How can you get numbers up?
 

I am a alum of my sorority but I wonder if anyone has any suggestions. I am sure we have all struggled with this at one time or another.

I went to a campus who had 5 Panhel sororities. House total is 65. 2 possibly 3 meet house total. I know 2 of them do every year. The third does really well as well as the forth Id say too, but they arent always at house total. Now the 5th one isnt close to house total. At one time had about 15 members. Did have nationals come in to help and brought the numbers up, but every recruitment still has trouble. They even have had the backing of the other sororities.

Now we would like to see a new chapter come on to the campus or house total be raised. We make it every time (not bragging) and we would like to be able to take more women if wed like. How can we ever do this though if we have one chapter who isnt really getting it done so they are holding all the other chapters back? I love the struggling sorority and wish we could help them so much but we just dont know what to do.

I just wish we could do something so we could get total raised. We work so hard and have such amazing women, wed like to be able to take more amazing women.

Any advice? IS this going on at anyone elses campuses? Is there a way to fix it?

I'm sorry but if only 2 chapters are making total, you DO NOT need to raise house total, in fact it should probably be lowered.

What have you done to help the smallest group? Did you direct PNMs you didn't take to their rush parties? Have you corrected sisters when they are gossiping about this group? Have you offered to co-sponsor an event with them to help get them some publicity? Have you offered to have a double mixer with them so they can get to know the fraternities?

Unless you've done something concrete to help them, the "we really love them and wish we could help" rings kind of hollow.

You're going to have to think outside the box. The best thing to do is have that sorority read up on sales management and sales training. Their rush/recruitment chairman, or whatever title she holds, is a sales manager. She should not be doing the recruitment. This means that she has to be a sales manager and a sales trainer.

They can start by targeting their least effective recruiters. Rather than use the old "have her serve punch," they should find out why she isn't effective. Maybe she just needs a simple lesson. Maybe she's suffering from social anxiety, in which case you should help her get help. As they pick up the bottom of their sales force, the middle will feel compelled to step it up as well, and that will get you best to work even harder.

I would be interested to know what your quota is every year. It also sounds like your rush numbers have been down, which will contribute to the problem of chapters getting to total, even if they make quota. How much COBing goes on at your school? What percent of your rushees go bidless? Does your campus effectively use release figures? I do agree with 33girl, if only 2 of your groups are at total, it doesnt sound like it needs to be raised, it sounds more like the whole situation needs evaluation.

Ill see if I can answer it the best I can. Ive been alum since May 03 so I am not sure of all the status right this second. Based on Fall 02 and previous years, I would say 2 chapters have always done exceptionally well. The other 3 were doing ok. Then Nationals came in and implemented a HUGE change with one of the 3 chapters, they held their own cobing, they had fliers all over, they interviewed people, they did it all. From that they were able to get their numbers WAY up, I mean almost to where they were either at 65 girls or close to it. They have pretty much held strong. I think if what Im told now is correct, they are at 60 or so. One of the other 3 chapters also had a semester where they stuck with it and did their all and got their numbers way up as well. I think they are at about 55 now. Now these numbers are great as both were low numbers before and they have since kept getting better and stronger, and keeping their numbers high. Now the last chapter as I stated before was about at 15. They were struggling while all the others were soaring.

They contacted their Nationals in hopes of doing the same thing the other chapter did. They held their own CORing, which other chapters came to and supported. They asked us to wear buttons, they canvased the whole campus. All of the Greek system was behind them. We had meetings with them, task force meetings, where we sat down and shared ideas, where we told them how we ran recruitment, where we gave them all the pointers we could. We even asked them over and did a mock recruitment with them to show them how we did ours. I mean aside from going to their chapter and pretending to be in it to help them, we did everything. Not just us, but several other chapters as well. It was just they werent seeing the results they had hoped for. They did get 15-20 new members, which was great. Its just after that Im not so sure they were getting 15-20 members each recruitment then. If I am correct and this is just from fall 02, Im not sure about fall 03, they were about at 35 members.

Now recruitment is recruitment, we are all out to get girls, but noone talks bad about the other sororities. Its pretty much a rule thats followed in all chapters on our campus to not be disrespectful and just focus on the positives. If a girl comes to our chapter and is like this person said this or that we just say I see or something. Noone bashes. I think my campus had really grown up in the past few years and tries to help each other and tries to get the potentials. So no there is no XYZ stinks dont go there or stuff like that.

