Otterbein General Recruitment Thread
 

Since I'm a PX again this year, I guess I'll do a general play by play on the Panhellenic recruitment which will be starting a week later than usual. We have a new Greek Life adviser this year, so this will be her first experience of an all-local recruitment...especially one as wacky as what we do.

When we begin school on the 2nd, there will be one last week for girls to sign up for recruitment, with the absolute, final, skin of your teeth sign up being the Saturday of Open House (yes, it has happened!). We're hoping not to have that, but anyone who wants to go through we will accept.

A run-down on our system.

The sororities are all local. There are 6:
Sigma Alpha Tau
Theta Nu
Tau Delta
Epsilon Kappa Tau
Kappa Phi Omega
Tau Epsilon Mu

Houses range in size from 70-14. Dues range from $45-80. House capacities range from 16(?)-5. All houses are over 80 years old and have been continuously local since their inception.

Annually, we have about 150-200 girls go through recruitment with many being placed. We don't use the new figure system that the NPC does, no option maximizing (i.e., if you go to all your parties, you're going to be bid somewhere...there's a technical name for this but it escapes me at the moment). Recs are NOT required and no real formal rec system exists that I know of...mostly alumnae just contact their sorority. Legacy status is...nice? but not vital in any way. Juniors and seniors going through formal is not unusual and they are usually bid somewhere as off-quota.

There are 3 rounds over 3 weekends:
Open House
Novelty
Final
bid day

The weekend thing drives me batty...lots of suspense!

But I really hope all my girls have a fabulous recruitment and I hope they all find a home and be as happy in it as I am. As a senior, I've got a lot vested in the success of this recruitment. It will be hard to not be helping my sisters, but I really hope that they come through and show just how kick-ass our sisterhood is :)...but I hope that for every house. To be honest, every single girl could fit into at least 2 houses on campus if she desired to join. There's such a variety of personalities and styles that there's a place for everyone. The community is really laid back and fun and we like to keep it that way. Can't wait to see how this all turns out!

WOW, classes start on the 2nd? I think I would cry, haha.

Good luck with everything! I really don't know too much about locals so I can't wait to read all about it!

Arg I know! But we've been off since the day before thanksgiving so I suppose it is to be expected. It's rough because they're making the Tuesday a "monday" class day to even things out. Bah, humbug!

Awesome, I can't wait to be updated on how everything goes!

I am the founder and President of a local sorority and we plan on holding our first recruitment this coming semester...do you have any advice? We are the only sorority on campus but would still like to do a rush week with different events and activities, as well as a bid night.

eeeek! Just went and got my PX letters :). We're trying something new this year. Each PX group has a color and a number, which will hopefully make it easier for all involved to remember who is where doing what. I've got pretty green letters for my group. My partner and I are going to yankee trader this weekend to buy goodies, we're going with a green theme. I was thinking about making a big green number 2 like a tour guide's umbrella for them to follow.

Our Panhellenic Association ordered us baseball tee shirts with our group numbers on the back. We are also getting hoodies and tote bags!

Has recruitment started yet?

Nope, opening ceremony is on Wednesday and then Open House is on Saturday. So far ,we have 114 total signed up.

*phew*

I'm exhausted and its only opening ceremonies. We had 136 girls signed up as of 12:30. and then 146 or so as of 6PM, and then we had a TON and I mean a TON sign up at ceremony. I mean...geeezzzzzzzzzz there were a lot of girls. My group grew from 13 to 17. One group has 27!!!

More info tomorrow but I have to be at work at 5 am, so bed time!

Ok, this morning after the dust settled..156 is the current total. Girls can still sign up until Saturday morning at 9.30.

phoenixazul, do you feel that not having recruitment enrollment during fall semester makes it hard to plan for recruitment?

at fl. gulf coast u. they offer enrollment after school begins-recruitment is deferred a few weeks into the fall semester-and it makes it very difficult to plan-how many bottles of water do we need, how many girls will we be feeding on pref. night.

