Calm in the Face of Adversity - A Recruitment Advisor's Spring 2010 Story....
 

Hello All! I wanted to start a recruitment story as Recruitment Advisor to my alma mater chapter. My chapter has faced many ups and downs over the last few years with recruitment. We see chapter total within our grasp and then half of the chapter graduates. I want to share with you all this process from start to finish and welcome any advice and enouragement.

About Me
* Recruitment Advisor for Alma Mater (2 Years)
* Former COR, Recruitment Chair and President of my Chapter


About the School & Greek Life
* Medium Sized School
* Deferred Recruitment
* Declining numbers for Panhellenic Recruitment over the last 5 years
* Competitive COR for Fall Semesters
* Chapter Total: 50-60
* New Recruitment Format


About the GLOs
These are not all of the Sororities but they are the ones we most compete with for PNMs during recruitment.

Diamond : This is my home. For the last 8 years I have lived and breathed this organization. Back in the day we were known for being the overweight/awkward/less desirable group. However, those barriers have been broken for a few years now and its hardly the case but it seems that we're still the organization that everyone "Loves" but seems to pass over due to old stereotypes or the perceived "lower tier". All of the HQ Consultants tell us they don't understand why we do not succeed in recruitment because they enjoy our chapter and feel like the numbers don't justify our group as a whole. We are weak recruiters in the fall but have done well in the spring as of the last few years. But its still not enough to keep our numbers up. We have the fewest members on our campus.

Ruby: This organization is probably the closet to our "Rival". Many women who spend their pref day with Ruby spendtheir other pref party with us diamonds.They always seem to have a large variety of women and are always at total. But if you speak to some of their sisters they will tell you that once they get the girls they most desire, they pick up others to fill open vacancies.

Emerald: This organization has always been a pretty large variety of women. They had been known for being the party crowd and provocative as a nice word. They got in trouble for hazing several years and went from 45 to 12 members. They quickly reorganized and are back to a consistency around 45 members. Many other women that attend their pref also attend ours as well.


This year we will be following a new format and I'm extremely nervous and want more than anything to have a successful recruitment. I'm starting with my posts now because I want more than anything for these ladies to succeed and grow with great women that they deserve. Next post to follow shortly.

I'm really excited about this story!

We are full speed ahead on planning and preparing for this upcoming Spring 2010. We now have the format and schedule for Formal Recruitment. Keep in mind that my school follows a deferred recruitment schedule with the Formal Recruitment in the Spring.

About the Recruitment:

* No Frills, No songs, No Dance, No Skits, No Chanting, No Decor
* Women will come and go to houses as they please up until preference day. They can stay at a house for 5 minutes or for 2 hours. They must visit each of the houses at least once to attend preference.
* Release Figures Methodology will not be used this year. There will be hand matching taking place
* 180 PNMs have signed up as interested in Recruitment so far. Official sign ups will begin next week. This is a huge difference from the 60 that signed up to participate in recruitment last year.

The Schedule:

Day 1 : Open House, All organizations will be given a booth for all PNMs to initially learn about each organization

Day 2 : Sisterhood Day, This to me is a strange/awkward day. Since we have no frills it consists of talking to women, scrapbooks and powerpoint videos with pictures.

Day 3: Philanthropy, Pretty self explanatory and allows for an activity related to your cause. All PNMs must have visited all houses before the end of this day to be eligible to attend preference

Day 4: Preference

Day 5: Bid Matching followed by Bid Day


I'm feeling very nervous about this format for recruitment. Also, with PNMs just being able to float back and forth between houses seems that it could look disorganized. Also, without using Release Figures Management, the better recruiting groups will not be forced to drop larger numbers of women and will carry women to the end of recruitment. This to me seems like a set up for PNM Heartbreak. However, all PNMs will be encouraged to rank all of the houses for which they attend preference.

Preparing starts now with possibly a last minute PR in the freshman resident hall and a workshop before everyone returns in January for the work week. I'm going to be on pins and needles now until Bid Day!! When we followed RFM in 2005 we began reaching quota although the numbers for Formal Recruitment were declining making quota a small number and leaving a lot of work left for COR.

