UF Spring Recruitment!!
 

Ladies, if you were thinking of doing Spring 2011, its coming up fast!! The Informational Session is on Jan 10th and you must sign up for it through the Panhellenic website for the school. Only at the Informational Session will you be able to hear from the all the sororities in council and find out who will be extending bids this spring. That's the basic info I have gathered for you ladies!! If you have more questions, ask away! I will be happy to find the answer for you!!

Pan Love!!! <3

Why did I post this?
 

Because the PR for our PC this Spring Recruitment has been a fail and I've seen a lot of girls who were released from our Fall mention wanting to do it. I'm not trying to spoon feed or force feed anyone, I just know that some girls may be curious. The link about it is basically THIS BIG on the PC website and that's it - and I don't think that's enough.... Sorry if it comes off odd to you. I'm also disaffiliated as a member of Panhellenic, so I am not force/spoon feeding for my chapter either.

Don't apologize! You posted useful information in a location where PPNM's may have a chance to see it.

thanks ufgatorlove for letting uf pnms know when panhellenic will be hosting the informational meeting on spring recruitment!

Good luck!

UFgatorLove, great job on getting the word out. The poster looks really inviting and informative. Maybe you'll come back and let us know how spring recruitment goes (in the Panhellenic spirit, of course!)? Good luck to everyone at UF; it's encouraging to read about flourishing Greek systems.

I'll let you know as much as I know! I have found out that bidding will only be open for 2-3 days which is much shorter than it has been in the past. So, PPNMs, meeting women in the chapters in crucial and it needs to be done at either the information session or through any Panhellenic women you may already know!

I know some chapters are having a full bid day, as well. Which gives the girls a little more of the traditional recruitment! I find that very exciting for the Spring NM Class women!!

Wait, so the houses have an open house on the 10th and have to extend bids by the 13th???? This seems awfully short. What if a women has several houses that are interested in her that she is also interested in visiting? Is the recruitment structured enough to allow them to get to see all the houses or are you thinking that most of the women are going to be women who were not able to bid match in the fall.

All houses will present at the Information Session on the 10th, like tabling. Then the women are are able to be bidded by multiple sororities or just one. The PNM will have the ability to visit the houses that bid her or that she is interested in (by invitation) and will choose a chapter to pledge by the end of the week (I believe, but they may have more time to think on their bid(s)).

Its fast, but our spring is always just a one-night event with COB-ing and open events at chapter discretion.

Also, if any chapters are under total, they are permitted to extend bids at ANY time throughout the school year (provided there isn't a colony on the campus).

I think what you mean to say is "are offered bids." Being "bidded" implies they have signed a bid - which is an official binding agreement - and you can't do that for more than one group.

Is there going to be a quota that all sororities can take members, or are the only sororities offering bids the ones that are under total? In other words, even if all 16 chapters are there, only 5 of them might be extending bids.

Thank you for correcting that, I wasn't sure how to word it.
And, yes, we have a quota called "campus total" that UF thinks all sororities should be at to function properly and give enough PNMs a chance at receiving bids. So, any chapters with fewer that 161 members may extend bids. There are some that are under this number and do not because their nationals does not require that they do or they function adequately at a lower number. I completely understand this, but all 16 will have to present at the information session. I do not know if they will reveal which houses are extending bids or not at the event.

Argh, this is terrible. Making all 16 present when they are not all extending bids is not fair to the chapters bidding or the PNMs.

Yeah, this is pretty awful. The only chapters who present should be those taking new members.

Also, we know what "total" means. ;)

I hope that Panhellenic will rethink having the sororities who aren't participating at the meeting. Several of you GCers might remember when on one campus, 2 sororities decided to co-host a COB event. I was surprised because I knew that one sorority had to be way above total; the other was struggling.

So they had their party and bids were extended later--only to the struggling group! Lots of angry PNMs were saying, "Hey! We didn't show up to be rushed by that group, we wanted the other one!" Few bids were accepted and even fewer stayed in the group...1 or 2, we heard.

No one in either group would talk about it but all anyone could figure out was that maybe someone in the much bigger group felt sorry for friends in the other one and agreed to co-host the party? Definitely, honesty is the best policy in informal recruitment.