Now, see, we typically DO have sign ups during fall. We had them this year, but in my honest, personal opinion...they started too late this year (week 7 of a 10 week quarter). Usually the first two weeks, no one signs up. But then after that they see you sitting there, day in, day out. They get curious, they sign up. But for some mysterious reason, we have a TON of last minute girls and always had. If we had an application process or rec requirements, I don't think this would happen (but that would be unwise for our campus), but due to the sorta casual attitude about recruitment...procrastinators abound!

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but how are your dues soooo low? I'm in a local sorority, and we just had a dues increase from $125 to $175, and it may raise again this semester because of our insurance. (not that we've had lawsuits or anything at all...but we finally got insurance this school year) We've had girls who had to quit because of the dues increase. Could you PM me w/ details, like what kind of insurance your sorority and/or other sororities have and other things like that?

Thanks so much, and good luck w/ your recruitment! I'm excited to see how everything works out! :)

Well, today was...interesting. We had all our girls show up who were supposed to (those who didn't have excused absence), and we had 2 add. I was really proud of my girls for that. Plus they were all on time! Unfortunately it rained the entire time. boo! The temperature didn't get too bad until after our lunch break though.

Let me say that I love open house as a PX because you get to see all the other houses, which you don't always get to do as an active. Plus, you get to see them at their absolute best. It's also rare that you get to see *EVERY* active in the same spot at the same time. I love being able to see the house as a whole...and I think its beneficial to the PNM's as well.

That being said, all of the houses looked PHENOMENAL today. Every one has done some sort of renovation/remodel in the last year or two. We didn't have any real problems, except for being let out early of one house, which through us and the groups ahead and behind off for a bit. didn't short anyone time, gave groups more time, but we eventually got back on schedule.

The group ahead of mine was ENORMOUS though. They've got 27 girls! It's actually 2 groups combined together. They are PX'd separately, but for the purpose of open house they are together. Complicated, especially for the smaller houses, but its what had to be done. It was always funny because the Recruitment Charis were like, "wow, small group! Yay!", when ours was pretty much the average size!

That all being said, it was SO HARD to not go up and just squeeze my sisters today. I probably did something that gave it away :(. But at the same time, my sisters were doing kick ass today. All I heard in the house was laughter and the girls in my group all seemed engaged. *whew*. Plus our house looked tip-top.

No word on what quota will be as of yet (probably low 20s). Off quota lists comprised of Juniors and Seniors and independent sophomores had to be turned in all ready. I pick up my group's invites on Tuesday and we have our meeting to distribute them on Tuesday night (busy night for me, mortarboard and PX like RIGHT after each other).

I'm glad that recruitment has started off well for all of the houses :)

I had a question though, what do you mean by "independent sophomores"? They're rushing but aren't assigned a group?

Go PhoenixAzul! I'm glad to hear that recruitment got off to a good start.

ah sorry, should have clarified.

Independent Sophomores are sophomores that went through rush freshman year and either a) signed independent or b) did not receive a bid. They may be added to a chapter's off quota list, or they may chose to go through recruitment again. Rushing again holds little to no stigma here, and upper classwomen regularly receive bids.

caffeine has not kicked in yet-would you please explain what the term
"signed independent" means. i am not familiar with that term.

hehe, man its hard to get the slang out here. It's funny because the NPC stuff I've picked up from the board sneaks into my language at Otterbein!

Signed independent-- when women sign their preference card, they may choose not to join a sorority at this time for whatever reason. To indicate this, they fill in "independent" as their first choice, and go on their merry way.

Where this gets sticky is the culture of suiciding (Single intention preference). I know that 80% of my pledge class suicided my sorority. It happens a lot, way too much in my opinion.

So a girl signs XYZ as her first choice, then signs "independent". If she doesn't get XYZ, she's independent.

After that happens, two things can occur in her favor.
1) she's put on the "did not match" list, which goes to the chapters after bid matching. Any chapter not at quota may chose to extend her a bid. She obviously doesn't have to accept, but there it is.
2) she may be extended a bid off quota the following year.

It's sorta complicated and scenario 1 doesn't happen that often at all.


I really wish girls would list more than 1 chapter, because I truly and honestly think that they can be happy in at least 2 chapters here...but there's no real repercussions for doing SIP.

