Small club's growing again?
 

My experience may be a little different because I go to a small, private Christian school. We don't technically have sororites (because we are a Christian school, we don't believe in having clubs of the panhellenic variety), but we do have "social clubs" that work in the same way. Our process is also kinda different, as well. We only have pledging in the fall (not sure if this is different, but just thought I should mention it) and we have two Spring rushes and four Fall rushes. The Spring rushes are basically a way for girls to see if they really do want to pledge and to figure out which club they feel is best fit for them. The Fall rushes are for you to get yourself known with the club you want, etc.

My club is very small and have been told by our sponsors that this year is make or break it for us. I just pledged last year and it's been a very terrifying semester so far trying to get girls to quit being seduced by the "big club syndrome." We have thrown out our constitution in order to figure out the best system of operations to make next year and many more years happen for our club. Our club has been around since 1920 and has never once disbanded, I would hate for that to happen now.

What I want to know is maybe personal stories about how you made the club get bigger again? Or what happened if you had to disband? Another question would be what are rush ideas that made you interested in a club, regardless of it's size? If you are a small club, what are some rush ideas that have worked or haven't worked in the past? I am planning to be rush coordinator this year and am just trying to get the best idea of how to plan rushes for the club. I know there are lots of other posts about the subject of rush ideas and the like, but I wanted answers more specifically aimed toward small clubs and/or clubs that have grown significantly and what helped make that happen.

Thanks, I really appreciate it! :D

How small ARE you? I mean, do you not have enough people for basic offices or what?

You don't have to worry about paying national fees or making quota and total. Do you have housing that you can't afford? Does the school derecognize you if you get below a certain # of members?

Personally, I chose a smaller sorority because that's where I was comfortable. When growth did happen, it happened organically - because the women rushing saw we had a really good bond and were proud of our group and wanted to be part of that. That doesn't happen overnight though.

I'm not sure if tossing your constitution out the window is going to help, given that you've been around for 90 years, something must have been working.

Are girls leaving your club and going to another? Can you talk to alumnae for ideas and support? Though you aren't a sorority, you hold recruitment, so perhaps you should do a search here. There is a ton of great information. There is also a book, called "I Heart Recruitment", which many people have recommended.

My chapter of Gamma Sigma Sigma disbanded shortly after I graduated. We had dwindling numbers and finally, people just stopped caring. It was heart breaking, and we did everything we could.

What have you tried in the past/recently to boost numbers? Are people pledging, but dropping out? Perhaps looking at what was happening when your numbers started to go down is a good place to start.

After graduation in May we will have 9 regular members and 2 grad school members. The school will still recognize us as a club as long as we get pledges but we make the official decision to disband. We used to have 8 offices, last year we had 5, this year we'll only have 2.

I may have phrased it wrong, we're not completely doing away with our constitution, but a lot of the things regarding members is being disregarded this year due to size. I've never actually heard of someone leaving a club and going to another, so I figure that's not allowed or no one has ever tried it.

When I pledged we only had 7 pledges and ended up losing 2 before the process was over. 1 of the girls from my pledge class is inactive this semester due to grades and is transferring at the end of the semester and another is studying aboard this semester, but is also planning to transfer after she gets back.

Back in the 90's our club was in the same situation and a couple girls who wanted to pledge my club the next year talked up the club to all their other freshman friends (you can't pledge until you're a sophomore here) and they all decided to pledge because they didn't want a club with such an amazing history and legacy on our campus to die away. Is there a way to incorporate this into a rush without making it seem as though we are desperate or trying our last resorts?

What is the best way to show the girls that a small club isn't necessarily a bad thing, but still let them know we would like lots of pledges?

Another question might be what are some good PR ideas that would make girls interested in coming to our rushes. At my school we have 5 girls' clubs and to pledge you have to go to 4 of the 5 clubs' rushes to be considered for a bid, so how do we prevent girls from making us that club they don't rush?

I hope that clears things up. If you have any questions I'll try to explain as best as I can. Again, thank you so much.

I think the first thing to do would be to try to do away with that rule that rushees only have to go to four of the five and make them go to all five. Seriously, there are schools where women have to visit 18-19-20 sororities in under a week. Going from 4 to 5 isn't going to kill anybody.

