Otterbein Recruitment 2005
 

Rush officialy starts on Wednesday, when opening ceremony happens. I'm so excited, not only to be a Rho Chi, but for my house to take new members, and I'm excited about the group of girls rushing this year. Obviously I'm not going to be able to give the typical "rush story", but I'll try to give an overview from the Rho Chi POV.

Let the games begin!

hope you have nothing but fun and your girls end all happy

Have fun! I think that I'll enjoy hearing a story from a PX's perspective.

update: 110 girls signed up with 2 days left.

Chapters at OC:
Sigma Alpha Tau (owls)
Theta Nu (Greenwhich)
Kappa Phi Omega
Epsilon Kappa Tau
Tau Epsilon Mu
Tau Delta

we got our PX groups tonight!!! I'm so excited. Tomorrow is opening ceremony. I have the largest group, with 24. The other groups will probably have some added on tomorrow, but as of right now, mine is freakin' huge! We now have 130 girls rushing, as opposed to last years 160. I believe quota will be set at 20.

I know you are so excited about this!

Are you going to post what you see "on the other side"?
How many girls are still in the process?
Ask for advice on what to tell girls?

I am used to PNM rush stories but this will certainly be different. It will be fun! Good luck:D

Opening Ceremony
 

So we had a TON of girls sign up at the last minute. Total now? Around 155, just 5 short of last years massive rush. Unfortunately, 8 of the girls assigned to my PX group didn't show up, so I have to call them and remind them that they have to go to Open House on Saturday. The girls in my group were a little upset that Open House started at 9:30 AM on a saturday. I reminded them that in some places it starts at 6 AM. And plus Open House is only 1 day, not 2.

An Amendment was passed by Panhellenic Counsel today to restrict rush to women only, thus the man attempting to go through sorority recruitment was not allowed. Too bad, he seems very nice. Hopefully he'll rush a fraternity and end up with some awesome brothers.

My girls are very diverse. We have a couple sophomores, and a junior, and a bunch of commuters. One girl has taken Hula lessons (this is in OHIO mind you!) for 12 years. Another one has her ears stretched like me. There's a few I worry about getting lost in the shuffle, but I'm going to try to look out for them.

*Phew* Open house is over. Thank goodness. It was a long day, but thankfully no rain. Again, not all my girls showed up. I know for certain one chose to stay in bed...so i don't know what will happen to her. We had new girls added today too. The houses were very good this year about the time they got to spend with the girls. The recruitment chairs from each chapter seriously worked thier buns off to pull their houses together. As a rho chi, i kinda just sat in the living rooms all day, but I got to know my girls better. There are a few that I DESPERATELY want in my org. My PX partner said it would be fun to ask the girls what org they thought we were from at our next meeting (tuesday, 9:30 pm), and then ask them again during final party meeting, just to see if they change their tunes/guess correctly.

My cover almost got blown today. At my house, i went into the kitchen to get a drink, and one of the girls in my group was talking to a sister, and she said "yeah I saw you guys at Max N Ermas, you and her " and pointed to me...and I was like "OH SHIT!" and kinda turned and left. I think the sister rand damage control for me. I hope she doesn't give it away ! :eek:

keep smiling...
sounds like you are terrific...

So the girls got their novelty party invites. All of my girls got at least one invite...even the ones who haven't bothered to call or attend anything as of yet :mad: . One of the no-shows got listed as "Dropped" because she hadn't called anyone, but then she called and yelled at my poor PX partner! But she got an invite today (by my group..grrr!). But that aside, all of the girls seemed happy about their invites. (I noticed that a lot of the girls I want to end up in my org had invites to our party!!!!! I was so freaking excited!) There's something about rush that brings out the screamy-girlie side in me.

The only thing wrong with the whole day was that my friend only got one invite, even though she's fantastic and was basically getting dirty rushed by one group. The invite she got was to my org, but she doesn't think she'd pledge there (fair enough). Meh, i just felt bad for her because she gave it a fair try.

man...your job sounds so tough, particularly now that you are in the middle ot things.
good luck as the parties progress.