It sounds like a mis-guided attempt to remove the stigma of participating in informal rush.

This would have been a great idea and been awesome as far as showing Panhellenic unity/no matter the letter we're all Greek together...IF they had been straight up about it.

Yes. When actually, it's only making the stigma WORSE because it's almost like they're saying "OMG, if the "good" sororities aren't included, no one will show up."

I can see the merit of having all the groups present so women who haven't done anything where sororities are concerned (in particular, transfers) know what all their options are, but it should be made absolutely, positively, so obvious that Stevie Wonder can see it CLEAR which sororities are bidding women at this time and which are not.

That's exactly what it is, and all the chapters who usually participate are afriad of exactly such a situation. Houses not bidding are annoyed they have to send members and move chapter times. Its all around an akward thing to do.

I will for sure update about if anything like that happens or anything interesting!

I hear that alot of houses don't like their spring classes bc they are forced to accept them. I really want to do spring rush on Monday but I am afraid bc I don't want to feel let out especially because I am really shy.

Also, does anyone know what houses are doing spring or how the whole process works?

Nobody is forced to accept anyone.

I mean forced to participate in spring recruitment due to the fact that they do not have the quota amount of members.

No one can really make the sororities do much besides show up at the meetings if they're content with the members they have.

What you mean is total - quota is only used in formal rush. Campus total, as stated in another post, is 161.

If sororities that need those pledge classes to be at total are treating them in a way that shows they're unthrilled with them, that would be somewhat counterproductive, wouldn't it? Quite honestly, that sounds like a rumor started by a nasty person trying to damage the reputation of any chapter participating in spring rush. Ignore it.

Apparently once you attend the meeting, you will find out which chapters are extending bids. Keep in mind that the number of bids the chapters are allowed to extend may vary widely due to their different sizes.

From what I know, there may be a full announcement of who will be extending bids at the end of the event. However, it is more likely that the chapters will not be announced and bids will just be sent out (most likely via phone or meeting) to the PNMs they are interested.
I know I may have just said something different than I have before, but we are also just finding out our rules and requirements of us recruiters last night and it was relayed to chapter members today! Its all so fast, I'm spinning!!

And, to the "some chapters not liking their Spring girls": I find that to be a rumor as well! I know my very 1st grandlittle was a Spring girl and I was obsessed with her and her PC from the start - as was my whole chapter! So, don't worry about that, you will find your niche and it will be amazing! And, remember, going to the Information Session is free and non-binding, so going can only take a few hours of your life at the very worst. At the very best? You're life will be changed for the positive beyond your wildest dreams!!

Also, as to the houses being "forced" into it: I call crap. There a chapters here that have never met the quota/campus total, but are comfortable where they are so they don't do spring recruitment!!

Do you mean invitations to attend a party? This is the second time I've read on GC recently that BIDS were sent out after attending an informational event.

Like others said, we don't get forced to accept anyone. My chapter participated in spring recruitment for the first time last year, and we got some really great girls. I got another little and a grandlittle out of it, and I absolutely love them both.

To PC11, if you're really interested in going greek, I would definitely check out spring recruitment. And if you're shy, spring might be a really good opportunity for you. It's much more laid back than formal, and because it's only one night it's so much less overwhelming. As for being in a spring pledge class, I can definitely see the benefits of it. Because spring PCs are usually much smaller than fall PCs, you'll really get to know the girls in your pledge class.

And to DubaiSis, we do extend bids after spring recruitment. Our spring recruitment is very, very informal. It's a one night thing, and we extend bids to girls we're interested in shortly after.

That's amazing that your formal is SOOOO formal, and then you will pledge a girl after 1 meeting in the spring. Not that I'm against it - just surprised. I would have thought you'd have the informational, invite them to A party, and then extend a bid. Do some chapters end up doing a more extensive spring recruitment where they bring girls over to the house and stuff?

One more UF question. How many chapters are more than a couple below total? I realize some will have lost a couple due to graduation or drop-outs, but how many need to pick up, say, 10 girls or more? The NPC Recruitment thread doesn't have every house's Fall numbers listed, and you never know if those are just unreported or intentionally left blank. Besides, quota this year =/= total this year.