As far a quota we have in the past had 200 girls sign up on campus, then only about 80 actually go through. I will admit we always seem to have a problem getting the girls. We get tons of freshman and some other years, but not as many as wed like to see. Quota is like 10-15 Id say. I do think there is def a problem with our campus, but all Greeks have tried to recruit and it just seems we dont get as many as wed like. We have a campus of 20,000 and only 2000 live on campus so its a commuter school. We really try to get people to get involved. I know we advertise about recruitment all fall. We send fliers to freshman before they come to campus to move in. We hold fun socials on campus so people can check out greek life. We really do everything. We are even possibly inmplementing a Greek Village where all the chapters will be in one location.

I guess maybe we need to look at trying more to get more potentials though Im not sure how anymore, we do all we can now, or it seems. As far as the one chapter its just we wish we could do more or something so they didnt struggle and so they dont get discouraged. I know they have felt they are holding the other chapters back and they have wanted to really get high numbers too, its just seems to be so hard. When I was a Rho Gam some of them were so upset, they just didnt understand how they werent getting the numbers they wanted and to be honest neither were of us cause everyone was doing everything to help.

Quota is always filled by Id say all chaoters, if not, only one doesnt get quota. Quota is always diff based on how many potentials stick it out, but usually its about 10 Id say. If not higher. COR is 365 days a year each chapter says. We COR till we get total, but usually we get big numbers with total so we dont have to do much CORing. All the other chapters hold COR events till they get total or till the year is over. I always see them having COR events. COR has become huge on our campus. It has now been implemented into 365 so it is ongoing.

My biggest question for you is, when is recruitment on your campus? Fall? Spring? Before school starts? Is it deferred? Also, what type of advertising does everyone do? What type of (panhellenic) events are held prior to recruitment? Are their any annual socials held prior to recruitment? Do you have houses? Give me some more info and I'll see what I can come up with to help you. By profession, I am a recruiter - and it was my passion when I was in school.

Biggest recruitment is Fall. We have recruitment fall and spring though. Spring we take much less girls though and quota is much less too. We take so many in fall cause of all the newe freshman and new people coming to college and cause we usualyl lose about 15-20 girls in spring cause of graduation.

It is about a month after school has started. School starts end of Aug we usually have recruitment end of Sept. We make a recruitment book each summer. Its a small book with all the sororities in it and info about each one. We send them to incoming freshman on a list student affairs provides us. During the year we have oritentation days where incoming freshman come to see the campus and sign up for classes, we have a greek booth set up so they can come over and ask questions and learn more and their parents can as well. We also have a booth when they bring the high school kids who come to view the campus, we have a room where booths are set up and we have a greek booth there, others are there too like sports, bookstore, ect.... We have sorority and fraternity peopel sign up in greek affairs and take books about sorority and fraternity life to their old high schools so they are avaliable in the guidance office for the juniors and seniors to have. We put recruitment times in the campus newpaper, we set up booths that diff frats and sororities man on campus in the student union when school starts for 2 weeks and this allows people to come over and ask questions and sign up for recruitment. We have fliers on campus advertising upcoming recruitment, the radio station goes over how you can get involved for those first 3-4 weeks of classes they talk about recruitment on air. Then we hold a day on campus about a week before it all starts and we all set up Greek Booths like one sorority has cotton candy, one popcorn, dunking tanks, other food and drinks tables, boxing ring, rock wall, all sorts of fun things and we all talk with people who come over and give them the greek book for them to look as, also Rho Gams are there to talk to potentials and sign up tables for recruitment. We are able to get in with resident life and housing and help with the freshman move in. We help them move in to the dorm and we are allowed to wear our letters and tell them about upcoiming events we hold. During that weekend freshman move in weekend we are allowed to come to their planned events like there is always a beach party and one of the dorms and all greeks go to talk about recruitment, also to other events, then we host a event on campus that weekend in the student union where they can come talk to sororities and frats and hang out its a mixer and we give them info and they can sign up there as well. To be honest the first 3 weeks of fall we are busy like no other with recruiting people. Its just we get people who sign up from the beginning and forget or lose interest or something. Its like we have so many events in those 3-4 weeks but still not as many potentials come through recruitment.