This kind of "pre-rushing" is the absolute best thing you can do. However, as I said, it has to happen organically. If you stand up in the middle of rush and say "tell your friends about us!" then yeah, it will look kind of desperate. The thing is to make sure your members are meeting and befriending those freshmen - you all need to be involved in activities where you meet new people.

Also, if you are allowed to pledge juniors, even seniors, don't be afraid to do so. Often they make the most committed members because they've had a lot of time to think about what they truly want out of a sisterhood.

The 4 out of 5 rule is something the Social Club office put in place and I really wish they would do away with it. I'll talk with my club's members and see what they think we can do about getting this rule changed.

Thanks for the suggestions. We're hearing a lot of good things around campus about people that want to pledge our club next year, so it's helping us get more confidence to talk to more freshmen. I'll keep you posted as Spring rushes get closer.

I guess one thing you should consider is what could you offer sophomore women who join your group that the other groups cannot because of their size? Obviously, they won't be able to take major offices quickly. Maybe this is the time to look for women who want to define their experience and recreate your club with your other members. They will be able to make changes immediately whereas in other groups, it will be years before any of their ideas will be heard (if ever, with 51 members in each pledge class!) One strong pledge class can turn a chapter around. I think with a club of 9 members, you can't think about looking desperate...you have 9 members!
It's do or die time! Make recruitment almost like a game of Project Small Club-- save a 90 year old sisterhood.

So, a little update on what's going down... We have ALL Club Rush next Monday. Due to the circumstances I mentioned before, we do not have any Club houses, so this is our way of having all the PNM's go through the process of seeing all the clubs before individual rushes start. At ALL Club Rush we make a circle in the middle of campus and each club sets up booths where PNM's can come by and get something to snack on and something to take with them so they remember who we are later. This is a way to help them figure out which clubs they're more serious about and help them decide if pledging is right for them.

Then on Thursday of next week and the following Thursday we have our individual club Rushes. We already picked the themes and have sent out invitations as best we can, but I have a quick question I'd like some help with... What is a good way to get these invitations out to more girls without going into their dorms? (This is against the rules for clubs to do, btw.)

Also, just for future references during Rushes so we can show these girls who we are without coming across as desperate, what are some things that really stood out to you about your sorority? What made you prefer that one over the other chapters are your university? What are some things you experienced, good or bad, that influenced your decision about who you wanted a bid from?

Thanks a bunch! :D

This may be a silly question, but about how many members do the other clubs have? How many did you have a few years ago? Just for a point of reference.

Is it kosher to ask the girls for their class schedules (of those who are interested) and surprise them with an invitation outside the building? I know that there isn't a lot of you, but you might be able to get this done over 2 days' time, depending on how many invites you put out. How do the other clubs do it?

AnotherKD: The three big clubs at my school all capped their pledge classes last year (which is 51 pledges, if I didn't mention that before), so they have around 100-150+ members each. The other club on campus is not as small as us, but they are facing the same situation we are in regards to getting PNM's interested. About 5 or so years ago I believe we had around 100 members, but we have (obviously) been on a rapid decline since then. Three years ago the Social Club Office decided to change the pledging process and try some new things, but instead of helping the small slubs, it only hurt them and aided the big clubs even more. We are currently going though legislation changes so that the process will change again, but they haven't decided on what they want to do yet.

ree-Xi: I'm not sure about the class schedule idea. And I'm also not sure how the other clubs send out their invitations. Every club does Facebook events, so the more popular a club is, the more members will be attending the event, so all the more reason a PNM would want to go to that one. And word of mouth works really well for big clubs since there's so many members, but since we're extremely small, we can't rely on that as much. I had an idea about getting all the freshman girls' mailbox numbers and then mailing them all invitations to the rushes. Does that sound like a good idea or is that crossing over the boundary into creepy territory?

Thanks so much for helping! I really appreciate it and any advice anyone has to offer I will gladly accept!

I think that you should really take a look at what other clubs do, for direction on what is "acceptable" vs. "creepy". Take your cues regarding the spectrum too intimate to too casual from the types of approaches other clubs use. Is that secret info? It wouldn't be hard to find out. Didn't you all go through rush? Did you get invitations to other clubs? How did they deliver them?

