Bid Matching Question
 

Hello, my name is Heather and I am a newly appointed Recruitment Advisor. One part of my position that I am still really confused on is how the bid matching process works exactly. The reason I ask is because of the following scenario. On my campus there are 3 sororities, we will call them A,B, and C. I am a part of sorority B. At the end of the final round the pnms turn in their preference sheet and we turn in our bid list. It is a rule that generally you have to be invited to a sorority's preference party in order to be on their bid list. So in a specific instance, PNM "Jane" was invited to the preference party of sorority A and B. Jane then ranked the sororities as follows B, C, A. If the quota was to give out 19 bids, and "Jane" was within the top 15 of sorority B's bid list, should it be possible for Jane to get a bid from sorority A, rather than her first choice of sorority B. I guess I'm just really confused about how the bid matching process works.

If she ranked B first and was on their first bid list, she will match to B.

Question about the example - bit of a Lane swerve
 

Do many (any?) campuses let PNMs list a chapter to which they were not invited for pref? I've not heard of that, before...

I've wondered about this - I assume that if she wasn't invited to pref somewhere, but listed it anyway, it would either throw an error or just ignore the listed/no pref chapter.

When I turned in my list, it was a scantron, and I turned it in to a Rho Chi who didn't know me from Adam - so I guess in theory, I could have tried it. Of course, this was in the dark ages, so it's probably different now.

Did you ever have team captain's who picked teams in grade school? It's sort of like that.

We were talking about this a couple of weeks ago, and LABlondeGPhi made a gif to illustrate how bid matching works. It's pretty helpful.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...5&postcount=50

Bid matching is a two-side process. The computer takes the sorority's bid list and matches them to the bid cards. Each sorority has a "first bid list" which is a list of its first choices for a PNM class. The number of women on the first bid list is approximately quota. (Only approximately, because you don't know what quota will be exactly.) The computer tries to match all of the PNM's #1 choice against all of the sororities' first bid lists. Usually you don't fill a whole PNM class on the first match, so it will keep moving down the bid lists to try to match as many PNMs to their first choice as possible. A PNM will only be given her second choice if the PNM class of her first choice is full before the computer gets to her name on the bid list. It will then try to match her name to her second choice and then her third choice...

If she has no match and the campus follows RFM, she should be matched to one sorority or another. There's a lot of discretion in determining where the unmatched PNMs go, but they all should get a bid from somewhere.

Jane preffed at B and A, but not C. She probably isn't anywhere on C's bid list. She will be placed at B if she is high enough on their bid list. If B fills its class before they get to her name, she will be placed in A, if they have space. If both B and A fill up before they get to her name, and the campus follows RFM, she may be placed in B or A.

To make it more complicated, if she didn't match, and C isn't full, someone may see that she listed C second and contact C to see if they would like to offer her a bid anyway. C may decide to do that and no one will know the difference.

I'm guessing this is Jane making a statement that she would rather be in a chapter that has already cut her than have anything to do with A, & she only listed A because suiciding makes her ineligible for quota additions.

As I recall from submitting bid lists in the past, ICS didn't allow the chapter to list anyone who didn't attend pref unless they were specifically excused and therefore still on the party list. That may be campus-specific in the settings however - perhaps a FSA can confirm that.

I was a CA and Panhellenic advisor on a campus that did hand bid matching and per the Green Book process, the PNMs choices always prevail in that a PNM on the first bid list of a chapter will always match to that chapter of they are also her first choice.

When we hand matched, an advisor from each chapter came with their bid list and verbally verified each match as we made it. We'd go through each PNM (alphabetically) and read her first choice. If she was on first list for that chapter, she matched. If not, she got placed in a round two stack and we began matching again. The second run of matching started to get into the second bid list so it required some meticulous attention to where the bar was moving for that pool/batch.

The process confined until everyone was matched who had maximized their options. Women who did not maximize only matched if their choices did not fill before they came up.

