party was the girl I really liked but I knew she preferred one of the other sororities over us. i can't hold that against her though. We had a good conversation. I cried during our pref ceremony and senior speeches during every single party. I'm a cryer, it happens.
My 2nd party was a girl I had never met but we clicked right away. We couldn't stop talking! I'm very glad I got to pref her and she couldn't stop telling me how much she wanted to be a Tri Delta and how at home she felt. She loved my pref card which made me very happy.
My 3rd party was with a girl who I have known for a while because she's my roommates neighbor (her parents house). I was so happy she was back and we had another good party. It hit me in the middle of the party that this was my last pref (not of my college carreer but of the recruitment) and she was the last girl I would talk to until tomorrow afternoon.

The night ended good and we had a fireside and talked with everyone for about an hour. I feel way more connected to the chapter than I did last year and I do feel our chapter came together a lot more. I went home that night and finished painting gifts for our Rho Gammas and panhelelnic execuatives, and one of my sisters came over and we talked for a while.

The next mornign the PNM's were suppose to get their bids at noon then they would be released to us around 1230. I was in a meeting at 10am so around 12:05 I left the meeting and stopped in the bathroom. When I came out of the bathroom I see a bunch of girls running and was very confused. They weren't suppose to be realeased until 1230!!! I ran to my chapter but didn't get to see the girls running to us which made me very upset. Thankfully all the girls I met that I wanted to go Tri Delta actually went Tri Delta! Including a couple of girls I've known for a while. I am extremely pleased with this pledge class. Two of my prefs went tri delta, the girl who I didn't know and my last pref. I knew the other girl would go to the other sorority.

We welcomed back our panhellenic and rho gammas in the usual fashion. We had our bid day celebrations and did formal pledging that night, welcming 73 new baby deltas! I'm so happy with this pledge class.

http://i29.tinypic.com/2s7dy4g.jpg
Our beautiful PC 09

http://i28.tinypic.com/be5x1e.jpg
I'm the shorter one. This is one of my favorite pictures through recruitment.

http://i26.tinypic.com/fwq1c7.jpg
Our insanly large chapter now! for a school with only three sororities, its insane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB0R_6ew6G4

video of us getting back our rho gammas and panhellenic. I'm the one with the french braids who almost falls over running lol

Look at your cute pictures! I'm glad things went so well for y'all. :)

Your pictures are adorable! And congratulations on your baby Deltas! I really want recruitment to start here, lol!

congratulations jenny on a wonderful fgcu recruitment(and story). i was hoping you would come back and post. everyone at fgcu did so well-all making quota(70) and some making quota additions.

i think it is time for fgcu to think about another expansion. the rooms the chapters use for their chapter meetings will barely hold the chapters now. either that, or letting the greek chapters who want to, to build housing or at least a greek building with chapter rooms for all who wish to participate that can accomodate the chapters.

Congrats to you and your chapter, Jenny.

I should say so!! Sounds like they need TWO new chapters!

fingers crossed that it happens!

Yep and its been jumping every year. The year I went through I believe quota was around 48ish? Last year it was 59, and then this year it was 70, with us taking quota additions (we actually extended bids to more girls but had some deny :(, which is always sad).
The quality of girls going through is so great, so that no one wants to straight cut them.


Thanks FSUZeta. You girls did great too! I LOVED the theme and the pictures looked great!

thanks jenny-the girls worked very hard. i think that everyone in all three groups was relieved that quota ended up being 70, because at one point it was projected that it might be 85! zeta took 75, but had planned for the possibility of 80, so there were t-shirts and bidday bags for all.