Virtual Recruitment
 

How does virtual recruitment seem to be working out? I haven't heard about frequent equipment fails but I have heard of girls and moms blaming it for outcomes they didn't like.

I feel like a lot of those outcomes would have been the same anyway,

My dd liked it, especially when the alternative was wearing a mask in an already hot and loud room.

Is she a member or a new member?

She is a new member, but many members were commenting the same.

Obviously, pref was not the same online, but it somehow worked.

Reveal was done with their rush group instead everyone together. Chapters started with a zoom bid day, then were allowed to have very controlled face-to-face events later in the day. My dd’s pledge sisters got to “run” to the house in small waves, maybe 3 or 4 shifts?
Who knew that cute masks would be part of 2020 bid day gifts, lol! No guests were allowed, which is a huge departure from the norm. I was looking forward to going, but just like everything else this year, it is what it is.

It wasn’t ideal, but everyone did their best to make it work.

My neighbor, an Auburn PNM (now new member), said the process went very smoothly with no tech glitches that she knew of. As noted in another thread, all chapters met quota. I think the biggest impact virtual recruitment had on the process was minimizing tent talk. Eliminating the big groups of pnms walking and waiting around together, lists in hand, comparing their results, could have only benefited the chapters and pnms.

I guess I figured that they were all texting what they thought of each group to each other, but I can see how it would be less than if they were in person.

I wonder if the PNM drop rate will be higher because it will be harder to get to know your PNM class?

From the chapter side, I'm hearing from other advisors that you can tell what chapters practiced the zoom calls and which ones didn't. The technical people in charge of the breakout rooms really have to know what they are doing.

If that person(s) hasn't practiced, then rooms were closed or dropped or whatever. If the person was on their game, then no real issues other than some PNMs had better WiFi or internet connections.

My daughter just finished up Virtual recruitment from the PNM side of things. Day one all she did was watch video's of all the chapters and then had to rank her top 11. She said that was the hardest because she didn't talk to anyone that day. Being out of state and not knowing anything about the chapters she did the best she could.

Day two she actually got to talk to the chapters on her list and this round was interrupted by the Derecho that hit Iowa so recruitment was paused for 2 days. During this round she only had 1 bad experience where the chapter she was talking to showed zero interest in anything she had to say but otherwise it was a good round. Ironically, this chapter happened to be her Rho Gamma's chapter so I wonder how that conversation went when she put them last on her list after having them higher at the end of round 1. Outside of her top choice, her entire list changed after actually getting to talk to the houses.

Pref was originally to be in person but at the last minute changed to Virtual because of the University rules and partly due to the storm damage. But overall she felt like it was a good experience but was a little disappointed in not actually getting to go to the house.

Bid day was again a modified process. Her Rho Gama Group (10 Girls) all met in person, outside and at when the clock struck one they all opened their bid cards. There was no running to meet your new home, no group of sisters waiting to greet you and no running off to the house. Instead it was a small celebration with her Rho Gama group. Quickly after that she was assigned a temporary Big Sister who reached out to her to welcome her and meet up later that day. There was also a chapter Zoom call to welcome all the new PNM's to the house.

The experience she had worked out just fine and in a way she was happy she didn't spend the day in the hot sun walking all over campus. She was disappointed that she didn't get to meet in person for Pref round but after opening her bid she has been to the house and they did manage to get a group picture (with masks) of her class.

I honestly think having to go on-line to finish out last year was a good preparation for the virtual Rush experience. The main thing was fewer girls did go through rush and quota was about 15 fewer than previous years so there is an impact in that way.

The virtual recruitment experience at my chapter was overall pretty positive. Everyone practiced their Zoom set-ups in advance so tech issues were minimized. The actives really enjoyed getting to focus on one-on-one and small group conversations with PNM's, instead of spending so many hours making balloon arches, practicing songs, and flipping the house between rounds. I worried that my chapter, and the others on campus who opted to do 100% virtual, would be at a disadvantage when compared with the chapters who opted to do in-person Preference (all other rounds were virtual for all chapters). But every chapter made quota, and many chapters had quota additions, mine included. We had a "summer camp" Bid Day theme, which included games and a campfire on the back patio with burgers, hot dogs and s'mores. Everyone was able to mask up and socially distance in the back yard.

