Loyalty
 

Members of GLOs,

I have always wondered how it is that you can continue to get loyal members of your orgainizations when the rushees are 1) allowed to choose a house (I hope I'm saying this right) in their first semester, before they see anything about the orgainzation, 2) May have always wanted to be something else, and due to whatever reason, didn't get in (or turned a bid down), and now are a member of your orgainization and 3)(and please correct me if I'm wrong) the resources aren't out their to do research.

I'm not trying to put down your system, I'm just trying to understand.


------------------
If you can't raise conciousness, at least raise hell!--Rita Mae Brown

Gina Lynn,
[*]The resources are certainly out there for those who are interested in GLOS: www.npcwomen.org and www.nicindy.org are links to the governing bodies for sororities and fraternities, respectively. In addition, most schools have a Panhellenic or Greek Council website, in addition to individual chapters. Even if someone does not have access to the internet, there are ways to research your organization. I know during my senior year in high school, the teachers who were members of NPC sororities, along with the president of local Panhellenic, came to talk with the senior girls about Rush (of course, this was in Florida, with two of the nation's largest Greek systems, so this probably doesn't happen everywhere). In many colleges and universities, the Panhellenic or Greek Council will send freshmen information regarding Rush over the summer.
[*]In regards to your first question, yes...some schools hold Rush in the first two or three weeks of the semester, and in some cases, before school even starts (I have friends who moved into their dorms two weeks prior to the start of their freshman year in order to be there for Rush). Not all schools, however, do this. The purpose of an early Rush is to get the girls in a house they like before they're in school too long, before certain reputations (i.e., "they're all snobs/sluts/nerds") can taint a girl's opinion of a group. It is, in this case, up to the girl to learn basics about the sororities on campus (especially if she's a legacy--although, supposedly, it does nothing to influence the sorority's decision) before she gets on campus, either from the Internet, local Panhellenic, or from friends who attend that school.
[*]Your second question...the way Rush works, a girl often doesn't get an invite back from a group she has had her eyes set on. I know we were constantly told (this is before I started college, my college has a very informal Rush) to concentrate on the houses that have invited you back, and you will be sure to find a house with which you are happy, and in which you feel as if you could find a home. Usually, if a girl doesn't want to be a member of a certain sorority at all, she won't pledge.

Ok, now I'm confused. It's a "bad" thing to have a preference? I may be looking at this wrong, so please help me out. Let's say a I have done my research and I like AXO and I also like and feel at home with the chapter of AXO on my campus. I'm not going to be invited back just because I has a preference?

It's not that you won't get invited back because you have a preference. But if the girls you meet happen to not like you or you didn't make an impression, there's a possibilty of getting dropped.

Since you were now dropped by your first choice, you should now focus on the girls that did ask you back.

It's the "They didn't want me, well screw them!" philosphy.

Not at all! There is a possibility that you won't get invited back, the way Rush works (but there's no guarantee you'll be invited back to any house, regardless of whether or not you like them--it all depends on how the computer makes its random decisions). Unlike BGLOs, NPC groups don't demand discretion in the dealings of prospectives or interests (hence, why the girls are going through a formal Rush).

I'm sure there's someone on this board who can clarify what I'm saying. My school doesn't have Formal Rush, and so, by reading/talking to friends who have gone through a Formal Rush, that's how I learned.

AlphaChigirl,

--it all depends on how the computer makes its random decisions).


If this is true, then my original question really stands, how does this ever lead to loyalty in the house that eventually takes you in?

PS. What does the computer do?

Hey Gina!

We do have formal rush at my school and let me tell you those computers are there to drive us all insane! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/wink.gif

In all seriousness the computers are intended to make everything fair. This is how it works at my school.

Night 1- Rushees visit all eight houses for a half hour each. At the end the rushees rank the houses in order of preference. The sororities do the same with the girls.

All lists get handed over to Panhellenic and it's all inputed into the computer. The computer then matches up houses and rushees that mutually liked each other. A party list is then generated for night two based on these mutual selections.

However sororities are limited to how many girls that they can invite back, so you could end up getting cut from a house that you like eventhough they liked you. Like say they can invite 200 girls, if your 201 on the list of mutual selection then you're cut. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/frown.gif

Night 2- Girls visit 6 houses for 45 mins each. Unfortunately, not all girls will get 6 parties. At times girls managed to be cut from all of them. After the parties the rushees and sororities once again rank their preferences. The magical computer then spits out more party lists.

Night 3- Rushees visit up to 4 houses for 50 mins. At the end of this night the ranking is the most important. This is because night four is pref. Panhellenic rules state that if you invite a girl to pref you should be willing to give a girl a bid. But unfortunately it's still not a guarantee.

Night 4- Up to 2 Pref parties that last an hour. Afterwards rushees rank #1 and #2 and sign a bid card. The signed bid card means that she'll accept a bid from either chapter. Sororities turn in their final Bid Lists. The computer will match up choices and generate the bid lists.

Unfortunately computers have bugs and that's where the nightmare lays. Girls end up with out bids and are devasted. What pisses me off is girls who sign the card and then depledge because they got their #2. If you know that you're not going to stick around you should just suicide. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/mad.gif Other girls get screwed by people who do this.

K Gina back to your orginal question. How it is that you can continue to get loyal members of your orgainizations?

It's all about showing love and respect. It's in the little things that we do. Even when we know we were'nt a girls first choice, or evan if she was a snap bid, we treat her like she's #1 to us. We do our best to treat her like our own blood sister and like she's been our best friend for life. We try to always be there in good and bad times. We listen to her needs, her concerns, etc. Like someone posted on another thread it's a lot like marriage.

