Help:He's wrong and we're right or why uneducated men should not be in charge of rush
 

So there was a slight scandal at the chapter I advise. They gave a bid to girl last spring through COR, which she accepted (I'm fairly certain she signed her card with the Greek Office, her information was for sure sent into our headquarters as an official new member.)

Well, the weeks pass and she decides not to initiate. Girls are kind of concerned, but she's also in track so they know she's busy. More weeks pass and it comes down the grapevine that she's decided to depledge. (Whether or not she "officially" told the chapter, I'm unsure. She may have, the end of the semester was fairly hectic for our president.)

Then we come to find out that she's signed up for Formal Recruitment and we're all like, Wuh Huh? She can't do that!

But the Greek Adviser at the school (who is male) says that informal is different and doesn't count. Um... no, right? A bid is a bid is a bid whether it was extended during formal or informal recruitment and the NPC-mandated year-wait is still in effect, is it not?

The girls in the chapter are pretty much over it, they're going to drop the girl like a hot potato after the first day since it's fairly obvious she didn't want to be here but I'm rather peeved at the advisor if he's giving out false information. Who knows what else he's misadvising to these chapters??

So, are we right and he's wrong? Technically, the girl shouldn't be going through formal recruitment, right??

If I'm wrong, hey, I learned something new. If I'm right, I think I'll have our Membership Adviser say something to him.

The way I understand it is you can't accept any bid one calendar year after accepting one regardless of if recruitment is formal or informal. I'm sure someone else will know for sure, but I definitely think you're right in this case.

co-sign!

ISUKappa, the chapter and/or your chapter or regional recruitment advisor may want to check the Green Book on this issue. It appears to be related to an NPC Unanimous Agreement issue. You can view what I believe is the relevant Unanimous Agreement in the "Policies" section on the NPC web site -- scroll down until you come to the bold heading beginning with Roman numeral III. I think it's the third paragraph under that heading.

NPC site:

http://www.npcwomen.org

I wonder if the Greek Life person is looking at it as "there's nothing to keep her from going through recruitment." That might, I suppose, be the case, if the requirements for going through recruitment are basically enrollment, a certain GPA, and whatever else the school and Panhellenic have established.

However, IF I'm reading that Unanimous Agreement excerpt correcly, the woman in question can't be bid by another NPC sorority on her campus until one calendar year from when she got her bid. But don't take my word for it; check it out with a real authority, please.

She is not eligible for a bid.

Now, as far as her being able to go through Formal Recruitment, I'm sure there's nothing in the Green Book preventing her from going through recruitment, but she cannot get a bid in the end. She has to wait one calendar year. The Green Book defines the calendar year as "approximate"....meaning if she pledged on September 1st, then drops 2 months later, she can return to Formal Recruitment and accept a new bid if Formal Recruitment the next year actually ends on August 30th. (In other words, the dates don't have to EXACTLY match if it's talking about Formal).

I would talk with the NPC Area Adviser to see how the waiting period is defined for COR. The other solution to this would be to bring it up in the VERY NEXT Panhellenic Meeting or the Panhellenic Recruitment Committee meeting. Discuss it with the other chapter delegates and have them discuss with their National Counterparts if they want. By doing this, you've given them the heads up on this girl (yes, use her name) and you don't have to worry about her any more. She might get dropped the first day if she cannot be bid and takes up a spot for an eligible PNM. (and hopefully the other chapters will figure that out. If not, say that in the Panhellenic Meeting...."We need to figure this out because she might not be eligible for a bid and she would be taking up a spot for an eligible PNM. That would be awful to lose out on a member just because of that confusion. Let's figure this out....")

Let us know how this turns out.
PsychTau

How would this normally be done in schools? Would they inform the girl in question that she is not eligable for a bid? Or would they just let her go thru recruitment and let all the chapters release her?

My college has an uneducated guy as our greek advisor too.

