University of Tennessee COB
 

I went through recruitment, and did not receive a bid. I had not heard of continuous open bidding until now and have some questions.

1. Is this the same thing as snap bids?
2. Do you have to sign up for it?
3. Is is to late to sign up for it?
4. What chapters are participating in COB?
5. Will the same chapters participating in COB participate in Spring Recruitment?

1. No
2. Yes
3. Probably not, but get in touch with the Panhellenic office.
4. Only Panhellenic can tell you.
5. Maybe, maybe not.

There are a lot of threads here about continuous open bidding or informal rush (same thing). Any chapters that are not at total after formal rush is over will be eligible to COB. Based on the numbers posted here, it looks like one chapter will have a few spaces available for COB. And unless a chapter made a huge come back this year (I don't know the campus or the system) all the others are probably at or above chapter total. If they adjust chapter total to correctly reflect the average of all the chapters, some of the chapters may have some spaces available because of the new higher total.

There may be some chapters who have members drop/graduate early/transfer away/etc. and drop below chapter total in the spring. But if any do, they will likely be very small spring pledge classes.

The good news is they had a decent sized upper classmen quota. So if you are a freshman now, keep your grades up, get involved on campus, make friends with sorority women and keep your nose clean, you might have a chance next year.

Best of luck to you!

It is not impossible for sophomores to get bids at Tennessee. However, it is not likely after a failed rush.

The question becomes what can you do to make yourself outstanding that you did not do, or have in your pocket, during formal recruitment? We don't know you so it is impossible for us to say, and it is possible that you might have just been lost in the shuffle that is formal recruitment. Don't sit on your laurels, they weren't enough last time and will be even more not enough a second time around. Maintain great grades. Be social, mingle. Get involved in one or more groups on campus and remember to volunteer to put in community hours. That last bit is critical to mingling and giving you a potential leg up over what you had last time. Take this time to work on yourself but do let Greek Life know that you are open to COB possibilities.

@ bolded: No.

I would disagree. But how about this. If stated another way, informal rush is a way to handle continuous open bidding in a more structured setting.

No, because informal rush may use quotas which means every group can take members - above total or not.

COB means ONLY that groups are under total can give out bids.

From the NPC MOI: "Continuous open bidding (COB): An informal membership recruitment process during which bids may be extended and accepted at any time during the school year other than during minimally structured, partially structured and/or fully structured recruitment." Though they of course only use the terms continuous recruitment and minimally/partially/fully structured recruitment.