COB or Informal Rush stuff
 

I wanted to start my own thread about Indiana Gamma's COB efforts and ask for any advice that anyone has for our chapter! I'm really close with the COB chair and she and I are getting excited for this process. :)

First off our chapter is pretty small, we're smaller than any house on campus and the only ones that do COB. We're in a rebuilding period so we're working really hard on trying to boost numbers while keeping quality up there too. Yesterday was our school's Block Party and while we had lines of girls signing up for information they were all freshmen. This is good for formal rush but not for fall informal rush because we can't bid Freshmen through fall COB.

We're going to be putting up posters announcing events for COB in each residence hall, putting up flyers in the union and sending out letters to unaffiliated sophomores. I know this is a lot of PR but at the same time I know last year I didn't even remember seeing posters or flyers advertising COB. I know for activities we're going to meet at the campus Starbucks and have people just hanging out and studying and stuff, we're also doing mini-golf, going out for ice cream, having a picnic and a formal dinner.

I'm kind of nervous about the whole thing because there are a few girls in my pledge class who don't really socialize outside the house. The sophomores are the ones who have to bring friends over and I know most of mine are affiliated. :(

Well I have to get back to classes and stuff like that but I just wanted to share my COB excitement/woes!

PPL,
Jess

hey! our chapters sound a lot alike. we already picked up 2 girls during COB before the school year is out. we're trying to rebuild our chapter reputation. if we can just get better numbers for rush this year, i think that would help a lot. by the way, you wouldn't happen to be blondambition83 on livejournal would you? 'cause she lives in cincy and is an indiana gamma. my roomie (who's also a pi phi!) grew up in cincy, but now lives nearer to dayton.... anyway! we don't have a formalized COB period, because we're ususally the only house that doesn't make quota. :( and it's the same with me, a lot of the girls in my pledge class are really great, just not super-outgoing.

Try having a PMS night.. (pizza movies sisterhood) or go to Chuck-E-Cheese... anything that gets girls in a relaxed atmosphere. You might want to also check with your Greek Life/Campus Life Office and see if anyone as inquired about greek life. You might get some phone # there. Most of all, keep calling and show that sisterhood!!

PPLaM
Lauren

That's me! That's so funny that you found greekchat! Welcome to our message board! :D

I know last year they did a chuck-e-cheese night, that's why we're doing mini-golf this year. I already volunteered to call the freshmen that signed up with their info during block party. It's been so hectic today with classes I just hope I can devote enough energy to both! I don't know how people can do formal rush during classes. :)

PPL,
Jess

Hello,

My chapter is experiencing the same thing. However we do not have the restriction of not being able to COB freshman ladies...why is that??

Last year before recruitment started, we only had 6 ladies...before the summer we had 14..so we lost a few gals due to academics. Unfortunately we only got like 2 ladies through formal recruitment (quota was at 11). But we did manage to COB 6 more ladies.

I am happy to say that I have 14 wonderful angels this year and are working really strong for an even better year! I am sure we will make it past 20 this year!! EXCITED ABOUT THAT!!!

We can't bid freshmen through fall COB only spring COB because our formal rush is in the spring. We cannot COB freshmen prior to formal rush because that's supposed to be their first chance to rush a house. I wish we could bid freshmen through COB in the fall but it doesn't work that way.

Our first event is this Wednesday and we're going to be hanging out at our campus coffee house just to get to know some girls. I won't be at the event because I have class but I will be there for the Football game on Saturday which is our second event. I'll post to let everyone know how Wednesday went though!

PPL,
Jess

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I've been super busy lately with work and classes. I haven't even seen erniegirl00 and she lives down the hallway from me! So far we've had super attendance from girls in our chapter at events, but no PNMs! I am bringing a girl next week to the formal dinner and I invited a girl to the event tomorrow night I just hope she comes though. We've stepped up PR though and have made it more than just a sophomore thing, the whole house is supposed to work on it. I'm just worried we won't get anyone to pledge this semester and we've worked hard at planning stuff for the pledge period already.

