COB - ideas for giving bids
 

We are doing COB this semester which we haven't done in many years. Anyone have any cute ideas for giving bids? Normally we just call them and ask if they will accept the bid. We are allowed to take 19 women during COB so it needs to be something feasible for taking so many women!! Thanks ladies!

How many people are in your chapter? Could you divide into groups?

We always went to the woman's house and presented the bid to her personally. If you do this around Valentine's Day you could theme it that way (especially since St Valentine is an exemplar!).

When I was extended my bid through COB, two sisters came to my dorm room and offered the bid. When I said yes, they decorated my door with things they had brought with them then we drove back to the house. We got there as other pairs of sisters were bringing back others who had accepted. We entered the house to the rest of the chapter clapping and singing to welcome us. It was awesome.

We usually have the PNM accept their bid either when they come to meet sisters for lunch. Then usually that same week we send out sisters to decorate their door/leave candy. However if you could maybe have a bid day type event for your new sisters, you could send teams out while bid day festivities are going on to decorate all of their doors. This is what we do for formal recruitment.

When we did COB (in the Spring) we would have a few informal events (usually for friends of girls who pledged in the fall, occassionally for a girl who transferred in that semester who knew folks in the chapter). We send out a "teams" on the same afternoon (I remember it was usually a Sunday) to meet up with the girls and deliver the bids, then they would bring back the new girls to the house for a pizza party (...or other food type event) back at the house that evening. I thought it was good that the new girls all got to meet at about the same time they got their bids, especially since the COB/Spring pledge class was always small.

We hold a few COB events and we usually get less than 7 new girls. We have the whole chapter gather around and we call the PNM and do a chant for her if she accepts :)

Back in the day, in my chapter, often a woman receiving a COB would already have a friend or two in the chapter. If so, the friend(s) would find her and offer her the bid in person. Otherwise, the president or another officer would do so. We would usually COB one or two women at a time.

If you are looking at COB'ing 19 women, you could invite them to your house or some other location for a "pref party", and then surprise them with bids. For those who accept, the pref party turns into a bid day party. ;)

Back in the day we used to go through campus singing cheers and clapping carrying balloons and bids. We'd put up doorknockers too.

You may also want to contact your District Recruitment Coaching Team Leader. She will be able to help you out with ideas as well!

That sounds really cute unless there's a girl in the group who changed her mind and doesn't want to accept... then it could get really awkward really quickly and you may ruin it for the other girls.

I think a personal visit is always nice, and then the girl can discuss it with the sisters who come visit and she'll have a chance to think about it without being put on the spot.

Absolutely do it in person...never a phone call. And sending a couple of women with goodies is a great idea!

In my chapter, we met with the NME who brought us to the place where we walked into a hall where sisters where standing on the stairs, singing a song, holding our bids. We do informal recruitment so our bids were in the shape of deltas and on the back was the written extension. The sisters were all in LBD's and pearls. It was a really touching, beautiful way to extend the bid as a chapter to each of us and everyone could be together to celebrate the happiness. I will remember my bid day for the rest of my life. If you have anymore questions about it, feel free to message me :)

My roommate about 3 decades ago dropped out of Rush and returned home due to a death, but she had had a full pref party schedule for the next day. A few days after she returned to school, the greek office called to say she had a bid waiting for her. Not understanding the system and assuming the bid was from one of the three houses on her pref schedule, she went to the greek office, only to find that the bid was from a sorority that she had dropped prior to pref. She said, "I didn't pref their house, so why would they want me? It will be like walking into a house full of strangers. They must be giving bids to just ANYBODY." She declined the bid and never went Greek. She told me later that if the girls in that sorority had invited her over and spent some time getting to know her before extending the bid, she might very well have accepted. She said it felt as if they thought she would take any bid rather than no bid. Both she and the sorority lost.