Recruitment goodies
 

I'm a Chi O- Iota alum from UT in Austin and my niece is rushing at Texas State and wants to be a Chi O. I wanted to take some goodies by the house, but wasn't sure if it would be better to do a sandwich platter or tray of cookies, or some sort of candy or item that is related (such as, "Pledge Haileigh because she is so sweet!" or "Haileigh, a true sweetheart" taped onto individual sweet-tart packages or "Haileigh, she is such a gem" taped to those ring/jewel pops.)

thanks for any and all advice! I graduated in 2002 and I feel so out of touch and don't want to do something that would embarrass her!

To all of you out there that don't understand what we deal with in Texas on a day to day basis!

WELCOME!!!

However, I think this is a joke. Please tell me it is.

I personally would appreciate home baked cookies or sandwiches with the crusts cut off a lot more than Sweet Tarts or those gross ring pops. That's kind of chintzy.

If you are planning on having something delivered, you don't know when it will show up and when meal/break time is planned. Go with cookies. Always yummy and no worries if they sit around for a while before being put out. Sandwiches can get stale or soggy if they aren't eaten immediately or refrigerated.

The big question I have whenever I hear of these sorts of gifts (and yes they do happen) is how will the alumna react if their girl is released?

Ummm am I the only one who thinks she shouldn't send something with her niece's name on it?? Maybe other people just think this is a joke.

You can write a recommendation for her and send food to the house, if you want, but I don't think you should send any food with her name on it.

FYI: This is pretty mild for Texas.

:eek: Seriously? I'd be so embarrassed if my eager relative sent a tray of food in my honor, I can't imagine worse.

Please share!

No QFP? I'm disappointed in you guys!

Cake with girl's photo screened on it in icing, pizzas with photos on the box, big tins of popcorn with girl's photo on lid and sides...mind you, I'm not from Texas. Just recounting what I've heard.;)

Yep, I have seen all of this except the pizza. We once received a popcorn tin (those huge ones that you see at Christmas) and a sister innocently opened it only to find some rushee's/PNM's face staring right back at her, causing her to let out a scream! Sadly, the PNMs were the innocent ones who became household jokes due to some of the more outrageous "gifts."

It is not just individuals who do this. In my day the alumnae associations (especially Houston and Dallas) were doing this too.

To the OP- I echo what was said earlier. If you really, really, really feel that this is the right thing to do, then go with cookies. Don't do anything that would mortify/embarass your neice. Be prepared for the possibility
that your neice may be released/

Finally, ensure that you are not putting additional pressure on the neice by hoping/expecting that she will pledge your organization. Recruitment is hard enough. Please let her know in no uncertain terms that she can map her own course. This will be especially comforting if she happens to be released from your group.

Wow
 

Not a joke, thanks for the snark, this was the norm when I went through. I also think it's silly, that's why I was asking another opinion.

Also, FWIT, I haven't pressured her to go Chi O, she came to me saying that she wants to rush and that Chi O is her first pick. If she wasn't so excited, I wouldn't push it.

Not all that long ago my chapter recieved a really nice goodie basket from a TX alumna promoting a PNM. Honestly it freaked the members out. If they didn't like the PNM it would offend this generous alumna. Some were offended that it looked like an attempted bribe for a bid. I'm not sure if it would have affected whether they would have liked the PNM or not. They were actually relieved when the PNM didn't have grades so the decision was out of their hands.

FYI - of course they still ate the treats. They're college girls after all. :)

Calm down. People aren't being snarky; on the contrary, I think you've received pretty solid advice. You have to understand that not everyone here is from a place where this is normal...at all. While it's great that that was the norm for when and where you went to college, and there are some GCers who can relate, a lot of other people have never heard of this happening.

I heard of this... it involved movie tickets and a free dinner at an alumna's restaurant that she and her husband owned.
It happens every day, or every time for recruitment... Its the way of the World! (in Texas).
OP should do what ever she wants.... she should be prepared to remember her days as a member and to recall whether they all had a POSITIVE RESPONSE to every one of these gifts they recieved at the Chi O house in Texas....

I haven't heard anything in years about Greek life at Texas State, but if this isn't the current norm there, I wouldn't put your niece's name on anything. You risk freaking the girls out. It's not the norm at the chapters I'm involved with, and I know the girls at those chapters would appreciate the treat but think the shameless plug of a particular PNM was creepy.

However, if you wish to deliver something to the house, I am certain the ladies in the chapter will appreciate support from an alumna.


Side note... I did hear of a woman who made finger sandwiches for a chapter and delivered them to the ladies during work week. She stayed to serve the sisters sandwiches and drinks on cute little napkins... which happened to be embossed with "See you soon! Love, Penny PNM" in the sorority's colors.

Just a side note, that is if you didn't already know it...but Chi-O here at Texas State doesn't have anyone that lives in the house, so if you do send something, hopefully you catch people when they're there. :/ or otherwise notify someone that you're dropping it off, or have it delivered during chapter? Just and idea!

