Calling all Recruitment Advisors
 

Hello y'all. I'm asking for help with recruitment. I have never really conducted a recruitment before - I just always did what I was told to do as a member of my own organization. I am advising a smaller chapter that is not my own organization that has always been in transition with advisors. This year I am helping them run their recruitment, but I need help. I really want to see this group succeed - they are somewhat of an underdog on this campus and that just tugs at my heart strings. Any and all help is welcome; ideas on how to teach these women how to bump, how to hold conversations, ect. I can't really for the life of me remember much about my own recruitment workshops that I can readily translate to this group. Thanks a million for y'all's help!

Just so you are aware, I'll be reaching out to this organization's headquarters for help and any materials they may have, but knowing how many women here are involved with recruitment, I thought I might have an untapped resource here. :D

To clarify, you're AOPi, but you're advising a different sorority? Am I reading that right?

That's correct AnchorAlumna. This particular organization allows members of the community and other Panhellenic women to serve on the advisory committee. Obviously, it's not an ideal situation, but this group hasn't build up an alumnae base in the area. I'm not asking what other groups do specifically; I'm asking for help with more general information that can be applicable to all groups like conversarional skills or anything that someone else may think of. Like I said, my particular expertise isn't in recruitment, but as these women don't currently have a recruitment advisor, I'm stepping in.

Very Panhellenic of you! They are a lucky group to have you.

Hey TxAOII - check out the Fulfilling the Promise website for AOII. There are a bunch of conversation modules on there for recruitment that our recruitment vp has been using. I am currently doing double duty as the Chapter Advisor and the Recruitment Advisor, so if you need help/suggestions/support, just let me know - pm if you would like.

Definitely start by gathering resources for the organization. While we all teach the same thing, each have some nuances in regards to terminology used (is it bump groups, or rotation groups for example?) Speaking their lingo gives you credibility.

Otherwise, I'd start first with doing some assessment with them if you haven't. Ask what they thing works well and what doesn't. Get input from the new members who have more recently gone through recruitment. And then find just a few things to really clean up and focus on those resources. I've worked with many chapters who aren't great recruiting chapters and recruitment already generally stresses them out and stressing them out more by changing too much at one time often backfires in my experience.

I always start with conversations as my focus though first. Most women won't completely discount a group for a slight bump group hiccup, or songs they don't like, but they will if they have a weird conversation. There are so many resources on this on the internet related to asking open ended questions, body language, etc... that aren't at all sorority recruitment related, but are exactly what works!

Thank you all for your replies! ASTlady, right after formal recruitment last fall I polled both new members and actives and both stated that conversation skill were the weakest link. I definitely plan to use that information and will be conducting workshops about open ended questions, body language, confidence, etc. to try and help them out.

JayhawkAOII thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely check out the fulfilling the promise site.

thetalady, thank you for your support. While it's been challenging for myself and the women, I have seen them grow so much as a chapter since I stepped in. Prior to myself, their advisors weren't even affiliated with NPC which led to a lot of misinformation and miscommunication that we've been working through. This organization's headquarters has been great in providing me with resources and help, but I'm only one person ya know? It can feel overwhelming at times, especially since I'm still in school and trying to plan a wedding.

Many years ago, several chapters I'm familiar with brought in speakers from organizations to teach the actives how to hold conversations. The payoff was incredible!

The complaint many PNMs share is "the conversations were awkward." It is possible to teach the art of conversation and I think it's worth spending the $.

I think you've gotten some good information from others, and I agree that the best resources will be from the organization you're working with. I won't rehash that.


I will add that the books I've found the most helpful in trying to teach people how to be good conversationalists are:
- How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- I Heart Recruitment by Colleen Coffey and Jessica Gendron


The second book is more geared toward a year-round recruitment rather than just focusing on formal recruitment, but it has a lot of helpful ideas in it.


Teaching chapter members who aren't the most natural conversationalists can be difficult, and truly I've found that the best way to improve the recruitment skills of your members is to recruit members who are good recruiters. Obviously that is a strategy that takes place over a significant period of time, but in the mean time, make sure the women who are talking the most to the PNMs are the chapters best recruiters.

Also be sure to call on the chapter alumnae. They may have struggled with rush and conversation while they were in school but a couple years in the work force will probably have changed that. They're ideal if you want people to role play "difficult" PNMs or uncomfortable situations.

Is their school and rush similar to yours or not - are you going from Huge Popular Greek System to Tiny Struggling To Find Interest system, or vice versa?

33girl, their school is larger, but a small Greek system. My school was small with a mid-sized Greek system. The diaconnect comes from transitioning from an interest group to being a national group.

AlphaXi_Husky thanks for the book suggestions, I will def look into them!

AZTheta, this group's budget won't allow for that right at this moment but it's something that I could suggest they budget for next recruitment cycle.

Thanks KSUViolet06! Let me take stock of the info that I've been given so far, and I will pm you shortly.

Or the chapter could pitch the idea to Panhellenic and everyone could pay, participate and benefit.

I would also reach out to that sorority's headquarters. Just because they can't share ritual stuff with you doesn't mean they won't be more than happy to help you help this chapter. And having someone, ANYONE express interest in helping this chapter grow might be the impetus they need to send support.