The Other Side: an Active (Liveish) Recruitment Story
 

Hey everyone! So tonight is the start of formal recruitment at BGSU!! This will be my first time recruiting girls during formal, so naturally, I'm freaking out. But I'm also very excited. I've decided to post about my experience here, just for funzies, and maybe to show anyone who will be in my position soon my experience.
Obviously I will not share PNM names or details that may out them. But I, in the end, will share the results of my chapter, and (to the best of my ability) the results of the other chapters.
Unfortunately, BG lost a chapter due to them and their nationals having a major disagreement. So now we only have 12 Panhellenic sororities on campus.
The chapters on campus are:
Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Xi Delta
Alpha Phi
Delta Gamma
Delta Zeta
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Delta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Pi Beta Phi
Chi Omega
Sigma Kappa


This year, formal is EXTREMELY different than previous years. Instead of being on long weekend, they have changed it to 2 shorter weekends, with bid day being its own day. Here is the schedule:

Sept 6- Union round; meet and greet, day 1
Sept 7- Union round; meet and greet, day 2
Sept 8- House tours/Sisterhood round
Sept 13- Philanthropy round
Sept 14- Pref Parties
Sept 15- Bid Day!!!

Alright, I'll be here tonight to tell you about the first day!! :)

This should be fun!

Good luck to Gamma Phi and the other chapters at BGSU!

Good luck and have fun.

Good luck!

Woo hoo! A Falcon recruitment story! Thanks for sharing! So sad to hear of the demise of the old sorority houses, but I'm sure the new housing will be fantastic!

Okay, so day 1 of union rounds is over! We saw 6 Rho Gamma groups today, and almost every girl I met tonight was a delight. I had a lot in common with each girl and only 1 time was there awkwardness, and it was with a girl who was going through rush for the third time. Obviously she had a sorority in mind that she wanted but I still tried to keep the conversation going. Our chapter president said that every PNM looked so happy during the round and she heard a lot of girls say that they loved us. Hoping that's a good sign!!!! =) Day 2 of round 1 starts tomorrow at 10am!!!

I hope that she wasn't that closed minded going through for the THIRD time! What a recipe for heartache!

I know! I really hope she had an open mind, but it seemed like she knew where she wanted to be, so who knows!

Alright!! We saw the remaining 6 groups today, so Round 1 is officially over!!! That was pretty stressful but also a lot of fun!! I talked to many wonderful ladies today, and some of them I really thought would be a great fit for my chapter. Of course there were a few girls who I was struggling to converse with, due to them giving one word answers or seeming very uninterested, but there were more awesome conversations than not-so-great ones. One girl I met was SO enthusiastic and awesome, and I really clicked with her well. I'm keepin her in my mind and hope to see her tomorrow at house tours!! =)

My friends in other chapters are telling me that they are having a great time recruiting this year as well. That so far is all I've heard.

So far, so good!! :)

Good luck to your chapter! I saw that you have a capital campaign underway for new housing! How exciting! And you're chapter sisters with International President Krista Davis!!

Yep! I love the fact that I'm chapter sisters with Krista!! She is coming to speak about the new Greek housing and I'm hoping to get a picture with her :)

Sounds like everything is going well so far!

I'm curious, though - what is being done to accommodate Jewish PNMs? Yom Kippur is next Saturday.

GaamaPhiAud - not to hijack, but is all the sorority housing being torn down and redone? Will it be in the same area? I lived in the KD house for 2 years and loved every minute of it. Some of my good friends were Gamma Phi Betas. Enjoy recruitment!

aephi alum - I'm not exactly sure...I have some sisters that are Jewish but they haven't mentioned anything...I could ask, though, if you're wondering! :)

BGKDLady - Yep! After this school year, BGSU is tearing down all of the sorority and fraternity houses, and I believe also the Conklin Residence Hall, and making one giant Greek Row where the frat houses and Conklin are. I currently live in the house, and I have been since Spring semester '13, and I've loved it. It's going to be sad to see the houses go, but it feels like an honor to be in the last group of girls to live in the house. :D

Oh, by the way, here is our table, if anyone wants to see it! I was in charge of decorating it :) I'll keep it as just a link just in case though!
http://imageshack.us/a/img153/9038/a9ne.jpg
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/2366/kerw.jpg

I am curious. I can't imagine anyone (sister or PNM) being able to put her best foot forward and be impressive after fasting for a full day!

Hm...I wonder too..today before rounds I'll ask our president. Maybe she'll know.

Edit: just a small update about something kind of unrelated...one of the chapters on campus (I will not say) has been caught dirty rushing. They had a warning and still continued to do it. Not sure what will happen but I will keep you posted. This is very upsetting to everyone. I hope they finally got the hint and stopped.

Sorry for double posting, but I just wanted to update you all for this round!

