How stupid is this
 

Ok maybe someone can help me out with this.

I go to a fairly small school with chapter's quota being around 60/65-ish. We've always done recruitment as the three-day weekend kinda deal.
Well this year they want to try to increase our quota so they are going to have two weeks of recruitment. Which doesn't sound like a bad idea, cause everyone ususally goes home during the weekend. But every chapter loses some people due to graduation. Unfortunately my chapter is losing a lot (17 to be exact) and here comes the bad part....Panhellenic is wanting to take all the girls going through and split them into two groups. So if by some chance like 200 girls go through then this means we could have 100 girls at one party.This sounds completely insane to me. But they seem to think it will work. How are we going to do that? We will have like 46 girls with 100 PNMs???
Does anyone else have recruitment like this?

I don't see how lengthening the recruitment period will increase quota. If PHC is trying to get more girls into the system, they need to do work up front to increase registration.

As far as splitting the PNMs into two large groups - that's just not a feasible way to go. Too many PNMs will be left hanging around during parties, with noone to talk to but themselves. The number of PNM groups should be equal to the number of groups on campus - it makes it easier to schedule the events and makes the PNM groups more manageable.

If I were you, I would contact your Panhellenic representative and voice your concerns. She will advocate for you.

Sound advice.

Re: How stupid is this
 

I don't think they mean they want 100 girls at one party. That would be stupid and would mean all the other sororities are sitting around twiddling their thumbs while all the girls are at other sororities' parties.

I think (hope) what they mean is that they will take all the girls that sign up and 100 will go through the first week, 100 will go through the second week. That means you will have 2 quotas and most likely fewer people getting cross cut.

Also, when you are saying "chapter's quota" I think what you actually mean is chapter total.

This actually is kind of a good idea, except it blows for the chapters having to do things twice.

Re: Re: How stupid is this
 

That's what I got out of it, too. Hopefully there wouldn't be 100 PNMs at the same party...geez! :eek:

Lengthening the recruitment period might increase quota because it might boost the retention rate (especially if PNMs go home over the weekend or have night classes). That could be their line of thinking.

I'm also wondering if fall is the "larger" recruitment or the smaller one. They may have a great idea in dividing all the PNMs into 2 groups...but they may not be expecting 200 PNMs. When my campus restructured their "formal" recruitment this spring, we were only planning on having 2 PNM groups (traditionally they've only had about 30 girls go through). We wound up with 55 starting and 34 finishing (compared to 40 starting and 16 finishing the year before)...once we realized how signups were going and that they all showed up on orientation night, we quickly went to Plan B and divided up into 3 PNM groups.

This sounds a little like they are moving more toward PSR or a more relaxed "formal" recruitment...is that correct kayla0deegee?

ETA: After reading what 33girl had to say I thought of another idea. Ifyou are really expecting 200 PNMs, they might be dividing the PNMs into "Alpha" group and "Beta" group. Then the groups alternate nights...Alpha Group has 4 Parties on Monday, Beta has 4 Parties on Tuesday, etc. Each night, they may divide up into 3 smaller groups to rotate through the parties. That way if a girl has class on Monday night, she can come to Tuesday nights parties and not miss out on anything. The drawback is that the sororities will have to repeat their parties 3x on Monday, and the SAME parties 3x on Tuesday. A creative solution, but that would just suck.

Now that I'm thinking too much about this, I'll just stop!

PsychTau

Yes 100 PNMs if you chapter total is only 65 would be crazy. But at Ole Miss, we have at least 100 PNMs at each party...talk about craziness!

See I was very confused by all this too. I even went to a recruitment meeting. This is going to be a more "relaxed" recruitment BUT they are expecting more girls to go through cause it's not until the end of August and it's not during the weekend.
Let me explain the process straight from the Panhellenic advisor's mouth.
We have six sororities.
Monday- will be the first three sororities all at different times.
Tuesday- the next three all at different times---these two days are info days
Wednesday-Philanthropy day repeat monday's schedule
Thurdays-repeat tuesday's schedule
No parties Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Now for the next week i'm still confused because it is only Pref, but four days, but there will still be three parties a day..I dont know about that just yet.
But I said...so there could be a chance we will have 100 girls at one party...depending on how many girls sign up...and she said yes. I then said well thats going to be diffficult for us isnt it and she (very unaffected) says Ah, you'll be fine!
Obviously hitting retarded stage cause my Lord...100 PNMS to 45 members...and everyone is kinda freaking out about it (everyone as in other sororities) because there is one org that has like 30 members.
And the only thing is, is that in years past we have had like 200 girls sign up but not continue all the way through with recruitment, but thats still at least one day of this.
Also we can cut and they can cut after the first day. That's going to be hard cause we almost will have to cut, but there's no way we can get to know them that fast with that many girls.
I'm so aggravated cause it's like the advisor just doesnt care.

