Co-Ed Fraternity Rush
 

Hi,
I'm a Brother in Phi Sigma Pi and we're trying to start planning Rush events for next semester. We have about 40 members, but only five of them are boys. We really want to appeal to more boys but obviously getting females to come check out our events is important too.

Some information:
Our Rush is two weeks long. We have an event every night of the week except for Sundays and one weeknight (just in case of an emergency) each week. So, we need to plan 10 events total. Two nights are meet/informational nights. We don't do a formal recruitment like sororities and fraternities so we aren't bound by those rules. Everything has to be dry. No drinking! Oh, and we don't have a house but getting rooms on campus shouldn't be an issue.

If you guys have any advice, that would be really great. Or if you need any more information, let me know and I'll do my best to provide it!

Wait, isn't Phi Sigma Pi an honor fraternity?

Yeah. Why?

An honor fraternity is not the same as an honor society. Phi Sigma Pi is more like APO, but with a GPA requirement.

PSPgirl, I know a similar thread has happened on GC before, so I suggest you do a few searches through google. Type in things like ["coed rush" site:greekchat.com] and see what happens.

I am in APO, but to be honest, nothing we've ever tried in an organized manner has recruited more men. It's all about asking all the men you know to give it a try. The right men will see it through.

does your recruitment have to be 2 weeks long? that is a pretty long commitment for someone who may not be invited to join or who may decide they don't want to join.

I know other chapters don't do it for that long but for some reason we do. I'm not entirely sure WHY it's that long though. There's no requirement for how many events rushees have to go to, however. I know quite a few Brothers who only went to one or two events their during their rush period (myself included).

Ah. Got it.

i was wondering if you might be able to attract more interest if you had a shorter recruitment period.

^^^ She is not going to be able to change her chapter culture upon advice from GC, nor would I advise it. 40 members is a strong chapter size for PSP.

PSPgirl, rather than shorten the length of rush, you should consider how people are invited to the actual events. Rely more on person-to-person contact than just posting flyers, for example.

Yeah right now we're pretty much open to whoever wants to come. We send out emails, post flyers, chalk, etc. to get interest. We're thinking about maybe doing an invite only event but I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that.

^^^ If you don't feel comfortable with it, don't have an invitation-only event. Have an event for which you DO send invitations to people your chapter knows, though. You see what I mean? By going the extra mile, you turn "maybes" from your friends into "yeses" because of the personal touch. And that doesn't have to exclude the general public.

(In my opinion.)

Yeah, that I could totally do. I'm just not that comfortable excluding people. I know a lot of social Greeks do it but I don't really feel like it's our chapter's style.

<lane-swerve>
I'm a social greek, but I'd like to vouch for the personal invitation to an open event. I joined during open recruitment and a friend invited me with a paper invitation with a note from the recruitment chair.

I was really nervous about going to any events and the personal invite made me comfortable and felt wanted.

Has anyone asked the men in your group what attracted them to PSP? They might have some really valuable insight.

</lane-swerve>

So you have 35 girls? That should be enough ;)

Don't be afraid to increase your exclusivity. Too much "hey come to our event" diminishes the luster. I'd also set a goal - a quota if you will - for how many members you want, probably separating the male quota from the female quota. Then market with that intention. If you have 40 members (which sounds pretty good for this type of group) you should want to get 15 members or so to maintain. So you want to increase your ratio for men, make it 9 men and 6 women you will accept this semester. Or whatever. I'm just saying you should set goals and work toward that specific goal. "We can take as many as we want" is great in theory but doesn't provide any motivation or incentives for your existing membership.

Have you had a recruitment workshop for your members? A good brainstorming session would be helpful for a lot of reasons, including possibly changing the 2 weeks to something a little less daunting and getting everyone on the same page as far as goals, procedures, etc.

Good luck!