bid question
 

I've searched the forum for the answer to this question and I can't seem to find it. Sorry if the answer seems obvious:

Ok, so say Susie Q goes to Pref Night at sororities XYZ and ABC. When she ranks them, she puts XYZ as her first choice and ABC as her second choice. When the two sororities rank her, they both put her on their first-choice list. So when she gets her bid on Bid Day, will it only say XYZ, because Susie put them as her first choice AND they put her as her first choice? or, will she get bids from both XYZ and ABC, and then have to turn one down? Again, sorry if the answer seems obvious!

If she is on the first bid list of both, she will get one bid: XYZ

You will only get one bid during formal recruitment.

There are some campi that have a more relaxed style of recruitment (some use it all the time and others just during informal recruitment in the opposite semester from formal recruitment) that may allow PNMs to receive more than one bid. In this case, however, you would not have a pref card to fill out. You show up on bid day, get your bids, pick the one you want if there are multiple. Most campi, however, use the pref card/ one bid method. It is more exact to allow maximal number of bids to be distributed. The other method means that each chapter can give out a limited number of bids. If all groups like the same 10 girls and each gives their ten bids to those same girls, none of the groups will have quota at the end and will have to find other women to bid. You can see the problem this may pose at competitive campi.

Sorry to be picky, but it's campuses, not campi.

Actually, according to this, either way is correct.

In Latin, the plural form of campus IS campi...but campuses is still correct English. It's all a matter of which word you like better.

I stand corrected

I actually use campuses more often in normal speech, but changed it all to campi. Glad to know that I don't sound ignorant when I fail to use campi!

The bid matching process is a bit complicated (and thankfully nowadays it's done by computer), but a PNM will receive only ONE bid.

Is it possible to not get any bids?

YES.

At some schools, that answer is no...If you go to a school that participates in the Release Method of recruitment AND you participate fully in all rounds AND you return the maximum number of parties on pref night, you will have a bid at one of the houses where you attended pref.

By "Release Method" are you referring to the New Release Figures Methodology? If so, your statement is assuming that the PNM is not dropped by all the chapters, which can happen.

Yes, I am referring to the new release figures and you are right about being dropped by all chapters which is why I put all of those "ifs" and "ands" in my post.

Gotchya - I thought I would point it out in case there was any question :)

yes, it is. but it depends on the sorority, and the school. some pnm's (potential new members) get slap bidded. this means that they weren't number one on either side: suzie ranked 1: xyz, 2: abc. both xyz and abc picked suzie second. she does not receive a bid. however, the alumnae of xyz can slap bid suzie because she was still ranked as a second choice, thus a slap bid. (this is how it works on my campus. yours might just do bid, or no bid.)

If you are referring back to the original scenario, then no...there is no possibility that you would not receive a bid if you made it onto both chapters first bid lists. The problem is that you would never know where you ended up on a bid list.

I think you're refering to snap bidding.;)

ROFL! The mental picture of a "slap" bid is killing me! :D :D :D

LOL - I am now going through all recruitment terms in my head and making up alternate words/definitions for them.

RFM - Sure it is the Release Figures Method, but it could be the Rarely Fun Method since it is rarely fun to cut so heavily on day one...

Is it possible to be invited back to a sorority that you did not list? I'm wondering why they would do that (knowing that you aren't interested in that/those particular sorority/sororities).

Yes. (And I am sure there are other people who are more knowlegeble than I, but I am goint to take a stab at explaining this because I don't want to do work now....)

Certain campuses use certain methods where it gives the PNM the maximum number of parties to attend to, obviously, maximize the PNMs options. So say you attend parties ABC, DEF, GHI and JKL. The next day you can return to a max of 3 parties. You rank ABC DEF and GHI as your number one and rank JKL as your number two. Your invies for the the 3 party day are ABC DEF and JKL because GHI cut you. By attending the 3 parties, you have maximized your options. I don't know JKL would know that you ranked them second.

Actually, not really, at least not according to the article to which you linked:

"Ah, the quirks of our cobbled-together language! 'Campus' and 'stadium' came to us from Latin, just as, of course, 'alumnus' did. In Latin, the plurals are "campi" and "stadia."