And I also call BS on the forced to take members thing. It's either a lie to do harm or a worry that someone has turned into reality. I could see a girl pledging in the spring, not having a positive new member period for whatever reason and blaming it on being a spring pledge. Kind of like the bitchy (fill in the blank home town, minority, major, ...) girl who blames not getting pledged on the second half of that statement instead of the first. I don't buy it. The only downside to pledging in the spring instead of the fall is you missed out on a semester of sisterhood. But since you can't jump in my way-back machine, there's no point in fretting over that.

So in other words, the rushee doesn't actually SIGN a bid after the informational - she can go to the houses that offered her bids and then picks which one to sign and begin pledging at by the end of the week.

Kind of makes sense, I guess, in that the groups don't want to give out more bids than they have room for or encourage more women than they have room for, but if for some reason all (example) 10 women that ABC offered bids to decided to pledge at other sororities, wouldn't ABC be immmensely screwed and have to start all over again?

I'm assuming this system came into place to make things more binding for the sororities because one or more of the chapters was overinviting wildly and upsetting rushees when they ended up with no bid.

I think that we have about 7-9 chapters that are eligible to extend bids. However, some may choose to not extend any or they will take below 10 women. No guarantees on anything about this because Panhellenic and chapter women are keeping it hush-hush (as usual).
I know my chapter is aiming to take 4-6 through the spring recruitment.
Its going to be a larger number of smaller PCs this year, from what I can tell.

Its only 2 days away! I'm so excited!!

Yes, that has happened to chapters before. I can say that I know some chapters prepare for that, because it is inevitable. So, they will consider and draft bids for 15+ girls if they have 10 or fewer spots to fill.

Will the potential girls know by the end of the information session if they have an invitation or not?

~sorry for all the confused questions. I'm a little nervous and want to know as much as possible so I'm prepared. I would love to be in a sorority.

Don't worry. It sounds like they are trying something new this year, and a lot of people are confused on both sides.

Just so you know, even if there are 7-9 chapters extending bids, some of those may be extending very few, and only to women they already know. So if you only get one or two invitations, don't be disheartened.

This is excellent advice!
Also, I believe that chapters are allowed to extend bids starting Tuesday, most likely midday. I don't know when the cut off is, but with chapters taking small New Member classes, the bidding period will be short due to numbers. I know most plan to be done bidding by Thursday or Friday.

Try to go to any open events chapters are hosting after the Monday night Informational Session - especially if you were invited! Those are great opportunities, too!!

**UPDATE: Campus total was bumped to 163 to give more women chances to join this Spring!!**

Just to let everyone know I asked the MVP which sororities were actually accepting members this spring and there are only 5 houses doing it- so be aware!

EDIT- Sorry UFGatorLove :/

I was hoping to keep letters off, since Panhellenic Council was trying to make Spring different this year and not expose the PNMs to the facts as to which houses were and were not bidding. :(

If you're putting up letters, I must add that I was made aware of at least one other chapter was planning on extending bids to PNMs and it was a house new to Spring Recruitment this year. I have heard whispers of on more, who was not new to Spring Recruitment.

I won't post their letters for the fact that I started this post without them and I would like to end it without them.

I hate to break it to you, but they'd find out eventually. Unless the other sororities lied and said they took a very small spring pledge class.

Well, I'm mostly sad because it almost made it - Recruitment is tomorrow. Sadly, it did not.
Worse of all, I am still quite sure that was not the complete list. I may be wrong but I was told there was one to two more (as I said before).
Who knows. It was going so well on here until now.
Grrr...

I heard that alot more houses were participating in this years rush, instead of just the typical houses that participate in spring rush? :/

Well I fixed the problem UFGatorLove ha so maybe some people saw some didn't! I mean I actually emailed the mvp so she may or may not have been including all of the houses, I am assuming she would but who knows. I wasn't trying to ruin this post, was just trying to put information out there that I received!

It seems like no one is quite sure, so I guess we'll find out tomorrow.