PNM Registration -- How does it go at your school?
 

I've recently become an advisor at a large northern school with a medium to large sized sorority system. I attended my first meeting and got to talk to some of the recruitment officers, and I found out something very surprising: they don't get anything but a name before parties start!

I couldn't believe it. At my school, we were given the registration form (which was pretty detailed) as well as a color picture of every girl. This allows the girls to pair with someone who might have a common interest for the first parties, and on down. It seems this system is wasting a lot of time by not giving these GLO's any information prior. The other advisor told me they only get details if the receive a sponsorship form for a PNM.

Also, girls enter the houses in a random order. (We had a list of the order they were coming in.) The chapter sizes are 3 times the size of what mine was, and I'm just trying to see how other schools do this. I want to go to the Panhell office to present some changes, but I want to see what you guys think.

It just seems to me that with so many girls (500+) going through recruitment they would make it easier for these GLO's and PNM's to find each other more easily. What do you think?

Yes, they certainly are wasting time by getting to know the girl on her own merits, rather than memorizing a list of her activities and who her parents are and pigeonholing her because she was on (example) model legislature in high school. (Maybe she hated model leg and did it only as a extracurricular requirement and never wants to talk about it ever again. I'm sure she'll be jazzed to get stuck with the sister who LOOOOVED it and can't talk about anything else.)

Stick around and watch the system in action for a while before you suggest making changes. We do manage to keep a couple of chapters open in the North, even though we do operate in complete chaos.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

I went to a school in "the north" and all we would recieve was a copy of their registration sheet- which was very basic- name, dorm, legacies (if they chose to list it), hometown. It didn't list interests, extra curriculars or anything.

We did have the PNMs come into the house is alphabetical order, but that was it. And we still managed to have a great rush with pledge classes that averaged 40 women (unfortunately greek life is on a downturn and quota now is around 25 - with 2 less sororities on campus).

I agree to see what rush is actually like at the school before you suggest changes. What worked at your school won't necessarily work at another.

Let me first say that we have Deferred Recruitment. There are registration forms involved with our recruitment process, however, PNMs can show up to the first day of recruitment not having filled one out too, so really it's all just a surprise for us. We go to a small school though (~3000 undergrads with about 60% of those being women), so chances are that we already know something about these ladies before they go through recruitment just from being in classes together and such. Our situation is much different from a lot of other schools, and every school is different, so I agree with what the other ladies have said: Go with the flow. I hope recruitment is sucessful for you!

Geez...excuse the heck out of me. I guess I should have given more details. I've been involved with the chapter for a couple of years. I've just now taken on an advisor roll, as I had the time to commit. I have assited with rush, and chapter preparations. I'm not trying to overthrow the government and make it 'like my chapter'...they are VERY different schools. THUS, why I asked how others do it.

We've all been through recruitment processes at different schools, and the chapter itself and the long-time advisors have been trying to get the school to take pictures at least of all the PNM's so that there is ANYTHING to go by for the GLO's. All they MIGHT get in advance is a sponsorship form. The fewer the surprises during rush the better, right?

33girl: I wasn't trying to imply anything any of the 'heaven forbid' actions that you suggest. When we are talking about women trying to get to know someone in 15 minutes does it not help to perhaps have something to start talking about? Couldn't these help those ridiculous: What's your major? Where are you from? questions. Haven't we all been talking for years about making the process easier for everyone involved.

I believe at GMU we got names and photos and a basic info sheet, and the girls entered in a alphabetical order. But I wouldn't say we as actives knew a huge amount about any girl, just enough to start things off and be able to refer to her later during MS. I guess we had a happy medium between what Anon's school did and what her advisory chapter does now. I can see 33girl's point though, but I agree that making things a little easier may be a good idea also.

Anon- have you observed a few recruitments while being in this AA or is this your first? If it's your first, I recommend sticking out 1 or 2 more to see if this system works for this school. Every campus is different and what works at one may not work at another. If you've seen several and really feel that a few changes may help, then make kind suggestions (otherwise you may be seen as a pushy alum). Hope that helps!

Well then, perhaps you could have avoided sounding like you were watching animals eat their young.

Lots of women here (of course, this depends on the school) don't sign up for rush until the last minute and don't have recs or anything like that and would balk at a request to fill out something that from your description sounds like the equivalent of a resume. "For a SORORITY? You gotta be kidding."