PPL,
Jess

well, don't get discouraged. things will look up.
i'm amazed at hearing that any pi phi chapter is having to cob. the pi phi chapter at my school is one of the top sororities.
back to the subject though. i am the queen of cob stuff. my chapter had to cob 24/7. we weren't very successful and ended up closing, but our efforts were huge. here are some helpful ideas for doing cob:
coke dates - great thing to do, sounds like you are already doing something like it by taking girls out for ice cream, etc. that's basically what a coke date is.
we tried to go all out for cob just as we did for formal rush (before we went to a no frills formal rush). do fun theme parties and have ice breaker games that will be fun for the PNM's.
telephone duty - doesn't sound like much fun, but essential. you need to get a list of names from panhellenic that gives the info of girls who dropped out of rush, aren't affiliated, etc. then you just start calling and see if you can invite them to come to an info night or out for a coke date. works well, trust me.
whatever you do, don't get discouraged! stay upbeat and positive or you'll be dead in the water.
keep me updated on how your chapters are doing. i hope to hear you have a bunch of new girls soon.

shelley j
sigma kappa

oh yeah, i forgot to ask, what school do you go to? i went to miami of ohio

We've tried getting a list of non-affiliated Sophomores phone numbers but the school keeps giving us the run around on it. We did have two girls come for the ice cream event at Maggie Moos but only one was a Sophomore. :( I had invited four people and none of them showed up. Tomorrow night is formal dinner and I have two people coming for sure but one girl wants to go through formal rush. I know some people in our house are really getting discouraged, last night in chapter our president talked to us for like 10 minutes about how we have to get girls over here. We are hanging up flyers at the academic buildings and we hung more posters last week. The hard part this year is that all the girls I've talked to either want to go through formal rush in January or don't want the responsibility of being in a sorority. I'm also working on contacting freshmen to work on formal rush. I have two coming over for lunch this week and I'm trying to get two more to come over. :D

PPL,
Jess

i say go for the freshman if you can. at my school we had a silence period that started from the time we got back to school until after rush was over in january.
if you are allowed to "pre-rush" freshman girls i say do it and do a lot of it. it's a shame that your school won't give you a list of unaffiliated upperclassmen. i think at this point, keep trying for some upperclassmen, but try to hit formal rush harder than ever by preparing now. start figuring out what you are going to do exactly and start doing it. your chapter can never be too prepared for rush. see if your nationals can help you. my nationals helped us and we had an incredible rush. just some tips if you want them. :)
oh, and as for keeping spirits up, try to think up ways to keep it fun for the members as well as the pnm's. i totally understand what it's like to go to a cob party and wish you were somewhere else.

shelley j
sigma k

You know what amazes me is that at each event we've had at least 20 actives and it's been a lot of fun, but there's no PNMs! We have started focusing on freshmen, each girl in the house has several that they have to call and get over here before mid October. Other houses have started trying to recruit girls at parties. The other night XYZ asked some of the girls in my house if they were interested in rushing and if they would like to come over for dinner! This was at a fraternity party on campus of all places! We don't want to resort to that but we want to get our name out as much as possible. Each of the all campus events so far we've had at least 10 people cheering in addition to the 6 people playing. That's about 10 people more than the other chapters had! :) We've also been doing well in the events (4th in Kappa Kickoff, 2nd in Alpha Phi-esta Bowl) so that gets our name out there and our reputation going. I know our house can make total either next year or the year after if we just work. We're so close to getting there, this whole COB thing is just kinda hard.

PPL,
Jess

I just want to wish you the best of luck! Don't get discouraged! I also suggest rushing the freshmen, it would be really helpful if your house could pick up a big class there. It will help next year because they will be able to help rush. Contact nationals, they are really great and have lots of good advice. Coke dates are a great way to get to know girls, we do lots of them in my chapter. Above all just remember to stay positive and show all those independents how great Pi Phi is and how much you love it! :)

We went through COB last spring trying to pick up some girls (we've had a lot of trouble making quota), and we only got 2.... But I think our rush this year will be a lot better (quota last year was 37, my pledge class was 21). I've had freshmen girls ask me to go out with them to parties/dinner! Yay! :) super super good luck to Indiana Gamma!!