Recruiting Help
 

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When FIJI colonized on my campus they used a very different approach.

The first thing they did was start a HUGE campaign of getting referrals. They approached administration, staff, faculty, and (possibly most importantly) sorority girls.

For the admin, staff, and faculty, they would approach them one at-a-time and they would start off with, "Hi, my name is ____________. I am from the Phi Gamma Delta National Office, and we are currently working to start the newest Fraternity on-campus. Our dream is to create a diverse organization with quite literally the greatest leaders, scholars, and gentlemen at the University. Does anyone you know fit that description?"

When they visited the sororities they would usually come to their Chapter meeting with a bouquet of their sorority flowers and say virtually the same thing, except they had a competition with them. If a sorority girl referred someone, they would get X number of points, and if they joined they would get 3X number of points. The sorority with the most referrals would win a prize (in this case a $200 donation to their philanthropy in their name).

They would get hundreds of recommendations from these people and they would start cold-calling them. Saying something like, "Hi my name is ______. I am from Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity. I am currently working to create a Fraternity on-campus comprised of the greatest leaders, scholars, and athletes at the University. Suzie from Phi Mu/Dr Fitch/Dean Lewis said you would be the perfect person for this project. Would you be interested in meeting at the Starbucks on-campus to talk about it?"

A lot of people said "no", but some people said "yes", and as soon as they could get someone to commit to it, they would start asking for help Recruiting. They put those guys to work building the Fraternity. It was like magic or something. They went from two guys to thirty guys in no-time.

Best of all, they did it without a single flyer, poster, or T-shirt. I've never started a Fraternity before, but I have recruited people for my Fraternity before, and I can tell you that most of that stuff doesn't seem to work.

Not a great I to we ratio - just an observation.

How many people are in your interest group? Does the fraternity you want to start have resources to help you recruit available on their website? Have you been to phiredup.com? Go there now, it will be your Recruitment Bible.

Don't do a big extravagant event. Big events waste time and money and they have a low impact in relation to the effort you have to put into them.

How many people are in your interest group? Have you talked with the national GLO you are trying to colonize? Have they given you any suggestions?

Just IMO, but if the national GLO you're trying to start a colony for hasn't given you support or guidance, you might want to re-evaluate things.

There are currently 15 in the interest group. Not all of them will stay on board. About 10 of us have been really serious and taking all the necessary steps. National is on board and they suggested a flyer which We have been using but it's really hard to peak peoples interest since doesn't have a fraternity name or much in general. Our school is allowing us to expand and national is helping get the alumni together. In the meantime We were told to recruit. Everything but that is going great. I appreciate all the help or suggestions we could get.

I'm questioning the logic of a national group saying "Yes, start the interest group/colony for us, but don't put our name on the information". The would be recruiting tool #1 to let guys know what group is wishing to colonize. Quite frankly, not using the name makes zero sense.

In all honesty this sounds pretty strange if the national organization supports you bringing XYZ to campus yet don't want to be mentioned anywhere on the flyer. "We want to come to your campus, but don't tell anyone we actually want to come!" Does the group have a horrible history at your school or something?

If the national org only suggested you do flyers (which, imo, is not a great way to generating interest), I question their commitment to your group. Sigma Chi is colonizing on my campus has done almost everything ScarletBlueGold said. For example, sorority girls are changing their FB profile pics to Rush Sigma Chi in exchange for points to be used in some matter. While several girls are kind of rolling their eyes at it, it's been fairly effective in generating interest.

I Was told until I'm an official colony I am not allowed to print the letters or organization. I'm allowed to speak about it though? I don't know how that is with other organizations as an interest group. That does sound like awesome advice from ScarletBlueGold. I'm going to try that out with the other sororities and see how that goes over.

What's holding the national up from declaring you guys an official colony? Are they waiting for approval from the school?

Oh and you want to pique people's interest. :)

Yes I think they are waiting back on paperwork from the school. School told me it will be about 2 weeks :(