He has no clue as to how NPC recruitment works or how quota is supposed to be calculated (but that's a separate story).

He also shows favoritism to a couple of sorority chapters too over the other 6 which ticks off a lot of people. He came into this job rigth after graduating as an undergraduate I think and was greek at my school. He still knows people in the system, thus contributing to his bias.

My chapter is havign a bit of a problem with him not properly verifying GPA and cummulative credit hours for a PNM that we took in the Spring and it turns out she wasnt even eligible for recruitment much less eligible to join us. But now she's initiated, on scholastic probation and univeristy probation and not too much we can do other than scholastic probation things...........grrrrrrr:(

Kari,
I'm pretty sure that you're right. Once a PNM accepts the bid, she has to wait a year to do the process all over again. And she should be on file with the university, especially if your HQ has the information, so he should know that she isn't eligible to accept a bid from a chapter until the spring at the earliest. I guess she could go through Formal and all if she wants to see all the houses, but I don't think she should be eligible to receive a bid.

You are right. As I understand it, if you accept a bid from informal recruitment, start the new member process, then depledge, you cannot accept a bid from another sorority for one year from when you accepted the first bid. If you receive a bid but do not accept it, you are free to accept a bid from another sorority.

Formal recruitment is slightly different. If you turn in a signed pref card and get a bid from a sorority you listed, you are bound to that sorority for one year even if you decline the bid.

So this woman should not be eligible to receive a bid from FR or from COB this fall.

Re: Help:He's wrong and we're right or why uneducated men should not be in charge of rush
 

In this situation, you may have to get the NPC adviser in your area (are you at ISU?) involved to educate this "Greek Adviser". It may be helpful to see if there are any other members of a GLO on the University Administration, that can also advise the ill informed staff person.

OR

You should contact the member of your National Council who is your National NCP delegate to step in with the campus (that is what Phi Mu does..you contact your area NPC Delegate/alternate who addresses this matter on the chapter's behalf. Keeps the tensions down this way)

I would maybe have a sit down with him and bring a copy of the green book (panhellenic should have one somewhere, if your chapter doesn't), find the agreement, and just ask in a non-provocative way "we're not trying to be vindictive here, but this is the information we have regarding this policy, and this is the authority on the subject...are we misinterpreting? is there a possibility that you are? we just want to be educated so that we do the right thing and know what's going on." I don't see how he could argue with the text, and that way it wouldn't look like your chapter was just trying to burn the girl. It's a rule to keep everyone from pledging and depledging willy-nilly. the choice to join a sorority is a serious committment, and bending that rule for one person makes room for others.

What a mess!

btw, I think your chapter is handing this quite maturely, having already made up its mind to drop her should she be able to get through formal rush before you get the matter resolved. I'm used to hearing schemes of blackballing her campus-wide and plots to make sure her great-grand-neices don't get bids!

I'm at the U of Iowa and Formal Recruitment starts next week. I'll try and call some people on Monday and see where I can get with this. I think I would rather have an NPC delegate speak with the Greek Advisor as opposed to just a general member of an NPC group. And the current VP of Recruitment for Panhellenic is a Kappa so maybe she can turn this situation into an informative roundtable for one of her Membership meetings after Formal Recruitment is over.

Thanks! I love hearing when I'm right! ;)

You might want to try emailing your NPC delegate this weekend. If your recruitment is next week, time is of the essence. The NPC delegates I know check their email several times/ day this time of year to ensure that chapters get prompt attention. You should be able to find your NPC delegate's email on your international website (it might be on the sisters-only side). Good luck (your instincts were right on... and your adviser needs to study his Green Book!!)

[devil's advocate]

So why are y'all wanting to prevent a girl from going through Rush? So she didn't gel with your group. What's to say that she won't gel with another?

As I understand it, her level of involvement was putting her name on a piece of paper. Yeah, you probably COULD get her kicked out of rush. But really, what good purpose would that serve?

