How does your school handle bidless PNMs on bid day?
 

Pref day and Bid day are different days here, so I believe what happens is after bid matching, anyone not receiving a bid is told by their Rho Gamma in the evening after prefs.

At the University that has been my primary experience, Bid Day is actually the day after Preference, and the PNMs are instructed to come to the Student Center at varying times from 10 - 12 on Sunday morning. They go into a room one at a time to pick up bids. Those who didn't recieve a bid are called by their Rho Chis or personally visited by the Rho Chi to explain - PRIOR to 9:00 so she doesn't get dressed and head over. (Early in the week the PNMs tell their Rho Chis if they would rather have a phone call or a personal visit.) There are always Panhellenic officers and Counseling Center staff on hand should someone need it. Even some who aren't happy with their bids get very upset and need to talk.

KSUViolet - how many PNMs go bidless? Does your University utilize Quota Additions?

At each round of recruitment, the PNMs met privately with their rho chis to get their invitations. However, PNMs who didn't get bids or who were dropped by all sororities were not warned ahead of time. They'd go in all excited to get their bid/invites, and come out crying, and they'd have to walk past all the PNMs who were still waiting. It was pretty tactless.

They might do something different now. I hope they do something different now.

That's been my experience as well.... Last year though they placed every single person who attended Preference. We wound up with 5 QAs on a Quota of 22! One other group had 2 QAs, and the other two didn't have any. It was an interesting year though - the RFM Specialist didn't have sufficient historical data to calculate everything as succinctly as she would have liked.

At my school we hardly ever had to deal with this. Almost all of the women who did not match were "suicide" bidders. They knew that not getting a bid was a possible consequence of suiciding, so I think some of them were not surprised when they did not receive a bid. I think the process is a lot harder for the women who get heavily cut throughout recruitment, then don't receive a bid to the one sorority where they attended preference.

In any case, we called or visited in person any woman who did not receive a bid, or who was released from recruitment altogether. We did not want her to have to go through the pain while surrounded by hundreds of giddy, laughing women.

My school had rush a week before school started. All rushees lived for the week in one of the girl's dorms. We had the "Knock." The day after prefs (aka Bid day) all rushees had to sit quietly in their rooms waiting for a knock to tell them they didn't get a bid. It was very nerve racking as a rushee. As a rho chi, though, it was nice to allow time to talk to a girl in private. I had a rush group of only non-freshmen women with an average GPA under 2.5. It was a rough week with three women turned away before prefs. I had to knock on two girls' doors. I cried more than they did. Both were wonderful people...one of which my sorority invited to a COR to get up to house total. She accepted and became my third little sis. I actually agreed to get a third so I could get her. It's definitely not a good situation to be in for the rushee or the rho chi.

We had bid day the day after prefs- so we were told to stay in or near our dorm rooms for a couple of hours (like 9am-11am) on bid day and if you didn't recieve a bid, the Rho Chi's came to your room personally. I remember looking out the window of my dorm sophmore year and seeing my Rho Chis walking toward my building- I about had a heart attack. Luckily they were walking to the building next to mine. But it was nerve racking. I think they also did personal visits if you were cut at any time during rush.

This has been my experience, too - only the bidless PNM gets a call between 6pm-7pm (bids are picked up at 8pm). Forget call waiting or anything else - NO ONE going through Recruitment allows anyone on their phone during "the hour"! I think your campus asking if they'd like a visit or a call is much kinder. I know I would prefer a call, but there are always those who'd rather have a shoulder to cry on.

Bidless PNMs are called prior to the start of Bid Day by their recruitment counselors so they don't come to the Bid Day events. Often there are snap bid offers from other chapters to these women, so if they accept, they then come to Bid Day. PNMs are told to be near a phone at a certain time in the morning on, just in case they get the "call" or a schedule change.

Sorry for the crash....but is it really that serious that counseling could be needed?

Some girls are completely devastated by not getting a bid. I don't think most girls need long term therapy, after not getting a bid, but just having someone to talk to who isn’t in a sorority could be very beneficial.

At my campus (I'm a recruitment advisor for my chapter), all PNMs are visited by their Gamma Chis, where the vast majority receive their bids. The Gamma Chis are then asked to take the women who did not receive bids off campus for dinner or something so that they are not subjected to an evening alone while others (possibly even roommates) are happy, celebrating, and getting gifts and door decorations. We are a small, liberal-arts college with only four chapters, and the number of women who do not match is very small (last year I believe there were only two). Sometimes I think it is even more difficult for them because they are such a small number. :confused:

We had an issue last fall with a girl who did not place with ANY of the sororities, even for Preference. She wasn't invited to one. We were her first pick, so they asked us to invite her to preference so that she could go. Of course, she didn't recieve a bid, but other girls didn't get bids either so she wasn't the only one.