Was this voted on by Panhellenic Council?

I was Recruitment chair for panhellenic this year and we have a very small school we have 6 sororities and our total is 45.....We have changed to a more relaxed formal recruitment to help boost greek life and get PNM's there first or second choice sorority what
would make sense would be if all 3 sororities went at the same time and you divided the first group of 100 girls into 3 groups and had them rotate amongst the sororities that are scheduled for the night which would mean approximatly 33 girls would be in each group....

Someone needs to sit down and have a rational conversation with your advisor because 100 PNM's and only 30-40 sisters is ridiculous and is not fair to the PNM's who might not learn everything they would like too learn nor is it fair to the sisters who may cut a girl just becasue they didn't get to know them and lose out on a great person....

Are you having any sort of rush counselors at all?

Do the pnms have to sign up for a time to go to each party or do they drift in and out? I think Pitt did something like this, kddani or fire1977 would know. If it's just like an "open house" it's very very very doubtful that you will have 100 girls come and stay for the entire party. Ask the fraternity guys you know what this is like because it's basically how they rush.

If they are not divided into groups and have to sign up for times to go to each party, I would hope that a) the pnms wouldn't be so stupid as to sign up for the party that is already super full and b) that there would be something on the signup lists that says "limit 40 rushees at each party" or something of the like.

Don't discuss it with the advisor, just do it.

Well there are Gamma Chi's and that's what doesnt make much sense. I'm so confused and no one knows whats going on. We are so nervous about this. All the PNMs have to be escorted to all the parties by the Gamma Chi's....so who even knows what it's going to be like. I dont know if our PH advisor knows whats going on fully. I think this is going to be a huge mess.
I think i am going to email the PH advisor again and ask her the specifics just to be sure about it all. And if she explains it again the same way I'm going to question her and the process.
It's like the advisor is more worried about getting more girls to rush as compared to benefitting the orgs and such.
Who knows...i am scared and it does make so much more sense to break up the 100 girls into three different groups...HOPEFULLY that will happen.
Thanks everyone for the advice and help!!!
I'll let you all know what I find out!

Re: Re: How stupid is this
 

That's what it sounds like, since there is only one group going to each sorority each night... ridiculous!

Twelve pref parties? Eep! :eek:

OK...breathe...it sounds like there is some missing information here. First of all, I'd get the plan/rules in writing. If they aren't on paper, they aren't enforceable. Also, if they aren't clear to you (knowing how recruitment works) then how will the PNMs understand them? You'll lose girls based on confusion.

The other thing is to read them like you are experiencing recruitment for the first time. If you are changing styles, you really need to look at it without trying to match it up with the type of recruitment you are used to. Grasp the whole week as if you were a PNM...then figure out how it matches up to what you used to do. Sometimes you've got to come at it from a different angle.

Then I'd practice. I would get a bunch of girls together to represent PNMs, Gamma Chis, sisters, etc. and I'd run a few scenarios (I did this with our recruitment bid lists because we almost had more PNMs than we had open spots...which meant I would have had to figure out how to do quota at 2am without Pref Cards real quick). See where things get goofed up. And have a Plan B.

In our recruitment, after the first night the PNMs could CHOOSE what parties they wanted to go to. They weren't forced to rotate through all three groups, and the only invite lists we had were for pref (i.e. there was no cutting). Our Pi Chis had to escort the PNMs to each party, so if you wanted to go to the 8pm party then you met in the conference room at 7:45. The conference room was "home base".

Anyway, get it on paper and let us know. It very well could be that the PNMs will be divded up into more manageable groups, and somehow no one is actually saying that (thinking that all of the sisters automatically get it).

PM me if you have more questions!!

PsychTau

Just a little update....still a little confused and I'm still pretty for sure our PH advisor has no clue what she is doing. BUT I did figure this out...each week we have two parties. First week is an info day, then a philanthropy day. Second week is a skit day and then pref day.
But they still have not made it clear how the girls will be split up. THey are still saying they will be split up into two groups. Also they have decided that the girls going through are not required to go any parties....even the first day. I think that idea is so silly. There will be several chapters that are going to be hurt severely from this process, or at least i think they will. Not trying to be rude or cocky but I'm glad that my chapter has a good reputation on campus. I mean we went from having a very structured and strict recruitment to having no restrictions what so ever. Not to mention there are a couple chapters that are known for well im not even going to sugar coat it...dirty rushing....
This process kinda worries me...not even gonna lie.
Does anyone else go by this process?

You seriously need to get your chapter's Recruitment Advisor and possibly your national NPC Delegate involved. What you describe is a complete mess and only people directly invovled can help you. Good luck.