Where are you from and what's your major take a big 30 seconds to ask. You should follow up with something like "so what movie have you seen lately? (and the rushee answers...)"American Gangster." "OMG, our sister Susie is the biggest Russell Crowe fan. Let me introduce you to her." Now you've got an opening for the rushee to meet more sisters, and so on, rather than being stuck with the same sister (who she may not click with at all) for the whole party. I just don't like the sound of "pairing" up people. If I had been "paired" with someone from my high school, my rush would have probably been a disaster. I had no idea when people talked about it all these years that they actually matched you on interests - I thought it was random.

If your chapter wants to take photos at the parties go for it, or if you want to bring it up to Panhel, but if it's something new to the school it could be perceived by administrators or the campus as picking who you want on appearance only (everyone's seen the photo scene from Animal House). I know that's not what it's for, but it can come across that way.

I mean, are several chapters (other than yours) complaining that MS takes too long or something? Are they not getting the pledges they want? Is this really an issue?

KSU, come to think of it, I think my school was pretty similar except that our PNMs were in pics with their Rho Chi groups to aid in MS later (along with notes we made ourselves between parties).

It know that at my school it varied from year to year. I do know that year I was Panhel Recruitment Director we handed out a photobook of ladies.

But nowadays, between facebook and myspace, all you need is a list of names and you can create your own book of information, without having to wait on Panhel to supply it.

33girl, your tone and aire of superiority on this topic is offensive. Implying that chapters that do use pictures and women's biographical information are shallow and care only about what the parent's professions are is offensive in the extreme. Maybe since you didn't experience recruitment with these aides you just don't understand how helpful they are. Last time I participated in rush, we didn't have any rushers talk only about something a girl had indicated on her recruitment info form. In the old days when you had unlimited time to do MS, the pictures and info weren't as important, but from what I have witnessed at my current advisee chapter, MS is limited to two hours after the party. Since we don't get pictures for these girls, the majority of this two hour period is spent describing the PNM being discussed because otherwise no one knows who the girl is! At some schools, you have recruitments with more than 100 women going through so this actually does help. Don't be so quick to assign malignant intentions to everyone that posts on this site! Anon is clearly interested in helping her sisters streamline the process...not weed out the "undersireables" before they ever get to recruitment.

having a little background information on a pnm before you meet them can be a tremendous help, especially when you might have 3 tiffany smiths coming thru recruitment. having their info. committed to paper is a great reference when 2 of the tiffany's show up for the same party and the chapter is trying to keep themselves from being confused.

you could host a meeting with the recruitment advisors of the other chapters and have a "meeting of the minds", so that everyone is on the same page and has contributed to the newly designed registration form. i always feel that if the advisors work in concert with each other, the greek life advisor is more apt to listen.

the form used at florida gulf coast university asks for the first and last names and the middle initial. i would suggest that you include a blank for nickname. this past recruitment we discovered some girls had put one name on their registration form and a totally different one on their nametag. talk about confusing!!

anyway, back to the form: date of birth
age
home address
email
local/cell phone
local address
emergency/parent/guardian name
high school attended
hs gpa on what scale(if 1st year freshman)
college gpa if not freshman
are they a transfer? where transferring from?
total # of college hours completed? major?
ever pledged?been initiated into a npc sorority?
legacy information
activities(high school or college)
community involvement
honors/awards

the greek life office verifies the gpa or corrects it if needed.(there is a place for the pnm to sign in agreement that the info. will be used for recruitment purposes only and they grant the office of greek life permission to verify their academic status and gpa. they also acknowledge that greek life will take a photo of them that will be distributed to the sororities to use for recruitment purposes only. we get copies of each enrollment form.

panhellenic takes a "mug shot" of each pnm-a head shot with the girl holding a dry erase board which has her name written on it. the chapters receive a file with the photos that they use to help jog memories.

greek life gives us a computer generated list which is arranged alphabetically. on the list is each pnms name, year(freshman, soph, etc.) hometown address,hs, gpa and legacy(if any)

before the parties begin, we get a list of pnms divided per rush group and which party each group will be attending. the pnms are lined up in alpha. order and each girl presents the greeter at the door with an index card on which they have written their name. the greeter(the chapter president in our case) takes the cards and after the last pnm has entered, sends the cards back to the alumnae so that we can check the cards against the list to make sure that everyone who is supposed to be attending that party is there.we return the cards to the chapter president who in turn, gives them back to the rho gamma. it seemed to work pretty well.

