Dumb question time: What's work week?
 

I've been reading GC long enough to realize that work week is apparently some period of time just before rush begins when the active sisters prepare. It doesn't take a college degree to figure out some of it.

But what is involved?

I suspect there may be some MS-sensitive stuff that can't be posted, beyond reviewing recs, but let's put MS aside.

Would someone be willing to post a typical schedule or description that's more detailed than just "prepare for rush"?

The concept is so foreign to me I simply don't think I've grasped it.

In my days it involved rehearsing skits, slideshows to put faces and names together, "practicing" a party - so that the sophomores (who've never been on that side before) can practice chatting up a PNM, bumping etc... Pretty much would go from 8-5 every day for about 10 days before the first party.

All that, plus we cleaned everything really well. We scrubbed every single nook and cranny.

My chapter also had/has a work weekend during the summer. We clean stuff, repair stuff, paint stuff, move furniture, make DIY improvements, etc.

Did anyone else's chapter refer to it as Polish Week? And we did the same things mentioned above, along with member selection workshops for members new to that process. Also lots of singing and chanting practices.

It was "Work Week" for us, and was 2-3 days before recruitment. It was deferred rush, so we had to be back the weekend before school started, right around the New Year. We'd come in around 8, get breakfast, have a run-through of each night of rush, including walking up and down the stairs (you had to bring whichever was your least comfortable pair of heels, so you'd get used to them) and the songs. We'd practice bumping, etc., and do a summary of everything we'd gone over for the last semester. Lunch and dinner were provided. After dinner, we'd do some MS stuff, and then after MS we'd clean/craft/work in our various committees. There pretty much weren't any breaks but I always rather enjoyed it. I think those weekends were the times when I got closest to my sisters.

I recall lots of singing, chanting, bumping, skit, and conversation practice, and giving advice to the newest members on taking notes between rounds and figuring out where to hide your little notebook!

At UGA, it also includes Dress Check. My SIL remembers bringing all of her rush outfits (with tags still on) and chapter members would try them on and get the approval of the Recruitment Chair. If no, you had to go out and find something to replace the item of clothing. Dress Check also included walking down the chapter house stairs to make sure nothing was too short or revealing. I worked at Rich's (now Macy's) my senior year and remember sorority members coming in to frantically shop in the Junior's section to find a last minute outfit for rush.

The above posters covered everything Work Week was for my chapter, but we also threw in sisterhood events too (as I am sure all chapters did). It was fun.

For us it was setting up for skit round (since we had split recruitment), re-learning all the new cheers for the next rounds, re-organizing the house, learning bump groups/what rooms to go to what round/etc. and dress checks

ETA: it was not fun. It was the beginning of the week of hell

Intensive practice for all areas of recruitment. Clothing check as above. At Alabama it lasts about a week. Other places may be two or 3 days - just depends on size of recruitment and level of intensity.

Two things I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Mock recruitment with other chapters. We'd actually go to a chapter and be rushed, and then they'd come to our chapter house and we'd rush them (do other campuses do this? It seems totally weird in retrospect).

Rules, rules, rules. Panhellenic officers would come by and talk to the chapter and so on.

I have not heard of this before!

We did do the mock recruitment as well, with one major difference- the fraternity gentlemen were the fake "PNMs", rather than the other sorority women. With only three sororities, that time of year is always a little hyper competitive, so we would have never gotten constructive feedback from them. The men were pretty good at saying "Wow, you're really good at making me feel comfortable!" during our feedback time at the end of the mock round, or the opposite, even though their rush was so dissimilar.

Of course, the gentlemen were fond of "funny pranks"- I distinctly remember one pair of guys teaming up, tying their arms together with a belt, and calling themselves Siamese twins through one mock round. Actually, one of them was a groomsmen in my wedding... We always told our sophomores (or newest new member class) "If you can recruit these guys, you can recruit anyone!"

ETA: We called the week leading up to recruitment "Pride Week". Those weeks are truly some of my most treasured experiences- it was so nice to just spend time with my sorority sisters without the stress of classes and homework!

Haha we call it recruitment school, and in it, we do everything possible to prepare for recruitment. Going over conversation protocol, bumping, practicing songs & chants, identifying the types of PNMs we want, and so on & so forth. And of course sisterhood bonding etc (though to be honest we're already spending a TON of time together during the day).

At USC, we also pair up with our sister sorority and do mock rounds of recruitment. It's nice, because after chatting up your sisters, who you already know pretty well, you get a chance to meet someone brand new and "rush" her, in a no-stress/repercussions environment. A lot of houses also use that as an opportunity to practice their house tours route, so you can make sure it flows smoothly without worrying about running into people or whatever.

And for us it's 11 days, Thursday to Sunday before classes start on Monday. Formal recruitment starts Tuesday, the second day of classes, this year.