Oh okay, that all makes sense now. Thanks for the explanation :)

yes, thank you for the explanation. it sounds like a good idea to have pnms indicate that they will remain independent.

FSUZeta, I agree. Having to writing in independent might make the potential results of SIPing that much more stark.

Yep. My freshman year, we had an unusually high number of girls sign independent at the end of rush. Many of them ended up pledging or rushing again their sophomore year.

I just really wish girls would think about it more . I can kinda hear the grumblings of "I only want ____ or nothing!", not so much from my group, but from talking to the other PX's, it's there. That's gotta be nipped in the butt right now.

Plus we've got misinformation going around that's reached the greek life adviser. Apparently, someone started a rumor about how sororities will be unable to take pledge classes if they are caught drinking in front of PNM's. Not true. Actives are not allowed to drink in any situation where PNM's or potential PNM's are present (fraternity rush parties, house parties unaffiliated w/ the sorority, etc). It's a violation of a) campus policy--dry campus. b) rush rules--no alcohol at any rush function/anything that could be a potential rush situation c) panhellenic rules of interaction w/ pnms--possiblity of dirty rushing is high. It won't *necessarily* cause a chapter to lose its pledge class, but it will be dealt with as an infraction and sent to the United Greek Governing Board. There will be sanctions, but the loss of a pledge class is one of the most severe punishments that can be given, and isn't a situation that's taken lightly.

*whew*

OK, invites to novelty round have been handed out and replied to. Tomorrow AM I've got to walk them over to the greek life office. All of my girls received invites, none of them seemed upset or angry, so I'm assuming they got at least one they wanted.

I had a few get invites to all 6, but across the board in recruitment, most receive 3 or 4. .

To review:
You may receive up to 6 invites, but may only accept (or accept with regret) 4. Accepting with regret counts as "accept". Girls are encouraged to attend as many as humanly possible.

Ive got to attend a novelty party in my capacity as Rho Chi. I'm excited, because its a group that I didn't visit when I went through recruitment...sorta curious to see what they do in their parties. That will be Saturday afternoon.

Then we do the whole shuffle again. chapters do invitations to final party, which is preference to the rest of the world.Girls may receive up to 4 invites to final party, but accept or accept with regret only 2. It's an indication that you would a) consider extending that girl a bid b) would like her in your sisterhood. If a woman attends your final, she WILL appear *somewhere* on your bid list...maybe not at the top, but somewhere.

What is "accept with regret"? Or how does it work? Frankly, it does not sound like a favorable thing for a chapter to hear or know. That a girl is accepting their invitation with regret.

As such, and perhaps I'm missing something, why would someone put down "accept with regret"?

i would guess that "accept with regret" would be like a PNM saying "i'd take a bid from XYZ but if ABC and/or DEF give me a bid, then sayonara"

so when pref night comes around, XYZ knows that the PNM has someone else in mind? i agree, wouldnt want my chapter to see that, but if it was someone we were really pulling for, it would be good to know, and even helpful when it was time to extend bids?

[/interpretation]

on some campuses, pnms may "regret with interest" an invitation when they have received more invitations to parties than they are allowed to attend. perhaps this is the same situation?

example: patty pnm receives 6 invitations but is only allowed to attend 4 parties during the next round. she "regrets with interest" two out of her six choices-letting them know that had things been different, she would have attended their parties. supposedly, it works to the benefit of both sorority and pnm-if patty is dropped after the 4 party round, receiving no invitations from any of the four sororities she visited, supposedly either of the sororities that she "regretted with interest" could extend an invitation for patty to attend their party in the next round of parties.

here's my question: after 2-3 rounds of visiting houses, why cant Patty PNM narrow it down to 4 houses she could be a part of? that's a lot of flexibility. i understand you may get a short amount of time at each house and really dont get much time, but i would think you'd narrow it down to AT MOST 4. i dont want a PNM saying, "i could see myself being at ABC, DEF, GHI, JKL... and oh yeah MNO is really cool too!" because youre pretty much saying that nothing has stuck out over the top from my house to draw you in.

another reason why i'm opposed to first semester freshmen in rush, and more of an advocate for the few sophomore rush threads that come up here

Now see, a "regret with interest" makes sense. But the "accept with regret" seems to be the total opposite as well as not flattering to the chapter that receives it.