More to follow!

That makes one of us.

See you on another thread, then?

180 for three chapters is huge!

Reread the post - she only listed the 3 they recruit against...states there are others but does not give the number.

My apologies.

Since we lost a chapter this spring, we're going to have ~215 PNMs for 3 chapters this year. Eeek.

That's wild! The numbers for Formal Recruitment at my campus have dropped off horribly. We have a new Greek Life Director this year who is switching things up. I'm super nervous but I do hope that we will begin to see large numbers. It doesn't help at all when quota is only 4!

Thank you all for your support! This is a big recruitment for us this year as Panhellenic has been threatening us about our numbers (That's a whole other story). I've gotten a lot of support from HQ representatives and its always good to have other support as well.

Here's the run down of the last several years of Formal Recruitment Numbers:

2002: 110 (This was before Deferred Recruitment)
2003: 85
2004: 140
2005: 130
2006: 85
2007: 35
2008: 65

This will be a GREAT opportunity with our campus if the number is over 100. No one has any idea how numbers have gotten so low in the past year. Enrollment in the campus growing exponentially each year. If they can truly get 180 women into Recruitment this year our new Greek Life Director deserves a raise. :cool:

Our chapter is currently working on the logistics for this recruitment. Its going to be a completely different concept with having women "freely roaming" to and from each house. In fact, its nerve racking. It sounds like it could easily become a disorganized distaster real fast with so many women especially if they travel in "packs". We're hoping to nail down a great way to handle this.

If some things seem underdetailed I apologize...I'm trying to keep the identities of the campus and the organizations. All it takes is one person to roam to this thread to start putting together the pieces. :)

I'm curious... how does Pref work in this case? Do they have to narrow it down to X amount, or have time minimums for the night? Or is Pref more like formal recruitment Pref with formal start & stop times?

To only mention two other chapters is silly, when there are more. Not to mention incredibly shortsighted on the part of a recruitment advisor. I hope this didn't carry over to real life.

I've never heard Panhellenic "threaten" a chapter unless housing is involved. Panhellenics simply don't have the power to close a chapter for numbers.

Sorry, but when I see glaring inconsistencies like that from someone who's been a member 8 years, it sends up a red flag for me.

The PNMs will be allowed to go to all Preferences if they choose. The sororities will release just before pref and the PNMs will be able to pick which Pref's they attend. These will have formal start and finish times.

Wait. PNMs can choose which prefs to go to, but yet the sororities will release PNMs just before pref? If Patty PNM wants to go to ABC, she can still choose to go even if ABC cuts her just before pref? This makes no sense.

They can attend all Pref's as long as they weren't released after the first two days of recruitment. It is possible for Patty PNM to be invited to all Prefs. If Patty PNM wants to attend all Prefs she can. If Patty PNM is invited to 2 Prefs...she can decide to attend both or one of those Prefs.

I'm sorry - maybe I am too old but how the hell is this a recruitment thread if A) there is no actual PNM or B) there is no full list of orgs to see how things go?

Why would Hopeful have any interest in posting this? Sounds fishy.

This is the strangest recruitment format I've ever heard of.

I have heard of recruitment styles similar to this, but I think the wording of how Pref works is what's making this confusing.

Are you saying IF SHE'S INVITED TO ALL PREFS and wants to attend all Prefs, she can? If so, that would make sense in basically any recruitment scenario. If, on the other hand, you're saying a PNM can attend a pref event she wasn't invited to, that doesn't sound logical and defeats the purpose of invites.

A hundred thousand years ago, I went through structured informal recruitment. We had meet the greeks, theme party, pref party and bid day. The only one you had to get invited back to was pref. And yes, you could go to all the ones you got invited to (I was invited to 5, went to 5). I didn't go to ABC's pref because I wasn't invited, and I didn't go to XYZ's because I didn't go to their theme round so of course they didn't invite me.

HOWEVER, this made sense because there was only one round before them (I don't count Meet the Greeks as a round). I fail to see the point of having two different rounds for the PNMs to attend and not cutting until pref - rush should be progressive.

