Legacies & quota....
 

I think I know the answer, but let me paint you a picture anyway.

The sorority house total is 50. ABC & HIJ are all there. XYZ is coming in at 47. The biggest formal rush in a while happens with approximately 80 women going through. Quota is set at 25 for each house. When all is said and done, ABC receives 21 women, HIJ receives 25, and XYZ gets 26. When I asked a member of XYZ to tell me how they could get 26, she said, "well, we matched 24, but we were allowed to take 2 more because they were legacies." What??!!! :confused:

XYZ was at 47 (3 under total). Even with 24 girls, they would have met total. (No, total has not been raised at any point in this story. ) Also, there were girls who did not get a bid anywhere, so it wasn't like they were trying to find a home for everyone.

Thoughts....comments....?

We all know there are some chapters that have more legacies going through recruitment than quota. Can you imagine being able to have a new member class over TWICE what quota is if all legacies were pledged because of this rule?!? Ludicrous!!!

At some universities, juniors and seniors are not included in quota, so it's feasible that a GLO could make quota plus however many juniors and/or seniors are pledged. I like this because, from what I've been reading on GC, they seem to be at a disadvantage during recruitment. I've never understood that because sisterhood is for a lifetime--those members are a lot of the time the most active and generous alums.

From your example, ABC is now at 71, HIJ is at 75, and XYZ is at 73. Is ABC able to COB up to 25? For that matter, should XYZ be allowed to pledge 2 more to get up to 75 like HIJ? Only 72 women pledged, so there are 8 women unaccounted for. Although total was 50, 47 is not that much of a difference where Panhellenic would be worried about helping a chapter in need, and XYZ wouldn't be worried about the chapter folding! Also from your example, XYZ pledged more new members than ABC who had a larger chapter before recruitment.

The numbers part of recruitment makes my head spin, so I guess I don't have an answer for this one. Wouldn't it be great if there were uniform recruitment rules for all NPC groups? BIG pipe dream!

There is no NPC rule that says legacies can be used to fulfill a quota plus situtation. This is just wrong, especially if other groups were not allowed to take quota plus and bids went unmatched. If quota was calculated properly, there should be no unmatched bids.

Quota is quota is quota... except when it's not :)

At some places, as MSKKG pointed out, juniors and seniors either don't count in quota or there is a separate quota for them - but I believe total still applies.

It's possible to have quota additions even though one sorority didn't meet quota. But the additions wouldn't have been selected because of legacy status.

It's also possible that XYZ extended COBs to two women some time before formal rush, and that they waited until after rush to begin pledging with those who joined via formal rush.

I still say multivariable calculus is easier than formal-rush math... :p

Barbara, what do you mean by "unmatched bids"? At my school, girls regularly go without bids because they suicide or don't bid, and slicing quota a different way won't prevent that.

Moxie, in your case I'm going to hope this girl was misinformed, and the chapter got them as junior/senior quota additions - or they were actually given bids before formal but are in that pledge class - because those are the only two situations where I can imagine they'd get over quota NPC-ishly.

We do not have quota allowances for juniors and seniors. They have equal weight with freshman going through. After talking to a few people at my school who are in the Panhell-know, these girls were added just because they were legacies. They went through formal rush with the rest of the group. I'm seriously considering calling our Panhell advisor to get her reasoning for this because if these kinds of Panhell practices continue, my chapter will never be able to recolonize. :(

What I meant was that if a woman completed her bid card and didn't intentionally single preference, she should not be unmatched. If quota was set too low and the bid-matching system wasn't utilized correctly, PNMs may go unmatched. Regardless, setting quotas differently for senior/juniors is one thing, setting a quota plus system just for legacies is another and not correct.

Women pledged through COB before Formal Recruitment begins should not be considered as part of Formal Recruitment Quota. They should only count towards overal chapter total.

If a chapter does not make quota, and COBs to make quota, then it counts, but not the other way around.

True... but here is what I was thinking:

Let's say formal recruitment is held in January.

Before FR, XYZ is below total and therefore eligible to extend COBs. They identify two great women and bid them in, say, late November. Both women accept, but because of finals, holidays, and such, decide to hold off on beginning the formal pledging process. (Or, they have their new member ceremonies, but are told they will receive their NM education and be initiated with the spring class.)

At the end of FR, XYZ extends 24 bids. (I'll assume all were accepted.)

So, XYZ now has a new member class of 26: 24 from FR and 2 from COB. At first glance, it looks like they went over quota.

My chapter did have a situation where a woman we bid in the spring took the summer to decide and then pledged with the class from fall formal rush. But we were far enough under both quota and total that it wasn't an issue.

I have no idea if that's what happened here, but it could happen... but it wouldn't be a result of special accommodations made for legacies.

Couldn't it be as simple as quota additions?
 

If the 8 that went bidless suicided they would not be eligible right? If quota is 25, then quota addition would be 1. So XYZ has quota plus 1.

If one girl failed to match (like she got crosscut) but she did not suicide, then she'd be eligible to be a quota addition right? If she put XYZ first and they had her on their list, she could go XYZ.


Isn't that how quota addition works??????

The "we were allowed to take 2 because they were legacies" was probably just a lot less confusing reason than explaining quota additions to a chapter!

I agree with SoCalGirl that the XYZ probably didn't know what she was talking about or that it was easier to tell the chapter that they were added as legacies than as quota additions.