Please reread my post that you quoted. I didn't say I thought that about pictures, rather that it might be perceived that way by administrators or other people that weren't familiar with it. I even said "I know that's not what it's for."

If these chapters at the OP's school are doing fine without detailed forms and pictures - why change it? Why make it harder for women who might be on the fence anyway to participate in the rush process?

Perhaps I came off a little bitchy, but when there's an implication in someone's post that everyone north of the Mason Dixon is an uncouth bumpkin who will never know how to run a proper rush, trust me, I ain't the only one thinking what I said.

Why indeed you aren't! In fact, back in the dark ages when I went through recruitment, before these new-fangled iPod things came out, we had no idea who was coming to our recruitment parties, or how many girls, until they rang the doorbell! Mercy me, we managed to muddle through despite that by saying such colloquial phrases as:

Hi Martha Washington, nice to meet you!

Oh, you're a political science major? You simply MUST meet Eleanor, she's very involved with the model UN!

<bump!>

What's that Susan B? You're majoring in Women's Studies? Do you know that our founders blah blah blah women blah blah feminism...

Elizabeth Cady over here is very interested in get out the vote drives, let's go meet her!


Now I know, having to make small talk spontaneously can be very difficult and is certainly not a skill necessary later in life, but I do think it gives we sorority women that little extra edge. :)

It sounds like we have some very good bumpers on here ;)

At my school... (and we only have about 120 going through)
Panhel gets Info forms (with very general info) filled out during open house... and gives copies (along with photos) to each of the chapters to use as they see fit.
So at open house (where there is 15 minute rotations) no one knows anything about anyone. but after the first party, they do.

A-Freakin'-Men. The OP might actually be at my alma mater, because that sounds like our recruitment.

Call me crazy, but I don't see how asking all members to memorize information on PNMs, after matching them up carefully, "makes the process easier for everyone involved." If the only questions members think to ask are "What is your major?" and "Where are you from?" it seems they need some help in conversation. The best rushers are those that can have a conversation with anyone; AND it's one of those life-long skills we often brag that our members learn while in a sorority.

Actually, I would have been creeped out if every woman I talked to during rush was like me.

At my school (and when I was there), the sororities received the registration form and a photo supplied by the PNM. But, I know that the members of my chapter did not get to study that information prior to rush. Everything on each day (except preference) was a complete surprise, since the PNMs entered in random order and we often did not know who was returning to our chapter until the couple of minutes before each party.

This year was the first time I helped with recruitment in 25 years, so I had a chance to view a large recruitment vs. a small recruitment.

When I was in school, all we got was a list of PNMs and their home town. If we were lucky enough to get a rec and a picture, that was gravy. Recs were not a big issue then, so we had no clue what other girls were coming through until we received the knock on the door. There was no alphabetized lists so we grabed the next girl coming through the door. First round was 1200 PNMs, and 20 parties at 15 minutes each. It was an organized chaos.

When I helped at another school this year, they had about 150 PNMs, 5 parties, of 30 minutes. They also didn't receive a list until the knock came. Again, they grabbed the first girl coming through. When I asked the advisor about recs pictures, she said, they always use Facebook.

Is it awkward? Maybe, maybe not. One observation of this method of madness: I noticed the excitement of one collegian pulling her PNM across the room to meet her sister that was from the same city across the country. Talk about a smooth bump! I don't think you could get that same excitement if recruitment was so orchestrated.

I'm definitely with 33girl here. Your attitude is totally uncalled for. We in the northern chapters DO have some idea of how to get quality women in our chapters, and if it was such a time waster, we would have changed it long ago. Unlike most southern schools [from what I've heard], being Greek is not the be-all end-all to the vast majority of schools here. I don't have time to memorize the personal information of 200 girls. It wouldn't help, either. If a PNM can't formulate enough sentences to tell me about herself, then why would we want her?

Personally, if I went through recruitment and the girl rushing me knew everything about me, I'd be totally creeped out.