This round was sisterhood and house tours round. After mutual selection, we were told an extremely large amount of the women that came through first rounds were returning to Gamma Phi Beta, which is fantastic! There were 9 groups that came through today, each with around 20-30 women in them, and out of the 9 groups I only picked up one girl I already knew at the door. But it was very great to meet some of the women that came through today! All in all, it was a great round and many, if not most, of the ladies were very happy to be there and excited to learn more about our sisterhood.

I also had a girl ask one of the best questions I've been asked so far during recruitment: "what single moment do you feel was the most strong point in Gamma Phi Beta's sisterhood so far?"
I shared a kind of personal (but not creepy personal) story and it really impressed her. I think many of the PNMs were very impressed with our house and our sisterhood. :)

Now we wait until Friday for round 3 - Philanthropy!

Ahh just one more day until weekend 2 of recruitment starts!! My sisters and I are so excited, we really feel confident that we will recruit some quality women. We had a meeting tonight where we played games and talked about what will be going on this weekend. We also saw the final product of our bid day shirts - they are ADORABLE. Can't wait to meet my new sisters in just a few days!! <3

Good luck with your chapter recruitment, looking forward to hearing how it goes!

Thank you all!! Your thoughts and well wishes have been very much appreciated!!!

Well today was Philanthropy round, and we had an AMAZING return rate today. A SUPER high percentage of the women we invited back came back! So far our chapter is doing extremely well in recruitment and we're very confident that some wonderful women will be joining our chapter on Sunday. Tomorrow is pref rounds, so we're all very excited but very anxious as well. I'm crossing my fingers that all will go well!!!

Congratulations! I hope those women have a wonderful time today, and that you have a blast yourself!

Best wishes for a fabulous New Member Class!

Thank you all!! Well today (er...yesterday now I guess) was pref parties, and they went extremely well!! Once again we had a super high return rate and the girls did seem to love our ceremony. Not sure how tomorrow will work out, because of course I can't read the girl's minds...but we're hoping for the best!! I will not lie, our chapter has struggled with numbers for years, but we're hoping to change that! :)

Thoughts and prayers are appreciated!! :D

Good luck! Then, don't forget to keep rushing those pledges!

Snaps to your chapter! Sounds like you're having a great recruitment!

Best of luck to you! Have they set quota yet? How is Phi Mu closing affecting everything?

Today was bid day!!! I'm not sure what quota was (no one told me haha) but I know it was a bit lower than in the passed. Today Gamma Phi Beta welcomed 11 beautiful new members into our sisterhood!!! This was the best formal recruitment we've had in a long time (we usually do better during open recruitment) and I'm so proud of my chapter! I know my new sisters will do wonderful things in Gamma Phi!! <3

We are going to be doing open recruitment events for about a month...I will keep you all updated! =)

So proud to be a GPhiB!!!

Congratulations. If you can keep all 11 of those and have a strong informal, you can be within shooting distance of quota over the year. It's an attainable goal!

It certainly is! I have complete faith in my chapter that we can get more girls through open. It's always been our strong suit.

So did 3rd time PNM get a bid?

Just a side note, I have noticed for years there are a lot of infractions at BG and a lot of chapters on probation.

Congratulations on your 11 new members!

(And I still want to know what was done about Yom Kippur coinciding with FR...)

I'm not sure...she may have dropped like the other years. I didn't see her after the 2nd round. But if she did get a bid, good for her! I would be glad to hear that she finally found her home.

And I've heard in the past that it was a problem, but I hoped they learned their lesson...it's so frustrating knowing the chapters who break the rules get so many new members but then there's my chapter, who follows the rules and never gets in trouble yet has been under total for years. :mad:

/EndRant

aepi alum...unfortunately I don't think anything was done "per se", but I'm sure if a PNM had a religious conflict they would work to accommodate her. :)

That's aephi alum to you. ;)

Ahh! Sorry! Haha that's what I get for posting on my phone! :p

Damn you auto-correct! :p

Hey all!! Sorry for super bumping the tread but I just wanted to let you all know that we are just a few weeks from formal recruitment at BGSU! I will be posting again about my chapters experience this coming semester! I'm really excited because I have a very special job for one of the rounds this year!! And I'm a round chairwoman yet again this year, so I'm very busy! So be on the lookout :)

Enjoyed your story and eagerly anticipating the 2014 version! Good luck to your chapter!

Congrats!!!

Hi all!! Sorry for the delay in posting but recruitment went WONDERFULLY! For pref rounds, I not only had the special job of making a recruitment slideshow (see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMJJCHBeiPQ) but I also had the extremely exciting job of singing in pref rounds! I sang "Never Alone" by Lady A and I saw many PNMs tearing up!

Bid day was today, and this was the most successful formal recruitment for Beta Gamma in a long time...we welcomed 13 beautiful girls to our chapter today! We did give out some snap bids today, and are awaiting replies. With the snap bids and also open recruitment coming up, we are expecting at least 15-20 women in this Fall's pledge class!!! =)