mass e-mail
 

hey y'all, this is a call for help.

I'm the Recruitment Chairman for the Acacia colony at LA Tech. We were just approved by the IFC in December, so we've never put ourselves "out there" on campus before. All our recruiting up to this point has been friends talking to friends.

We're going to send out a mass e-mail, which will go to all students. (The school doesn't give us the option of sending just to men, or just to undergrads- it's everyone or no one.) For probably 90% of the people who receive this message, it will be the first time they've heard of us, so it's important that we not sound like idiots. It's also important that the message sound OK to everyone- men and women, Greeks and not.

This is my first draft. Keep in mind that this e-mail is just part of a much larger recruitment plan. Please comment- be brutal, if you must. This needs to be good.

"Acacia (the fraternity with the weird name) will be recruiting new members January 9-17. Acacia (uh-kay-shuh) is an international social fraternity. Membership is open to all male students, undergrad and graduate, regardless of major.

Schedule of Events:
Jan 9: Info meeting, 7pm, Nethken Hall Auditorium
Jan 10: Info meeting, 7pm, Toliver Conference Room
Jan 12: Volunteer at Louisiana Military Museum, 8 am
Capture the flag at Lincoln Parish Park, meet at house at 3:30
Jan 15: Guiter Hero and Gumbo at 109 E Louisiana, 6pm
Jan 16: Pool at Shananigans, meet at house at 8pm
Jan 17: Basketball at Lambright at 7pm

You are welcome to attend any or all of these events- you are not committing yourself to anything by showing up.

For more information:
Join the Acacia Winter Rush Facebook group: http://latech.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6826663845
See our website: http://www.techacacia.com
Contact the recruitment chairman, Jason X, at XXX-XXX-XXXX"

1) The website doesn't work (but the fb group does).

2) I personally wouldn't be self-deprecating in the email. For my first lines, I would say something like:

"Acacia, the international social fraternity without Greek letters, will be recruiting prospective members on January 9 through 17. Founded on ideals of scholarship and moral character, Acacia (pronounced uh-kay-shuh) is open to all male students, undergrad and graduate, regardless of major."

You're saying the same thing while being a little more specific and a little less formal.

Hope that helped.

the website shouldn't work, don't worry about it- it's being updated.

I would echo what Senusret said.

Also, I would in use the formal name of the fraternity at least once, and I would either embed a hyperlink to the national fraternity's webpage, like this:

"Acacia Fraternity, the international social fraternity without Greek letters, will be recruiting prospective members on January 9 through 17."

or I would include a link to the national website at the bottom with other links.

I also think you need a stronger ending than "you are not committing yourself to anything by showing up" -- go with something more positive, like "Come see what we're all about" or "Come see what makes us different from the rest."

^^^That is great feedback from Senusret. I agree that highlighting that it's a "weird" name may not come off positively with many people (especially those with no knowledge of the greek system), but I also think that saying you're the group without greek letters might also be confusing; some may think it's not a "real" fraternity then.

Here's some verbiage from Wiki about Acacia, I also googled and found some press releases about your being voted on to campus that had some good verbiage. How about incorporating some of this into your introduction?:

First off, congratulations on your colony.

Now if I may, here are a few quick suggestions.

You do not want to present anything that might be perceived as negative. So do not say that y'all have a weird name. Also, add a little more flesh to your opening statement by establishing when y'all were founded and a member of the NIC etc. As such, perhaps you may want to change the wording of the first paragraph to something like the following.

"Acacia, will be recruiting new members January 9-17. Acacia (uh-kay-shuh) was founded in 1904 and is the only international social fraternity to have a Greek word rather than Greek letters as its name. Acacia was one of the charter members of the North-American Intrafraternity Conference in 1909. Our fundamental principles are scholarship, leadership, brotherhood and human service/philanthropy. Membership is open to all male students, undergrad and graduate, regardless of major."

Also, under the "schedule of events", there are a few notations about "meet at the house". You should include that address in the email. Actually, you might want to also include the address in the initial paragraph.

"Acacia, will be recruiting new members January 9-17. Acacia (uh-kay-shuh) is the only international social fraternity to have a Greek word rather than Greek letters as its name. Acacia was one of the charter members of the North-American Intrafraternity Conference in 1909. Our fundamental principles are scholarship, leadership, brotherhood and human service/philanthropy. Membership is open to all male students, undergrad and graduate, regardless of major. We are located at 123 Mason Lane at the corner of Washington Street."

