Recruitment Ideas
 

Hello Alphas!
As we gear up for another recruitment season I was wondering, what ideas worked on your campus and which ones didn't in terms of getting our name out there.

For us: Going to the freshman intro classes and handing out fliers with our even information on it helped a lot, it helped girls meet us before any session so it would be a bit more personal. Also for some reason the daily email bulletin board seems to get us out.
What doesn't work is putting fliers up. I guess people don't read them

Fliers = major fail. (1) They look desperate and (2) No one ever reads them
Same thing with facebook ads.

What worked well for our chapter: (These outside of formal, PHA recruitment activities and confined to COB so we didn't have any recruitment infractions. You, as not part of PHA, don't have this problem).

1. Compile a database of PNMs your sisters personally know. Invite these girls NOW to start hanging out with you.

To compile the database, think of all the girls in your engineering and science classes, who you work with, study with, etc. Think of friends' sisters who are going off to college. Ask fraternity friends for suggestions.

Then, start forming friendships.. Go for coffee dates, ice skating, bike rides, shopping trips, and more. Build a friendship. Introduce the sorority by bringing sisters to hang out. Carry your tote bag and wear your letters. Invite them shopping with you and pick up a dress for formal while your out. Don't ever force the sorority on them, but keep it open for discussion.

It works really well. We used google docs to have a web-form all actives and alumnae could fill out. Women would peruse it and look for names they knew, or girls they had things in common with, such as major.

It is TERRIFYING to do, but a cold call is great, especially to incoming freshman. They are so pleased to hear from someone, they are open for conversation.

Phiredup.com has a cold call "script" along with a million other free resources I suggest you use, along with a million other perfect resources (phiredup.com). I also highly suggest the book I <3 Recruitment. It is designed for COB events, perfect for us!

2. Your biggest resource: your most recent candidate class. Have them all fill out a survey with the following.

(a) How they first heard about the sorority
(b) recruitment events they loved and why
(c) recruitment events they hated and why
(d) why they decided to accept the bid and undergo Candidate Initiation
(e) why they followed through with sister initiation
(f) Friends they would like to recommend.

These surveys will be highly helpful. Use (f) to help compile your database. These girls have many friends who are great candidates for candidates (tee hee).

Plan recruitment based on these answers.

3. Make your "formal" recruitment short, but intense.
Advertise well in advance of events. Personal invites (phone calls, not e-mails) work best. Offer to personally walk a girl to an event. Going alone to an event, even one with free food, is terrifying, so they generally accept the invitation openly.

Don't stretch recruitment beyond 2 weeks. Everyone is just exhausted. If you aren't where you want to be about 1 week in, intensify the advertising not the number of events.

And remember COB. You have fun events anyhow, so invite PNMs to it.

4. Utilize the time after Panhellenic's Formal Recruitment. There will be many, many disheartened girls around who didn't get bids/ dropped out/ turned down bids.

5. Pay close attention at Convention (or tell your delegate to). There's a great recruitment presentation happening.

6. Recruitment is 24-7-365. This means you (a) need to start planning/advertising for fall NOW. (Get your PR advisor on this ASAP :) ). (b) Carefully guard your reputation. Watch how you wear letters, facebook pages, etc. Get cute recruitment attire ordered now. (Get your PR advisor on this too, lol). (c) Remember the value of COB

Those are great ideas!

I joined because I felt at home with the girls. They didn't try too hard and they didn't pressure me to join. As a smaller group, I think this happens all too often. Make the PNM feel special and make her feel at home. Don't try too hard. It turns you off.

This is classic advice. I wish everyone could do this. It's hard because you really thing the Sex and the City Theme or color-coordinated balloons make a difference... and in COB it really doesn't.

Thanks! I'm working on the recruitment committee this semester... so any more ideas from y'all would be really appreciated!

Anyone working on recruitment fun yet?

Beta Alpha is :) We have a rough plan of events planned out, and we've started recruiting freshman through the COE.

and....

