Bid question
 

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You sign your bid card after you put your two or three choices down. Once you sign it, you are in effect accepting a bid from any of those two or three that extend one. That is why you should never ever put down a sorority whose bid you would not accept.

"If you put down more than one sorority on your bid card but DON'T accept a bid from them once it is extended, you can't join another sorority until next year. "

This one is correct - HOWEVER ... you can rejoin that same sorority you turned down at any point during the year (if you offered a another opportunity to change your mind) (That happened at U of Toronto a few times when girls wanted to get to know a group better)

Hope that answers your question ....

Right after pref, you sign a pref card where you list the sororities whose pref parties you attended, in order. If you only went to one, you only list one.

Bid matching is done. If you receive a bid, you can either accept it or decline it, but if you decline it you can't accept a bid (even from the same sorority) for a full year. Your signature on your pref card indicates your agreement to that rule.

At my school, you could defer a bid for up to 3 days. Some people did this to think it over, talk to their parents, etc. People who did this still went to the bid day party, but didn't get the T-shirt and stuff until and unless they signed. If you hadn't signed by then, it was treated as if you declined the bid.

Clarification ....
 

Thanks, aephi alum - that's an excellent re-cap of the Bid Card process. But in regards to the above quote, NPC does allow this as some girls have declined and 2 days later realize they have made a mistake, and a chapter stills wants her as a member.

The NPC Membership Binding Agreement (aka Bid Card) Statement #5 supports this (see p.88 in 13th Ed.) - it states:
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[The original wording from previous editions was "...but if I am bid by one of the fraterntiies I have listed above and do not accept, then I am ineligible to join any other NPC fraternity on this campus for one calendar year."]

Obviously, if a girl has declined then wants back in, a chapter does need to re-vote to offer a new bid - and in some cases, the chapter is hurt they were turned down, and may not want her back, but some do want these PNM back. I have seen this happen at a few chapter/campuses I have worked with in both the US & Canada, and when it as brought to the NPC Area Adviser(s) for interpretation, it was ruled that the same group could re-offer a bid. :)

If these women do "re-join", there may be some hard feelings, but these PNM's usually are even better members as they are more cognisant of what they almost lost - some have gone on to be excellent members, even presidents of their chapter.
:)

If you would like to chat more on this, please Private Message me, and I'd be happy to chat more on this :)

brookline, I wish all TV shows and movies did as much research on Greek life as you do :).

What's been said is correct. Signing a bid card is, in effect, signing a bid. I think what you were thinking is if you put only ABC and DEF on your bid card, and XYZ offered you a bid out of nowhere. You have no obligation to XYZ, but you do to ABC or DEF if one of them offered you a bid.

A slightly harder question:

Let's say that Suzie rushee declines her bid, so we are one below quota. We COB to fill that space, as we are entitled to quota, and are also over campus total. Then Suzie wants to be in our house. Can we still extend her a bid?

I would think this would be a "no" because we filled quota and are over total, but does anyone know for sure?

Re: Clarification ....
 

Hmm, I didn't know this. That wasn't the way it worked on my campus - but we didn't exactly follow the green book to the letter :) I think that's the rationale behind our "you have 3 days to think about your bid" rule - once you decline, you've declined, end of story.

No, I think if you went out and offered Mary a bid and she accepted it and that filled your quota, then Suzie is pretty much screwed :p.