I would also add under the "more information" site a link to the international website. And what about requesting information via email? Will recipients be able to hit the reply button? Or is there another email address they need to use? If your school allows it, you may want to consider setting up a specific email address for replies. Acacia@LTU.edu or what ever it might be.

And also, be sure to run spell check before sending. I caught the following. Guiter is spelled Guitar. And maybe the place is spelled differently, but Shananigans might be spelled Shenanigans.

Finally, you might want to add in the email that it is your school's policy that the email be sent to everyone. For example: "Apologies for the mass email. Louisiana Tech email policy states that all emails are to be sent to whole student population."

Best of luck.

Wow. Not one reply when I started and now, all those replies before I posted.

oddly enough, it really is spelled Shananigans:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rl...72310024329559

It drives me crazy, but I didn't name the place. Good catch on the guiter, that's my bad.

OK, putting together what everyone has said, I get:

"Acacia will be recruiting prospective members January 9-17. Acacia (uh-kay-shuh) is the only international social fraternity to have a Greek word rather than Greek letters as its name. Acacia was one of the charter members of the North-American Intrafraternity Conference in 1909. Our fundamental principles are scholarship, leadership, brotherhood and human service. Membership is open to all male students, undergrad and graduate, regardless of major. We are located at 109 East Louisiana Ave, at the corner of South Vienna Street.

Schedule of Events:
Jan 9: Info meeting, 7pm, Nethken Hall Auditorium
Jan 10: Info meeting, 7pm, Toliver Conference Room
Jan 12: Volunteer at Louisiana Military Museum, 8 am
Capture the flag at Lincoln Parish Park, meet at house at 3:30
Jan 15: Guitar Hero and Gumbo at house, 6pm
Jan 16: Pool at Shananigans, meet at house at 8pm
Jan 17: Basketball at Lambright at 7pm

You are welcome to attend any or all of these events. Come see what we're all about.

For more information:
Join the Acacia Winter Rush Facebook group: http://latech.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6826663845
Our chapter website: http://www.techacacia.com
Our national website: http://www.acacia.org
Contact the recruitment chairman, Jason X, at XXX-XXX-XXXX, or XXXXXX@latech.edu"

Better?

And an extra question: should I include a link to this: http://media.www.thetechtalk.org/med...-3144947.shtml

Yes. And I think it would be nice to add the link to the article under the "more information" links. Could say something like "Here is what The TechTalk has to say about Acacia".

One other thing, perhaps have a few other Acacia members look at the email and have them give their input. At least be sure all members know about the email, and with what the email says, before it goes out. That way, if they are asked questions, they should have an idea as to what is being discussed.

Also, you may want to pass this draft by any other local fraternities and or sorority members you trust to give you an honest and constructive opinion. They may have ideas of what should be added (or deleted?) due to the nature of the campus.

It looks good TechTransfer. Just for the sake of clarity though, I have to be a little anal retentive and stand up for my own brotherhood.

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia also has a Greek word as (part of) its name. While not a member of the NIC, and while national rather than international, Sinfonia is a social fraternity and is a member of IFCs on many campuses. (I don't know whether our Mu Nu chapter at LA Tech is an IFC member or not.)

With that in mind, I would suggest:

"Acacia will be recruiting prospective members January 9-17. Acacia (uh-kay-shuh), one of the charter members of the North-American Intrafraternity Conference in 1909, is the only NIC fraternity to have a Greek word rather than Greek letters as its name. . . ."

Just my $0.02.

actually, you bring up a good point, since we have some really active groups that are professional/social (Phi Mu Alpha, Delta Sigma Pi, I think a couple others I'm not remembering), and their members are eligible to join Acacia. I'd hate to insult them right off like that.

Something you may also want to think about including is asking the women who receive the email to submit the names of any men that are eligible for membership. You can create an interest form through your website.

Senusret try taking a look at their website again, it should be up and I think you'll approve.

^^^ I approve! :)

Oh please, oh please don't leave a "coming soon" space on your homepage!

It's one thing to put that on a sub-page, but not on your homepage.

Put a badge pic or something. Steal this from your National site if you have to:
http://www.acacia.org/cornerstones.jpg



ETA: THANK YOU! :)

Also, just to be accruate ... Farmhouse and Triangle Fraternities are also NIC members who don't have Greek letter names. From their websites .. Triangle doesn't seem to be International but Farmhouse is.

