Just a suggestion...
 

I'm sure I'm far from the only alumna who hears Recruitment Party plans and thinks, "Should I say it or not?" So... for those of us who have to pick their battles wisely when dealing with a chapter, I thought maybe some alumnae could tender some advise here.

I'll start by stating that Recruitment really needs to be cost-efficient. One of the very best Recruitment ideas I ever saw was done by Alpha Epsilon Phi at Pitt. Instead of having 5 conflicting theme parties that caused Set up > The Party > Clean Up > Tear Down > Redecorate for five days straight, they stuck to one basic theme, and just tweaked it to a different subtheme every day!

The Sisters were more on the ball, because they were refreshed, there were no late night fights over "But I did it LAST night!", and I would imagine that the costs were kept down.

Any other pearls of wisdom?

For the love of all that's holy, please don't do the Grease skit again.

I gotta agree... when i went through rush in 99, 2 of the 11 sororities did it.

Go for something different and memorable- it'll make you stand out more and be easier to remember. It'll also get girls talking.

For instance, we did (this was more when animal print was super trendy) a Party Animal theme- the suite was animal print eveywhere, it was made to look like a club, we all wore something animal print.

We also did "Fire and Ice"- one side of the suite was red and fire, the other side was blue and ice themed. We did the cheer from Bring it On (the movie- the Brr, it's cold in here cheer)- Brr, it's cold in here, there must be some KD's in the atmosphere. Was a 30 second skit, but girls remember it and talked about it between parties.

BE UNIQUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Just a suggestion...
 

We avoided the second half of this problem by assigning every girl in the house to one of three parties that they were responsible for coming up with ideas, shopping for supplies, making decorations, putting up and taking down decorations. Girls were more likely to help out if they knew they only had to do it for one party rather than all three and fewer people got burnt out that way. (Unfortunately I got stuck with second round parties, which had about twenty times the set up and take down of the other parties -- I think I'll aim for Pref night crew next year ;) ).

Ditto on the original theme and skits -- this year FOUR houses here did Hollywood-themed first parties (unfortunately we were one of them). If your skit isn't going to be the best, or at least drastically different from the other ones, don't bother.

Ditto: Sex in the City, Survivor, etc.

I think the Beach/Carribbean Theme is played out as well. My old school, I rushed one year and quit after first day because I didnt like the system there, but out of the 12 houses that were participating in formal rush that year 5 of that 12 did this same theme.........they even sang a few of the same songs only inserting their sorority name in it (it was a sorority version of California Girls). Everytime I hear that song now I think of my rush experience there and all five houses that did it.

I'm a new alumnae member of my group. I know you cant really talk to other members of other sororities during silence, but is there some way at all through panhellenic perhaps where it gets worked out to where every house does something different? So everyone knows their skit wont be repeated elsewhere beforehand? I'm talking about havign this knowledge months in advance.......like spring semester before formal fall rush. That way if changes need to me made, there is time to do that and get it perfected, and not have it look like it was put together last minue and half-assed. I was just curious.........

OMG!!! I don't know how many times the Tri-Delts (as drop dead gorgeous as they were) woke me up in the morning practicing that stupid Grease skit. Grrrrrrrrrr. 15 years later and it still irks me.

Of course you should be taking this with a grain of salt. At my campus nobody does Grease, Sex and the City or Survivor -- and to the best of my knowledge none of the groups on campus have done them in recent years, so you could get away with it. (Although Survivor is a little played out by now.) But if you're on a campus where the Phi Mus just stopped using Grease last year and now you want to adopt it . . . I would definitely advise no on that one.

I would encourage you to write your repsective organizations with suggestions for new skits. i know from looking at what is available that many are relatively out of date. Perhaps the time is right to have some creative alums and collegians submit their own original skits to their HQ's to update the databanks!

Kudos to kddani about being original!!!

If I hear, "We have to have cheesecake! Everyone expects it one more time, I cannot be held responsible for what I'll do!!

It's like everybody wearing black for Pref. Sure, it looks nice - but every sorority looks the SAME!!

I think with our university (we were a deferred recruitment school), the formal recruitment chairs for each sorority had to turn in a basic schedule of everything that the chapter was doing for the entire week of recruitment....what was planned for each party, what was being served, what supplies were needed for that round, etc. I think it worked pretty well, because from what I can tell, we never had more than one sorority doing any type of skit or philanthropy activity....which made it easier on the PNM's to differentiate between the seven chapters! :)

As superficial as it is, black does make everyone look thinner. Are you going to assume a marketing disadvantage at such a pivotal time?

Ok, I don't want to get my head bitten off, but on my campus, our Panhel Advisor is telling us that NPC is going to no frills rush starting 2005??? I come from a frilly rush school (well as much as our budget allows) and there are skits and crafts, and balloons galore.

Yes, I like the idea of one bkgrd theme and then each night sets off from that.

We have a lot of TRL, Sex and the City, fashion show, etc. We're a small school and could probably use some big school help.

50's rushing is finally gone....... thank you!!!

chortle chortle chortle.

NPC nationally was supposed to go to no frills in, like, 1995. I remember the article in our magazine. Needless to say this didn't happen at many schools and NPC hasn't done jack about it.

