Studying Abroad and in charge of recruitment?
 

Has anyone (or do you know of anyone who has) been the Vice President of Recruitment while also studying abroad the summer before recruitment?

If so, how did you make it work? Thanks.

Yeah, this sounds like a bad idea. You're going to make things hard on yourself. But if you know how to delegate and have supportive advisers you can make it work. I would have a meeting with your Recruitment Adviser to make sure you have all of your ducks in a row. Have a schedule for what needs to be done over the summer, and make a list of any potential problems now. Then lean on your recruitment committee heavily. Possibly find an underclassman (that has already been through recruitment on this side) that is interested in holding your office in the future, and educate them on the schedule.

For sure you need to start planning now. Work shops, t-shirts, mail outs, whatever...that all needs to be done/ordered/ready to be ordered well before you leave so that whoever is "in charge" while you're gone won't have to do your job for you, but just help run any meetings or workshops. You also need to set up a way to have internet once you get to your location abroad and check your email/facebook daily. Calling is too expensive for anything but emergencies, but if you're not staying on a campus you might have to find an internet cafe. Do that on day one and make the effort to stay in touch.

The main thing to remember is that your chapter is depending on you to make sure recruitment is successful. So be willing to inconvenience yourself to have everything go smoothly.

All that being said, enjoy your experience! It will be so fun!

not a good idea.

if we are talking about fall recruitment, you will most likely have panhellenic recruitment meetings, meetings within the sorority and with advisers during the summer . you really should be able to attend them. you have to know what is going on and be up to date, and if you are not physically present, that won't happen.

Bad, bad, bad idea. In fact, I wouldn't even let a recruitment chair live outside of the chapter house.

Y'all it depends on the chapter. At mine, for instance, we usually hold one workshop right before April finals and then have a work week the week before school starts. There is nothing in the middle of the summer except for freshman registration, and something like that could be coordinated by the president. Otherwise, there might be one council meeting and some t-shirt orders, but this sort of business can be taken care of early. Of course many chapters have much more packed summers and recruitment before school starts, and that might mean she wouldn't be able to do both. I think at chapters like mine, though, it would work fine were she willing to communicate daily and if she were able to delegate to a trustworthy person.

Yep.

Talk to your exec board or maybe an advisor. Some organizations (or this can be on the chapter level, too) have rules as to who can hold what position and under which circumstances.

Just realize that if anything goes wrong, it"ll all be blamed on the fact that you were out of the country. You're in charge, and that's how blame gets assessed whether it's true or not.

I agree with KSU here. It will be very, very difficult to be abroad as VPMR and carry out the duties of the position. Strangely enough, I recently had this question posed to me by one of the chapters I work with (small world). I have to ask, did you communicate the possibility that you could be abroad before you were elected to this office?

What about the various recruitment related due dates for your chapter during that term? I'm speculating, but based on my experience there will probably be monthly reporting due along with final formal recruitment plans, contingency continual recruitment/public relations plans, recruitment workshops, detailed party planning and more to be completed. How can you oversee all of these (or whatever your sorority requires) in your absence?

IF the chapter is in support of the decision, IF the leaders council/executive board and appropriate alumnae support personnel for your chapter is in support, IF you have a strong assistant recruitment chair willing to take on the additional responsibilities (let's face it, she's the one who will be picking up the slack in your potential absence) and IF the recruitment committee is able to step up and make it work. Lots of "IF"s and to boil it down the entire chapter needs to be on board and willing to make your term abroad work for the chapter.

I would just like to state I am not in charge of recruitment for my chapter, I was merely posing a question. Thank you. :]

"When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me."

Everyone seems to be assuming they have formal recruitment in the fall. OP, is this the case? FWIW, I don't read "the summer before recruitment" as meaning the 12 weeks immediately before.

Everyone also seems to be assuming that they have a huge recruitment with complicated skits, bump groups that require military precision, and a work week. Many chapters out there do not have any of these things. OP, is this the case?

Get the facts before you all freak out and make this poor girl feel like she asked which poison is best for killing puppies.

Uh hmm...and why would she ask if recruitment wasn't in the fall and a big deal? If she goes to a laidback school with deferred recruitment, it would likely never occur to her to ask this question.

Yes, our recruitment is in the fall. We have maybe 3 or 4 hundred that go through recruitment.

As both an Advisory Board Chair and Recruitment advisor, I would have to agree with those above that are stating this is a bad idea. I'm not even sure I would approve of something like that even if a chapter was very strong in the area of recruitment, always made quota, never has a problem with total, small if any issues that arise during recruitment/membership selection...it's the call of your chapter and what your organizations rules are, but as an advisor who advises that area, I would not be cool/comfortable at all with that.

exactly!

Thank you for clarifying. In that case, the answer is eff no. Epic fail will result. If the girl in question wants to help with recruitment, there are other things she can do.

I advised a chapter that had this happen. She was a great VP, did a ton of communication from afar, and her BFF in the chapter basically took over the role for that semester. It was pretty smooth actually, and it ended up a fantastic recruitment where the chapter more than doubled their size. So, it's definitely possible. I wouldn't recommend it unless all those involved are not only fully committed but also very very good at their roles.

This.

With an emphasis on this.

The way I look at it, these are two outstanding opportunities (VPR & studying abroad). It's also one of those times when a person has to pick one of the choices, and live without the "what ifs?" of life.

and put the welfare of the chapter above personal desires.

Yes, which may mean resigning from this office so someone else can step up so you can pursue study abroad.

Study abroad. Everyone I know who didn't says it's their biggest regret.

Not me ;) But I've had the ability to travel in other ways.

Still, I wouldn't be the VPR if someone paid me so there's that.

Fortunately I had the chance to study abroad AND hold an office, but both at the same time is way to much. If you want to be an officer, I assume you want to perform the best to your ability, and when studying abroad, you just can't.
Studying abroad comes with a lot of extra effort (not in a bad way) because it takes time adjusting to the culture (even between "rich" countries) and language.

Conversations that will never happen:


"Hey, Emily! A bunch of us are going to take the train to Liverpool and maybe the boat to Dublin this weekend - wanna come?"

"No, I'm going to ordering t-shirts and make name tags for recruitment."

Studying abroad is amazing, and I am sure being recruitment chair is as well, but living in a foreign country is an opportunity that gets harder later. Conversely being recruitment chair is something one only does as a collegian, but having your beliefs challenged and living in a different culture really blew my mind.

If you have ideas for the position you can always offer advice and assistance and think of what you can share with your sisterhood and PNMs upon your return.

We also did this once. However: we had deferred recruitment in a small system, the chapter was struggling with only about 20 members, and this person was a very strong leader who was passionate about recruitment. She was gone third term (we were on trimesters) and was able to start some of prep from abroad while someone stood in for her locally for COB events. Then we all had an entire trimester together to plan before recruitment in January. Realistically given the size of our system & chapter, we wouldn't have done much in the spring anyway.

With that said, I agree with everyone else that if there is another option, choose that. Unless you have a very small chapter and literally there is no other option, hold a smaller office where a proxy can fill in for you with less churn. Whomever is considering this should let another sister who is motivated, capable, and logistically available handle that.