That must be horrible; I went through winter recruitment, and therefore didn't have that whole process to go though. It would be so nervewracking.

I'm all for this and I think it should be done even sooner in rush. I've known so many girls who dropped or were dropped from recruitment and they were too far from home to go home so they had to sit in the dorms and watch all the happy girls go to parties, get bids, and come in with gifts and door decorations.

Thanks....didn't know:)

I think it is downright cruel to let the non-matched PNMs head over to a public arena only to find out the bad news. At my D's school (a competitive, heavily-Greek LAC with 5 NPCs), the Rho Chi would knock on the rushee's doors to deliver invites and/or sad info. At least the girls were in their own rooms to hear bad news. I second Carnation's approval of Cutie Hootie's idea!

I wonder if there would be a way to have non-Greek women available to speak with. It is hard to hear that a sorority isn't everything from your Rho Chi, who is obviously in a sorority.

Our Pref night is on a Sunday and Bids are available the following day from 2-4pm (though we know who is getting what bid the night before). We inform PNMs that we will call before noon on Bid Day if they did NOT get a bid, but if they don't get a call, come to the bid pickup and ceremony. Typically there are a very small number of women who don't get bids, if any, and most are ISPs so they are typically the ones to expect the call.

I LOVE the idea of giving the option to get a phone call or personal visit, but that might be difficult with my campus considering we have a high number of commuters.

Regarding the counseling thing, we make sure to at least notify our campus Counseling Center that recruitment is occurring and how the process works for PNMs so that they are aware in case anyone comes to them upset. I don't know if it's ever happened since counseling sessions are confidential, but at least being able to prepare their staff that there might be a few women coming their way has been helpful to them (they say).

I really, really like this idea, with one exception: the snap bid. What if one of these women is off campus when the snap bid is offered and she's not there to accept or reject it?

Hmm.. As far as I know, the whole situation is determined by the RC. Most RC's have the girls meet them at public place to pick up their daily lists each at a specific time. This can be a big issue I think if a girl was dropped. Seriously, they have to stay put together because it is in the public and the next girl could be comming right up behind her.

This year had the most people that were dropped because there were fewer houses and there were even more girls rushing. I think the avg. pledge class every year is 35 people.

I dropped myself out my freshman year just before pref. (I had a bad experience I let get to me). I didn't fit in those orgs. at all (they told me crazy and weird things). Still, it was really rough to watch your best friends come back and then have to hear every "Pledge Week" story complete with gift. I was really happy for them, but I admit to crying when I called my mom.

My mom was in a sorority, as are nearly all the females in my family. I felt like I somehow let them down, but later realized that I had done it for some of the wrong reasons. She told me during that conversation that some things in recruitment can just be petty and done for petty reasons. She told me how proud she was of everything I had done and that no lack of an organization could make be less of a person. Mother does know best.

Then there were all the girls who were dropped this past year, having numbers may have helped them. The whole thing can be done either very well and situated, or heartless.

I would say what a person I knwo who was dropped said to me:" You know the Olympics. Those pair skaters are together for like, 10 years or more. You have been world champs for two years. Then, in the final round of the Olympics....your partner falls... and all your hopes are dashed away. You have to watch the others join on the podium, but not you."

I spent a lot of time with her during that following week. Her RC told her when she went to get her bid (something that they never mention could happen) and was told the situation. It was in a public place and the RC offered to help her, but then the next girl came in early. There should be some sort of official policy IMOP!

Wouldn't the snap bid be offered before bid day began?

My school had the rho gammas/gamma chi's/rho chi's/whatever call the PNM's the night before (after bid matching/snap bidding had occurred which was usually around midnight) and notify PNM's that they did not receive a bid. This way PNM's didnt show up and get upset when everyone got bids in their rush group except them.

VP of membership's however were on the phone calling PNM's at 6pm on Bid Day to start offering COB bids. This process of COB'ing as many girls as you needed to meet quota/total on bid day became about as competitive as formal recruitment!

Technically, it should. But now & again, we've had sororities who are STILL calling bidless PNMs five minutes from the time Bid Day festivities start! Thankfully, release figures have greatly decreased the incidence of that happening.

