Return Rate question
 

This is a general question on return rates. When you receive return rates, does that number include or exclude PNMs that drop out of recruitment?

For example, you have 10 PNMs on your list, 2 don't come back because they ranked you too low and 1 dropped. Is your return rate 80% or 70%?

Could there be another possible rate? Since a PNM dropped, would that mean the list would be "revised" to 9. If so, then the rate would be 77.77% (7 out of 9).

I'll start this by saying that if anyone knows more, please do correct me.

It is my understanding that the return rate is based on the number of invites matched at the time the computer does the matching. If the woman had withdrawn BEFORE the invites are matched, then the chapter's flex list would come in to play and they may be able to fill that slot. If she withdraws after receiving the invitation, then the return rate does not take that into account.

I believe that Titchou is correct.

My understanding is that it's more complicated than a simple "return rate" under RFM. Where you were ranked on a PNM's list is also taken into consideration, i.e. if a woman receives an invite to your chapter because she ranked you last but didn't get any other invitations, that is not the same as if she ranked you first.

At my campus, we didn't rank in an order preference, except for after pref. All the other days, the houses you would prefer to go back to were ranked with a 1, and the house(s) you preferred not to return to were ranked with a 2. Is this atypical/different than most campuses?

At Clemson, all chapters you did want to return to were ranked with a 1, and then the chapters you did not want to return to were ranked in order, i.e. 2, 3, 4.

Right, that's what I meant. It still matters whether you ranked the chapter a "1" or something lower. You could return to XYZ having ranked them a 1, or you could return to XYZ having ranked them a 2, if one of your "1's" didn't invite you back. My understanding is that RFM distinguishes between the two in its formulas for how many invitations a chapter can issue.

So, ABC has 100 women at an invitational round, and every single one of them had put ABC as a 1. DEF also has 100 women, but 50% had put them as a 1, 25% as a 2, and 25% as a 3. DEF is a statistically weaker recruiting chapter, and RFM accounts for this.

Wow, I think now my brain hurts. Thank you for all of your responses. I thought it was a much easier calculation than what it really is.

Thankfully there is software for this, and why RFM wasn't really plausible until relatively recently.

Exactly! I'd hate to do it by hand with RFM!

There seems to be a bit of blending between return rate % and priority rank %.
Your return rate is the % of women that you invited and how many are coming back.
Priority % is the number of women that put you in their top "cluster" of preferred groups.
So you could have an 80% return rate for pref but is your priority ranking is 50% only half of the women at your parties put you in their top 2 (or 3 depending on campus) preferred chapters.
Generally, only return rates are posted on ICS and Campus Recruiter. Priority return rates are listed in final RFM reports that are usually shared with national/area officers only and HQ staff.