As BBH noted, the biggest difference/issue was a significant decrease in the number of women who signed up for recruitment (25% fewer, in fact). This was attributed to decreased enrollment for the Fall semester and a healthy percentage of students opting to do classes online from home. I've been told that a larger percentage of women dropped right before Preference than in years past. Some women just weren't ready to commit to a chapter until they could spend more time seeing them up close and personal. I imagine general COVID concerns that the campus might have to close and send students home mid-semester was also on the minds of some parents. The end result is that quota was 40% lower this year than last year. NPC has advised that campus total should be set at the same number as it was in Fall 2019. Even with the quota additions, the lower quota means that all but one sorority on campus is under campus total. Most of the chapters are doing COB and holding small events outdoors and online this week and next. I won't be surprised if there ends up being greater interest and participation in informal recruitment come January, after all the new students have had time to adapt to their new normal.

I completely understand why the system is the way it is, but I can’t imagine making such an important decision based on very short videos, as a PNM or an active member.

A lot of the chapters would have known who they wanted ahead of time. Also, many of the PNMs know dozens of women ahead of time and have a good idea of where they want to be.

Wow, that’s interesting. Seems like those PNM’s that are not “in the know” would be at a disadvantage.

Some are if you're talking about a huge rush. However, a recruitment list is not set in stone because girls you think will surely pledge you go in another direction so there's always room to bring in new favorites. Still-- it's next to impossible to meet about cutting down a list of 2000 to say, 600 once recruitment has started. Or even 1000 to 400.

Grade cuts and QR cuts can easily be done ahead of time but then if you're at a school like the University of Georgia where all freshmen meet the grade standards, you need to somehow cut those numbers.

One thing that I try to do yearly is bring outstanding small-school girls to the attention of my sorority's chapters and I give their names to my friends in other sororities. This way, these girls don't slip through the cracks.

Also, even if the first round is in person, many cuts are based on something arbitrary like gpa or not having a rec.

Yeah, I know the grade cuts are large in the first round (and that makes sense). But outside of that and other resume items, 1 minute videos just don’t seem like enough to judge. I know cuts have to happen and it’s a numbers game, I just can imagine some ladies slip through the cracks.

In the South, it's not just the one-minute videos. Members have been looking at the girls' applications and trying to learn more about them for months! No one wants to drop an outstanding woman.

I think those Pnm informational videos can really help or hurt the pnm. My daughter has been watching many because they begin virtual recruitment next week. Some Pnms have very polished videos with great information about themselves. Others look like they just rolled out of bed, have weird lighting, weird camera angles. Some did not put their best foot forward.

The videos were *optional* at dd’s school. She chose not to do one and still got a bid to her favorite. It’s probably different from school to school. Their video was only supposed to be from 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Not everyone directs like a Jane Campion or preens like a famous entertainer. Having videos as an OPTION seems more fair to those who may not be up to the task [for whatever reason].

Making videos optional - would that just give the chapters another arbitrary reason to cut a PNM when they are grasping for reasons to cut after first round?

Yes. Makes sense to make them requisite - that way you won't have girls and their mamas crying foul when the PNM didn't submit one and then they say "well, we didn't know it was THAT important!"

Someone earlier wrote about seeing them on YouTube so I looked - it was a cute way to see a girl, get a sense of her personality and for some, really get a great sense of who they are; one gal from Texas going to Univ of Arkansas did a fantastic video that went beyond the normal A, B, C - she totally sparkled.

Yes. "Videos are optional" - that sure sounds a lot like when Panhellenic says "recs aren't required".

I would think that they're both for the same reason :that a Panhellenic council can't actually tell its chapters how to recruit.

