2 Wknd Rush?
 

Hey,
We're about to expand to five women's groups at the end of this school year. Well I'm the recruitment coordinator for my school and trying to do rush during the week with four groups is havoc. Our campus has no large rooms for us to have events during the week. (no houses for us)

I was thinking of proposing that next year we have rush over two wknds to make things easier and more room available.

If you're school does it this way, how do they do it and how do you like it?

I need ideas for the next coordinator b/c I'm the first to have this job and I want to leave a good plan for my successor.

Thanks for all the input!

our rush is spread out over two to three weekends, depending on when new years day is and when MLK day is, since our bid day is always MLK day.

If new years day falls early in the week, open house would be wed night, all day thursday, and all day friday. first round would be saturday and sunday. second round would be the following friday night and saturday. pref would be sunday. bid day would be monday.

if new years day falls later in the week, open house would be friday night, saturday, and sunday. first round would be the following weekend. second round would be the friday and saturday after that. pref round would be sunday. bid day would be monday.

i think it worked out really well. although a lot of people didn't like having to be back at school so soon after new years day.

let me know if you have any questions.

How many nights is Recruitment? Here it's 3. Perhaps you could try having events Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with Bid Day in a commons area (we do ours in our Student Union Building plaza) on Monday.

My only worry with having so much time is that girls could have their minds changed with "tent talk". If you think people hear a lot over the period of a day, imagine what it would be like with 5 days between!

While this isn't strictly weekend .. New Mexico State with 5 (going on 6) NPC groups does Thursday evening, Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday is pref in the afternoon and bid night Sunday evening.

Maybe you could do something along these lines ...

1st Saturday - open house - attend 5 parties
1st Sunday - 1st invitation round - attend 4 parties
2nd Saturaday - 2nd invitation round - attend 3 parties
2nd Sunday - preference (early afternoon) attend 2 parties
bid night - get bids about 7pm

Last year was the first year that we switched to having rush over two weekends. I think that it worked out great. I didnt fall behind on my school work that first week and you werent exhausted in class. School is why we are here anyways in the first place.

Well we always have rush that first week of the spring semester. So girls usually have to come back a little early, but its not a big deal since its only a couple of days.

That friday night before classes start we have a "Go Greek" night where there are skits and this year I believe a speaker on the benefits of being in a sorority and they you should expect from that week and what not to do. Also each sorority sends members just to help out and stuff.

The next day, Saturday is Philanthropy. On this day a PNM visits all of the houses. The next day is Skits and I believe by this point you cut three or four. Longest day bc parties are longer.

then you have the week off..

then that next friday is sisterhood night. I think you could to five or four parties. Then saturday is pref night. Three parties.

There are benefits to this.. more time to decorate.. less tired.. etc. Though you do take chances on people talking plus its really expensive bc we put rho gammas up in hotels. Plus its basically your first two weekends and week of school are used up and no one is allowed dt or out for fear of running into PNMs.

I hope that some of this helps.. if you want to know more just let me know.

one thing i probably should have mentioned is that we have 18 chapters on my campus that go through formal rush, so it's pretty necessary for us to have it over two weekends. i never heard much tent talk on my campus. everyone was usually very good about keeping to the silence rules during the week.

My school did something like that last year (the first year they've done deferred rush). The only difference was that there were only two rounds of invitations; you went to up to 4 parties one day, then chose which 3 of the 4 you were going back to the second day.

Numbers went wayyyy down. I'm not sure how much of that was a result of going to deferred rush and how much was due to "tent talk" and people having second thoughts during the intervening week. I do know that this year's rush will be held on 5 consecutive days.

One thing you will need is some form of silence rule for the week between the two weekends. Sisters, PNMs, and rho chis will bump into each other, at class if nowhere else. What we did, was that sisters couldn't talk to PNMs except to explain that they couldn't talk to them. Sisters also couldn't wear letters, but they could wear Panhel t-shirts.

We had 11 houses on campus when I was there (though it's down to 10 or 9 now I think) and we always had it over 2 weekends. It was usually the last two weekends of Sept.

The week before rush on a Tues and Weds night, we had an info night with all the houses at the student union for the PNMs to meet a few girls from each house, and all the houses handed out financial sheets.

The rush schedule went like this:
Round 1 - visit all houses over two days
1st Fri. - 5pm - 9ish (5 houses)
1st Sat. - 9am - 2ish (remaining 6 houses)
Round 2 - Philanthropy, visit 6 houses
1st Sun. - 10 - 2ish (all you were invited to, max. 6)
Week break
Round 3 - Skits, visit 4 houses
2nd Sat. - 10 - 2ish (all you are invited to, max. 4)
Pref. - 2 houses
2nd Sun. - 10 - 2ish (all you are invited to, max. 2)
Sunday night - Bid Night

We never seemed to have a problem with "tent talk" or drop outs after the first weekend. But we had done it that way for years, so I think everyone is just used to it. Besides, it was less tiring and you didn't get so burned out, I think.

We had rush before school started each year.

Sunday-Introduction to your Rush groups
Monday-Visit 13 houses
Tuesday-Visit 5 houses
Wednesday-Visit 5 houses (diff. than the previous 5)
Thursday-Visit 3 houses (pref)
Friday-Bid Day!

It was great because we didn't have to worry about schoolwork since it was before school started! They allow the girls who have to move in before school to move in the Friday/Saturday before. After rush each day the girls can go out w/ their Rho Chi & rush group to get to know the town better!

Am I understanding this right? You go from 13 to 10 to 3? That sounds like a pretty drastic cut...

Yeah. It is pretty drastic...but you know how the process works, the rushees aren't just cutting us, we are cutting them too. You usually get invited back to 5 on pref. and that means you only have to cut 2 out of the 5 that invite you back.

Thanks for all the replies. While it would be nice to A) have rush in the fall again and B) actually have admin support us, I doubt either will happen.

Last year our schedule was:
Thur-Open House
Fri- Philanthropy
Sat- morn-skit eve-pref
Sun-Bid Day

This year it will be:
Wed-Open House
Thurs-Philanthropy
Fri-Skit
Sat-Pref
Sun-Bid Day

We have a lot to overcome in general. They want to expand, but we've got to make rush bigger. We also need somewhere to have rooms and with a small school (5500) and five groups things are rough. Two weekends seems to be a viable solution.

And a lot of our women like the silence rule.

Keep the info coming. I need to prepare for after rush.

Re: 2 Wknd Rush?
 

Where is we?

My only question, why do it on the weekends?

We back when did it during the week.

Weekends, unless They Really want to Join are going to want to go home, party or what ever. This to me would make a lot of Possibles say screw this. Weekends are MY TIME!

How many Possibles wont come because of this?

Easier in the Fall Sem as is still light enough.

Classes are not really in full swing so not that much class work yet.

I'm at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA.


I'm not sure about the wknd thing, however, I'm not sure if the first year women will have cars on campus.

Secondly, our groups could possibly all be at 60 women this year and we do not have rooms big enought for 60 women plus alums plus PMs. I have no idea when the new Student Center will break ground, nor what the plan for large rooms is.

I doubt rush would be the whole wknd. I was thinking:

Fri-Open House
Sat-Philanthropy

Fri-Skit
Sat-Preference
Sun-Bid Day

The 2nd wknd would be the same as we have it now.

Anyone else have input?