Frankly, if a rushee said during rush "If I don't get a bid to ABC or XYZ, then I'll consider joining Sigma Chi" I would tell them not to bother. Actually, I believe I would use more colorful language than that.

At our campus you really couldn't really regret w/o interest. The idea is that you've still only met these women for maybe an 2 hours tops, but you have an order of preference.

The fact that XYZ is #1 means that they have stuck out at you. Some people who actually regret with interest have 0 interest in MNO, but may end up there for the next round anyway.

It's not so much that you don't have a favorite, it's that your favorite may not feel the same way about you. Or they may be everyone's favorite and have to cut many more than other chapters. It maximizes the chances that Suzie PNM will end up with a chapter that she likes, even if it wasn't her absolute favorite when she ranked the chapters. (Though most find it to be their favorite after bonding with their sisters)

Holy thread explosion batman!

I don't know what NPC would call our "accept with regret".

Accepting with regret is used in a situation like this:

Patty PNM receives an invite to ABC's novelty party. ABC's novelty party is on Saturday from 12-2. Patty's neice is being baptized on saturday at 1pm. She's really interested in ABC's party, but she really wants to be at the baptism. This is where she marks "accept with regret" and may choose to list her reason on her reply. The reasoning being..."I accept your invitation and would love to come, BUT! i've got this thing that I must attend to and I regret that I cannot make it".

Girls who receive 6 invites MUST regret to 2 of their invites. Regret= cutting them. Girls who receive 5 must regret to 1 of their invites. You may check "accept" OR "accept w/ regret" to 4.

I accept your invitation but regret that I cannot attend! I get it now :) It's not too different from regret w/ interest.

Wow, that is one incredibly complicated rush system, haha. I like the idea of informing the group of a legitimate reason for not being there but honestly, if you're interested enough to give them an explanation, wouldn't you have known when rush events were occuring long in advance so as not to schedule big important things?

Though I guess they are doing recruitment during classes, maybe that was a reason for the existence of this option?

I'm sure that is the case for most situations. However, major events happen all the time that we may have little to no control over. Like PhoenixAzul's example of a PNM's niece being baptized during a recruitment event. Weddings and funerals also come to mind.

The girls are aware of the rush schedule when they sign up, before recruitment, and during recruitment... I don't know WHY girls don't schedule things during these times. all events happen on weekends, so I don't really get it. It sorta bugs me, especially when girls are like, "oh ive got to work". You've known for more than a month! ask off! I know you don't know what parties you're going to be invited to...but ask off for the days!

Depending on the sorority/girl, this may hurt their recruitment options. Then again, because we have deferred recruitment, some girls advance to final party because of their ties with current sorority members.

I agree that it is a bit complicated because the terms are sort of clunky, and because everything and I do mean EVERYTHING is done by HAND. We sort girls invites by hand, they hand write their responses, they are turned in by hand, invite lists are done by hand, bid matching is done by hand. It can be...stressful? at times. The end result is worth it I think :).

haha, exactly what I was thinking.
WOW, everything by hand. Now THAT is a lot of work, I need to see if you mentioned how many girls usually rush each year because I could see my hand falling off if I were there! Though I think we'd all agree that it's worth it. ;)

Typically, about 150-175 girls per year rush, however, the year I pledged, we were the largest freshman class EVER at Otterbein, and I think that 225 girls rushed.

This year, we started recruitment with 165 at Open house, I think we're around 160-157 girls now due to girls withdrawing.

Well, tonight my girls will get their invitations to final party and instructions for preference signing. Our last "real" rho chi meeting *sniff*

Good luck to your girls, Phoenix! :)

Arg, my head hurts. Lots.

Just got done with our meeting...lots of information to give to girls, lots of questions (good questions though, just tough). Only a few girls seemed ...miffed? at the process. It hurts trying to explain why x or y sorority didn't or did invite you back. All in all, I hope they're happy w/ their invites.

We had them guess what our affiliations were too...most got my partner's affiliation correct, while no one got mine correct! I was surprised considering everything I own is letters.

Has bid day happened yet? This is so exciting!