COB vs Spring informal
 

Hey,

I have been browsing the forums and I was just curious what the difference between cob right after formal recruitment and spring informal recruitment is, structure wise. I am sure it varies from campus to campus but in general is COB after formal a shorter and more informal of a process than spring informal or are they fairly similar?

It's all COB = continuous open bidding. Anything that is not formal recruitment is continuous open bidding.
Now, some campuses, like Georgia, may hold a spring COB that's a little more organized.
"Informal" is just some leftover terminology from the old "rush" "rushee" "pledge" days.

COB is COB whether it happens right after FR or the following semester. The process is the same: The chapter hosts some events for PNMs to attend, the chapter decides which PNMs (if any) to offer bids to; the PNMs who are offered bids decide whether to accept; and those who accept become new members, go through new member education, and are initiated just like the new members who joined via FR.

The only differences you might see are:

1. A woman who joins via COB right after FR might become a part of the existing new member class from FR. A woman who joins via COB the following semester will be part of a much smaller new member class - perhaps even a one-person NM class.

2. A chapter that's ineligible to do COB in the fall (assuming a fall FR) because they met quota and are at/over total, might become eligible to do COB in the spring because several seniors graduated at the end of the fall semester, or several people deaffiliated, and now they're under total.

Thanks for the responses. They were helpful. I was just confused because it seemed like when people talked about COB right after formal, the process and/or group of people going though was smaller and/or less advertised than informal the following quarter.

No, not true.

You can also have a (partially or minimally) structured informal recruitment that uses a quota. Of course often when this is used, most chapters aren't at total anyway and so quota becomes a moot point...but that's not what the question was.

Continuous open bidding is for the sole purpose of getting a chapter up to total. If you're at total, you don't do it.