I guess let me ask you this. Why are your close friends, the ones who aren't your sorority sisters, loyal to you? That's why our girls are loyal to us. The ritual we do ties all that together and makes us sorority sisters; but even without it we'd be close.

Sorority rush is still a mystery to me. In Fraternity rush, you go to rush events, can get however many first formals as you want. Then, the houses can invite you back for second formals. You go through those, which can be the same number as first formals, then a couple weeks later is bid tuesday. You can get up to 8 bids, the number of houses on campus. One house could take 150 guys, and nobody else gets any, tough luck, that's how it works. The houses pick who they want, and you get to pick from who wants you. That seems the fair way to do it. You don't get penalized for "suiciding", and there's no quota, so one house can't take more than another. Last year, one house took over 30 guys, and we took 10, the second lowest. The year before, we took 30, the highest!

------------------
Steve Corbin
Lambda Chi Alpha
Theta Kappa Zeta Chapter
Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech.

Okay, now I have a beter understanding of what happens during rush, and SoCal girl I do understand about the marriage aspect and treating every girl like she is number one. That's what you do. What I'm talking about is what the girls do. For example: After I had done all of my research and decided to pledge Delta, I had to 1)get to know Deltas on my campus 2)Find out when the informational would be and what to wear 3) Attend 4)Get all of my letters, 5)send my transcript 6) Wait FOREVER for a call 7) Go to an interview 8)Wait FOREVER for a call and then things went from there. At each one of those stages I had to ask myself if DELTA was worth all of the hastle. Obviously I thought it was. Now unless I've really missed the point, rushees go through a whole long process, and at the end they could end up with their second, third, or fourth choice? That's like me going through all of those steps and in the end becoming a AKA, Zeta or SGRho (in no particular order). I don't care how sweetly they could have treated me, had I ended up a Zeta, I would have always known that I didn't get my first choice. When the Deltas did something, I would have been envious, they they won awards or went on trips I would have wanted to go or take part ect. And more often than not, I would not have affiliated with an Alumnae chapter. This isn't to say that there aren't members of BGLOs that "settled" for less than their first choice, but it is certainly harder, and it is a more deliberate act. Consiquently Delta has (far more) Alumnae chapters than collegiate chapters, and we have fairly common 50 and even 75 year Deltas.

------------------
If you can't raise conciousness, at least raise hell!--Rita Mae Brown

at my college, matching is done in the same fashion as at localsorority's school. rush involves 4 rounds of parties which take place over 4 consecutive nights. each afternoon following the previous night's parties, rushees would meet individually with a rho chi and receive a scantron card listing the houses that had invited them back for that night's rounds. if you got more than the maximum allowed number of invites, you got to cut sororities, by marking "decline with interest". if you had the right number, or less, you would mark "accept" for all the invitations. instead of matching 2 lists simultaneously, the sororities get to say who they want to invite, then rushees get to look at all their invites & decide which houses they want to go back to. the only night where "matching" occurs is pref night.

Hi Gina!

I think maybe we don't have such a big problem because eventhough rush is time consuming and nerve racking; what you go through to join a BGLO is about 100 times more. (From my understanding of everything that I learn on these boards.) If I had to go through all that I certainly wouldn't want to accept 2nd choice either.

Most of the time when a girl has her heart set on a sorority; she's met only a tiny percent of the chapter during (admitedly) the most superficial time of the year. Yes girls get bummed that they don't get their top choice, but a lot of the time realize later that the house would have actually been a horrible match. I know plenty of girls that were gung ho XYZ before, during and after rush but ended up in ABC. Then you talk to them after they get used to sorority life and their like "Thank God I didn't end up XYZ. I would have been miserable there!"

It's hard to explain, but it somehow all works out in the end. There are times when unfortunately this isn't true but it's actually pretty rare.

I posted a thread about the same thing. IT's in the category "Rush" under the topic "Rushed for the wrong reasons?"

I just had a soror give me the word for the thought behind this thread. There is a feeling among many members of BGLOs that one of the worst reasons for becoming a member of one of the NPHC Orgs is to "JUST BE GREEK". For many of us this means more than not wanting to be bothered with the actual WORK involved with membership, but it also means being willing to be a t-shirt wearer in ANYONE's T-shirt.. anyone who'll take you. Around this part of the country we (in the general sense of course http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/wink.gif ) have names for people who do that.. DAZ (tried Delta, then tried AKA, finally got into Zeta) ZAS ( Tried Zeta, then tried AKA finally got into SGRho) ect. Though these people are "respected" as members of BGLOs, everyone knows that they just wanted to be greek.

I'm not trying to be rude, but that is what your Rush system sounds like to me. I'm I missing something?

Gina_lynn,

The National Panhellenic Conference does try to promote (and promote thru the college panhellenics) to “Go Greek” rather than “Go XYZ.” What’s best for one person might not be best for the other, and so on, but they want as many women as possible to experience the opportunities that come with Greek life. They don’t want women to get their hearts set on one thing and then be disappointed. I would say in NPC that women mostly join because of the sisters they meet at that chapter at their school, rather than the national philanthropy or whatever. You develop your loyalty to your chapter and to your national sorority through the experiences you have.

I think I know what you are getting at….we had a woman who started pledging Sig Chi little sisters, quit, joined PSK little sisters, quit, started pledging Phi Sigma Sigma, quit, started pledging Tri-Sigma, quit. By that time she was a total joke.

With the amount of research and commitment that is put into deciding to join a BGLO – I can understand why someone who flip-flops from one to the other would be “looked down” on. But honestly, I think a lot of it is just because there are 26 NPC groups as opposed to 4 NPHC groups. If there were only 5 or 6 NPC groups I’m willing to bet the situation would be similar to that of NPHC.