But this is English we're speaking. . . .

Using Latin plurals isn't necessarily classier than going with the ordinary ones. For instance, 'campuses' is completely, exclusively standard. Saying or writing "campi" is a gaffe akin to wearing formal clothes to a backyard barbecue." (Emphasis mine.)

Sorry. Couldn't resist. :p

Unfortunately, the answer is yes, but there are some innovative programs where that likelihood is reduced. I would ask the greek (or panhellenic) adviser about this. Each school is different.

Good luck!

They would not know.

You don't wear formal clothing to barbecues? :p

So let me get this straight: you'll always be invited back to a sorority if 1.) they don't cut you, and 2.) you put them on your list, no matter how low they are ranked on it.

On a separate note:I thought you're supposed to rank them as 1.) ABC 2.) DEF and 3.) GHI in order of who you liked, not all three as #1...?

There's some confusion here. Let's clarify and say that this one of two recruitment systems. In the first, you would not rank chapters at all but see each day before recruitment parties which chapters invited you back. On a campus with 14 sororities, you could be invited back to 14 parties, and then you'd choose whichever ones you wanted to attend, either accepting, regretting with interest, or just plain regretting. This is not the system we're discussing.

In the second system, PNMs rank chapters immediately after events based on their experiences at the recruitment parties. They do (as I understand it, we used the other system when I went through recruitment and switched to this one when I was a junior or senior) rank their first choice groups all #1. Then she ranks the other groups in order of preference.

So take for an example a PNM that is at a school with 14 sororities and the second round of parties she can go to a maximum of 10 parties. She will rank her ten top groups as all #1.

To answer your first question, in this system you can't avoid being invited back somewhere, as long as you rank the group on your list. But you might never know. So let's say from our first example, the PNM gets invited back to all 10 of her top choices. The sororities she ranked lower may have invited her back, or they may have cut her, but she'll never know that because she got her top choices and they won't appear on her list. Now, if the PNM only got her top 9 choices, but the group she ranked #2 didn't cut her, then that group appears on her card. Let's suppose, though, also, that the group she ranked #3 also didn't cut her. Well, that group won't appear on her party list because her #2 group invited her back, and the computer will schedule the groups in order of preference.

The advantage of this system is that it doesn't put the PNMs in the awkward position of declining invitations from sororities.

Hope that helps.

For most formal recruitment systems, you only rank/order each chapter attended after the final ("Preference") round of parties.

Prior to pref round, you place the maximum number of chapters that can be attended the following day as #1 (thus, they all "tie" as houses you most want to return to) and the remaining chapters are then ranked in the order that you like them.

This is because a very, very, small number of PNMs do not receive any cuts at all during recruitment. Most PMNs return to houses that they may not have listed as #1 in earlier rounds due to cuts. This is not a bad thing... it gives an opportunity to give that chapter a second look and can keep your schedule full.

And, and has been said before, the chapter will not know where you placed them.... just as you will never know where you name is on their lists.

The reason you rank all of your top choices #1 is because
1. You can only rank as many chapters #1 as there are parties to attend the next day. Example: On Pref night the next day, you can go to three parties. If you went to five parties the day before prefs, you rank the three you like best then the two others in order of how well you liked them. If all chapters invited you back, you only go to your top choices; the bottom two are cut from your list. (Some campuses, however, will allow chapters that you cut to invite you back the next day, and you may have to go back to maximize your options if you can't fill your party slots with your other invites.)
2. They don't need a tie-breaker between your top chapters since you will go to each of their parties if they ask you back. This also means that Panhellenic (PHC) won't have a room full of women agonizing on whether they want to rank ABC or DEF #1 when it doesn't matter anyway!
3. PHC needs a way to determine which chapters you would want to attend if you don't get all of your top choices. They substitute your lower choices in order of how they appear on your list.
4. In the end, they are doing exactly what you would do if they gave you all of the invites and asked you to decide which ones you wanted to attend. This way, however, PHC can determine who is going to each party the next day and let the chapters know who to expect in advance.