It can be a little grueling, but it's also nice, in a way, since we've spent the whole summer apart, and now we're all together again. Even if you get to hang out with a few of your sisters here and there over the summer, it's not the same as being around all of them at the same time.

Alabama's runs from Satruday thru Sunday of the next week. And I've done the mock recruitment with other chapters or we've also used alums. It's much better practice than talking with your sisters whom you already know.

We've had Alpha Gam chapters who are near each other do that, but not other sorority chapters from their own campus. For example, our EMU women sometimes go to the U of Michigan and vice versa. Alumnae are often used also. Sometimes alumnae pose as "difficult" PNMs too- which is the most fun thing ever- as an alumna. I posed as a PNM with a squirrel phobia...lol.

We never did mock recruitment with anyone other than ourselves. It would have been nice to get some outside feedback, but there was absolutely no time for it in anyone's schedules. There was no way the sorority could require anyone to be back on campus before New Year's Day (or, more likely, Jan 2) and classes (and recruitment) sometimes started as early as the 4th! So we crammed everything into 2-3 days, depending on timing.

Dress checks were done in October or November (so people had time to go home over Reading Days/Thanksgiving for replacement clothes and get them checked before Xmas Break. Why would you have dress checks too late to make any changes? Honest, nonsnarky question)

I mostly remember going up and down and up and down and up and down our stairs. We often took a sister-as-PNM with us, which was super helpful for me to have practiced the time I ended up with a PNM a full foot taller than me!

I've also heard of chapters having a parents or family event at the end of work week and practice rushing family members.

We called it Spirit Week! It was a week of practicing conversation, skits (back in the day), songs, door chants, clothing checks to make sure we had the proper attire for each round to match whatever theme was going on that day, learning about the PNMs, workshops on membership selection, working on decorations and props, and bonding as a chapter. Our alumnae brought us dinners, and at some point we'd have a mock recruitment sponsored by Panhellenic where we'd pair up with another sorority and mock rush one another at our respective houses.

Our week culminated in "Pi and Tea" where we invited alumnae to the house for a brunch. We gave them a sneak peak at our skits/videos/songs, and we'd take them on house tours and practice conversation. It was a great way to connect with the alumnae and they often gave us practice recruitment tips or shared stories about their experiences in college.

After the alumnae left, we'd make our final preparations, and then we had a special chapter tradition called "Pass the Lion." We'd all sit in a circle in the chapter room and pass around a stuffed lion. When you got the lion, you had a chance to speak about your experience with the sorority and your reflections on the past week/summer. One of my favorite chapter traditions. :)

Spirit Week was intense, but it was nothing compared to the adrenaline rush of Recruitment Week!

Ditto to all of the above. The two Oregon KD chapters are about 45-60 minutes away from each other and the spirit weeks are usually the same week, which is the week before school starts and a lot of it is moving in and preparing the house. The chapters visit each other and hold a mock recruitment. I loved visiting Alpha Kappa or having them visit. It was fun to see the similarities and difference between chapters.

The chapters at my school did not have houses so we spent that week practicing our conversation skills, getting our outfits approved, preparing our decorations and props, etc. Usually we were not allowed to begin setting up our rooms until the opening day of recruitment. I think practicing with another sorority or even fraternity guys would have been a nice way to expand our conversational skills.

I appreciate all the responses.

I cannot even comprehend a "dress check" either - but there's a good deal on GC that make me realize I'd not be Greek at a good many schools even when I rushed, or at most schools today.

Glad I joined when I did <grin>.

Where I advise (UCLA), classes don't start until September 25 (quarter system), with Recruitment starting 9/23. Members come back on Sept 9th. So it's TWO WEEKS of work weeks!

Practicing, decorations, flowers, more rehearsals, dress check, sisterhood events, the occasional break when there's a home football game, an all-Greek or all-Panhellenic activity (like a beach clean-up), Bruin Bash (activities fair with all student organizations represented -- GLO's too, free food, & concert on the Sunday before school starts: http://dailybruin.com/2012/09/21/bru...hift-in-music/) and Mock Recruitment with the Alumnae.

We actually did two dress checks when I was an active. The first was toward the end of the spring semester, so that, if you had an outfit that was deemed inappropriate (say, a pref dress that showed too much cleavage), you had all summer to find something more suitable. The second was during work week. The purpose of the second dress check was twofold. (a) If you'd been told back in the spring that you had to buy a new outfit, it had to be approved. (b) All your outfits were re-checked for fit, since an outfit that had fit properly back in May might not still fit correctly if you'd gained or lost weight. Having an initial dress check in the spring meant that fewer people had to make mad scrambles to find appropriate outfits within a short time span, and more people were available for actual work during work week.

Anyway, we also used work week to practice skits and songs, make decorations, decorate our room for open houses, practice conversation skills, and go over MS procedures.