Absolutely contact (or have the appropriate officer from your chapter contact) DG's NPC delegate and your campus's NPC College Panhel Adviser. (Contact info can be found here.)

In contacting them, you don't have to take the approach that your Panhel adviser is clueless. No need at this point to be accusatory (it might do more harm than good), but plead confusion and ask assistance. Your adviser might be feeling helpless, too.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Oww, I think my head is going to explode...

Although almost every year my sorority has more PNM's at our parties than we do active members..usually exponentialy more PNMs. I'm not quite sure how this works in the NPC world, but our alumn help us out with talking to girls and organizing the different stuff they do at parties. And while they have no voting rights, they can say, "Oh Pam PNM was very nice, animated, and is very involved on campus, did anyone else interact with her or know her?". It can be a big help to let your alumn spot new girls too. Especially if you have 45 sisters, assuming that everyone is there, healthy, and working...you may need to call in reinforcements! (just thinking of the Delta Nu's in Legally Blonde 2, hehe).

I agree. At my school, rush is pretty small, with each sorority having a cap of fifty girls, and it's really easy to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Maybe, if there are that many girls you might want to try dividing the girls a set of groups that's double the amount of chapters you have, that way each group can adequately manage the PNMs without too much trouble.

Good luck!

Alums in Gamma Phi Beta cannot help out with rush except behind the scenes...we can be seen but not heard at rush events - last year myself and another alum attended all the pref parties at UGA and waved goodbye as they all left but we cannot talk to the rushees at all...I am not sure, but I think this may be the case with other sororities as well?

Okay I don't normally look at these threads, and then lo and behold 33girl mentions something about us!

To me it sounds like you are doing partially structured recruitment. NPC has a definition but to me it seemed fairly loose. Basically, what I am getting is that women will be split into two groups - we did this too, they were split with the first half of the alphabet and the second. Sororities had parties at different times, but we had at the time 12 sororities so some parties overlapped but the first half of PNM's with last names A-M would be able to go to 6 sororities one day and the other 6 the next, ie DPhiE, AEPhi, KD, KKG, TPA, and DZ would have A-M tuesday and then N-Z on wednesday. PNM's weren't required to attend all or any parties (but obviously you aren't going to get a bid if no one knows you).

Obviously houses that normally have very good retention rates during fully structured recruitment will attract more PNM's and there is a possibility of having quite a lot of PNM's at your parties. For a chapter that maybe isn't as well known or visible you really have to get out there and be SEEN and HEARD, prior to recruitment.

Recruitment Counselor's were used but they basically were there to answer women's questions and keep them informed, not so much assist them with schedules. In this case it would be prudent for them to remind women that each house only has so many spots available and to visit as many sororities as possible - not to discourage them but to be fair - and even that doesn't always work.

Once we got to preference that is when we basically "cut women". It was an invitation only event and this is where you invite only women who could potentially get a bid.

Some drawbacks/and advantages to this: chapters CAN have a lot of women return to their parties, but the other end of the spectrum applies as well - there's nothing worse than only getting 30 some women and not being close to ceiling and then the chapter next door has 70 plus women and only able to take quota. On the other end, women are free to choose where they go, so people who are only seriously willing to take a look at your sorority or who are ONLY interested in one sorority don't have to go through all the rigamarole to see them. And in our instance some houses got HUGE while others shrunk.


IMO, and I'm not sure how kddani feels about it - it was NOT the system for our campus, we also tried having an open house (basically 12 rounds) for the first night and having all PNM's go to it, but it didn't help much. While they were struggling before, we definitely lost a sorority under this system. HOWEVER, I can say that every campus is different so you might want to give it a shot and see if it works - especially if your campus has been losing PNM's.

Cosign on what others said - your campus definitely should not be switching styles of recruitment without the recommendation from your NPC area advisor and a vote by the panhellenic. The other women on here were correct in pointing you to your National Panhellenic Delegate!

One last thing - dirty rushing is going to happen if it happened before - it won't be any worse or better!

I know at my school if we kept people for two weeks, and only had two events per week (which seems to be what you're describing) we'd lose people.
Increasing quota has to do with 1 getting more people out to recruitment, and 2 making those that go through stay with the process untiol bid day (retention) I don't see how this new system you're going to use is going to do that. Especially if there is soo many PMNs for fairly smallish chapters. I also don't understand how they don't HAVE to go to the parties, fi this is the case then you're doing a partailly structured as others have mentioned, and you don't really need "PMN Groups" per se.
It seems to me you need more information because you need to know how to prepare your chapter, and its' not fair that they're making these changes and not letting you in on the decision making about it and explaining the changes properly.