I need help with teaching girls how to rush PNMs!
 

I am currently in a sorority that has finally gotten on its feet completely. We got back on campus not too long ago but we finally hit quota this year. However, in doing so, we did bid some girls who I fear have little to no idea how to rush PNM's in fall. I know it's very early, but my goal is to write a help manual to give them so they know topics to bring up to PNM's and what one's not to. I am probably going to pull some stuff from books about body language and first impressions, but does anyone else have any advice/activities I can do to make our chapter continue to do well? Our girls are excited because we are becoming known on campus but we want to start bidding girls we truly want and not just half girls we want and half bids for numbers, and this next rush could be that chance. thanks :)

Good threads to read:

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...t=conversation

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...hlight=actives

Generally speaking, the things you were told not to discuss as a PNM going through recruitment are things that active members don't need to discuss either (ex: alcohol, partying, politics, you get the idea).

Also, bidding girls you don't want for the sake of numbers is probably not the best thing.

Have you looked into Phired Up Productions?

Alumnae can be your best friends with recruitment techniques. Even if it's just being mock PNMs.

I would imagine there is a handbook for this from your HQ. Do you have a membership adviser? she can help also. If you have another chapter close by you might see about having a conversation workshop with them. That way you can practive with each other. The chapter I advise has done that and it works well.

UK does this every year before recruitment, two sororities are paired and they take turns being PNMs and actives to practice. It works well, you should ask another sorority if they'd be willing to play pretend PNMs!

Just be really sensitive in how you do this. You don't want to be offensive in how you approach this subject. Be mindful that you don't pinpoint specific members that need this advice so that this is more chapter-wide advice. If you search GC, you will find that talking about bidding "girls we truly want and not just half girls we want and half bids for numbers" will lead to a lot of hurt feelings as people start wondering where they fit into that description. It's always good to improve, but never at the expense of your sisters' feelings.

Practice is the best thing you can do. I was a recruitment team member and what I noticed about my chapter from the outside was that they had a hard time not coming off as fake and weren't paying enough attention to their appearance. Both seem like shallow issues, but they matter during recruitment. They were over doing the "happy suzy sorority" act and started to appear completely fake...not on purpose but because they'd been told to appear happy and interested at all times and didn't know how to do that without putting off the PNM's. Practice is the only thing that helps get around this problem. Both sessions where the entire chapter is paired with mock PNM's and goes through their rotation and sessions where two girls perform a one on one situation ("Here's an example of what to do"..."Here's an example of what NOT to do") help feel more comfortable when the actual PNM's appear. As for appearance, again, workshops are your friend. If they don't know how recruitment works it might have never occurred to them that how they dress when they're recruiting matters. On our campus chapters frequently where matching shirts to campus events leading up to recruitment for visibility and everyone looks cute, but things fall apart when it comes to class. Find a way to help them feel confident without feeling like they're being told they don't look good. My girls sometimes felt like they should be offended and it IS hard to figure out how to talk about appearance without offending anyone. Having a few examples of what TO do and having a few what not to do's but prefacing that with a reminder that this is meant to educate not be offensive is a good idea. Statement clothing is fine day to day, but during recruitment they have to be approachable. Clean nails and hair, and a clean face or natural looking make up during the day time is appropriate. Nothing too revealing, no shock value slogans, etc.

Isn't "rush" something which everyone has to learn how to do?

This thing is kind of foreign to me, but the way the original post was phrased gave me a wee bit of concern.

I guess what I'm saying is that there should be a system for training women how to rush anyway, regardless of the perception of their existing skill set. Nobody is born knowing how to recruit any more than they are born knowing how to be a sorority member.

Given my experience with a certain segment of Southern society in which girls are indeed taught, almost from birth, all they will need to know about rushing, I feel a strong urge to say "Bless your heart." :p

My thoughts exactly.

And as always, I wonder what would make a member of a national GLO come to GC instead of using the plethora of resources both locally and nationally. Perhaps something was lacking in their new member program and they can address those shortcomings when they (1) train their actives and (2) conduct their new member programs in the fall.

LOL

Yet and still, we all know that you don't know until you experience it yourself. You don't know about being a member until you're a member. You don't know about membership intake until you're a member who is preparing for and participating in membership intake.

From experience in a southern chapter, we practiced like crazy! Recruitment was not taken lightly. It started almost immediately after rush and in the spring we had a whole weekend "Sisterhood" retreat that was really a practice weekend. We knew what to wear, how to bump, how to talk to PNMs, how to sing our songs (what words we slurred), we chanted until we could chant no more, then we did it all again.

That's good and you all were well prepared!

Mystic Cat has me wondering whether there are legacies who thought they already had all of this figured out. LOL. They don't need no stinkin' training! They don't need no stinkin' sisterhood or membership retreats! They always called those "family reunions!"

If you're in a Big 10 chapter, and you have just recently "gotten on your feet" - your HQ should be calling you and helping you every week to make sure things are ok. For realz. Call them up ASAP and tell them you need help before rush - this is what your national dues pay for.

DrPhil - unfortunately, NM programs often have precious little to do with "training" nowadays. Plus, they're nationally standardized and not to be deviated from. Obviously, what works at Penn State is not going to work at UC-Irvine or DePauw.

LOL at the bold!

