Recruiting and Membership Tips
 

I was wondering if anyone had any tips on rush for us this semester. We're a local. Since we don't have the school's approval to be a legit organization, we do struggle with membership because people simply don't know about us. In our typical pledge class, we usually have 4-6 pledges initially, but about half of them usually drop out after a few days. If anyone has any tips on 1) how to best recruit members, and 2) how to keep our membership up once they accept our bid, that would be great.

First, search the recruitment threads. There are a ridiculous number of them on this site. Many of them concern small, struggling chapters looking for recruitment ideas.

Secondly, visit PhiredUp.com. Read the blog and resources. Find out what a Names List is.. and use it. Focus on doing smaller, NORMAL activities with a few members and PNMs (movies, dinner, studying, etc.). And remember: people don’t join organizations.. people join people. Try to meet as many as you can.

Lastly, regarding your new members dropping.. Why are they leaving? Are they concerned about the time commitment? Are they in trouble academically? Do their parents not approve? Can they not afford it? Are you hazing, and your new members don’t want to be a part of that? There are a lot of reasons why someone would choose to leave a sorority. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know what the problem is. Maybe all of the new members who are dropping have the same concerns. If this is the case, it’s most likely a “problem” being caused by the actions of your chapter, and you need to change them. It could be something as simple as offering academic help, or setting up payment plans for financial responsibilities. But there’s also a very good possibility that these girls are leaving for different reasons, and you might have to work with them on an individual basis (i.e. one girl’s grades are dropping and she needs help studying, and another girl is worried about how much time she will have to invest in the sorority).

In the 5 years that I have been a member of my sorority, I have known 2 girls who have dropped. One girl simply decided that sorority life wasn’t for her. She was surrounded by it for 2 months and just felt that she didn’t want to do it. It happens. With those cases, there’s really nothing you can do about it. The second girl was concerned about how much time she would have to spend on sorority activities, and she thought that they would completely interfere with everything else she was doing. Our president and advisor talked to her, worked out a schedule with her, discussed what exactly would be involved with being an active member, and she reconsidered her decision to leave.

At the same time, these two girls completed at least 4 weeks of the new member process before they said anything to the chapter about the possibility of them dropping. You said your new members are doing so after only a few days. Why do you think that is?

If you want to keep members around, you have to be honest with yourselves about why they’re dropping. Then you can work out a strategy from there. If you already know why, and you want to reveal the reason(s) here so that you can gain some more specific advice, go for it. If not, try to figure out why they’re leaving and work with your chapter in order to do something about it.

Are your pledges being harassed by the administration or faculty for going Greek? Or by their other friends?

Do they understand going in exactly what "nonrecognized" means and that it isn't going to be the same for them as for their friends that go to Cornell or a SUNY school?

Are the other unrecognized Greek groups having the same problem? You all need to help each other, not compete.

I would contact your alumnae and ask them for help. You are in a unique situation and someone not from the school probably isn't going to be able to help a whole lot. If people are continually being fed anti-Greek propaganda (which from your school's site it seems they are) it takes a lot to buck the system and stick with something even if you like it.

I think our problem has two parts: first, we can't "legally" advertise on campus, because we don't have campus recognition. So that puts having on-campus events, like speakers, and resume writing how-to's out. The other part of the problem is that I think the girls are dropping out a) because of the time commitment, and b) because they can't figure out why it's worth it to pledge. Maybe we're not welcoming them enough, maybe we're not giving them enough. I think they come in expecting a Greek experience of a huge university, and then decide it's not worth the time. So I really don't know how to communicate the close-knitedness (excuse my made up word), and I guess I'm just frusturated because I see girls who we genuinely like leaving us.

My sorority is a Christian sorority. One of two on campus. We usually have a small pledge class initially and ours too, tend to drop. This fall we started with 9 girls and ended up with 5. Reasons we have heard are

1. It was too expensive
2. It was too small a group
3. It wasn't where I felt I needed to be

Some girls that came to info night ended up going to join the other Christian sisterhood. It is difficult to see the real reasons why that happens.

so I'll refer you back to this...

You can't advertise on campus, which is why each individual sister has to become your advertisements. Do they wear letters? Are they members of other organizations on campus? Do they attend a lot of events and activities put on by other students? You have to put yourself out there if you want other people to be aware of who you are. But that doesn't require you to have pretty posters and huge events.

If people are dropping for the reasons you gave (time commitment/can't figure out why it's worth it to pledge), you might want to spend more time explaining to PNMs what it is that you do. What you might want to do is to create a semester's calendar of events (if you don't have one made up already), and give it to each PNM as it gets closer to the time to hand out bids. Explain the time commitment, and be honest about it.

Also, you need to talk to them about the importance of what you do. Explain what it means to be a part of your organization. If PNMs just see you going through the motions, they won’t understand why they’re pledging. And why would anyone want to spend months learning about something that means very little to them?

This sounds like the crux of your problem. They think it's going to be like Cornell where they have intramurals and big houses and stuff like that. Explain that as different as Ithaca is from Cornell, that's how different the sororities/fraternities are.

Again, contact your alums. Have several of them come to speak at rush parties and talk about the friendships they made that still exist - even without national recognition.

Don't "water down" your pledge program, but take a long hard look and see if you can get everything done you need to get done in a shorter period of time. Don't keep it at 8 or 10 or how ever many weeks just because that's what it's always been at.

Make sure you have a myspace or facebook group (an open one, keep any private business off of it) and that everyone in it also joins the Ithaca groups for incoming freshmen - that way you'll show up in "related groups" and girls might click on it and check you out.

Every college student has to make difficult decisions about how they will spend their time. Obviously, the scholastic commitments have to take priority over sorority commitments. New members may also need to work part time, and they may reserve significant amounts of time for their significant other. To address the time conflict issue, you need to design your new member program to enhance their other commitments rather than detract from them.

First, build in flexibility into the new member schedule. Eliminate as many "mandatory" activities as you possibly can. Let the new member class decide as a group when to have meetings and complete any required education tasks.

Then build study time into the culture of your sisterhood. Set up a (voluntary) study-buddy program where sisters meet together twice a week at a pre-scheduled time. Whether it's chemistry or accounting, it's good to have a study partner when you're prepping for a big test! Figure out who among your current members is strongest at writing, and have them offer to proofread essays for the new members.

Finally, make sure your sisterhood is not alienating your new members' boyfriends. If the boyfriend doesn't feel welcome, he will be fighting for his girl's time and she will feel torn. And more than likely, she'll pick the boyfriend over her new sisters. But if he feels like her new sisters are his new friends, too, suddenly the conflict evaporates.