There is a book (I haven't read it, but a lot of people swear by it) called "I Heart Recruitment". Again, you'd need to tailor your ideas to suit your campus culture.

I also wanted to tell you that it IS possible to grow again, but it's a commitment on behalf of all your members. Recruitment should happen every day. Are there alumnae among the faculty/staff? Celebrating them in some way is a great "everyday" type of recruiting that is so important. So is wearing your club's colors/symbols, having club lunches in the cafeteria, sponsoring or volunteering as your club at campus events, etc. If there are say, 10 of you, commit to talking to 2 new girls a day each - just as a potential friend. Over a week, that's 100 girls. (So get moving...now!) Some of these girls may learn or know of your membership (that's where wearing colors or symbols comes in handy!) over the course of normal conversation.

Another very easy thing to do while wearing letters and colors or symbols etc. is get a group together (or even your whole chapter) to eat lunch in the cafeteria and invite girls to come eat with you. The girl someone knows from class, the girl who ins't sitting with anyone, invite anyone to sit down and chat with you! This is a great way to let them see parts of your chapter and you never have to mention numbers. Just that you are eatting with your some sisters. They will never know that 7 of 9 of you are present for all they know 7 out of 150 of you are present. This allows them to fall in love before they realize you aren't a larger club.

Personalized contact can do a LOT, and make girls feel like you want her individually to join. If you're still considered to be in pre-rush, then you are probably okay to individually contact/meet with girls (find out the rules!) and get to know them on an individual basis. If a girl feels like she's not being treated generically, or mass-invited to things, she will probably feel more special--you really want her, and maybe she'll tell her friends about the awesome club where they really went out of their way to get to know her. :) Best of luck to you!

ree-Xi: I think something that's really popular among the big clubs is having the group lunches, like was mentioned by ADPiTigergirl. I would love to try that, but it never seems to work out. We do have a lunch anyone is free to go to on Fridays where we usually try to invite freshmen to go to, but I never go because I have a lame boyfriend who's not in club and I am broke ALL. THE. TIME. I have heard a lot about that book on this site and may have to look into purchasing it for our formal Fall rushes, but since these are so soon I don't really have much time to get it and put it into practice for these rushes. Thanks though! :D What do you mean by celebrating the alumnae? I don't exactly know what to do with that idea, any advice would be great! :] About wearing letters/colors/etc., our club is so small that we can't really afford to buy t-shirts and such because to get them at a good price you have to buy in bulk and we can't do that, so I only have like 4 t-shirts I'm allowed to wear every day with my club's letters/colors on them... The shirt that is our jersey, that looks really nice and is really cute, we can only wear every once in a while and if we wear it any other time we get fined... We're getting new intramural shirts this week though, so maybe that'll help. :] Can I get some tips on how to promote the club without being able to have a bunch of shirts/jackets/etc? Thanks!

ADPiTigergirl: We have been trying out the lunch thing, but I'm not sure how it's going so far. Read my comment back to ree-Xi for more info. :] Also, our entire campus knows we're small. It's nothing new and it's something that has all the other clubs starting rumors and stupid stuff like that. So while we could in a way conceal that we have a very low member count, it's highly unlikely that someone interested in pledging next semester doesn't already know about it. The rumors being spread by the other clubs are a WHOLE other story on its own, but it is something that is making people turn away from us... Once rushes start up, these rumors will fall apart, but until then the only thing we can do is defend ourselves, which can be hard when there's so few of us.

goldsilverbronz: I would really love to do this, but I'm really shy when I first meet people. How do I go about talking to someone without being that awkward shy girl at first? It's really hard for me to tell who's a freshman and to tell who's interested in pledging, so I never seem to do well with the personalized, one-on-one conversations with girls. I completely agree with you though and that's why I ended up falling in love with my club, the girls remembered who I was after the rush and I knew they would genuinely miss me if I didn't end up ranking them first and got a bid from another club, none of the other clubs were that way with me. Anymore tips you may have are wholeheartedly accepted. Thanks!

You can't get better unless you try, practice makes perfect.The best way to remain confident in a conversation is to control the conversation by asking open ended questions.

If there are alumnae working on campus, bring them a flower in your color or some cupcakes. Make a small sign for their office door.