MC, I lol'ed at dr. phils last line too! it is so true in so many families.

Senusret hit it.
There is a "certain segment" who train from birth, but it's a very, very small segment.
The rest of us have to learn!:p

So I have been told. http://www.smilieshq.com/smilies/innocent0009.gif

:D

Well.... it's been a good 6-7 years since their recolonization, and I do think they've had some sort of assistance from their HQ in recent years.

Too bad IowaHawkeye doesn't post anymore. I'm sure she'd have a lot to say.

(where is that darn sarcasm smiley when you need it?)

I would beg to offer a different slant. I just think that certain people are taught, from childhood, how to great someone pleasantly, put them at ease and have a lovely and lively conversation with them. Now, if that's training from birth for recruitment, so be it. I call it properly raising a child to be a gracious adult.

This. (I still hate using "This." by the way)

The really good recruiters are always friendly, social people who can hold a conversation - they're socially excellent to use a Phired Up term. If you give already socially excellent people a few tactics and get them to think about recruitment constantly they can recruit an entire pledge class. The trick is teaching more reserved individuals to be socially excellent.

Amen, Gusteau!

This.

I see what you and Titchou mean and partly agree.

Howeverrrrrrrrrrr, there are people who would be socially awesome under any other circumstances but it doesn't work well in a membership intake environment. I'm speaking in terms of NPHC right now but that probably also applies to non-NPHC. For instance, I know of men and women who seem really cool, charming, funny, and friendly. Part of it was their "natural" charm and the rest was excellent upbringing. But, it was TOO MUCH for membership intake both when they were aspirants and when they were members bringing in new members. It was interpreted differently. Also, what many people consider being a "lady" or "gentleman" (I kind of hate those terms) doesn't fly well with everyone. Another instance of relativity.

This is why we have training. I don't want anyone thinking they already have "it" and therefore they don't have to worry about the dos and don'ts of the process. These people often fail miserably and are humbled big time.

I agree! No one is that perfect that they can't take a few helpful hints and pointers to smooth out the edges.

This...is why I hate you :)


I definitely see what you're saying. I think at least in a northern, non-traditional NIC context you need to be "out there" because you're trying to reach out to a recruitment pool that may not be opposed to fraternity membership but is probably not actively interested in it. We do train all of our members to learn how to dynamically recruit regardless. But recruitment and intake are obviously not the same thing.

This...is why I'm hot. :p



I see. Can't that fail miserably if you are going toooooo far for a bunch of PNMs who already think that GLOs try too hard to be relevant and sell themselves?

Yes, it certainly can, but if it does you're probably not doing it right. The dynamic recruitment philosophy emphasizes meeting people and making friends outside of the fraternal context, so your goal as a recruiter is to become someone's friend without the fraternity as the focus. You should introduce them to your friends (ahem, brothers), and theoretically by the time you talk to them about joining the fraternity they like you enough to see the value in fraternity membership and how much you've gained from the experience. However, if you try to hard it will undoubtedly backfire.

:)

Cool. Sounds like further support for training.

I think there are two different groups of people. Those for whom you need the full blown conversation techniques workshops...those who are shy and who don't put themselves "out there" socially around unknown people. The others are the ones raised to socialize who probably just need help with appropriate topics of conversation for the particular event - IN NPC, pref conversation would be very different from the first night - or Ice Water Teas as we do here in the South.

This was pretty much me in a nutshell as an undergrad. :) I could converse with random people I met at parties, in class, etc - but when it came to rush I often downright sucked. My sorority did so much for me that when it came to putting across why I wanted other people to share it with me, it was nearly impossible to convey. It's like being in love with someone so much that you just turn into a blithering idiot.

There was a really good article in our magazine one time about being frustrated at rush - the line that resonated with me was something along the lines of "Throwing open our bonds to everyone, many of whom are often rushing only to pick you apart, is not easy."

I was NOT raised to be a good communicator - my dad was, but I guess the parents just thought we would pick it up, or that it was natural. My sorority training was very helpful, but I wish we had had a LOT more emphasis on conversation.

Not everyone is a natural at holding conversations. Some people are socially awkward and recruiting is difficult for them. Those are the women you want to pair with socially strong women so that you don't have a PNM talking to a lousy recruiter the entire time they are at your party (sure fire way of them not ranking you on top.) Sometimes you don't know who recruits well and who doesn't until after the first day. You need to watch what is going on. So how do you prepare? I always tell the girls that you treat a PNM the way you would treat a guest in your home. Welcoming, warm and inviting. Have a list of topics they can talk about for each day (and not the what is your major questions) of recruitment and the ones to stay away from. Above all make sure your promoting your Chapter and what is so great about it (not over the top). Recruiting is like a job interview. You have to ask questions to get to know these PNM's. The more you know the better you will be able to "choose" your New Members. Practice makes perfect. If you can do mock recruitment with splitting your house in 2 to have 1/2 be the PNM's and half be active members do it. If you can work with another group on campus to do the same thing- great. The important thing is to prepare your women with what they will need to be able to successfully communicate to the PNM's. It takes a lot of pre work and planning to have a successful recruitment. Good luck!

Try not to ask a question that can be answered with a yes or no. Conversations die a quick death due to lack of elaboration. As a pnm, answer questions and return the favor by directing the conversation back to the sister.