I forgot to mention this in my post about open house. After I SPECIFICALLY said, "Ladies, please turn off your cell phones or at least put them on silent, unless you're waiting for your donor organ." I found out from one of my sisters yesterday that not only had a girl answered her phone, but she answered the phone in the middle of a sister's information speech about our symbols, and then proceded to INTERUPT her to ASK DIRECTIONS!!! I was LIVID when I heard this, LIVID. I would be pissed off if it was any house on campus, but the extra blow was that this was MY house, MY sisters. And after I TOLD them...grrrrr. The sad thing is that we invited her back to novelty round because the sister she interupted was too upset to read her nametag.

There were advantages of RUSH in the olden days when we were PLEDGES for an entire semester-- no one had a cell phone. The closest we ever saw was the mobile phone in the car Mannix would use while doing his PI stuff.

Love your line about waiting for your organ donor.

DaffyKD

Just a quick question - how does your disaffiliation work? Our recruitment counselors (Pi Chi) are strictly forbidden to have ANY contact with their sisters for the whole month of recruitment, and are disaffiliated all summer long before Fall Recruitment. During recruitment, we were basically never left alone, we had to be with our Pi Chi partner at all times to make sure we didn't call sisters on our cell phones. We could also not be alone with another Pi Chi who was in our own sorority. We stayed in hotels for the week just in case we happened to live in an apartment with sisters. I was just wondering how the rules work at your school, because ours are so strict. A Pi Chi would never be allowed in the kitchen, or any other room, of her own sorority house during a recruitment party.

It sounds like you are doing a great job, even though you have some difficult PNMs in your group. I was a Pi Chi, so I know how it feels!

Wow. That's taking things a little too far. I understand not talking to your sisters in public, but not letting them talk on the phone is just... wow.

It really isn't...we all know that Rho Chis exchange info with their chapters.

Our disaffiliation isn't that strict. I still have to go to Panhel and represent my house (I'm a rep from my chapter). I've helped make nametags for novelty and baked brownies (all of f campus, of course). But we can't have letters on (my PX buddy accidentally wore letters this week and was spotted by a rush chair!), no "overt" association with one sorority over another around campus (IE, don't sit at huge table full of XYZ's wearing letters). If you must go to your house, you have to be discreet (use the back/side entrance). I can go to chapter meetings, but can't be in attendance for anything involving PNM selection. My sisters can't (shouldn't?) tell me who from my group was invited or ask me questions or my opinion about any girl in my group...blah blah blah. Recruitment is almost over! Soooo excited.

There were more stresses this weekend though. My fantastic boyfriend came down to see me to celebrate our 3 year anniversary. So I was staying at a hotel away from campus with him to get in some quality time. About 9 AM saturday, my phone rings, and it is my roommate. One of my girls had an accident and was in the hospital. Tons of last minute phone calls and waking up more than one recruitment chair.

My cell phone is also on the fritz, and doesn't really charge well. So it died. No big deal, I'll charge it. (didn't happen). So when it finally charges, I see I have 2 voicemails, one of them is from a rushee. Poor girl had mentioned that she had an illness in the family and that she might need to rush home to attend a funeral or something of that sort. Well, unfortunately she had to go home :(. So I had to call the rush chairs of the parties she missed and explain to them what happened. I really hope she isn't penalized either, because she is fantastic and will really be a huge asset to any chapter that takes her. If I was allowed to have a rush crush, it'd be her.

bless your heart...you are only a little bit busy.

Hehe, me too. Which is scary b/c I'm not "screamy-girlie" at all normally. Your PX time sounds super stressful -- good luck with the rest of it!

My girls got their final party invites yesterday. Only one out of my group of 23 (our final count after an exhausting series of drops and adds) didn't recieve an invite. I felt bad though, but the same thing happened to me last year and it worked out for the best. But at any rate. I called her and asked her to meet with my partner and I before the actual meeting, and she called me back shortly before that time, but I was in a Res Life meeting and had to ignore the call, but she didn't leave a voicemail. But apparently she got in touch with my partner, and kinda figured out what was going on, even though my partner didn't really come right out and say it (we both thought that on the phone wasn't the best way). We had this whole big long spiel on how COB works and how it works out and how some girls just get overlooked blah blah blah. But she didn't come to the meeting. :( But overall, all the girls seemed very happy with their invites. One girl got 4 invites!!! Most of them got 1 or 2, and I didn't see anyone who was visibly upset about their invites.

the poor girl who got hurt this weekend got an invite as well, I had to call her on the phone and open it for her and fill out her reply card. She seemed pretty happy about her invite, good for her.

you are learning a bunch...
good luck as it ends out.

