Too-Detailed Sorority Recruitment Rules -- Decorations and so forth?
 

Sometimes recruitment policies can get awfully specific about decorations, flower arrangements, etc.

I realize that these policies may be necessary when dealing with a "frills" recruitment, but . . . well, you can see for yourself:

Not to be mean, and I'm sure other Panhellenics have policies that are just as detailed, but here's part of what's posted on Tarleton State's (TX)Panhellenic site:

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Wednesday
a) Sororities may only use approved items in their formal recruitment rooms.
b) No items may be on the floor or hanging from the walls or ceiling.
c) A sorority may have 5 tables decorated with paraphernalia. Items on these tables may lean against the wall for support.
d) Sororities may also have up to 10 tables from TSU for sitting purposes. Each of these 15 tables may have a solid white tablecloth.
e) Sororities may have 1 large collage frame not to exceed the size of a standard poster board.
f) A sorority may have up to 15 stuffed animals placed on the decorated tables.
g) Sororities may have up to 10 paddles and 10 pillows.
h) 5 blankets may be used to decorate the tables, but not used as tablecloths.
i) A sorority may have up to 15 t-shirts displayed on their decorated tables.
j) Sororities may have up to 25 figurines that are no taller than 5” or wider than 5”.
k) A sorority may have up to 10 pin boxes displayed.
l) Sororities may display up to 10 awards.
m) Each sorority may display only 1 composite.
n) Each sorority may have 50 picture frames with no more than one picture per frame not to exceed 8” x 10”.
o) Each sorority may use 50 balloons of standard size and shape. If clusters or arches are used they may contain a maximum of 5 balloons. No Mylar balloons are permitted. Balloons must be tied down with a cellophane balloon weight.
p) The 10 tables used for sitting may have centerpieces. These centerpieces may be composed of a cluster of balloons and a philanthropy item. There may be only 5 philanthropy items per table. These philanthropy items may be changed between parties.

G) Thursday
a) Sororities may only use approved items in their formal recruitment rooms.
b) No items may be on the floor or hanging from the walls or ceiling.
c) A sorority may have 5 tables decorated with paraphernalia. Items on these tables may lean against the wall for support.
d) Sororities may also have up to 10 tables from TSU for sitting purposes. Each of these 15 tables may have a solid white tablecloth.
e) Sororities may have 1 large collage frame not to exceed the size of a standard poster board.
f) A sorority may have up to 15 stuffed animals placed on the decorated tables.
g) Sororities may have up to 10 paddles and 10 pillows.
h) 5 blankets may be used to decorate the tables, but not used as tablecloths.
i) A sorority may have up to 15 t-shirts displayed on their decorated tables.
j) Sororities may have up to 25 figurines that are no taller than 5” or wider than 5”.
k) A sorority may have up to 10 pin boxes displayed.
l) Sororities may display up to 10 awards.

m) Each sorority may display only 1 composite.
n) Each sorority may have 50 picture frames with no more than one picture per frame not to exceed 8” x 10”.
o) Each sorority may use 50 balloons of standard size and shape. If clusters or arches are used they may contain a maximum of 5 balloons. No Mylar balloons are permitted. Balloons must be tied down with a cellophane balloon weight.
p) Sororities may have a skit, video or combination on this night. Only 25% of active chapter members may be in the skit and dress for the skit. The total time limit for the skit and/or video is not to exceed 15 minutes.

H) Friday
a) Only approved items will be permitted in the formal recruitment room.
b) There will be 10 tables and 10 chairs per table available for sitting purposes.
c) There will be two tables available to decorate with the following items. These items should not exceed the size of 3 ft X 3 ft
(1) 5 awards
(2) 1 composite
(3) 1 founder photo
(4) 1 purpose or creed
(5) 1 charter
(6) 1 crest
d) Each table may be covered by one solid white table cloth.
e) Each sorority may have up to 50 flower arrangements with no more than 12 flowers per arrangement. These flowers may be used as centerpieces on the tables.
f) If a sorority elects not to use these flowers as a centerpiece they may use 6 floating tea light candles per table.
g) A sorority may have one balloon arch not to exceed 20 ft. This arch may be tied down with a brick on each end that is covered in solid fabric.
h) Each sorority may have 4 large items touching the floor. Examples are a gazebo, creed, fountain, lattice arch, and crest. Panhellenic reserves the right to determine if an item is appropriate for the event.
i) If it is part of a sorority’s ceremony they may elect to have one flower or candle per member and one flower or candle per PNM. . . .

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http://www.tarleton.edu/STULIFE/gree...nt%20Rules.pdf

LOL. It's excruciatingly detailed! However, you can bet that it's that way for the same reason a high school dress code is--because there are people trying to get around every little peephole in the rules. I can only imagine what must've happened at Tarleton to rate this list!

