Rho Gamma questions
 

I am seriously considering being a Rho Gamma for my school this coming year, but I have a few questions.
1. If you live in your sorority house, how long do you have to move out? Is it just a few weeks before recruitment and recruitment week or is it longer?
2. Does anybody have any advice that I should consider before deciding if I want to do this or not (questions I should ask myself or something)?
3. Are there any cost associated with being a Rho Gamma?

Thanks in advance!

I was a Pi Chi (Panhellenic Council) member in '07. We disaffiliated with our Rho Gammas that year (when Panhellenic at my school does this varies each year).

I would say, don't be a Rho Gamma ONLY b/c you hate your chapter, have drama with people, need a break, don't want to recruit or something like that. You will still be recruiting, just with different "sisters". And you may or may not like them/have drama with them too!

Don't do it is you have no intention of committing to the schedule Panhellenic will set for you. It can be hectic and probably more is required of you as a Rho Gamma then as a sister recruiting. We (including our Panhellenic Council and Rho Gammas) still had dress codes, schedules, activities, and practices.

At our school we don't have houses. However, Panhellenic on our campus pays for hotels during recruitment week and you bunk with other Rho Gammas that you like.

Thanks for the advice!

1. I was a Rho Gamma while living in the house. I did not need to move or stay over in someone else's apartment while I was disaffiliated. This varies from campus to campus.

2. Ask yourself if you can handle 20 girls coming at you at once with crazy questions. Also, ask yourself if you treat all sorority members on campus with the respect you would give your own sisters. You're not only a helper to PNMs, you're also a helper to the chapter. Make sure that even if they don't treat YOU in a sisterly fashion, you always treat THEM in a sisterly fashion. Ask yourself if you can refrain from dishing on other houses (there was a Rho Gam on my campus that could not).

Also, and this may be me, ask yourself if, knowing what you know now and not what you knew in recruitment as a PNM yourself, could you see yourself in other houses beside your own. It'll give you a more balanced take on what's going on with the chapters (you do not need to come up with the answer that you would, you just need to understand that that's the type of introspection that's required of PNMs, and luckily you have more knowledge to go from). If you can do it in a fair and balanced way, share what you know now with PNMs (but only the positive). Keep in mind that if you say one nice thing about one house, you need to say nice things about ALL the houses. Try to find benefits of being a member of each before recruitment starts.

Ask yourself if you can put yourself in the place of PNMs. Can you handle people crying around you? Can you sympathize with them, or better yet, empathize? Are you confident that not only will you learn the recruitment rules by heart, but you'll be able to explain them to your group in a clear manner, and clear up any confusion they may have later?

3. Sometimes there are costs, sometimes there aren't. Sometimes it's as simple as buying an extra t-shirt, and sometimes it involves buying supplies or gifts for your Rho Gamma group. It doesn't need to be much and this also varies from campus to campus but my first year my partner and I made door hangers (you know, the fun ones you can buy blank and decorate that hang from the doorknob) with each PNMs name on it. Other Rho Gammas got different (small) things for their new members, depending on how crafty they felt like getting. I'm a firm believer that all sorority members are fairly adept at writing things out in puffy paint.

This also depends on campus rules, but keep in mind that you will be expected to be prepared for everything. Make sure you can afford a recruitment supply kit with things like clear nail polish (for chipped nails and/or runs in pantyhose, if people wear them on your campus), an ice pack, kleenex (you'll go through a lot of these), a nail file and clippers (no joke), band-aids, breath mints, a little bit of candy (I'd stay away from Chocolate as it stains), a tide pen and anything else campus specific you might need while you're a Rho Gamma. You generally won't spend more than $25 on that and sometimes the campus panhellenic will provide it or pieces of a kit for you.


I don't want to discourage you from being a Rho Gamma because I loved it (I was a Rho Gamma for one year, then head Recruitment Counselor for another), but it is a lot of work, you need to learn the chain of command and the lines of communication between chapters and between chapters and new members, and you need to really take to heart the idea of helping someone find "their home" while still helping chapters take quality new members.

I stress that because so many times Rho Gammas are misinformed or just don't care and they end up really affecting a potential new member's recruitment in a negative way. You also need to remember that if you screw up as a Rho Gamma (I'm talking in a big way, here, like telling a PNM to drop a certain house even if she doesn't want to or encouraging her to go toward a certain house because you want her to) chapters will call you on it and it'll be a lot of drama. Also, even if you're doing everything right, ask yourself if you can handle chapters being less than nice to you, because it does happen, and ask yourself whether or not that would affect your ability to give fair and balanced perspective about that house.

Also, it never hurts to do a little research about the other chapters on your campus besides yours ahead of time. Knowing the symbols, motto (if there is one), jewel (if there is one) and even founding date of the organizations and the chapters on your campus can help you a lot when PNMs are asking questions about "the girls in the red and yellow" or "the girls in the rastafarian colors" but can't necessarily remember the name of them.

It really does depend on the school and how recruitment is structured, so definitely read the threads and ask your own Panhellenic officers.

Since my school has recruitment before students come to school our "Rho Gammas" stay in unoccupied dorm rooms with the potential new members so it makes things easier for housing.

1. We could stay in our houses up until 3 weeks before recruitment.

2. Can you handle not being able to talk to your sisters for long periods of time? Can you deal with a crazy schedule full of orientation, flyering, advertising, long nights and early mornings, weekly meetings, practices, and about 25 girls bombarding you with questions? Can you handle it if one of your girls freaks out/cries/screams etc? Can you be unbiased?