Consider this, AnonAlumna: If a woman going through rush is so bland that you cannot remember who she is without a photograph and her life story, do you REALLY want her in your chapter?

do your chapters not have a minimum grade requirement to give a girl a bid?

if you do have a minimum, how do you go about finding out and verifying their gpa?

what if you have 4 girls with the same name? we did this past recruitment. now they weren't from the same place, but you don't want to keep asking each one of them where they are from everytime they walk through your door.

what if its a new member rushing the pnm-the newbies don't always remember to make a mental note of how the girl spells her name or where she is from-things that can help the girls(and the alumnae assisting) know which sydney zelda zta just had as a rush guest. and they always don't get the last name of the girl.

this past recruitment we pledged 1 cydne, 1 sydni, 2 caitlins, 1 katelyn, 1 jordyn, 1 jordan and 2 brittany's. there were more brittany's and caitlins , one more jordan and a couple of lauras that we did not bid. without those forms, it would have been near impossible to tell them all apart.

I think that it's very important that GPAs are given. Each school is different and while I like the idea of getting their registration forms, I can understand that this isn't what happens at some schools. But when I was first advising at URI, we got absolutely nothing. It was impossible to cut for grades, and that certainly didn't work for us. It took a few years of me politely asking for this to change.

Also, I think that for pref at least, the pnm's should be lined up in alphabetical order. It'd be nice for other parties too, but it's essential for pref.

Of course we do.

Our campus has a higher required GPA than any of our individual chapters. [Actually, I think one of the chapters has a GPA equal to that, but whatever.] They are not permitted to register without the minimum GPA.

We make an effort to remember last names. Works like a charm :)

It's called a recruitment workshop. We do several. No newbies are so new that they have no idea what to ask. We let them know what they need to remember. The alumnae are seasoned veterans and don't need our help remembering. Certain aspects of membership selection are involved here as well, which I'm obviously not going to elaborate on.


What were their last names? Why couldn't you just say "Cydne with a C Smith"? Works for us, and we have 200+ girls going through every year.

Honestly, I really don't think you need to know all this stuff about potentials.

AST, sounds like you're in a small pond and what you do works for your chapter -- GREAT!

I can assure you FSUZeta and many of us know your "tricks" like Rush Workshop and remembering last names. Gee, what a concept.

I'm sure you do know these things. But she implied that there was no other way. And small? I wouldn't say we're tiny; we have between 200 and 300 girls go through rush every year.

I say there's nothing wrong with providing more information. There's nothing wrong with the change as long as it's not hurting. The chapters at my school get tons of info in advance: GPAs, activities, legacy, etc. I usually don't see them do much with it but there are many girls that no one remembers and since they have access to that info they can look up these women and decide whether or not she's going on a list or a flex list or if she's not going to make a list at all. It can be helpful to have more info. I'm not so sure about the pictures though, that can come off a little superficial, but we NEVER pair up girls based on previous info. If someone has a common hobby/hometown/band, etc. as a sister it's discovered during conversation and they are introduced, but the extra info can really be a godsend. I say there's nothing wrong with trying something new if they like the concept.

Otterbein has anywhere from 100-250 girls go through at a time, and the registration form is just Name, year, ID# (to account for campus food service), dorm, phone, e-mail and legacy. No pictures, no extracurriculars, nothing. That being said, we don't do the whole "bumping" strategy that lot of chapters do, plus we have deferred recruitment (january). It works well for us, but again, our system runs on its own time and its own rules, we're not bound to NPC practice (sometime a good thing, other times, not so much).

It's totally unnecessary to be so condescending and rude.

i don't feel that i implied that there was only one way to to find out pnm information. i asked no leading questions. i sincerely wanted to know if your campus or your chapter had requirements, because if there is a better way to do things, and it involves less paperwork, i am interested to hear about it.

maybe its a regional thing, but i felt that some of the answers from some of our northern sisters were rude, defensive and condescending. i think it all started with the first response to the op-maybe i missed it, but i did not see the op identify herself as having attended college in the south. did she say where she went to college? she could be from u of michigan, indiana or syracuse. none of us have come up with the perfect recruitment-but if we don't share ideas and compare notes and try to do better, we will never improve.

FSU, very diplomatic post. Props to you. As for pics - it's not about being superficial at all (though I can see how it may look that way). It's about putting a face to a name - it's just another tool to help actives remember the PNMs you talked to. I know in my chapter, we used the group Rho Chi photos in MS and it was very helpful. And when you have several hundred to over a thousand girls going through, those pictures become essential. No one can remember that many full names without other aides to jog your memory - you'll use whatever tricks you can come up with!

