Quota Plus
 

I ran a search on this but didn't come up with much - so apologize if this has been covered and I couldn't find it. :o

In any case: My boyfriend asked me a question about recruitment the other day that I realized I don't know the answer to. If quota is determined by the number of women attending Pref divided by the number of chapters, how can it happen that every single chapter makes quota and some make quota-plus? Where are the quota-plus girls coming from? I've seen this situation in some of the recruitment results and I'm confused. The only thing I could think of is that while some chapters made quota-plus with no issue, some chapters didn't originally make quota but were able to snap bid up to quota on Bid Day (so it shows that everyone made quota or quota plus). Is this the case, or is something else going on? Hopefully someone who's more knowledgeable with Green Book stuff can enlighten me!

Please correct me GC if I am mistaken but quota assumes that the PNMs will equally select their houses. In other words, if quota is 50, 50 PNMs would select ABC as their first choice and receive an ABC bid while another 50 PNMs would select DEF as their first choice and receive a DEF bid. I would guess that this is not always the case as a majority of PNMs might rank house ABC over DEF (80 girls rank ABC 1st and only 20 girls rank DEF 1st). If the PNMs maximized their options it may be possible for ABC to get quota additions in this case, especially if a PNM only preffed ABC and was toward the bottom of their bid list. Am I explaining my thought process correctly?

Also, for clarification, chapters snap to campus total, not to quota so it could be possible for a house to not meet quota but still be at or above campus total following recruitment.

Chapters Snap Bid to fill vacancies in Quota - this should be done before Bid Day events. It is really no other chapters business if chapter A had to snap bid. This information should not be shared among chapters or collegians and women who accept snap bids should be treated like any other new member.

Chapters COB to Total. Same thing goes for new members - they should be treated like anyone else. I am sure everyone does, but this is just a nice reminder. I really hate when I hear women say "oh, you were COB" don't say that about anyone...ever. (Off Soap Box)

Quota is not determined until after all the preference cards (MRABA) and bid lists are turned in and the results are factored. There is an equation in the Manual of Information that takes into account many factors. Additionally, if you are using RFM, your specialist will work to determine the best possible outcome where as many PNMs are placed and as many chapters as possible make quota.

Placing quota additions happens immediately after matching so that additional women can be placed. The PNM must appear on that chapters bid list and she must maximize her options. Women who do not maximize their options or single intentional preference (or list 2 when she attended 3 preference events) are not eligible for quota additions. Additionally, the chapter must have followed RFM throughout recruitment, and have already matched to quota to receive a quota addition.

There is a lot more info in the Manual of Information - every chapter should have one so check it out. :)

I really don't post that often, but I can't help but post when it comes to MOI info.

It would be impossible to determine quota by the number of PNMs remaining in recruitment anymore because of the RFM style of recruitment. If each chapter is allowed to bring back a different number of women for preference, there will be a disparate number of women left out of quota for the groups that get to bring large numbers back for prefs. For example ABC gets to bring back 50 women to prefs for a projected quota of 18-24. Half of their women may not accept their invitation to pref. The other 25 accept. Quota ends up being 18. ABC matches their 18 but 4 girls get no bid because ABC was their only pref party but they weren't on ABC's first bid list. Because we try to maximize the number of PNMs placed, we would then place these women with ABC as quota additions rather than leave them as No Bids.

But to answer your question about how it's possible for ALL chapters on a campus to make quota or quota+, I do believe you might be right. I don't see how the numbers would work otherwise.

Disclaimer: my knowledge of recruitment this decade is solely based on what I read on these boards. That being said...

It seems that some posters who happen to be recruitment advisors, district/national officers, etc., have indicated that at some schools quota is now being determined in a different manner. Instead of the simple division, a "quota range" is determined either before or after pref parties (can't remember which) and then the computer goes through and determines what exact number in the range places the most girls. So for example:

500 PNMs at Pref
10 houses

Quota range at pref may be 45-50.

If the most women get placed with quota at 47, then those 470 women are placed. After that the other 30 (or those that maximized their options) are placed with quota additions.

Again, somehow the computer figures out that more women get a bid with this as quota than with 49 or 50.

At least that is how I think I have read it.

How would more girls possibly be placed with a smaller quota? Or maybe it is designed that nobody would fall short of quota?

Maybe that is a factor too?