But unlike Acacia (and Sinfonia), neither Triangle or FarmHouse use a Greek word as their name, which is the claim that TechTransfer is making about Acacia. I imagine that's why the Acacia national website words it this way: "Acacia distinguishes itself from other fraternities by being one of three (inter)national fraternities that uses a word instead of Greek letters; Acacia is the only (inter)national fraternity to have a Greek word rather than Greek letters as its name."

To maybe corect you a bit, it is Phi Mu Sinfonia.

Acacia, Farm House, nor Triangle use Greek Letters.

:)

Holy Crap, Earpus, I think you've reached a new level of drunken posts.

To maybe correct you a little bit, it is Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. I think I know the name of the fraternity of which I have been brother for over 25 years.

And yes, I know we use a combination of Greek letters and a Greek word -- although that was not the case for our first 50 years, and it is still correct and very common to refer to the Fraternity simply as "Sinfonia." (Brothers are called Sinfonians.) That's why, when TechTransfer suggested this language:
I responded:
(Emphasis added.)

Acacia has a Greek word as its name. Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia has a Greek word as part of its formal name and as a traditional name. Triangle and FarmHouse have English words as their names.

OOPs forgot one word. My bad!:rolleyes:

Holy crap Alphafroggie, you are wrong again as usual!

"Holy Crap, Earpus, I think you've reached a new level of drunken posts."

Acacia I do not beleive is in the Greek Alphabet.

So, how about getting back to the original posters question!

Acacia is a Greek word.

Where is the freaking confusion here?

DA Senusret At Pitt State they taught ous abourt Greeks and it is right to correct Fellow Greeks about their own organizations. :D:mad::D

Perahps YOU are not aware about Alpha Pi Alpha's Alumnae Initiation programs! They are the wave of the future! :o:cool::eek:

None, except that Tom thinks AF was riding him for saying Acacia doesn't have a Greek letter in its name, when she was actually riding him for correcting me on the name of my fraternity and getting it wrong himself.

Girl, I almost blacked out for a minute and thought you were really him, LOL

Thought so! :)

I am glad to know that Drama and the Law will not be a necessary seminar for me. ;)

TechTransfer, one thing I would suggest is going around to all the sorority meetings at the beginning of the semester (with notice, of course!) and introducing yourselves and asking them to submit names of unaffiliated men who they think would be a good addition to Acacia. When I was an undergraduate member a fraternity did this every semester and always got a handful of new guys from the process.

I think you mean "corect"ing you.;)

This is bringing back certain flashbacks of a certain thread in which a certain someone tried to "school" me about a certain university which has a co-op program, as well as a certain sorority and a certain fraternity.

AlphaFrog, if you'll look at our website now, you'll see the 'coming soon' banner is gone. Any other critiques on it?

GeekyPenguin, that's an interesting suggestion. I don't think anyone on this campus has ever tried that, but I'm all about new ideas. I'll give it a shot.

And on the name subject- Acacia is a Greek word. It's originally the name of a plant, a bushy evergreen with gold flowers that grows in the middle east. Acacia got it as a name because it's significant to Freemasons (being one, I would know). But the word is very definitely Greek.

I'm not trying to be a douche about it, but I've seen a lot of great advice in this thread and I'm wondering when I'm going to see an expression of gratitude.

excuse me....

THANK Y'ALL

but please, don't take that as a reason to stop! this is really helpful. I've been afraid that a 'thank you' would be seen as the end of the thread, and that's the last thing I want.

That is true, but I also said that it was not part of the Greek Alphabet.


You can piss and moan all you Chillen want! :rolleyes:

You're welcome!

I'd make the link to the Calendar on your Recruitment page of your website larger - it's pretty small and blends in. I might also put that on the homepage if I were you.

I don't know what the student housing situation at LA Tech is (or how Greek-friendly it is) but you might want to try contacting the hall councils to see if they would let you come around and make announcements as well. The more people who are talking about you, the better!

Of course, nobody ever claimed it was. :rolleyes:

Glad to be of help, TechTransfer.

The e-mail went out today. The first response came within minutes:
"NO, I HATE FRAT SHIT. DON"T SEND ME ANYTHING ELSE"

I hope that's not indicative of the general response.

Eh...eff them. That's that 10% you'll hear about that wouldn't join if their life depended on it. Who you're after are the 10% who'll join no matter what, and the 80% who are undecided. (Or, so I was told as an undergrad)

If you only got one response like that, that would be super. I'd be prepared for, like AF said, about 5 - 10%. Be sure to strike them from your list, and soldier on!