Does this help?
http://i1362.photobucket.com/albums/...psc3nlkp47.gif


I did, but this was in 2001. When I went to rank after preference (2 houses), my card listed the houses that had invited me to preference (4 houses). I changed my mind during preference, so I ranked one of the houses I didn't attend higher than the other chapter I preffed on my bid card. I have no idea why they even let me do that, I'm sure I wasn't on the other chapter's bid list.

Okay so "Jane" was number 15 on B's list and "Suzy" was number 39. If both Jane and Suzy listed B as their number one choice, is it possible that Suzy would get a bid from B and Jane would not?

No. Jane would have already matched.

So did Jane not end up with a bid from B?

I feel like that would be possible if Jane matched with her second choice, Suzy didn't match anywhere, then became a QA

"Jane" ended up with a bid from A even though A was 3rd on Jane's preference list.

Well, she wouldn't have been on C's bid list because she didn't attend preference (most likely). So, C is irrelevant. She wasn't high enough on B's bid list to get a bid from B.

Did you read the OP's post? Jane WAS high enough on B's list. ETA: that's why Titchou responded that she would have matched with B.

Again did you read, G&Q? OP is the RECRUITMENT ADVISOR!!!!! not yelling, just getting your attention. talk to me about being distracted.

Sorry, distracted! You are correct. Yeah, no idea how that scenario would happen where Jane ends up with a bid from A :confused:

Unless the PNM is fibbing and didn't really put "B" as #1 on her bid card? :confused:

^^^ but that would be known to the Recruitment Advisor, would it not? If the campus is using computerized bid matching, and the rankings were what she stated they were, this wouldn't happen. I think something's not right.

This is my first year doing bid-matching, we match by hand, and I am pretty nervous for stuff like this :( Thankfully our recruitment advisor is a pro- I would be a wreck by now just thinking about it if it wasn't for her

No. Jane is ranked above Suzy and listed B as her first choice. She will get matched before Suzy. Someone else pointed out, though, that Suzy could have gone unmatched and then been placed in B as a quota addition.

Now I may never make my "52 Pickup" recruitment video that I have spent weeks creating. I was about to paint the houses on watercolor paper, and have already painted the Scrabble squares representing the PNMs. I had planned to invite some Ole Miss sorors who sing in the choir with me to be a "Rho Chi" in my fantasy recruitment. I really thought that if folks could understand recruitment at Ole Miss, everything else just gets simpler.

And, actually, I was wondering where I should post my video. Sorority Recruitment or Recruitment Stories?

Jane lied
 

I have found that in 100% of these situations "janes" are telling members they listed them as #1 to save face OR they change their mind after listing chapter in #2 spot and try to get the women to go to bat for them. Jane listed B #2 if she was high enough on B's bid list. You need to look to see what number you filled quota at and where B was in relationship to that number. She is either before or after that fill line. That's how you'll know.

My opinion from doing this for 25+ years.

I'm not sure if the recruitment advisor has access to the post-pref rankings of PNMs. I didn't think the chapters had access to that info - only who matched tge bid list.

I don't have a lot of experience with this but my hunch was what AXOrushadvisor said - the PNM ranked B lower and changed her mind or is just saying that to save face. Otherwise how would a PNM high on B's first list not get the bid if she ranked B #1? It doesn't make sense to me.

But a recruitment advisor should have access to their OWN bid list, and can look at who is in their pledge class. I've done this a number of times and can see from the list exactly where we filled quota, without evening knowing the quota number. The list goes from maybe every other girl in the PC to none right away. And then there will be maybe one or two QAs on the list, but the change is dramatic enough to know where the cut-off was.

In my opinion, there's always the *possibility* of a QA situation, or, even more rarely, that there was a snafu in entering her choices into the computers. That said, 99.9% of the time, she probably is just lying to save face.

Who's lying? (not being argumentative, just trying to figure out what's what!). Is Jane lying and to whom? Is the OP lying?