[/ devil's advocate]

Because she'd be violating NPC policy. What's the point of having policy is it's not going to be followed.

Her full year isn't up yet. She cannot rush. However, it's only formal recruitment she can't participate in. She's more than welcome to rush during the COB period in the spring because her year wil be over (provided there is BOB in the spring).

It's not that nobody wants her to rush and pledge again ever, NPC has the calendar year pledge agreement for a reason--so that women know that pledging is a serious committment. If there were no rule, pnms could rush and drop continuously, giving each sorority a week or a month trial period or whateverr. This complicates chapter rolls, finances, planning, ability to bond, and of course, new member retention. It's also highly questionable whether or not this woman has even formally depledged from her current sorority, having a year to break ties with a group you've pledged is important. It sometimes takes time to get all the proper paperwork filed to get you formally depledged with your National Organization. I hope she is able to rush again and I hope it works out well. I think the other issue here is that this greek advisor isn't holding up NPC policy and that's part of his job.

If she is allowed to rush despite this policy, they'd have to extend the same courtesy to anyone who might find themselves in the same boat.

Now, add the reasons trisigmaATL mentioned, multiply it by the number of girls who want out of their pledge agreement, and you have utter chaos.

info from greenbook
 

to quote,"a woman is ineligible for membership recruitment if she has been a new member of an npc fraternity on this campus within the same calendar year."page 79, #3

also,"any woman signing a membership recruitment acceptance and receiving a bid at the end of membership recruitment shall be bound by the agreement for one calendar year if she is at the same college or university."page 80, #13

it appears that this woman would NOT be eligible to join another group until the spring of 2005. hope this helps. lisa

Re: info from greenbook
 

FSUZeta, excellent GreenBook information! I was pretty sure that somewhere there would be explicit formal interpretations of the Unanimous Agreement. I hope that this specific situation can be resolved in a dignified way for the sake of the individual and the NPC chapters on that campus. What's sad is that there's the possibility that the Greek Life person might, through ignorance, be setting an NPC chapter up for a "violation of the Unanimous Agreements," and I'd guess that most HQs would not like that :).

UPDATE!

So I emailed our NPC delegate and she wrote back to me today. She said I was right (hooray!) and to get in touch with the Greek Advisor. She would talk to our first delegate and the NPC area representative and get the situation cleared up.

I called the GA and told him my understanding of NPC policy, he said he'd have to review the policy again but he was under the impression that it only referred to Formal Recruitment. I also told him that someone from NPC might be in contact with him to clarify the situation.

WHEW! So hopefully things will get resolved soon, especially since Recruitment starts TOMORROW!

It's so nice to hear you're right--especially from your NPC delegate! :D

I'm confused. I thought you were not allowed to accept a bid until one year after you depledge. We had a woman who held over forever, (we didn't deal with it quickly enough) and eventually her bid/ pledgeship expired. She became part of a group trying to colonize an NPC and we were told that she could not pledge (if they affiliated) for one year to the date of her official release from AST. or is it from her date of recieving a bid...?

One year from her receiving a bid - and it's the "spirit" of the year, not a calendar year (i.e. fall to fall, not September 4 to September 4).

We had some girls who signed open bids but never pledged, the bids just expired.

we had a girl who accepted her bid in march 2001, she pledged, but never initiated. If you don't initiate within one year, you have to be rebid. She was never rebid, so that means she could have recieved a bid immeadiatly after we released her because her original bid was 2001?

Good luck...and much success during Membership Recruitment. I long for the day that Phi Mu is back at Iowa. (ok, so it has been decades...but a girl can dream.)

Yes. She could have received a bid in Spring 2002. You didn't need to "release" her as she went a year without initiating and was never rebid - this eliminated any ties between the two parties.

It depends on who told her that about the release date, but if it was one of the nationals looking at the group they may have just used different terminology or just plain didn't want to deal with whether or not she was eligible.