Exactly. I've seen recruitment rules that are so detailed that I shake my head in wonder. It makes sense to outline what "no-frills" means, but counting how many white mini light strings or size of Pref desserts or how many ice cubes can be in the ice water... then there are restrictions on what colors can and cannot be used by chapters, maximum numbers of just about anything that can be counted and used for any reason, what can and cannot be donated, and so on. Gets really tricky when the Panhellenic rules infringe on Pref ceremonies, and yes I've seen that happen too.

What in the world? And I thought our rules were strict! Yikes. :eek:

The people who make rules like this are the same kind of people that fold their trash.

Oh, boy! I couldn't agree more on all the comments. It is very difficult to maneuver around very detailed recruitment rules.

Their rush infraction hearings must be fun. "ZOMG! XYZ's skit was 16 minutes long, and ABC's tablecloths were OFF-WHITE!!!"

Back in my day, we had no-frills rush, which boiled down to:
- There was a limit on how much any chapter could spend.
- PNMs wore Panhel-issued name tags for open houses. Chapters made their own name tags for each PNM after open houses, and PNMs could keep them (but nothing else).
- We could serve whatever we wanted, except alcohol.
- We could have whatever decorations we wanted. Panhel rented a helium tank that all 5 chapters shared for inflating their balloons.

Every year, every chapter got a standard lecture from the Greek Life director about how lit candles were not permitted in the student center (where pref ceremonies were held) because of the potential fire hazard. Every year, every chapter cheerfully ignored him and used candles anyway.

That's the first thing I thought of when I read this.

So long as they weren't giraffes :p

It can get ridiculous. I know of an instance where an active of XYZ saw an ABC out for a jog in her letters during work week. (Wearing letters during work week was verboten.) So the XYZ active called a rush infraction against ABC. After a little research, it was discovered that the jogger was an ABC from a different school, who had no idea it was our work week, and who had just thrown on a comfy t-shirt to go for a run.

And there are two chapters (let's call them XYZ and ABC again) where XYZ sprinkles glitter on the floor of their rush room during open houses. Needless to say, this gets all over the PNMs' clothes and shoes. And every year ABC would bring XYZ up on charges of letting PNMs take "gifts" out of the rush room. We're talking about glitter...

The one thing I wonder about is whether or not those ridiculous accusations actually result in sanctions, or do they just pop up as part of the drama?

From my chapter advisor experience, sometimes its a lot nicer to have rules in black and white, instead of just saying "its a no-frills" recruitment. For example, last year in the recruitment rules for a chapter I advise said, there was a rule that said no costumes. Our chapter understood that to mean costumes like Halloween costumes or play/skit costumes, but another chapter filed a rush infraction saying that their matching T-shirts were costumes. While sanctions were not resulted, there was quite a bit of frustration and animosity between the chapters on campus when one group filed this rush infraction - not to mention the meetings involved when an infraction is filed.

the rules are used to try and level the playing field, but they can be used as ammunition pitting chapter against chapter and it can get ugly. for instance, everyone is serving water in cups for the first round of recruitment. one chapter(sorority A) adds one lemon slice to each cup of water and another chapter(sorority B) files a rush infraction. there is no rule against lemon slices, but representatives from the accusing sorority and the accused have to meet with the greek life advisor. charges are dismissed,but a new rule is added that nothing can be added to water for next year.

next year sorority A offers pnms chilled water bottles labeled with their sorority name. Sorority B files a rush infraction. reps. from each sorority meet with the greek life advisor, who dismisses the charges, because there is no rule against what sorority A did, and gl advisor adds a rule for next year that sorority labels cannot be put on water bottles. it just goes on and on.

then there was the time chapter A was in their assigned room putting the finishing touches on their room and an alumna knocked on the door. the collegiate member opened the door and let her in, and the alum said hello and proceeded to walk around the room, looking at the decorations and the displays. when she had completed her viewing, the members present asked her where she had joined sorority A. at that point alumna tells them that she is actually an alumna of sorority B and mistakenly came into the wrong room. yeah, right. sorority A did not file an infraction because there was no rule against it-who would have thought there would need to be one? that is how lists like the one above from tarleton state come about.

When I was rush chair, I spent one 2-hour panhel meeting discussing whether or not sororities were allowed to decorate their bottles of water (panhel bought the water, so that no one could say that ABC had Best Choice water, while XYZ had Perrier). Eventually we decided, no, you couldn't because allowing it would more or less mandate that everyone would have to, so as not to be left behind.

For us, the unbelievably strict rules were because there were one or two sororities who were ALWAYS loopholing (such as decorating a plain bottle of water to make it seem fancier than everyone else's), and next year it would have to be put in the rules.

ETA, FSUZeta basically just summed up my entire point.

I think the bigger question here is why would you ever sprinkle glitter on the floor during a recruitment party? Glitter is THE most annoying thing to clean up.