Okay, there are so many things here that I want to quote and respond to, but there were just too many.

FIRST, and most importantly, I was not implying anything just because it was a NORTHERN school. That tidbit was SOLELY for informational purposes. I've read enough "I'm a PNM what should I do?" threads to know that one of the most common questions is, "It depends on where you are." "Southern rush is so different from northern." The geography was ONLY to give more information. I never said that I was from a Southern school, or that southern rush was better. You certainly took that out of context.

SECOND, I have assisted in more than one rush. This is the first time that I'm in on the actual advisors-side. My questions are coming from listening to the active members and advisors complain that something needs to change. I didn't want to say anything about MS, but since someone else mentioned it, that is a big part of the problem as well. Trying to remember 800+ girls information in one evening?

THIRD, I have not made ANY suggestions to anyone. I am simply trying to collect information on how other schools do it. Recruitment at my school was completely different, the Greek atmosphere is totally different. I am not naive enough to think that since it worked at my school, it will work here. As I mentioned before, this is based on complaints from the other advisors (who have been assisting for 12 +years) and the chapter members who don't want to be in MS until midnight!

FOURTH, thank you to all who understand the true sentiment in which my information was first written. There have been issues with return numbers at this school, and many feel that it is because of how unorganized recruitment is. I know that many on here are close to the recruitment process at their particular school, and I thought this would be a good source of information.

It would have helped a lot if you would have said all of this in your first post, rather than "I couldn't believe it" and "this system is wasting a lot of time." It made you come off in much the same way as a certain oft-banned poster on here who thought it was just ridiculous that people actually wore jeans at rush and basically completely dissed the women she was supposed to be "advising."

If you and the other advisors want to get together and try to institute this, rock out with your sock out, but don't be surprised if you get asked why and expected to prove that it will help recruitment - by the administration, by the rushees and by the chapter members.

Well, I am in the south and most schools here use ICS or some other computer service for registration, recruitment lists, bid matching, etc. It all comes in the package. Frankly, with 1200 PNMs at Auburn I don't know how they would do it without comupter assistance. There the women sign up for recruitment when they attend Camp War Eagle - orientation. PH then sends out that information to the chapters as they register. When I was City Sponsorship Chairman I got all my women in an Excel spreadsheet with everything she put on the registration form - home address, high school, parents, activities, legacy information, etc. Made it very easy to find someone to do a sponsor form on her. And the chapter uses it during workshop to learn about the women and also to sponsor any they may know.

I apologize...I had tried to get as much detail without being long-winded. Hopefully things are all clear now, and we can get some good ideas. The advisors from all chapters get together periodically to discuss, and they want to have each sorority contribute $20 to buy a digital cam for panhel, that way a picture is taken of each girl and emailed to the chapter.

This chapter just had a National representative visit and make a bunch of suggestions to the chapter. Now, the officers are bringing it to the advisors as something they want to do. I am certainly not being one of those,'Well this is how MY chapter did it..." kind of people. The system seems to be really open to making things change and make it easier for EVERYONE...PNM's and the chapters.

Some people have mentioned that it's unfair/unnecessary for the GLOs to have prior knowledge of the PNM's, but aren't PNM's able to get plenty of information about the groups before recruitment? We have national websites as well as chapter specific ones where these women can find out all kinds of things before recruitment starts. Many have said that they use it as a talking point...in fact many alumnae here have RECOMMENDED it to PNM's to help show interest. Why is it different for the GLO's to know a little about the girls coming in prior to parties? In fact, it might actually help some of the women that we've heard about who get so shy. If they are not able to initiate a conversation, and immediately get written off as 'uninterested'...would they have not been better served knowing a little bit about them? Why do we encourage Recs be written? Because it's MORE information.

Thank you FSUZeta, your last sentence is exactly what I've been getting at!

Does your campus use ICS? Is there a place where PNMs can upload a picture of themselves as part of their registration so PHA doesn't have to photograph 800+ PNMs (and not to mention save some money)?

ETA: My campus started using ICS the year after I joined, so I have no idea what the PNM registration page looks like, but I'd assume you could customize the registration info for your campus, and that uploading a picture would be an option.