As for wearing colors, your color is red, right? Designate a day each week for you all to wear red to class. It can be a shirt, an accessory, or even a headband. Maybe wear something red every day during rush. People might notice and ask why.

You can get screenprinted shirts or totebags in small orders from a local t-shirt shop. There are web sites that will makes shirts for orders on as few as 10. Put your logo or write out your club's name. Ask alumnae if they'd like to order shirts and you get get a bigger order and save money.

Why can't you get together to eat lunch at the school cafeteria? What about going to school events together?

As for being shy, once you stop worrying about what people think of you (that is, show interest in others; ask questions), you will be more approachable. If most of the girls in your group are shy (and I am wondering if this might be part of why you are smaller right now), you might want to do some icebreakers before rush events to loosen up. Dance the hokey pokey, do some cheers, play music, get psyched. Energy is contagious. If you all are self-conscious and scared to talk to people, they aren't going to want to talk to you. It's about confidence. You don't have to be big to be confident.

As for having to "defend" yourself against what people might be saying - you are feeding into whatever "rumors" there are. Don't be defensive. Defense is a reaction. Be proactive. I know it sounds easy, but in a way, it is. It's a change in your mindset.

I don't know if there is anything else we can tell you. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will. Good luck.

Thanks so much for all of the advice. It's really helpful! And we had our first RUSH event yesterday, which is kind of hectic and crazy since it's all club RUSH (so all guys and girls clubs are there). But we talked to a lot of girls and are very pumped about our individual RUSH on Thursday. On Facebook we have 103 girls confirmed to come and over 60 maybes. This of course is no definitive number; there could be less, there could be more. We are stoked and have done very well at talking to girls.

Also, I think our presence at the all club RUSH yesterday just squashed all the rumors. So, no one will have to even question our activity on campus anymore.

Another thing I actually heard from members from big clubs on campus are that they don't care about Spring RUSHES and they aren't a big deal because they aren't actually going to remember any of these girls' names come time for Fall RUSHES. All I thought when I heard that was, "Thank you for allowing my club a way to influence the potentials' opinions of us." I understand, especially with a huge club that attracts a lot of PNM's, that it can be crazy and you meet so many girls at once, but that can't be an excuse. My club has a lot of methods we're going to be using to remember girls' names and information about them for when the Fall RUSHES come around.

And as for the lunch in the cafeteria thing, I actually don't eat at the cafeteria, I think the food there isn't very good. BUT we have been trying to get small groups together to meet in the food court. We're slowly, but surely doing what we can to get to know girls outside of RUSH season.

I'll keep you updated as we have our RUSHES this week and next. :]

Of course it's not. It's lunch in the cafeteria. But go there and get a Coke and a piece of pie (I'm assuming you do have a meal plan) and hang out for a while, just to be seen. One of the sororities at my school used to enforce "caf time" and while we thought it was ridiculous - in retrospect, it did work for them as they never had any problem with people knowing who they were or getting members.

Haha! I guess I'll have to see what we can do about that then.

So, we had our first Spring RUSH tonight and it surpassed expectations! It was so amazing. We had almost 100 girls come. :D We had our RUSH after the two big clubs on campus had their RUSHES and the girls that had gone to those RUSHES could tell the difference between the clubs for sure. They told me that at the first two RUSHES they were just passed around from person to person and it wasn't very enjoyable, but at our RUSH they were having a really good time because even though there were only about 20 members/alums of our club there, we held our own and actually had real conversations with the girls. I think I only talked to three girls about majors, which is something that we were making sure not to ask upfront because EVERYONE asks that and it gets old. Our President gave an amazing speech and got a lot of the girls pumped for next semester. We were all having conversations with the girls that came and I don't think there were many times where there were girls that weren't talking to members/alums. It was such a good night and we already have a lot of excitement stirred for our next RUSH that's next Thursday. I'll keep you posted on what happens as it all unfolds. Thanks so much for the help and support again.

That's great news, BeeVee. I'm excited for you and your sisters. :)

That is wonderful! I hope this event pays off. Arrogance can turn people off. I applaud you and your sisters for doing your best to show the PNMs that you care to know the individual (which btw is very difficult to do when the PNMs outnumber the sisters!)

