"From the outside looking in you could never understand it"
 

I've decided to calm myself down fro this upcoming recruitment, I am going to do a recrutiemnt story from an active members perspective. I've been in tri delta for three years now and its been one of the greatest decisions of my life. Most of you know my school so I will be very very careful about revealing too much about the PNMs I meet, as well as how we vote, etc.

Today we had our mandatory panhellenic workshop. I woke up late and now have to pay a $50 fine for being late. Oh well it happens right?

The workshop went pretty well. We did an ice break with the other sororities where we had to go up to someone in our group and say "baby i love you will you please just smile?" and they had to reply with "I love you baby but I just can't smile" without laughing. I was pretty good at it but some of the girls could barley get out eh "i love you" without starting to giggle. We then went over rules of recruitment, and by far the most one poeple had questions about was "No letters during recruitment week". This year panhellenic decided that the sororities on campus cannot wear their letters, philanthropies, ANYTHING outside the rooms. I understand the idea of this, greek unity and all, but I am extremely proud of my letters and have never signed a disafillation contract, so how can they tell me not to wear my letters?
Not gonna lie, kinda upset I can't use my vinyards vine bad next week, especially since i spent so much money on it. :(But what can you do right?

I got to see a lot of my friends that are disaffiliated, two in particular that aren't in my sorority, so it will be harder to see them on bid day after reveal. I miss them mucho.

After the workshop we showed the Panhellenic exec our skits and slide shows then I went home and took at 5 hour nap. OOPS! :) I went to joann's today and got some poster board, and these really cute stars that I'm going to paint for the girls I pref and (hopefully) see at bid day, or maybe the rho gammas. I haven't decided yet.

There are three sororites on my campus, Tri Delta which came on in 2003, Zeta Tau Alpha which came on in 2004 and Chi Omega which came on in 2007. Over the past year I believe that the sororites have come together more than in the past. You coud really tell at the workshop. One of the quotes I like from today was that "We all have sisterhood, philanthriopy etc, but its our people that make our sororites different".

Here is the recruitment schedule:

Monday-Orientation, just for PNMs, panhell and rho gammas.
Tuesday-Ice water night
Wednesday-Philanthropy night 1
Thursday-Philanthropy night 2
Friday-Sisterhood night
Saturday-Pref night
Sunday-BID DAY!!!

I can't wait for Tuesday. It seems like it was forever ago when we were even talking about themes! I will reveal our theme after Tuesday night's party because you never know who may be lurking :D

Last I heard we had over 200 PNMs signed up (FSUZeta if you're reading this and have peaked on ICS you have a better idea)
. I really hope our pledge class isn't over 70!!! Last year quota was 59 and we took 61.

More later GC loves.

Wooo so the three presidents met with the Panhellenic president and the membership director yesterday because they were unhappy about the "no letters on campus" issue, and they came to a compromise. We can wear our letters today on campus, and then saturday. Its not exactly what I wanted, but I guess some letters is better than none.

Last ICS check, 255 girls. INSANE.

Today is orientation for the PNMs while the rest of us get ready for the long week of setting up/tearing down ahead. I'm so pumped!

I love this (so far) short thread. Hearing from the other side is great.

im intrigued too - keep it coming.

Sounds like your campus is due for an expansion! Holy cow that's a lot of PNMs for three sororities!

No letters during recruitment! Has anyone not looked at the Green Book where they want silence to only be from the end of the last Preference Party to Bid Day?? They also have a section where it is the RIGHT for every woman to wear their pins at any time. It sounds as if your Panhellenic needs a Green Book lesson before you expand!

I agree...How do you promote Greek life if no one can wear letters? These are not secret organizations.

wait, for clarity: the school's Panhellenic is saying NO member can wear letters until rush is over?

Thats pretty ridiculous. If there's only 3 sororities, PNMs are going to remember who is in what house outside of rush parties and such.

Or am I missing something?

Panhellenic (sp?) encouraged us to wear the Pan Unity shirt (they wanted us to wear it for the first social at welcome weekend because they said all the letters overwhelmed PNMs but it got voted down). Our chapter of course encouraged us to wear Greek stuff :) Outside of our house we are not allowed to talk about our individual chapter, as in "Go Delta Gamma", it's supposed to be a Unity thing so it's just "Go Greek".

Believe me, I share all of your opinions. We're working on correcting this. I have read the green book over and over again but as of right now our panhellenic isn't budging. I don't want to release any information as of right now because its a process we're going through.

I will let you all know how it pans out.


And yes you are correct, no member of any panhellenic sorority is allowed to wear her letters or insignia starting today until Saturday. I can't use my vinyard vine glasses, my sunglasses, etc. It sucks, I know. again, we're fighting it.

And yes I have seen the section called "Right to wear badge" in the MOI. I wasn't in the meeting with the three presidents so I cannot tell you exactly what was said, but I made sure our president had all the sections from the MOI that clearly stated what they are telling us is wrong (the right to wear badge, that we're soverign organizations, unanimous agreement C, etc).

I agree about the not being able to tell who is rushing/who is in a sorority. I can only hope that the other organizations will follow the no talking rules during recruitment. Which I'm sure they will.

All I can say is that its being worked on.


Well I have to be up in 4 and half hours so I will see you all later :)

I can't believe that no one has ever heard of this policy before. At my school, we all go "neutral" the week of recruitment. We don't have our individual letters on ourselves at any time during the week. If we are seen with letters, and it is reported to Panhellenic, our house will receive an infraction. We're allowed to war anything that has Panhellenic or each organizations' letters on it, but not the individual organization. It is a push for "Go Greek!" instead of "Go Alpha Chi!" or whatever.

This was a little different for us though. Previously, recruitment had been held during orientation week- therefore, one week without letters wasn't so bad (and one where you weren't in classes!). Because we moved our recruitment dates, we were allowed to wear our letters for the first week of classes (last week). This week, however, we aren't.

Jenny, I'm relatively sure I'm on your campus, but this policy is meant to discourage "dirty" rushing. PanHel wants to promote "Go Greek" as others have said before me, hence your button you had to wear.

O&B Forever :)

yes i understand why they've done it. It was a shock to us all of a sudden "no letters during recruitment week". It was only made a rule, probably about 3 weeks ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about greek unity, I love the other organizations on campus. But doesn't this kind of promote dirty rushing? Not saying the other orgs will, but I don't know everyone. its much harder to see if a soroity member is talking to a PNM if they are wearing their shirts.

I'm extremely proud of my letters and have never signed a disafilation contract, so its still kind of odd to me that panhellenic is saying i cannot wear my letters.