Today was my org's final party. I was excited, so many of my girls were there. Even though the actual number that came was 15. But apparently, that's average with the other orgs. One that took a quota class last year only had 12 back. So...meh. But we all got the feeling that the girls that were there really wanted to be there and really wanted to be in our sorority. I actually CRIED because I had missed my sisters so much and we were having such a great time. I had written a poem last night about what it means to be a Delta woman, and some of my sisters had read it in my AIM profile. So they made me call my roommate and have my roommate read my profile to me over my phone so I could write it down and read it! I loved our ceremony, it was my first time viewing it. But now 5 of my girls in my PX group know what my affiliation is, not that I mind :) Tomorrow is preference signing and monday is bid day! woot!

Here's the poem I wrote.


What is it to be a Delta Woman?
Delta women are loyal to a fault
Delta women are not afraid of a few calories
Delta women are possessed of beauty, poise, intelligence, and a great sense of humor
Delta women are able to recognize a difference of opinion, and respect it
Delta women are able to do anything they put their minds to
Delta women are supportive of all women and their persuits in life
Delta women are open to change, and recognize it as a vehicle of growth
Delta women are respectful of their sorority, their sisters, and the shared ideals within
Delta women are, above and beyond, SISTERS OF THE HIGHEST ORDER!

That is a sweet poem. You should have it done really nice and have it framed for the chapter room. (I can't remember if you mentioned houses)

Good luck with the girls. Letting them know your affiliation might sway a few your way. Hopefully that is a good thing-like with girls you like instead of those you didn't.

good luck over the next two days.
may everyone end happy and you get to return to your home.

I'm seriously about to pee myself I'm so happy. That and I had 3 diet pepsis in the span of 2 hours. But at any rate, we found out tonight at chapter that we have ....
drum rolll
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.........
...........
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9! fabulous new pledges. However, we don't know who they are till tomorrow. My big and I have agreed to share if there are not enough pledges, and if they need more actives, we can go solo.

I CANT WAIT TILL TOMORROW! I can wear letters again!

congrats to your casa....
nine is a lovely number

Congrats to your chapter!

UPDATE! Possible COB alert. My chapter is usually the only one that offers girls COB, and apparently there are 5 girls on the list. So we are going to discuss them tonight and vote to offer them a bid...possibly all 5, but we're hoping 1 or 2 will accept, considering last years class was 9, a growth of 2 would be great

Congrats to your chapter! I bet it is great to be back home! :D

turns out the COB list was HUGE. We sent bids to 5 girls and added one off quota. We'll find out soon if they're coming :) It was INSANE to have 26 girls in our tiny tiny house! SOOOO much excited yelling and laughing.

sounds like it's all good.
congrats delta lady.
you dun good.

So far we've got one girl from COB, a junior, but she's fantastic. She had her first event last night, and I was really surprised at how quick she meshed with the other girls. I got my little sister yesterday! My first lil kitten! I'm so excited, I'm going to spoil the crap out of her.

Congrats on the first (of hopefullly many!!!) COB girls!

I suppose I should post how the other chapters did :

Quota was 18 by the way.

Theta Nu: quota plus 1
Owls: quota plus 2
Kappa Phi Omega: quota
Tau Epsilon Mu: quota plus 4
Epsilon Kappa Tau: 8
Tau Delta: 8 plus 1, COB 1

What is the (estimated) total number of girls in all of these houses?

I have no idea, but I'll take a stab based on what I know.

This is including pledges.
Theta Nu: around 60 girls
Owls: around 50
Kappa Phi Omega: around 65-70
TEM: lord only knows, but I'm saying around 65-80
EKT will be around 40
Tau Delta is at a nice round 27