I think it depends on the school. If there are only 2 Panhellenic chapters at a particular school (like mine), what would be the point of cutting anyone before pref?

The goal for the campus this year was to move away from Fully Structured Recruitment. Since the Panhellenic system has done poorly over the last few years they moved away from the Formal Structure this is what we're faced with. Its completely new to our campus and as we speak they are still working out some of the other details other than the structure, schedule and format.

If anyone has worked with a similar structure, I would love to hear about it. Its new to us and from what I can gather isn't used as frequently. All of the organizations are worried about this transition and in January we will see if it was the right change for us!

Now for those inquiring let me present the other organizations based on campus. Occasionally we encounter women who pref with us and the following two, but not as frequently as Rubies or Emeralds.

Amethyst: This organization is seem as a super desirable sorority. Everything about them is "cute". They compete mostly with the Sapphires during recruitment. This chapter reaches total each semester
Sapphire:this organization is viewed also as super desirable. They often are your cut-throat competitors for Greek Week and Homecoming Queens. Most women who attend this pref will also attend Amethysts Pref. This group usually stays at chapter total

I reworded this a few posts down.

It is POSSIBLE that she could attend all Prefs if she is not released after the first two days.

If she is invited to all Prefs she may attend or decide to cut at that point but PNMs are not forced to cut any sororities if they choose not to do so

They are also allowing PNMs to register for recruitment up until the evening before Philanthropy Day. If they do register late they will have to meet all of the organizations on Philanthropy Day. The two days is to give them plenty of time to visit all houses before Pref. Since they will be allowed to come and go to houses as they please, this gives them the time so that should they stay at one house for 2 hours, they still have time to make all of their rounds to all the other houses.

No, no, NO!!!

If they have two days to visit all the houses at leisure - which I have heard of schools doing - that should count as one round and the programming should be the same. It should NOT be broken down into Sisterhood Day and Philanthropy Day. Two different parties implies there is some sort of progression and "moving onward." This is going to confuse the crap out of the rushees.

I still have my doubts about this whole deal because I can't imagine a Greek advisor or Panhel area advisor who would be tweaked enough to think this up.

Greek Advisor = Brand New and this system is apparently what she used as an undergrad...

Can you be my Panhel Area Advisor... :)

Personally, I don't like this.

It just doesn't seem right to me to be posting a chapter's 'business' up on a public message board.

As annoymous as you may think you are, I can GUARANTEE you that there are at least 5 ppl here who probably already know what school you're at and what chapter you advise.

It's just poor taste IMHO.

How is this different than SilverPearls' "Small Chapter / Big Recruitment" thread? It's a recruitment thread from the chapter's perspective rather than the PNMs'.

I think it's interesting, especially since the structure is so different than the recruitment at most other campuses.

I suggest you contact your GLO's NPC Delegate to make sure all of this is ok per NPC policies because it sounds rather funky to me. If she says everything's ok, then that's that. But if it's not, then she can contact the other NPC Delegates who will then try to work with your Greek Advisor and/or the Area Advisor to get in line with NPC policies.

It's not. Just because people didn't speak up doesn't mean they didn't have an opinion.

I'm certainly interested in hearing how it goes, if for no other reason than to see the less structured take on things. My understanding is that my alma matter moved to this format a year or two after I graduated, but I'm not sure how it's worked for them or the logistics. Facebook stalking only goes so far :) Could people figure out the school and even the GLO? I'm sure. There aren't too many recruitment threads out there that people can't figure out, if they really want to.

Exactly.

OK, I'll post my vote for continuing this thread. I think one issue is the OP was not very clear on the process, so the following bits have seemed a little contradictory. Maybe you could do a refresher post explaining the whole process again and listing ALL of the sororities. I think in your effort to be brief you left off too much.

To me, also an oldster, this seems like a remarkably bad process for recruitment. I'm afraid the lack of organization and structure is going to send less motivated girls packing. So with this weird process, do you have to maintain strict silence? If not, I'd be calling every PNM every day reminding her/inviting her to come back. Sort of a COB within formal recruitment.

And I'd definitely get your national on the phone and make sure all of this is fair, above board, reasonable, and maybe get some suggestions.

Good luck!