The OP is the Rush Advisor for Chapter B, so as LAblondeGPhi stated, she's got access to her own chapter's bid list. Jane was #15 on their list. So Jane should have gone to B.

Like I said - something's not right! I'll spell it out - somebody messed up during bid matching, for whatever reason(s). Sounds like there are some unhappy folks at this campus - especially if Jane wanted B, was high on their list, and ended up elsewhere. No way that is supposed to happen.

How you gonna fix this one? I know what I would do.

Oh man - didn't someone post somewhere about a PNM who was the daughter of a sitting international council member, attended pref at her legacy chapter, ranked them #1, then didn't get a bid due to some kind of screw up, but the powers that be realized it right away and placed her in the chapter within a few days of Bid Day? I seem to recall that it was a recent incident, but I can't remember if the chapter made a mistake in entering their bid list or if Panhellenic did.

Also - how do most campuses have PNMs fill out their bid card? Do they have them fill out a hard copy and then a Rho Chi/Gamma enters it into a computer? If that's the case, I suppose data entry errors could be a problem, too.

By the way - I'm amending my 99.9% statement. I have seen a couple of minor errors here and there with ICS, and user error is occasionally a factor - on either side.

At my campus we physically wrote down our choices and I suppose it was entered into the computer. I've heard some other campuses PNMs directly enter their choices into the computer. Not sure if we do this now, but IMO that's a better way.

Scan like when you vote.....

The sentiment in the thread seems to be that Jane the PNM is lying. The OP/Recruitment advisor knows where she fell on their bid list, and knows that she was within the first bid list, i.e. before they reached quota.

PNM Jane claims that she put B first. AXOrushadvisor was saying that in 100% of the situations she is familiar with the PNM is lying. This may be due to:
1. Regretting the ranking order that she actually did choose and trying to wiggle out of it to get into the other chapter
2. Trying to save face with friends of hers in the chapter. "I put you first but got my second choice" so that she wouldn't have to admit that she didn't want to choose their chapter.

I am skeptical about computer error with matching. If the name was outside the first bid list there may be a minuscule chance of it getting flubbed, but I just don't see how that can happen when you fall within the first bid list.

Ours was a scantron.

Where I volunteer the PMNs enter their choices into the computer (ICS) AND write their selections on the MRABA form.

I am thinking there was either an error with the data entry, but something the Greek Life Coordinator said was that the software wasn't working right...It is entirely possible that "Jane" is lying (I don't know her well enough to say one way or the other). What I do know is that she has been going up to members of "B" and asking why we didn't want her. I'm hoping that she isn't just trying to stir up trouble, but who should I reach out to?

Jane ought to be focusing on getting to know the girls in A and not pestering the girls in B. Recruitment is now a thing of the past for her.

Do/did you want her? If so, ask the GL coordinator to look further into this software issue. I would also ask the GLC if any other rushees have had issues, and if Jane is the only one, she most likely is a liar with pants on fire.

If not, all you or your sisters have to say is "I'm sorry, but we can't discuss membership selection. I hope you have fun in A."

My recruitment actually had a glitch, and you know what? THEY WENT BACK AND FIXED IT. Nobody is going to say, "oops, computer glitch, you are all SOL!"

This. The people running Recruitment go back and fix the computer glitch. Even if everything has to be checked by hand and re-entered.

My recruitment actually had a glitch, and you know what? THEY WENT BACK AND FIXED IT. Nobody is going to say, "oops, computer glitch, you are all SOL!"


This. Between advising and my full time job working with recruitment, I've probably been to about 100 or so recruitments. I have only ever seen one true computer issue (a chapter had a girl on their first bid list, didn't match quota, and yet this girl didn't get placed. We of course caught that immediately upon receiving bid lists) 99% of the time it isn't a computer issue, and if it is, they'd fix.

99% of the time the young woman isn't telling the truth. That being said I didn't see if we've ever heard back from OP. With only 3 chapters, if they are small enough, are they using ICS? Human error with hand bid matching is much more likely in my experience.