Is recruitment at Texas State competitive? Maybe I'm just not familiar with the campus because we don't have a chapter there, but I have not heard about it being a competitive recruitment. I went to a Texas university where recruitment was not extremely competitive and we never saw anything like this. I have heard of it since, but my sisters and I would have thought it was a little over the top. I would suggest sending cookies along with her recommendation letter, to get attention for her, but also to seem less like you're trying to hover over recruitment.

i would take this as a bribe, however, if you are going to do something, i vote for sending cookies and perhaps including a note of best wishes with your name on it so that the chapter links the cookies to you and the recommendation you write. please take that with a grain of salt, however, because i am from florida and have never witnessed firsthand how this sits with a chapter.

This has never happened at my school, but it is small in greek terms. I am not sure how I would feel about getting physical items promoting a single PNM (I get why the word bribe was brought up). But as others have said "she might become an inside joke", so an excellent recommendation with the cookies would be my suggestion. Then your PNM would get noticed and your show of love can go either way A) for your niece or B) just to show your support during rush.

Goody bags during recruitment are appreciated. The girls love getting recruitment support from alumnae. From my limited knowledge, however, names of specific pnm's on cookies etc. make the girls a little uneasy, I really did think those days were over. That's why I thought it was a joke. Some chapters, apparently not all, have specifically asked their alumnae at UT to not do that any more. Maybe some alumnae think it makes a difference, I personally don't think it does.

I want someone to get a special brand that will go on cooked meat like steaks or burgers. I would definitely remember a PNM if her name was on a filet mignon.

Or sushi that spelled out her name. Better yet, sushi arranged on a hot naked man (like what Adrienne Curry did on Surreal Life).

I wasn't going to respond to this, but... We once had an alumna bring her (really awesome) daughter to our suite, along with baked goodies that they had made and some awesome petit fours and some retro photos. It was made clear that there would be more petit fours in the offing. I could tell you the alumna & her daughter's name even today, *mumble mumble* years later! But alas, the daughter decided to go to another school, where she did get a bid from ADPi.

The moral of the story is that it happens, in many different ways, in various degrees of bluntness, at more schools than people realize.


ETA: I like the idea of steaks, though.

Personally, I think individual tins of caviar are the way to go.

This is not unusual in the slightest at the U of Arkansas, and I have no doubt it is the norm for UT....I have personally seen:

Boxes upon boxes of hand decorated bakery cookies with a pnms name in icing on each...
Large galvanized tubs painted on the outside with "So and So is a KEY Rushee" and then filled with individual bottled waters with homemade labels with the same message printed on each...
Sleeves of special order styrofoam cups with rushees' name printed on each...
Custom ordered notepads(stickies) and pens/pencils with names on them...

The list could go on and on...

The kicker? Our chapter does NOT accept these gifts. (but other GLOs on our campus do, so it is confusing to the general alumnae population) We send out this info every year to no avail. It still gets sent. The advisor must hide the styrofoam cups (I actually gave them to the girl after she pledged), rip off the carefully applied labels on the water, SCRAPE off the names from each cookie or across the massive sheet cake, before letting the actives see anything.

Call the recruitment chair or advisor and ask if they have a policy before wasting your money. We do allow more general gifts which are welcome. For example, if the Dallas alumnae group wants to send a basket of candies that says something like, "Good Luck during Recruitment from the Dallas Area Alum Assoc." then that is acceptable since it is not technically endorsing anyone.

Just one more way the good ol' South seems to make itself a contender for number one in the BizarroWorld of recruitment! :)

^^^Ok, if I was an alum and wanted to send a gift to your chapter, I would be doing the subliminal message thing. Remember Al Hirschfeld - the caricaturist who always put his daughter's name somewhere in his caricatures and the more he liked the person, the more "Nina"s they got? Totally do that with frosting, yo. :)

FWIW - TX State rush is not as super-competitive as UT. I would say send the goodies with your name on them - not hers. Your legacy introduction and the recs I'm sure you are having your Chi O sisters write will do the rest.

^^^^ I DO remember that whole subliminal cartoon message thing! Love it!

I remembered another outrageous alum gift:

Remember the old tv commercial that went something like "If it says, Libbey's Libbey's, Libbey's on the label, label, label; you will like it,like it, like it on your table, table, table?"
When I was an active (in the dark ages) an alum sent an entire wicker laundry type basket filled with canned goods. You guessed it, the rushee's name was Libby and her alum had made all new labels on these cans complete with "key" ingredients (I am a kappa) and other clever things like that. I remember being very impressed. Also, this was back in the day when those types of gifts were not banned.

gee_ess! How can you call that the dark ages?

Yes, the Arkansas Pi Phis got tons of presents too; I remember the president of the alum club sent a massive bouquet on behalf of her daughter. (Whom they did not pledge, another story entirely.)

Hijack about Libby's: when I was at Auburn, a girl named Libby was a finalist for Homecoming Queen. All her posters had that 'libby libby libby' label on them and she won!

Did your Libby pledge Kappa?

I honestly cannot remember! I think not since I can't remember who she was...BTW - Arkansas Pi Phis still receive gifts from alumnae.