Any good PNM stealing stories?
 

Anyone have any good stories about stealing PNMs from rival houses? Were you a stolen PNM who was heavily recruited by a legacy house and ended up going elsewhere? Anyone have a good story about recruitment where you were able to nab the PNM another chapter really wanted?

Reading stories is my favorite part of GreekChat! :D

True story:

New member class at a medium-sized university is running joyfully to their new house.

Members of another sorority catch up with them and grab one of the PNMs and say, "Wouldn't you rather be one of us?" (i.e., we suddenly have a vacancy)

Members then run off with the NM. :eek:

Protests to the Greek advisor and national offices and NPC were met with, "Would you have really wanted a member who preferred to be in the other sorority?"

NPC agreements be damned. Gotta love it!

When I was an ABC pledge there was a pledge sister of mine who was a major XYZ legacy at our VERY competitive school. ABC and XYZ are giant rivals and top houses. She grew up in the college town, and her mama took her to every XYZ event her whole life. Mom was very involved as an XYZ alum. She went through rush, her mom was at XYZ pref night, and she just wasn't feeling it. She had a ton of friends who were ABC's and she just didn't like a few XYZ actives. So, she preffed ABC 1, XYZ 2 and was in my pledge class! She was crying on bid day...partly because she was excited, but partly because she was sad she'd let her mom down. Mom eventually got over it, but it took awhile...

I would have countered with "well, if they want her bad enough to break the UAs, she can be equal to 5 other women they would have taken to fill their quota."

I always wondered if there was a back story that no one was told for the group to be willing to break the UAs. Super-legacy who was accidentally cut? Panhellenic mistake with the computer?

There had to be more!

I've told this story before, but it is worth repeating. Pnm goes thru recruitment my senior year, when I was a recruitment counselor-she was not in my group. She is a double legacy(big sister is a senior in the house) to a chapter on campus. She has a great recruitment, and prefs. her legacy chapter, and two other strong chapters. When she opens her bid, she finds that she has been dropped by her first choice, her legacy chapter, and has a bid from her second choice. Investigations are done, and it comes out that Legacy Chapter recruitment VP mistakenly left legacy's name off bid list :eek: ! Legacy mother is a national officer of the sorority, strings are pulled, and daughter does get to pledge her legacy chapter. We never found out the deal that was struck, or what concessions legacy chapter gave to 2nd choice chapter.

And I think that is as it should be... A big mistake was made -- no need to punish the PNM and her family for the rest of their lives.

Could you imagine how the chapter recruitment VP must have felt-and feared?

And I'm trying to imagine what kind of concessions you give the slighted chapter!

(btw, the chapter in my story got none, they only got stonewalled)

I was not very popular with the Phi Mus on my campus...
 

My sophomore year, my "Rush Crush" pledged Phi Mu. I was sad, but we still remained friends. Long story short... she depledged and joined Chi Omega the next year.

My junior year, I rushed a Phi Mu legacy. Her mother was a Phi Mu and her grandmother had been a charter member of Phi Mu at her school. Mom pressured her daughter, but in the end, she joined Chi Omega and won Homecoming Queen as a freshman!

I think "stealing" PMNs is really deplorable behavior. If you have to "steal" members from other groups, what does that say about yours?

Sometime you just feel like your chapter is "stealing." Young Lady went through recruitment. Mom very active in her sorority. Mom works on the national level for her sorority. Older Sister currently active in same sorority as mom (same chapter mom joined). Young lady attends different school than Mom and Sister. Young Lady goes through recruitment. Young Lady prefs Mom/Older Sister's house along with a second house. Mom and Older Sister keep their mouths shut and let Young Lady make own decisions. Young Lady joins Other House. Other House feels like they stole a PNM since the odds were stacked against them going into recruitment.

DaffyKD

Oh, I didn't feel at all like I had "stolen" someone. I felt like she was where she was supposed to be all along.

I'm also 100% certain you weren't badmouthing Phi Mu the entire time the first young lady was a New Member there.

But that's not really stealing. I mean, it's great that you got a member whose family is already highly involved and understands how recruitment works, it bodes well for a member who will continue to be a great lifelong member, but that's not stealing. It's letting recruitment work for the PNM, which I think is a great thing.

I'm talking about when women actively try to affect the outcome of a PNM's recruitment by talking smack on other groups, or by (in the case of Carnation's story) running up to a new member ON BID DAY and convincing her to switch. That's really deplorable.

I'm not a huge fan of filing recruitment infractions (because holy crap, it gets petty), but I think in cases of bid promising, catty behavior toward other groups displayed by members, etc., they are fully warranted because they DO affect the outcome of recruitment for a PNM, and often it's not just the "other" chapter that gets screwed, it ends up screwing either the PNM in question or another PNM.

I wasn't.

we used the word "stealing" back in my day, when a sure shot to join another sorority ended up joining what the campus felt was a longshot. as daffykd said, when a pnm who came from a long line of ABC's ended up joining DEF, everyone might say that DEF stole the pnm. it didn't mean that DEF have spent the entire recruitment badmouthing ABC, it could be that they put on a really good recruitment.

Yes, this is how I meant stealing. A PNM who on paper should definitely go one place, but didn't.

The first story about grabbing the PNM on her way to the other chapter... Yeesh!

I got all excited for this thread, because I thought it was stories about PNMs stealing stuff from sorority houses during recruitment. Ha!

Those would be good too! LOL!

Don't know if this is considered 'stealing' a PNM, and I tried to post earlier but it didn't accept, and it's hard to explain...

Years ago, one time only on one campus I know of for I can't imagine WHAT reason, on Bid Day the PNM envelopes were individually color-coded on the outside according to which house's bid you received. There was a more popular house on the campus, which comes into play...

Each woman (when her name was called) picked up and immediately opened her bid envelope from the same table. From the outset, there were 3Xs more tan envelopes than white or grey. As women who had opened up their bids made it obvious each house had a different color bid envelope, the next women were reluctant to open envelopes from the 'wrong' colored house (IE their friends/roommates/legacy house wasn't the house listed inside the envelope that they were going to be handed when their name was called).

The popular house (tan) made quota, and later pledged some of the 'reluctant' women. Grey and white houses had some work to do, but maintained positive attitudes and today (years later) all three are thriving over total. A most unfortunate situation that was NEVER repeated.

I feel like I posted this before but maybe I haven't.

My junior year I lived with a member of ABC. Long story, we both got stuck in what's called "supplemental" housing, aka an old study lounge that's been converted to a large room. Basically it was because we had both wanted to live on our sorority floor but there wasn't room/we requested it too late. Anyway, she was a great roommate and I am SO glad that we were together during formal recruitment.

After every night we'd come home and whine about all the dumb things women would say to us. We'd also talk about our rush crushes. Neither one of us ever said the names of our rush crushes, just facts about them, and the day of pref I told her 'you'd better not steal my rush crush, biddy' (we had that kind of love-to-make-fun-of-the-other relationship). She laughed and said that she wouldn't, and I promised we wouldn't take hers.

I preffed my rush crush, along with another one of my rush crushes. I never did know the name of my roommate's rush crush, so I'm not even sure if she was at our pref party, but she probably was, as women who pref ABC almost invariably pref Sigma as well.

Flash forward to bid day, my first rush crush goes ABC. We're still friends, we see each other all the time at all Greek events, but inside I'm always a bit sad. Roommate's rush crush did not go ABC though, sadly. But the good news out of this story is that my second rush crush that I preffed became probably my favorite new member ever and she's now our president. :) Just goes to show that things have a way of working themselves out in the end.