New Recruitment Advisor - Outside Advice!
 

Hello everyone,

I've recently been named the new Recruitment Advisor for my alma mater chapter of Alpha Gam. I am looking to revamp the Recruitment Process. Here is a little background on my chapter.

- Deferred Recruitment to Spring (Cannot pledge as 1st semester freshman) No Frills
- 5 NPC Chapters; Chapter Total: 55
- Typically Smallest Chapter on Campus
- SMALL recruitment budget for the year

I need advice in:

- Creative COR/COB ideas
- Setting up an Action Plan for Upcoming Years
- Recruitment Strategy Advice
- Conversation Advice for newer Sisters

We will be approximately 22 short of Chapter Total starting in the Fall with graduating seniors :eek::eek: Any advice is welcomed!

Start having informal recruitment events NOW - keep in touch with those women you're interested in over the summer and then you'll be able to bid them in the fall. Or if your pledge program and schedule for school permit it, give out bids and initiate a small pledge class before school ends.

I am not familiar with the type of recruitment, but know there are several threads on here written by young women (or alumna) looking for advice or suggestions with COB ideas, etc. I would definitely read through those for some ideas!

Yes, the search function is your friend!

Also, if your GLO has regional/province volunteers I would suggest tapping into their expertise as well.

Hit the Member Services side of the Alpha Gamma Delta website - there is a whole section about recruitment ideas/information.

Your HQ is your new best friend. Good luck! What fun you will have. You will impact so many.

A good idea for COR/COB is to do a game night. My chapter did this many times and was very successful! Just ask the sisters to bring their favorite board games, and invite some girls to come. At my chapter house, someone even brought a Playstation and Rock Band :cool: The girls who came had a lot of fun, and it provided a very relaxing environment to talk to them.

if you don't already have one, get yourself an npc green book and make sure that the collegiate officer in the chapter in charge of recruitment has one too.

When I joined, my chapter had not achieved quota in many years during formal (Fall) rush. As a result we were informally rushing the rest of the year. There was a great deal of pressure to meet quota and it was very wearing on the actives. I love the idea of just planning something fun like game night, karaoke, things you might do anyway and inviting others to come along. Just be sure that they have some sisters only time that doesn't include PNM's.

So how does that work? If quota is set in the spring do you recruit upper classwomen in the following Fall on that same quota?

The chapter can take however many they need to get to 55 (sounds like 22). In a perfect world, every chapter would be the same size going into formal recruitment in the spring, and every chapter would be allowed to pledge quota. Total is set as 3x usual quota for schools with a spring FMR, whereas total is 4x usual quota for schools with a fall FMR.

Have you read I Heart Recruitment by Coffey and Gendron? It's a really good read.

Surely Alpha Gamma Delta has a thick recruitment manual. If you don't have a copy, get it. Read it. Read it again. And again. Until you know that book!
And search out any extra help from AGD's Web site, regional recruitment officials...keep asking until you can get some help.
You also need a copy of NPC's "green book," along with copies of any and all regulations that your campus and your panhellenic have. I would also suggest meeting the Greek adviser on your campus and sitting down for a chat. It always helps to have friends! :D

There is no quota for Fall...Fall is COR and simply informal for everyone to do their own things. You cannot pledge until you have reached a GPA of 2.75 and have 12 credit hours from a college or university (AP classes do not count)

I must say i really hate the quality over quantity line (not to be mean, it's just a huge pet peeve!)!!! You can have great quality and high quantity - they are not mutually exclusive! If chapter members do their job by meeting new people all the time and getting to know them at least a little bit, they will be able to tell if those people could meet the chapter standards. If they do meet the standards, spend more time with them and get to know them better. If they don't, still be friends with them, just redirect your recruitment intentions to someone else.

The chapter needs to create a recruitment/PR plan that go along well together. Make sure women are involved in other organizations/activities, train them on small talk outside of recruitment parties and make sure you have measurable membership standards that everyone knows and sticks to. Have each sister give the MVP 3-5 names of women they think could have potential and invite them to some of the activities someone mentioned above.

A sense of urgency does need to be instilled in these women and sometimes that means pressuring them so they will work hard to reach their goal...total. They are already below total AND are losing 22 women. This is a HUGE issue and they need to understand that.

The problem is that sometimes groups are just told "get numbers" and "meet new people" without a concrete plan to do that successfully being put into action. What you said above was perfect, though.

Read I Heart Recruitment and you'll cringe every time someone says "quality over quantity" too.

Obviously, no chapter should have ovaries as the sole requirement for membership, but the point is that increasing the size of the pool of PNMs will no doubt increase the quality of new members. Quantity drives quality, so you can have both.

ETA: Sorry to sound obnoxious for always plugging this book, I swear I don't work for Phired Up. I truly think every sorority woman should read it.

Zetagirl, i hear ya! I totally agree that chapters should not take people just to reach total - that's a total disservice to the chapter, the national org and those low quality members that will eventually drop or be dropped. And it really bugs me when sorority reps tell chapters just to get numbers or else. I, in my idealistic mind, believe that they want their chapters with low numbers to get quality women, but they do not communicate it effectively and don't approach it the best way, which to me is something like: "the chapter is in serious trouble because numbers are low. Sustainability is the big concern. Given current chapter operations/practices, will this chapter be around in 5 or 10 years? Likely, it won't if major changes are not made. Let's talk about core areas that need improvement, like recruitment, new member education and member retention."

I just hate it when chapters I work with (either on my campus or those i advise in my volunteer sorority leader role) use that as an excuse to stay small and not work hard to get quality members.

I love you, marry me!!

I think that even if you are a person who likes being in a smaller group (I am), you still shouldn't join the smallest group on campus and hope they stay small - if you are not comfortable with being in a sorority that is whatever that campus's total size is, then sorority life is probably not for you. Don't join the sorority of 50 whenever everyone else is at 150 - because the way the system is running, you still will be in the mode (for lack of a better word) of sororities that run w/ 150 people. Does that make sense??

Also, I haven't read I <3 Recruitment, but I am hoping that it does explain that the 5 step model of recruitment takes more than 5 minutes. Sometimes it takes 5 weeks or even 5 months. I think too many people (including national volunteers) think you can crush all 5 steps into 2 open bid parties, and it isn't true...that's just regular old formal rush, except you're putting steps to it.

SassyPantsAGD, I was just appointed Recruitment Advisor for Gamma Tau! I'm super dorky and I love, love, love recruitment! I'd be more than happy to create new ideas with ya!

lol...sorry, i'm already married!:D I haven't read the book, but have heard about it and I agree with on the 5 steps. I did a workshop about just that a few months ago! It's amazing to see the lights suddenly click on when women realize how they can and should recruit year round and what it might look like!

I just finished reading I <3 Recruitment...that book is AMAZING!

I'm really excited now about this fall and working with some of those ideas with my chapter...

even more excited to be there long term to see if we can create new recruitment habits for the long term...

if you haven't read this book yet...you should definitely get your hands on it... :D:D

I agree - I also just finished reading I <3 Recruitment about a week or two ago and think it is absolutely fabulous. I'm encouraging the chapter I work with to adopt this way of thinking/recruiting.

Bump!

What's going on this fall? Have you guys had any get-to-know you or COB events?

I believe my sister (who is VP-Member Development at the chapter) told me that they have 3 girls new girls right now, but you'll have to check with SassyPants for confirmation.

I think the book does a good job of addressing the need to take your time with continuous recruitment. Locking in a PNM after two meetings only works for the "joiners." Every other PNM that is worth having may need more time to see the benefits of membership. Unfortunately, Panhellenic has always targeted the joiners, who are not always the best members in the long run.