When is bid day/night?

Well, since we only do pledging in the Fall, it'll be about a month after school starts in the Fall. But before that we have 2 weeks of recruitment, which is when each club does their 4 individual RUSHES and girls come meet the clubs, etc. Then we have a week where the clubs vote who they want and then the following Thursday is Bid Day and Friday is Bid Night.

Thank you so much! Our second RUSH happened last Thursday and we didn't get as many people as we expected (based off of who signed up on the Facebook page) due to the fact that the school's Rodeo was that night and we didn't check the calendar before scheduling our RUSH. The 20+ girls who did come though were a great group of girls and it was very exciting getting to spend a little more personal conversation time with the girls that came to this RUSH. Now we're almost done for the school year and I'll have to report back in the Fall when we start up the process for pledging.

Real quick, what's a good idea for keeping girls who are interested over the summer? We have the idea to write letters to the girls that came to the RUSHES, but most of the clubs do this so are there any things that could make this a little more original? Something that might make us stick out a little more in their minds when everyone returns to school on the Fall?

Are you allowed to do anything with the girls that stay in town over the summer? Are there any rules regarding this? Can you friend them on FB? I guess make yourselves seen so they don't forget you. Let them see that you guys keep up with each other when you aren't at school. If you can do things with girls who stay in town, have any members who are in town organize some social outings, ie. movies, dinner, etc. Be seen around campus during summer school. Do some brainstorming. I'm sure y'all can some up with some more ideas.

It's very rare that people stay in town during the summer after freshman year. I'll talk around with more of my club members and see how that idea could go over though. I'm sure there are some girls who are staying over the summer. We can be friends with them on Facebook and once we get all the information sent out to all the members from the girls who signed in at the RUSHES then we'll be able to move forward and get a better idea about how to communicate with girls over the summer. Thanks for those ideas though, I'll see what we can find out. :D

Wow, it's been so long since I came on here! But I've got an update for everyone who's still interested, haha.

So, this year we changed up the way rushing works. We do it a lot more like big universities do it, where the first rush for every club is open and then it's invitation only for the last 3. This was done 1) so that girls who don't get their first choice club have time to get over that shock and meet girls in other clubs that they get invited back to and 2) so that the smaller clubs on campus have a chance to win girls over at rushes instead of hoping they'll accept our bids when they probably haven't even met us before since they were rushing the other clubs instead.

So, our first rush was yesterday and it was at 5 on a Wednesday (remember, I go to a Christian school so most people go to church at 7 on Wednesdays). For the time and the day, the turn out was better than expected. We only had about 30 girls there, but since there were only 30 we really had a chance to talk to all of the girls and actually get to know them really well. The theme for the rush was GATA's Next Top Model, so everyone was supposed to dress up like a diva or something reminiscent of the real ANTM show. We had a runway challenge and we had an area where girls could dress up and use dispoable cameras we provided to take pictures. It was also in one of the auditoriums at our university so it was on stage and just had a really cool vibe because of that. We also had a table with "model snacks" on it, we had fruits and veggies and then some delicious punch. It was a blast!

Not only was it a blast, but we also learned about more girls who are committed to GATA for pledging. :] Such great news. And since the first round of invitations went out today, LOTS of girls already know they didn't get their first choice club so we're hoping our next 3 rushes will sell GATA to them. :D

Our next rush is a black light paint party! If you've ever seen Miss Congeniality, it's gonna be like that scene where they're at the club. It's gonna be so much fun and a lot of girls are really excited about it.

The rush after that one is a Sprinkles cupcake theme. We're having a cupcake decorating party, per say. We are going to have a contest to see who makes the best cupcake design and the top three people will get real Sprinkles cupcakes, so that's exciting. And all the club memebrs are going to wear white aprons with club-themed decorations on them and then white chefs hats. :]

The last rush's theme is Pajamas and Pearls. And girls will wear either really cute (but appropriate, of course) or really funny pajamas and we're just gonna have a tea party in pajamas. We booked this really nice house that was built back in 1910 for the rush and it has a grand staircase and chandeleirs and then an arbor in the back, it's amazing!

