Questions for the Newer Greeks
 

I can't possibly be the only one who reads a Recruitment thread, or another thread, and think, "is that how they do it now? Wow." I thought a general thread like this could help the, um, Seasoned Greeks ask the Newer Greeks questions.

One caveat: Please don't lie to us. We may be Seasoned, but we may also know the Powers That Be!

With that, I ask Questions Number One and Two:

-I've noticed in several Recruitment threads that PNMs will get a schedule of the parties to which they're invited. Is that universal? I remember getting a bundle of invitations, and getting to decide which parties I wanted to attend, and at which of the listed times.

-Why a competition for a Sweetheart? Shouldn't that be either from the hearts of the sisters or brothers, or disregarded for a certain year?

Plus with RFM the PNM's "decide" which parties to attend when they cluster or rank the chapter at the end of the previous night's events. It seems like more and more campuses are going to priority/rank and away from accept/regret.

My chapter doesn't do a Sweetheart competition. It's actually very hard to become one in my chapter and we haven't had one in like 10 years (I think). The brotherhood decides. Then again, I'm at a small school and it seems that small schools do rush and other things completely different than the massive state schools.

Our Anchorman (our version of the sweetheart) is usually a sister's boyfriend or brother who's been a great help to the chapter.

That's what we did, too. He was our "Black Diamond Beau", or BDB.

We had Keymen when I was an active. However none of the chapters I have advised over the years have had them. My undergraduate Pi Phi D said they definitely do not have Arrowmen or any equivalent designation.

We were told that Arrowmen were no longer allowed by the sorority.

^ LOL - nor are Black Diamond Beaux! I do know of chapters which have them, though, but they're never obligatory. It takes a special guy to be a BDB!

We have a "Gamma Guy" and he is usually a fraternity man that always supports us at our philanthropy/intramural events. Gamma Guy is usually not a boyfriend an we vote for him Chapter and announce it at our formal.

I think that's some freakish regional thing. Most places/chapters seem to do it the correct way as you outlined above. :)

My chapter has a Xi Man. Nominations are taken by sisters in chapter and a ballot vote is taken. The winner is announced at our Xi Man semi-formal.

Our bylaws state that it CANNOT be a boyfriend, fiance, or spouse of any sorority woman on our campus. We did it that way, one, to stop the fighting between sisters who wanted THEIR boyfriend to win, and two, we thought it would be disrespectful to name the boyfriend of the girl in another sorority as our Xi Man. He doesn't have to be greek, but he has to have contributed to the chapter in the previous year to be eligible for nomination. He also has to be enrolled on our campus - not some random Joe Shmoe from another school.

My chapter doesn't do a sweetheart competition... We don't have one at all. I can't think of any chapter that has one. I know one sorority does a male beauty pageant for their philanthropy, but they get no special privileges or responsibilities. Or if they do, it's not well known to everyone else. Being a fraternity sweetheart, I have no idea how it works. different for different groups.
As for recruitment, yep. I got a print out that said my name, recruitment number, and then party 1/party 2/party 3/ party 4/ party 5/ whatever next. We ranked the night before the next round of parties. So like after visiting 11 houses, and the next day we only saw 8, it would be 8 houses voted 1, and then the next in 2, 3, 4. If we got what we wanted, we never saw the groups we didn't rank 1. If we didn't, we got invited back to the next ones, in that order. So if a group you didn't like didn't invite you back and the people you liked did, you might not ever know. It was only obvious when a group you did want didn't invite you back. We had to be dressed and ready to go to parties when rho chis gave us our lists.
Often there were more sorority parties in the day than we had to attend- on pref day, we could only attend 3, but the sororities each had 4 parties, so everyone had a blank time.