RFM Scenarios
 

So I've been reading a few recruitment stories and learning about the entire process, but I'm still a little confused about how the bid matching process happens the night after pref. I figured the GCers would be a close as I would get to asking an expert, so here goes.

Say you have 50 PNMs going to pref parties and 5 sororities. Quota is 10.

Sorority Alpha being super popular, is allowed to invite 11 girls to pref.

Beta is also pretty popular and is allowed to invite 15 girls to pref.

Gamma is respectable and is allowed to invite 20 girls to pref.

Delta has historically low return numbers and is allowed to invite 30 girls to pref.

Epsilon is new on campus and is allowed to invite 40 girls to pref.

Just by reading around, I'm going to assume that there is no "first bid list" in alphabetical order but rather, one giant list with PNMs being #1-#n.

Scenario 1:
PNM1 is amazing and everyone loves her. She ranks (in order of favorite to least): Alpha, Beta, Gamma. On Alpha's list she is #5, on Beta's list she is #5, and on Gamma's list she is #5. She will receive a bid to Alpha.

Scenario 2:
PNM2 is also pretty awesome. She is invited to all the "top" sororities with high return rates - the same as PNM1. She ranks (in order of favorite to least): Alpha, Beta, Gamma. On Alpha's list she is #11, on Beta's list she is #5, and on Gamma's list she is #5. Assuming that all 10 women who are ahead of her on Alpha's list choose them as their #1, PNM2 will receive a bid to Beta.

Scenario 3:
PNM2 is also pretty awesome. She is invited to all the "top" sororities with high return rates - the same as PNM1. She ranks (in order of favorite to least): Alpha, Beta, Gamma. On Alpha's list she is #11, on Beta's list she is #5, and on Gamma's list she is #5. Assuming that 9 women who are ahead of her on Alpha's list choose them as their #1 (and one woman chose one of the other 4 sororities as her #1), PNM2 will receive a bid to Alpha.

Scenario 4:
PNM3 ranks her 3 pref parties as Gamma, Beta, and Epsilon. On Gamma's list she is #11, on Beta's list she is #1, and on Epsilon's list she is #1. Assuming that one of the 10 girls listed above her on Gamma's list prefs another house as #1 and she is also in the top 10 of that house's list, where will PNM3 receive a bid to? Because there is "space available" on Gamma's list, will she receive a bid there because they are her #1 choice? Or will she receive a bid to Beta because they ranked her in their top 10?

Scenario 5:
Alpha was such awesome sauce during recruitment and had such high return rates. However, during pref parties, the PNMs could hear the president going psycho and cussing out all the other sisters. Additionally, it was revealed that the police arrested the Treasurer for running a drug ring out of the house and as such, the whole sorority would be put on probation for the rest of the year. No one wants to be a part of Alpha anymore, but a few do because it's "top tier." Of the 11 women they invited to pref parties, 6 prefed them dead last. In the end, they only "kept" 5 girls and the rest received bids elsewhere. What can Alpha do to get up to quota? Snap bid? What is snap bidding exactly?

That's all I can think of for now, I'm sure my easily-worried mind will think of something else later. Please correct me if I assume anything incorrectly. I also have no idea what happens in Scenario 4.

In #4 she would go to Gamma because PNMs are matched to chapters, not chapters to PNMs and she probably would have lasted till the spot opened up.

In #5, snap bids are bids offered after bid matching but before the bids are handed out on bid day and to women who did not get matched at pref or who were released during the week. Groups can also offer COB bids to women who did not go thru recruitment should the chapter so vote.

Ok .. I’ll take a crack ..

Scenario 1: yes
Scenario 2: yes
Scenario 3: yes
Scenario 4: Given that one of the first 10 on Gamma’s list is placed elsewhere, then she will receive a bid to Gamma. Ranking in the top 10 has no bearing on the placement. Bid matching will continue to attempt to match a PNM to her first choice until her first choice closes on Quota. At that point and only at that point will bid matching move to attempt to place a PNM with her second choice. This then also applies to placing her with her third choice.
Scenario 5: Snap bidding is the ability for a chapter that hasn’t reached quota to offer a bid to someone that didn’t receive a bid. This could be, for example, a woman who was on their bid list that didn’t receive a bid, a woman who was invited to preference but declined/regretted the invitation, or someone who wasn’t invited to preference at all (ie someone who was cut .. this may be someone the chapter would have liked to have invited but didn’t have room for on their invitation list). Snap bids may only be offered to someone who participated in formal recruitment.