And therein lies the second problem, if the bidless PNMs are out to dinner. UNLESS there are a lot of cell phones and a private room available.

If you don't make quota on bid day itself, can't you keep snapping a few days after that?

Technically that would be a COB, but I don't see why not. Any chapter that doesn't make quota and/or is under total can COB at pretty much any time, including right after FR.

yeah we never really differentiated between cob & snapping. There were times we gave girls bids on bid day who hadn't been through rush, but they'd been to our open bid parties. This was a long time ago though.

I would think that at some point you would say OK I'm going to bid day now, and stop worrying about snapping/cobing.

Although it's hard for me to imagine recruitment going on a SEC schools while classes are in session (I know that a couple of them do it), I do think of the big disadvantages of rush before school starts is that PNM have no perspective. Almost every single person you talk to is drinking the NPC Kool-Aid. (On some campuses, aren't the dorms only open to girls participating in recruitment until maybe the last weekend.)

I think having non-greek campus folks make contact with PNM who get cut or drop out could be a great step. There are always some campus activity leaders who aren't Greek who might even be honored to be asked to do this. Because they'd clearly be happy, involved, successful people, the PNMs would see that life goes on just fine.

Speaking as one who has been there, amen to that!

When we go to bid matching after pref night, we already have a list of who we would offer snap bids to if they aren't matched. Last year, everyone who was eligible to be picked up through snap bids were within a half hour of bid matching. Then, all bids (COB and Snap bids included) that are to go out on Bid Night are due, signed and sealed, in the Greek Advisor's office by noon on that day (Bids are distributed about 5 that night). There is plenty of time to notify those ladies and make certain they are available. It actually works really well, but that's also at a campus that is small. I can see how this would definitely NOT work at a larger campus.

the way we do it is preference is the day before bid day. On bid day all the PNM's come down to University Center in the morning and one by one they go their bids. Should they not recieve any bids our panhellenic advisor explains to them why and answers their questions. It's becaus eif they're invited to preference it still doesn't mean we'll offer them a bid.

I know it's weird to quote myself, but I wanted to make clear that I didn't imagine the non-greeks doing the actual notifying of not getting bids, but that they could follow up with girls who didn't end up matching. sort of like the paired up Rho Gammas and bidless girls, but maybe one better because it would be a totally new option on campus.

Yeah, that was kinda my thinking when I first posted it. I don't know who you'd pick, exactly...unless you had one non-Greek Rho Chi in each group from the beginning.

A question about "bidlessness" in general:

Not long ago some college Panhellenics had "guaranteed placement" policies and procedures, as I understand it. On those campuses, if a PNM was invited to preference and maximized her options, she would get a bid.

Are these "guaranteed placement" policies disappearing? Increasing? Or staying about the same, just depending on the campus?

My sense of how this works (worked) -- in theory -- is that it eliminated being bidless after going through pref. It wouldn't prevent a PNM from being cut from all chapters before pref, thoough.

(These practices -- again, as I understand it -- didn't guarantee getting a first choice. However, a woman who made it to preference would get a bid to one of the chapters that invited her to pref, as long as she listed every chapter she preffed on her card. No guarantees if a PNM intentional-single-preferenced. On the other hand, if a PNM got invited to only one chapter for pref, and listed that chapter, she would get a bid from them.)

..Isn't that a bit unfair to the sororities? If they discuss it and decide they don't want her, she could potentially be taking another NM's spot in that sorority.

There are some systems that have guarantees a woman will be OFFERED a bid if she plays by the rules & maximizes her options. It doesn't guarantee that it will be to a sorority she wants anything to do with.

I think this is different than "guaranteed bidding" where pretty much if someone signs up for rush, even if the groups keep dropping her she'll end up being placed somewhere.

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I guess that the rationale behind it is somewhat honorable and trying to downplay the snob factor sometimes associated w/ sororities and rush, but the plain truth is that not everyone is suited for sorority life. Not to mention the particular makeup on that certain campus.

That reminds me of the women that talked about systems that allowed the PNM to go to more parties than she was actually invited to if she didn't have a full schedule, by either alphabeticly assigning her to one, or begging groups to allow her back. Totally unfair to the PNM and the sorority. The PNM gets her hopes up because she's still got a full schedule, when in reality there are only a few groups (if any) actually considering her...and the sorority has girls that think "Why did XYZ invite THAT girl back??".