conversation skills / what rush conversations work for you?
 

Hello All!

I'm writing because my chapter is in the midst of informal recruitment, and I would like to get some feed back from you to take back to my sisters. We are a little weak, not on conversation, but on steering the conversation to our chapter and our chapter's activities, and I fear that PNM's are not getting the information they need from us. Sure they may feel comfortable but that doesn't mean that they know much more than that about us.

What types of rush conversations work for you?

In your recruitment workshops, do you address specific types of conversations that your sisters should be having? How?

Do you have any general hints or suggestions for us?

I may post more, but I would like to hear from you first! Thank you very much!

You can find books about interviewing skills... many of the conversation tips will be applicable. As for coaching your girls, make sure to discuss body language and practice "rushing" each other or another sorority so they have practice.

Make sure the girls in your chapter know EVERYTHING about your chapter... finances, grade requirements, etc., in case those questions come up. Also, make your girls come up with about ten "emergency" questions that they can ask to keep a conversation from going dead... creative, unique questions -- NOT "So, what dorm do you live in?"

As for steering a conversation toward your chapter, you can do it with anything. If you ask a girl whether she played any sports in high school, that can lead into a talk about intramurals. If you are talking about current movies, you can tell her about how y'all go to movies together or other sisterhood activities.

In our rush workshops, we did a lot of one-on-one rushing practice. Often an older sister would act as the PNM and have some weird personality quirk to act out, and a younger sister who'd never rushed on the other side would be the sister rushing her and trying to deal with her quirk. (One year I had to act the role of a slutty PNM, which is so unlike my personality that I fell completely out of character and just started laughing! So much for my acting career, hehe :) )

We practiced body language, smiling constantly (ow), and steering small-talk conversations toward the sorority ("Oh, so you're a math major? Well, our sister Susie here is also a math major, and part of our academics program is blah blah blah...")

Like sororitygirl2 suggested, arm your sisters with the key facts about your sorority, including financial obligations, and with some questions to get a slow convo going or get a shy/nervous PNM to open up.

One thing that really bothered me about a particular sorority when I was a PNM, was that the sisters always, ALWAYS, asked "So, do you have any questions for me about XYZ?" I didn't have one convo there where I wasn't asked that. I felt very put on the spot to come up with something to ask, particularly once my "pre-planned" questions had been exhausted!

HTH :)

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When I went through rush with some local sororities- one group asked "If you can be any part of the car- what would you be and why?"

I know it sounds silly but I later asked the reasoning behind it and was told that it tells a lot about a girl's personality.

If she picks the steering wheel- she likes to be in control
the tires- she likes to make things feel secure and protected
The trunk- she is trustworthy
etc.

I mean there is no fact behind it or anything- and cars might not be the best subject for girls- but it is an idea and kinda clever:)