With only 2 of 5 at total, you do not need the competition of additional new sororities at your campus. And there should be a vote in Panhellenic to lower total to something that is more feasible so the other chapters can catch up. If the majority of the chapters are not at total, then total is not a feasible number.

I'd recommend coming together as a Panhellenic to get more PNM's out at recruitment, as well as Panhellenic holding recruitment workshops. Bringing in guest faciliatators, etc., to hold conversation workshops, party planning, etc.

Chapters that "mock rush" one another are very successful events-- it gets two sororities to mingle and gives both an opportunity to practice conversation.

Practicing a no-frills recruitment and keeping the focus more on conversation and less on decoration will be more successful.

Also keep in mind that recruitment goes beyond COB and FR. It's also a lot about projecting a positive image. Wear letters, recognize members and encourage members to bring non-sorority friends to events. Also, make sure members are well-rounded, joining activities outside of the sorority. When you hold an event, submit a press release to the school paper. Put together a PR campaign to gain additional campus exposure for the sorority.

I appreciate all propectives. I guess I only looked at it from the prospective of ADPi needing to get bigger and wanting the others to catch up. I dont know what will happen in the future of our campus and our greek life, I really hope that they are able to get it all together and make it all work out so that all chapters can do their best and all be strong great chapters. I know as an alum I sit and wonder what there is to do, but I guess Ill just have to wait and see what Greek Life does and what happens down the road. I only hope for a great Greek future on my campus and know as an alum Id do anything to help.

If your campus total stays where it is and you continue to have quota of 10-15 each year, then realistically no one, not even ADII, is going to be able to grow. Commuter schools lose a lot of students each year - not to mention the ones who graduate - so I would imagine you are barely keeping your head above water as it is. Total on that campus needs to come down so that everyone has the opportunity to get to total at formal rush and doesn't have to spend the whole year COBing. I doubt if most NPC groups would be interested in coming to campus under the present circumstances, even if your campus opened to expansion. While there may not be much you can do about the group that can't get their numbers up, it sounds like your Panhellenic needs to work internally on the health of the healthy organizations as well.

I am a member of the same chapter as Shannan...and am also an alum. Back in 1997 one chapter did leave our campus and we did lower total from 75 to 65. I know from that experience, it really hurt our budget. But we were the only ones who voted against the decrease in total....because we were the only one meeting total at that time. Our Alma Mater is a big commuter school and I do not mean to bring it down- but they take anyone. So when it comes time for Recruitment, some girls have to be turned down because of the GPA requirement to participate. That is such a bummer...but I do not expect things to change anytime soon. The one reason the one chapter is having major problems is because of their GPA requirement. The chapters on campus have a lower GPA requirement than the struggling one. So after the first round of parties they have to cut many more girls than the rest of us do....I believe they have spoken with their national org and nothing will change.

I think if we lower our total things will only get worse and total will have to continue to drop. It is how our school is....back in the 70s there were 12+ sororities on campus...and now we are down to 5....and total has lowered over the years.

The school is adding/expanding...so I hope it will make a difference in the type of students it takes (not all students are bad, don't get me wrong..Shannan and I and some other GCers went to school there....it is just the requirements to get in are lower than other state schools) and its commuter style.

I have also heard rumors about adding another sorority and am also praying it does not happen. We actually just added another fraternity at our school....we have 10 fraternities already....which many of them are strugggggggggling. So who knows....we will see from here what we can do. I am active in my chapters alumnae association and help with things on campus when I have time (was in the area alumnae Panhellenic Association until it closed and I try to attend Greek Alumni Society meetings when I have time).

So all we can do is continue to work to fix it!! Which I think is being done to the best of the greek community's ability!! Our school has a very strong Alumni base and we would never let the greek community become extinct!

So this is their national GPA that they have to enforce? What is it compared to the other chapters'....or if you'd prefer, what's the difference between them?

One chapter is 2.0

Three other chapters are 2.5 or 2.6

Last one is 3.0 or 3.2 something around there and will not budge to take people lower.

I think this is the correct GPA's

3.0 - holy @#$% - I am all for academic high standards but unless it's a professional or honorary, that seems excessive.