Apparently most PNM's didn't want to drop outstanding chapters either.
Daughter just finished virtual recruitment as a PNM at Arkansas. They had 1533 girls go through recruitment 1440(ish) got bids today - something like 94% placement rate. Daughter is over the moon happy with where she ended up. That was the end goal and it was accomplished.

That is fabulous! Congratulations to her!!!

Congrats to your daughter! A 94% placement rate does sound great! I wonder how many of those dropped out because they didn't like their invites,and how many were dropped by all of the chapters?

Do any colleges or Panhellenics ever list how many new members actually made it to initiation or even how many accepted their bids? I think that retention should be a big part of studying RFM.

Yes, I agree. It's all well and good to ensure that more women get bids. But if they drop at higher rates than before RFM, then chapters may need to look at what can be done differently to KEEP members once they get them!

Hoping to hear how things went at Florida State; I think this is their Bid Day.

Hearing that UF is having major equipment failure right now. The members and PNMs must be going nuts.

I agree that looking at the stats is important.

Back in the dark ages, we for sure tracked stuff like this on a chapter level.

We were a deferred spring recruitment and you did not get initiated until the following fall. Our chapter had the highest GPA. For the most part a PMN's GPA was an Apples to Apples comparison. Not looking at all sorts of different high schools etc. You kinda knew what you could expect in terms of college grade performance.

My first year on the active side of recruitment, there was a little grumbling in the ranks from older actives. While the alums lowered our GPA requirement slightly - They eliminated SRs or Scholarship Risks. Best I could tell - we use to be allowed to take like 5 or 7% of a pledge class below the GPA threshold. Like if the GPA threshold was 2.75 you could take a few girls that were the 2.5 to 2.75 range. We had 5 rounds of parties and it was generally known that if you had a reference/recommendation your would be asked back to the first round of invitationals. I did not realize that the "courtesy" served an important purpose. Our GPA requirements and one other sororities on campus were significantly higher than the other groups. If we cut everyone that did not have our grades first round - our parties would be too empty.

Apparently what ended up happening when we allowed SRs is that instead of focusing on "top rushees" the chapter members spent a lot of time advocating for which SR they wanted. (There were a lot of great girls that did not meet our grade standards). And guess what? The SR's we pledged made up most of our "holdovers" - the girls that could not be initiated with their pledge class because they did not make their grades their pledge semester.

Our Alums looked at it from a cold, dispassionate data perspective and said enough. Moving forward they set very odd GPA thresholds. It changed every rush and was based of the mean or median GPA of the girls going through recruitment that particular semester. GPAs like 2.568. So 2.569 was okay but 2.567 was a no go.

My chapter just had its first day of virtual recruitment. They did well but for some reason the Greek Life advisor changed the schedule on them last minute. There were only 99 PNMs signed up and only 81 showed up. The advisor changed the number of parties for 6 parties to 8 parties. The chapter had 7-9 members not even recruit because they had no one to recruit. When this was brought to her attention she seemed annoyed. She came from Oklahoma (I believe UofO but could be OU). She's trying to do things like them and doesn't work for this campus. The chapter didn't finish the last round til 11:15 pm. We also heard that not all chapters had to do all 8 rounds.

Argh... The chapter I advise for also has a rogue Greek Life advisor. You should see if you can get in touch with the NPC rep for this school. I would bet that Alpha Xi Delta has someone who can help you get to the right person to talk to GL advisor. Good luck

The Pi Chis told the PNMs not to share their party lists with anyone else and they seemed to be compliant! Again, to not be able to chat idly with others in a crowd must have limited unhelpful tent talks.

OU and U of O are the same. The other big university in Oklahoma is Ok State University aka OSU.

Virtual Recruitment
 

Indiana State started its virtual recruitment today after being delayed a month. Hope all is going well.

Just had a recruitment overview meeting with the Greek Advisor and other chapter advisors. She stated that many PNMs withdrew from recruitment because they did not feel a connection or that due to Covid financially it was not the right time. So hopefully next year the numbers will increase.