I need help explaining (and possibly planning) pref to my chapter. We've never done it and I have no idea how to explain what it is and it's significance in recruitment to the Recruitment Chair. I know we are required by nationals to have a pref ceremony, but IEB is a bit slow on giving us our log-ons to access the sister-side of the website so we can't actually see what the ideas/ceremonies are :(

I donated these adorable pins to my active chapter for their bid day packs.
http://i34.tinypic.com/15npsfn.png

Where did you get those? They are super cute.

It's my first time on the "other side" of recruitment. I am so, so, so excited!!!!!:D

I have read all the helpful threads on here about being on the other side. Do you ladies have any specific helpful hints? I am almost more nervous than when I went through recruitment!!!

Also I thought it would be fun to share stories we have experienced during recruitment. Does anyone have any?

ALAM!
-rubberduckie

P.S. Do you guys do a themed work week? Our is! We're doing "A Blast from the Past" Work Week,

Zazzle.com. I'll PM you the link.

There's a wacky recruitment thread around here somewhere. (ETA: Here it is: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d+Rush+Stories)

The year I was president, we did a Survivor Themed Work Week, complete with tribes and competitions. I loved it.

You'll do fine during recruitment! Best of luck to you and your chapter!

**BUMP***

Are any chapters doing spring recruitment?

We are, and I'm helping come up with our recruitment item. (We always get a new t-shirt or sweatshirt to wear around campus during recruitment week.)

I was thinking of getting tote bags for every one, because totes are something fresh (compared to 800 billion t-shirts) and you can use it daily.

What do y'all think of these?
http://www.etsy.com/listing/62671791/personalized-embroidered-sorority-tote?ref=sr_gallery_37&ga_search_query=sorority&ga _search_type=&ga_page=&order=&includes[0]=tags&includes[1]=title&filter[0]=handmade&filter[1]=bags_and_purses

I like it. I think it's very cute, especially if the font is more royal blue. It would be cute with either the greek letters or "Alpha Ep" and it would be something you could use for a long time.

The tote bags are very cute. I also think those buttons are a great idea because you can pin them on backpacks and t-shirts and the like.

Any chapter doing a themed-recruitment this year?

we're doing Mardi Gras :)

Super cute! That's a great spring theme!

So our outfit for the first night is a white t shirt, dark jeans, and we got these cute mauve-y/lavender scarves with ΑΩΕ Monogrammed on them in a off white :) superrr cute. hopefully i'll have pictures.

Yes please. I want to see these scarves! They sound gorgeous.

I posted this in the Recruitment Pictures thread but i'd thought i'd post it here too.

Super cute! I'm actually planning on making these for presents next year, my bf's mom has one of those awesome embroidery machines and is teaching me how to sew/embroider. I love it! :)

I love it! I think it's a great look for your first round!

That is a wonderful theme. What are some events you are doing?

This isn't really recruitment ideas, but:
How do you get your chapter to be seen as a "legitimate" sorority? I have a friend in another organization, and she was talking about stuff they do for their formal dates and mentioned she wasn't sure how it would be for a "non-greek and a greek" i was just like :mad: woah... we're greek.
i think our biggest problem of being accepted is our chapter size which is a big deal in the south, but how does your chapter deal with and overcome this issue? and what are some of the barriers your chapter faces?

For our chapter, getting on Panhellenic really helped.

Also, you just need to do your thing. Part of the problem is that you are a new chapter and part of it is you are a non-NPC sorority.

You really need to get your chapter involved with things seen as "traditional greek activities": fraternity mixers, philanthropies, etc.

If people see you all and your letters more often, it well help "legitimize" you.

We're begining to plan fall recruitment, and I am very excited.

Possible themes we've come up with:
* AΩE and the City (Sex and the City Themed)
* Lily Pulitzer theme (We haven't come up with a cute title yet)
* Sail away with AΩE (Nautical theme)