3. We had to pay for Pi Chi clothing and embroidery and had to pay a $250 fee that paid for our hotel and food for recruitment week

Keep in mind that all schools are different, but this was my experience.

It was honestly the BEST experience and I loved every minute of it. its amazing when you can run back to your chapter on bid day...it really puts things in perspective for you.

Just throwing in my two cents' as a 2008 Rho Gamma:

1. On my campus, you only had to move into the hotel for the week of recruitment. I did not live in my house at the time, but there were other Rho Gams who lived in theirs.

2. Definitely ask if you are interesting in being a Rho Gam to benefit the girls going through recruitment. I wanted to help create a positive recruitment for every single girl going through, regardless of what house they chose. The way I see it, not everyone can fit in the same house anyway - but I have friends in every house, so that was how I encouraged girls.

3. I had no costs to cover outside of my dues; each chapter pays Panhellenic dues, which covered the cost of our hotel and food each night.

Just as an FYI - if you end up becoming a Rho Gamma, please remember the importance of disaffiliating with your chapter for the entire summer/recruitment period. I noticed this became a problem when PNMs were asking for advice on choosing between two houses and one would be that particular Rho Gam's house.

I asked any PNM that confided in me to refer to the houses she was interested in as ABC and XYZ or something like that, until she had made a decision. That way I could justify that I was listening to exactly what she had said and not focusing on my own possible personal bias.

Maybe that was too much info- I just think that's important for every Rho Gamma to consider.

The only other thing I can think of that hasn't been covered by others is the cost of meals during Recruitment and workshop week. On some campuses Panhellenic pays for or provides meals (along with hotel or other lodging costs) out of the dues each chapter pays. I have also heard of Chapters writing a check to the Rho Chis at the beginning to cover costs. Or having them turn in their receipts for reimbursement. Or a Rho Chi may be on her own for meals, usually only if the sorority doesn't offer a meal plan to begin with. Best to find this out beforehand, especially if you need to be hanging on to receipts.

Thanks, you all have been great with advice! I will definitely keep (or try to keep) all of this in mind when I make my final decision!

[QUOTE=agzg;1820258] . . . . Are you confident that not only will you learn the recruitment rules by heart, but you'll be able to explain them to your group in a clear manner, and clear up any confusion they may have later?
. . . .
QUOTE]

Excellent point, azgz! Just to reinforce this: here on GC we've read quite a few 'horror stories" about recruitment counselors who gave PNMs incorrect information about how the recruitment rules worked. Ask yourself, too, if you're the kind of person who can say, "I'm not sure of the answer to that, but let me contact __ (head counselor, etc.______ and I'll get right back to you," or "Let's look that up in the printed rules; I want to make sure you get the right answer."

If at all possible, I think it's better to look like you don't know everything, and to double-check on a tough question, instead of passing along misinformation out of a desire to appear to be immediately -- "right this second" -- helpful.

Wow, my writing style was annoying in that thread referenced above. Geez. I'm sorry for that everyone. I was a PX twice during my undergrad, and both times were very different, and that hinged on the partner I had (you may not have one). It made all the difference to have someone I could rely on to split the duties (like calling 15 of 30 people and/or corralling the majority of the group while I waited for stragglers) plus the fact that some girls would mesh better with her than with me and vice versa.

(Disclaimer: not an NPC recruitment here, we pick and choose from the NPC rules, although the movement is towards a more NPC style structured recruitment. So please take with a grain of salt.)

- Our PX's didn't move out of their houses, but were asked to be "ninja like" when coming and going from their houses. It helped that our houses were (are) small, and therefore the number of PX's who lived in was relatively small. Their images are covered up on the house, as are their names, but I can't think of anyone who had to take drastic measures to protect the ID's of their PX...but my campus also had deferred recruitment with "pre recruitment" events in the fall to promote greek life, so the IDs of recruitment counselors could be found out.

-2) I guess the biggest thing is to also consider your class schedule and other commitments. Recruitment is difficult on all involved, PNMs, PXs, and general members. I'd suggest avoiding a "max" course load if you can swing it (like if your max is 18 credits, take 16. Sounds silly, but if you figure 2 hrs of coursework for each credit hour per week, that's a lot of time. I didn't take this advice, and had to take 20 credits to allow for going abroad, and I wanted to die). How are your time management skills? How good are you at managing stress (and trust me, there will be some, both external and internal)? What about your family/friends/significant other? I went about a month and a half without seeing my BF (now husband) because of recruitment. Family it was longer. When it wasn't workshops about recruitment rules and counseling, it was calling people, meeting girls who couldn't make meetings, making goodie bags for opening night, etc etc etc. It's something to consider...how to maintain those relationships when it can seem like recruitment is about to eat your face off? Are you OK with having no say in who your sorority takes as a new member? Do you think your sorority would be better off with your presence in the house during the recruitment process?

- We paid for tshirts, and that was it. But again, we didn't move our PX's off campus, and food was provided by campus food service.

My only advice is to consider how well you can deliver bad news. I wasn't so good at that! I cried more than the women that were released from recruitment. This can be a great experience, but depending on your group, it can be emotionally draining. I happened to be gifted with a group of upper classmen with predominantly low grades. Actually, I even had to watch a woman with a 4.0 be released on day 2! I decided to be a Rho Chi because I found recruitment upsetting...being a Rho Chi was so much more stressful and upsetting! I learned a lot, though.