Hope this helps. Please feel free to PM me if you have any other questions or want clarification.

So Alpha would have been able to offer snap bids and undergo COB if they so wished?

Also, new scenario.

Scenario 6
PNM4 unfortunately had a pretty bad day on pref night. She slightly insulted the sisters and was acting generally weird. She was invited to Delta and Epsilon and chose to rank Delta then Epsilon. However because of her disastrous parties, Delta ranks her #30 and Epsilon ranks her #40. Because my school has a guaranteed "you go to pref you get a bid," where would PNM4 go? I assume this is what "cross cutting" is. Does the Rho Chi call PNM4 to offer her a chance to accept a snap bid at Alpha? Will PNM4 be offered a bid to Delta as a quota addition because she ranked them #1? Under what circumstances are quota additions utalized, after bid matching or during?

Or will the bid matching program "remove" all the girls on Delta's and Epsilon's lists who have been matched elsewhere and see on which one PNM4 ends up highest? For instance, after removing all the girls who have been bid matched, on Delta's list she is #7 but on Epsilon's list she is #15. Where will she go?

Yes ... Alpha would be able to COB should they not reach Quota through bid matching and/or snap bid. A Chapter is always able to bid to quota even if it puts them over total or to total even if it exceeds quota.

Scenario 6: yes, this is what cross cutting used to be. If she attended 2 preferences and listed both chapters on her preference card, then she will be place as a quota addition with one of the chapters, assuming that both reach quota before reaching her name. Which one gets her depends on the RFM specialist. However, as the weakest recruiting chapter, it is possible that Epsilon will go through their entire bid list and reach her name before making quota. Quota additions are made after all possible matches have been made, then PNMs who haven't matched are checked to make sure that they have listed all groups where they attended preference and are matched to one of them. Usually (but not always) to the smallest chapter.

Quota additions are pretty much at the end of bid matching unless something odd happens - and it sometimes does. It's hard to say where she would go without knowing how many Delta and Epsilon have already matched and where she stands after that. She could end up at either one depending on how many they each already have. It would probably be Delta but I can see it being Epsilon ...too many variables to say for sure on this one.

First and foremost. There is no such thing as cross cutting. It's an urban legend created to make girls who were too low on all of their preference chapters' bid lists that the classes filled before it got around to her feel better. Today with RFM, that rarely happens (unless it's Indiana). Today the PNM would most likely be a quota addition to either Delta or Epsilon, depending on which method the campus uses to determine QAs.

Adding to this, she would be placed as a QA at Delta or Epsilon, not offered a snap bid to Alpha. A PNM can only be placed as a QA at a chapter she listed on her final MRABA card.

But also...don't worry about all this!!! Go through recruitment and make honest choices, and let the math happen in the background.

Scenario 5 can happen and has happened at times. (Not the psycho president and whatnot, but the general idea that a strong recruiting house doesn't do as well during preference as usual.) It's what I think of as the burden of a very strong recruiting chapter. They must stay on top of their game through the very end. If they have issues with round 1 or round 2, then usually flex lists can fix it. But if they are brilliant all the way through preference, and have very few women on their bid list, and something goes wrong and they fail to seal the deal with their PNMs, it is possible for them to not close to quota. It is heartbreaking.

Not something a PNM ever has to worry about! And rarely is it something a chapter has to worry about. But it is why very strong recruiting chapters have to stay engaged to the end of their last preference party, and not get complacent.

I might add that I know of many strong recruiting chapters who've found themselves not making quota on Bid Day. Sometimes they quickly and silently troll the list of girls who went unbid to see if they can scoop up a good girl. Sometimes they take their time trying to fill in and sometimes they announce that even though they didn't make quota, they got everyone they wanted and that will be the end of it.

But she could get a snap bid to one that she didn't....

The PNM in question would not be eligible for a snap bid. Since she maximized her options and there is a 'guaranteed "you go to pref you get a bid' rule in place for this theoretical school she would not go bidless. You can't bid someone who already has a bid from Formal recruitment.

It has been my experience that the director of Greek Life calls snap bid girls. The recruitment counsellors do not.