Spring Informal Recruitment Fliers?
 

When you see sororities that are passing out fliers for spring recruitment, what do you think of it? Does it seem desperate or that they're just trying to get the word out? Does your chapter participate in handing out fliers?

I guess this question really applies more to campuses who participate in Formal Recruitment in the Fall and chapters only hold Informal Recruitment when they want to get up to quota/chapter total.

Thanks!

I dont think it seems desparate at all. I think it is a great way to get the word out to potential PNM's who may not otherwise go by the greek office for more information. My chapter has done this in the past as with nearly all other chapters on our campus. My chapter has not done this recently though.

I think it's especially good to advertise on a campus that doesn't normally have many, if any, Chapters doing spring recruitment. (Like say this year with Bama raising Total.) Potential PNMs wouldn't know that they would have an opportunity outside the normal Formal Recruitment.

Unless it's an overall Panhel thing (i.e. all the sororities are having informal rush), I think it looks desperate. Not to mention the sorority is pretty much showing their business - i.e. announcing "hey, we're under total and need to get our numbers up" - and putting themselves in a position of having to explain to Courtney Love Junior exactly why they don't want to bid her when she shows up to the parties. There is no "we had to cut a certain number of rushees" excuse like in formal rush.

The same goes for chalking and facebook/myspace pages.

A much better idea is to have every member of the sorority invite their personal friends to open bid parties.

So, as of right now, 3 are FOR and 1 is AGAINST.

I'm split. :/

They aren't desperate AT ALL. It's called advertising.

Which is fine for socks, beer and crockpots. Not sororities.

More people join because of friendship with one member than any other reason. That's been proven time and again, which is why I recommend the current members reaching out to their friends. If you want to throw your doors open and show your hand, fine, just be prepared to have a really fun time separating the wheat from the chaff without any of the constraints of formal rush to fall back on.

I don't see it as desperate at all.

Depending on the campus, there may be a higher constitiuency of students who might not be otherwise quite aware of the existence of Greeks and its practices. There might also be no "formal" method of advertising informal recruitment for girls who went bidless, or for some reason did not go through formal rush. Some girls might have been interested but not have known where to look.


Um, what do YOU think about it? Do you know why the group did not reach total? Does it necessarily make them lesser because they have fewer members than they "ought to" have? I don't know what the situation is, but it seems like you might not know much about it, either.

Why not check them out and see what they are about? You may just like what you see.

The way I look at it, a chapter that's struggling with numbers needs to attract people who want to be in THAT sorority, not A sorority. YMMV.

And I guess I'm dumb because I just realized the girl asking is a rushee, not a member. I would inquire as to why you're asking, too. But I will say - do you want to be in THAT sorority, or A sorority? (More to the point, are you Courtney Love Junior?)

For it! And thank God because that's how I received my bid!

Why is it desperate? It is still a mutual selection process even though it isn't formal. They could have 10 girls show up for 5 spots. As much as you have the open invitation to attend an advertised event, they have the option to give or not give you a bid. In the end, if you attend an advertised event you can meet the girls and see if you like them. They may be fantastic....they might be kinda ick. You won't know unless you take the chance. What do you have to lose?

Also, why do they have open spots? Are they open because they had a large senior class that is graduating in December, do they have high academic standards and some of their sisters aren't making the grade, do they need to grow to meet total? In the end, does it matter?

I'm actually not a PNM anymore. I AM a sister of the chapter that is wanting to put out fliers. We were just chartered last year. This fall was the first time we participated in fall Formal Recruitment. (First "pledge" class, besides the Founding class).

The only reason I found out about recruitment was through fliers. All the houses had fliers and I went to some of the houses but not all. I was not close to any member in DG but the first time I went one girl made me feel so welcome and at home that I knew I found my sorority :) So my conclusion is fliers=good.

If you are just getting started - I would try to go with the flow. If other groups on campus flier, have at it. If they don't, don't. Depending on the campus, new groups are sometimes looked at askance anyway - the last thing you want to do is draw negative attention.

If fall formal didn't go as well as you'd hoped and you feel you need more training in recruitment (which you probably do - most new groups do) call up your HQ and tell them you need help and support in this area. That's what they're there for. That's what you pay dues for. It is up to them to help you become strong, not just give you the charter and let you sink or swim on their own. YOU ARE ENTITLED TO RECEIVE HELP. Don't be afraid to ask.

We are getting help. We have our national advisers with us. They are actually the one's who are wanting us to put the fliers out.

OK, if that's the case, then I'll put it this way. If you're questioning something they're telling you to do at this youthful stage of your chapter, you probably have a feeling in your gut that it wouldn't go over on your campus.

If it's a question of your being unknown because you're new, you need publicity. That is different than handing out fliers inviting people to come to parties.

If it's a question of crappy return rates after your parties, you need to learn how to rush effectively.

While I don't think fliers are necessarily desperate looking, I don't think their really an effective recruitment tool. There are much better ways to informally recruit, such as making real personal connections. I suppose it really depends on your campus though.

I definitely agree with this.

PNM 1, I too was part of a colony that chartered in Spring of 2009, and we had our first formal recruitment this past fall, and even though we did well and made quota, we're still under total. So, we decided to have a few COB events during this last week of school, and today we're handing out bids to our new Spring class!

The way we reached out to PNMs was the way that 33girl suggested. Our recruitment chairs asked that everyone try and bring a friend who was not already in another chapter and would make a good sister to the events. I think this method works well for a few reasons: 1) I think the friends that accept the invite to come are truly interested 2) The PNMs are likely to fit in quite well with the rest of the sisters, since they're friends with at least one of the sisters.

We also did this last spring when we added a few girls to the charter class. It worked out really great, and I would highly recommend it!

My opinion: It depends on how you execute the entire thing.

Are they more like fliers with recruitment dates on them, or more like a pamphlet with information about the sorority? Who are you handing them out to? Where are you going to be when you do so? Will there be an information table involved?

Placing yourself at a high-traffic area on campus, handing out fliers to every girl who walks by could appear desperate.

Setting up an information table and having girls approach you (while you're standing up, ready to meet them, of course), and then handing them an informational pamphlet about the sorority would be fine.

It all depends on how you go about it, IMO

This post poses a great question. What are you considering to be flyers? At my school we had posters with recruitment party dates, times, and locations on them posted to bulletin boards in high traffic areas on campus. We did not pass out flyers/brochures to every young woman we came into contact with. I would agree doing that would make a group seem desparate.