New Recruitment Chair
 

Hello hello!
I have become the new recruitment chair for Univ. of Oregons newest sorority. We were founded only a few years ago and are looking to greatly expand this year. We have a couple great rushes last year and are looking to really get this sorority off the ground. The problem is - we are not part of PHC yet (working on that) and can not go through formal rush.
We are allowed to participate in open house (we are houseless at the moment).

If you have any ideas or general advice please please please feel free to share it! I am not sure where to begin.

If you are looking to eventually become a full member of your college's PHC - whether it means affiliating with a national or staying local - recruit women who are of the same mindset. That is, if a woman comes in saying "all those PHC groups are so fake/snooty/overpriced" drop her like a hot potato. Forming something new is awesome but you don't want to make the mistake of saying, in effect, "I founded this because you guys all sucked."

Hey, so as a fellow recruiter chair to another 2 great books you can read:
1.) How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
2.) I Heart Recruitment by Colleen Coffey and Jessica Gendron


We ask the girls to read them before recruitment camp :)

Also as stated above Relax and delegate- working with a team is MUCH better then trying to do everything on your own.

Also Practice, get your girls comfortable with holding basic conversations. The biggest thing in recruitment is the talking!!! So open ended questions and things such as basic conversation skills can make the world of difference.

All of this stuff in those two books above, as well as great ideas for recruitment camp, things to do with your house in preparation and how to build confidence in your girls :) Sometimes recruiters forget that their all ready in the house, and they don't need to prove that they are "blank sorority" material. Instead, they should feel comfortable and should be able to just share things about their sorority :)

Confidence, being comfortable, posture, smiling, not fake smiles, relaxing, and making sure YOUR girls know all there is to know about their own sorority will help find amazing girls that belong also!!

Good luck!! Recruitment is an amazing time- finding future girls that you share common values with is something that makes all the hard work worth it! :)

hey!
So I've been in a very familiar situation. I am in a local sorority at Sac State and we also are not a part of the Formal Recruitment. One other sister and myself ran recruitment last fall and brought in our biggest pledge class for four years.

Boco has some really good points. Your sisters should be knowledgeable and able to answer any questions rushees have (unless of course it is something that is a secret until later!). They should be confident and must appear to be truly happy to be in your house.

One thing that I noticed about recruiting girls over my time in my sorority is that it has usually been better to aviod competetive activities, especially if your sisters can get really competetive with each other. Try to make sure you have some nights that are more relaxed where rushees can get to know sisters on a better level, but also plan some either outdoor or active activities. For example, during the recruitment I planned, we took the rushees to an indoor trampoline place that everyone LOVED.

Another thing is just make sure you're sisters are comfortable approaching girls (both at your recruitment events or around campus to get girls to come out) and are able to hook them. Go over some "pick up lines" that could catch some potential rushees attention.

Of course I don't know if this is the way your recruitment works, but I figured I'd share just in case. I'm sure your recruitment will turn out great! Good luck!