Too bad the alcohol rules don't change at the same pace as the rush rules. :rolleyes: :p

"Take our beer but dear God in heaven, let us keep our confetti!"

On that note . . . especially if you're one of those schools that, like mine, has three-party pref night, don't do the cheesecake! It's just too heavy for rushees to eat three pieces of cheesecake in one night. Something lighter, like angel food cake and strawberry sauce, is such a relief at the end of the night.

My chapter traditionally does chocolate covered strawberries at pref... we tried to change it one year and we almost had a revolt on our hands... NOT PRETTY... so can I just suggest being a little more open minded... also my biggest pet peeve about recruitment....I know some hard core schools have "lock down" and don't even let sisters leave their houses really during rush and but if you can leave the house or do rush parties on campus rooms.. (like my school has to) but if you have your day free before the party...


BE ON TIME... BE EARLY... ask the most stressed out looking sisters if they need help getting decorations.... instead of getting your make up and hair ready... make sure the room is ready.... if everyone is helping wth the room then everything will be done quickly and EVERYONE will have time to primp and get lovely :D

I have a question, could you add things to the pref party instead of changing them. I hate chocolate and I know several other girls who hate chocolate or it makes them sick. SO if you only serve chocolate covered cherries there is a small (but growing) group of women that would not touch it.

How is that for an idea, keep the cherries but add some thing also for everyone and you can change the second one every year to keep it interesting.

HAHAHAHA....http://burns.thefinaldimension.org/c...laugh1blue.gif

PsychTau

My big suggestion to collegiates is to try to be a little bit objective when planning or discussing recruitment. Just because the "under the sea" sketch clinched it for you, and made you realize you wanted to be a Upsilon Upsilon forever, doesn't mean it still works for pnms two or three years later.
Be willing to "let go" even though it's painful to see something end.
Also, what's "traditional" for your chapter to do at rush, (e.g. cheesecake with our flower, the hydrangea frosted on top) means virtually nothing to a pnm meeting your chapter for the first time. Try and be open to new ideas, they may really work.
Along the same lines, when in a workshop environment try to not repeat what has already been said, instead, briefly acknowledge that you agree with the what has been said already and then add something new if you have a genuinely new thought to add. This will cut workshops by hours, I promise. Clearly the experience of rush is a pretty precious and emotional one for all of us (have you noticed that we alumnae go crazy for these rush threads, that should tell you something) but not every account of every recruitment experience belongs in every workshop. Don't feel slighted by this, it's just the nature of working within a group, and will be an invaluable skill in all your future meetings within your chosen career.
Also, it's not such a terrible idea to say hello to the alumnae that come to assist. Walk up, say hello, introduce yourself and give them the essentials; your name, year, major and office. It will make their night, believe me. You may benefit as well, some alumnae are only a few years out of school, they can be potential friends as well as rush help, so keep that in mind.
great topic as usual honeychile!

We did this, actually. The rush chairs had a meeting about midway through spring semester where they would announce their themes. There were all sorts of rules - if you'd used a theme two years running you could keep it, if two sororities wanted to use the same theme they would alternate years, etc. This ensured that no two sororities used the same theme even for different rounds.

Oh Oh Oh I have an idea!

A lord of the rings Skit! Anyone think thats possible?

You could like . . . well I am not sure what the decorations would be . . . or what you would wear . . . But at least it would be highly original :)

Maybe you could check out what some of your alum did decades ago ? That might be "original".

I met a tri-delt oir DG or something that was active in the 50's and they did an Oklahoma skit that seemed complicated.

No one will want to play the Orcs....but you could have a Gollum character scurrying about the stage looking for the "bid" and calling it "precious" a lot. Won't that win over the PNMs.

And tell the PNMs that pledges are taught through playing a special sorority version of Dungeons and Dragons. :rolleyes:

This is my new favorite GC quote! :D

Quote of the year here on GC!! LMAO!! :D

you can't? this i did not know.

One school's no frills rush is another school's big budget rush! I think more & more schools are putting a limit on how much you can spend on rush - but of course, there will always be those who will get around it through alumnae donations or whatever. :rolleyes:

Y'all have some great ideas!! I just wish I had me some confetti right now... :D

Do ya'll have any suggestions for schools that have a strict no frills rush. Our panhellenic has set very strict guidelines as far as recruitment goes. There are to be absolutely no skits or themes. You have an informational night, a scholarship night, a sisterhood night, and a Pref night. You're also technically not allowed to have fresh flowers in the house during recruitment (although there are ways around this). What suggestion do you have for schools with such strict Panhell rules?

-Lindsay

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Lindsay, it would depend on the very letter of the law, are you allowed to spend anything, serve anything, etc. Are y'all allowed to dress similarly? Because color can be a powerful theme! Obviously, so can refreshments.

Do any of the other alumnae have any ideas?

Well... we can't wear the same clothes. We can do things like letter shirts and khakis... But say we had a Philanthropy Tee with a design... we couldn't all wear those. And we can only serve water at the first two nights. I'm one of those people who does not care to get a few Rush infractions, but we have some girls that are so scared of the punishment that they go for plain jane recruitment. That just doesn't work on our campus.

-Lindsay

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