I'll post more updates as our rushes happen and then I'll let you all know the magic number on Bid Night! :D If you're still reading, thank you for all the support and wish us luck as we are in crunch time now. <3

-Bee-

Your rush events sound like lots of fun. Great job planning them!

Just wondering, though.... If you've only got about 10 members returning this fall, will you be able to handle a large (as many as 30) pledge class? Have you set an upper limit for the number of pledges you could realistically absorb into your club?

Sounds like y'all put a lot of thought into having fun parties. Good luck. Hopefully the changes to the rush system make a difference for your group.

OPhiAGinger - Thanks! :] And I'm sure once we find out how many girls rank us number 1 and 2 we'll have a better idea of how many we should take, because I completely agree. I don't think capping our pledge class would be the smartest idea this year even if we have that many girls interested. Not just because there are so few members, but also because too many new members at once will just make us collapse because none of them would know what to do when experienced vets graduate. There aren't going to be very many members from previous years after this so having than many girls who don't know anything about how the club is run would be bad. I think these are just things that we'll discuss when we come to them, ya know? When it's more realistic for us to look at numbers and all that. :]

AOII Angel - Thank you so much! We've put a lot into these rushes and we're hoping the girls get as excited about them as we are. :D

Good luck with your rush! It sounds like you're making a great effort and affecting change on your campus. What's interested me through this thread is that your school has determined that they can't have sororities because of some negative stereotypes but has a system that is EXACTLY what sorority life is. And by the way, almost every sorority has some sort of religious background, even if it's not their focus any more.

I don't know why I mention that, except that you really gain a lot from being a part of an inter/national organization. Someday your groups might consider affiliating with NPC or NPHC (are the Christian sororities part of NPHC?) I think your school might be pleasantly surprised at what they could offer your student body by way of leadership and support.

The school wants to keep a tight rein on the Greeks/Greeklike organizations. Period. It has nothing to do with stereotypes, even if that's the excuse they give. This way a school can shut down a group overnight if they want and the group really has no recourse, where by contrast a chapter of a national group can stay open if the national group is behind them.

That makes sense. If they tried to shut down an NPC, there would be a required hearing, etc. It's just a shame.

Plenty of Christian schools have NPCs, including my alma mater.

33girl - I think that might be one of the reasons, honestly. They probably just don't want to deal with the hastle of a governing body they have no control over. But I guess I'll never know for sure. :P

So we had our paint party rush last night and it was a total success! :D We had about 40 girls come to this rush, which was pretty impressive considering it had been raining ALL day and was still raining when the time for the rush rolled around. It was so much fun though. And a good thing was that a lot of the girls that were there went to our last rush too, so we know these girls are interested. We still have two rushes left and the girls ranked for the first time today so the big clubs will be cutting more rushees this week so our last two will most likely have new faces. Then the girls rank again next Wednesday and bids go out on Thursday. Bid night is Friday so it's gonna be a pretty packed week next week, but it's gonna be a blast!

We currently have 13 confirmed pledges, quite a few maybes/still deciding, and then we'll hopefully win over more girls that get cut from their first choice clubs tomorrow. :P We have a rush Thursday and then we have a rush next Tuesday. Tuesday night after the rush we vote for who we want to extend the bids to, then rushees rank for the second time. So exciting!

After all this planning and talking about this semester, it's amazing that it's finally here and going so well! I just wanna thank all of you guys for the support, it's really meant a lot. It's been a great help to hear from people outside of our university's system. Well, I'll continue to keep you posted!

So tonight was our 3rd rush, the cupcake rush. It was pretty good, we had 32 girls there. And again, most of the same girls that were at the last two rushes were at this one, so that's promising and exciting. :D Invitations to the last round of rushes go out tomorrow so between 60 and 80 girls will be getting the news they didn't get their first choice club. I'll keep you posted when we have our 4th and final rush.

After the rush that night we vote, PNMs rank the following day, and then bids go out on Thursday and Bid Night is Friday. Which is weird, since in years past PNMs rank on Friday and then they wait a WEEK until the following Thursday to find out who they get bids from, haha. It's gonna be pretty packed next week, but it'll definitely be fun!

It sounds like you have this well under control. Good luck through this crazy period coming up!

Can't wait to hear how all of this pans out. I'm wishing your club luck, BeeVee.