I just know that several posters have mentioned this "quota range" and that the computer just somehow "knows" what number to set quota as.

Seems that jwright was the one that has explained this so well in the past?

I believe part of it too has to do with the PNMs preferences. When bid lists are made, several quota numbers are run in the quota range and the best result is chosen. More PNMs might be placed in their top choice with the lower quota and the others can be added with quota addition. Now I am no recruitment specialist by ANY stretch of the word. That was just my understanding of how it works. Please feel free to correct me (gently) if I have this wrong.

The computer system doesn't just "know" what to set Quota at. Panhellenic runs different Quota scenarios (#'s) within the range through the computer system to see the possible results. For example Panhellenic may plug in the lowest possible range number of Quota = X and analyze those results. They look at how many chapters would make Quota at each number, how many would miss Quota, and how many PNMs would not get a bid at all (but might be eligible for Quota Additions if they maximized their options). Then they run it with Quota = X+1, then X+2, etc.

The final Quota number selected is the one where the most Chapters achieve Quota and the most PNMs receive bids through matching. Then Quota Additions are determined.

Thank you for the clarification, Zillini.

Besides, how often is the number of PNMs equally divisible by the number of chapters? It's pretty rare. We use 500/10 as an example for ease, but it's more likely to be 498/10, etc.

This is the best explanation on this and absolutely correct. At the University I advise at the quota additions are given to the smallest Chapters. So if a PNM has ABC as choice number 1 and XYZ as choice number 2 and ABC is smaller than XYZ then the PNM goes to XYZ even though it was her second choice.

Just so a PNM doesn't read this an freak out. A chapter can't "pull" you from your first choice group. You will not be placed in your 2nd choice XYZ unless you were not matched with you 1st choice ABC.

Also, I think AXOrushadvisor may have switched her chapter names. If, at her school, smaller chapters are given the benefit of the quota addition (and here I assume she means smaller in terms of total, not how many they pulled during the current recruitment cycle) then I think she meant to say that...

XYZ is the smaller chapter, and so even though the PNM "preffed" ABC first, she will likely be quota-added to XYZ.

At my school quota additions have more to do with how the PNM is ranked by the chapter. We try not to go too far down the chapter's list, and we also (generally) try to make most of our quota adds the PNM's first choice. If a PNM appears about the same amount below the quota cut-off for two houses, we go with her top choice. *the priorities of quota addition (beefing up smaller chapters, PNM choice, chapter choice, etc.) are at the discretion of the CPH's recruitment team, advisor and RFM specialist.

*also, I don't know if this has been noted, but quota additions shouldn't be more than 5% of quota (rounded up). For most chapters this amounts to 1-4 women.

Interestingly enough, quota additions can mean that a women who is ranked lower on her "preffed" chapter's list can get a bid, when a woman who is ranked higher did not.

Finally--and I'm sorry for the lengthy post-- Quota Additions DO NO EQUAL Snap Bids DO NOT EQUAL Open Bids

Quota additions are at the discretion of the Panhellenic Recruitment team (generally the CPH's president and VP Recruitment, the CPH advisor, and the RFM specialist). A chapter can not reject a quota addition.

Snap bids are given by the chapter, during recruitment but after quota matching, when the chapter does not make quota (and only then). It is commonly believed that snap bids can only be given to women on a chapter's final pref list. This is not the case, snap bids can be given to any woman who participated in at least 1 round of recruitment and was not given a bid to another chapter.

Open bids are given at any time that IS NOT formal recruitment time.

I'm confused by this part still. So lets just say Susie prefs ABC and XYZ and ranks ABC first. Quota is 45, and Susie is ranked 46 on ABC's bid list.
Kathy is only invited to ABC's pref party, but she has maximized her options. She is ranked 50 on ABC's bid list.

Bid night comes along, and Susie is invited to join XYZ, and Kathy gets a bid to ABC even though she was ranked below Susie?

This scenario would only happen with two girls who are below the chapter's quota though, right? For example, lets say Amy, who was ranked 44 on ABC's list and also preffed at XYZ (and quota was 45, therefore making ABC's "A" list) could not be bumped off by Kathy? Or could she be?

Also, what if Kathy had attended ABC's pref and LMN's pref, ranking 50 at ABC but at the very bottom of LMN's list? Would she then be able to bump Susie off of ABC's bid list?

I tried to explain this to some of my girls as well, but was at a loss.