Rush-related questions
 

Hey y'all. I participated in spring recruitment at my school and have been wondering about some things ever since. I was offered a bid from a chapter I really liked, but I waited until the next day to tell them I wanted to accept. They then told me that some things had been changed, they had already given out a lot of bids that day, and they would not be able to give me one at that time. Is it likely that they would remember me and invite me back after the first night during fall recruitment? Another thing I was wondering about is if the chapters that didn't offer me a bid would even consider me. I realize this is probably extremely early to be worrying about this. I'm just trying to get recs together and trying to figure out whether I should go ahead and get them for those chapters. Thanks a lot!
~Kelly

Retracting a bid? Is that even possible? I've never heard of that.

I don't get it.

Okay, so i don't know your school, but this sounds like something that i would talk to the greek life office about.

I am really not sure the answer to your question though so i really can not answer that. But the situation sounds weird to me. At my school when we offered someone a bid , during informal,we either gave them a time frame or the rush chair would call the person back. We were not the "popular" house so maybe what we did would be different than other houses. But, i would call the greek life office to make sure what happened would not bar you from participating in formal rush, ie cut once cut always policy. Just an idea.

I really wish you good luck.

There's gotta be more to the story.

There's also a good chance that it's a local who doesn't follow the NPC rules

No, it's not a local. Here is the whole story that I'm aware of.
I participated in spring recruitment. They called me that night and offered me a bid. I told them I needed to think about it. The next day while I was in class, their VP of Recruitment e-mailed me, basically saying I needed to let them know by the end of the day. When I got out of class, which was around 3:30, I e-mailed her back. Then I got an e-mail back saying she'd spoken with an alum and some changes had been made, all that stuff I put in the first post. I have no idea whether it was a change specifically against me or whether they ended up offering more bids to people, it became first come first serve, and I replied too late. I'd like to hope it was the latter, but I just don't know. Our Gamma Chi's told us that if we didn't get bids, or if we just didn't like who our bids came from, we could still participate in fall as long as we didn't sign them. So I'm pretty sure I'm okay on that. There's more sororities that didn't do spring so even if they will cut me, at least those aren't my only choices. I'm not sure if any of this makes sense... Thanks.
~Kelly

I would go chat with the Greek Life office. Maybe they offered too many bids and everyone else picked up before you did and if you picked up they would be over total.

Are you positive you had the GPA requirement and had signed whatever was needed to check that with the school? Maybe they didn't have your GPA on record or something (but that can be easily fixed).

Yep...I would definitely talk to Greek Life. Whatever the problem was, it needs to be figured out so that it won't happen again, and if Greek Life doesn't know about it, it won't get fixed. Plus, you need to let the Greek Life office know that you don't have a bid to this group and aren't bound to them (and therefore are eligible for bids from other groups). It's possible that this group put you on their bid list they turned in to the office, and hasn't informed the office of what happened and that you didn't actually have the chance to sign a binding acceptance. If you wait too late to fix that, they may rule you ineligible for bids for a year. It's in your best interest to speak with the Greek Advisor to straighten that out instead of the Gamma Chis.

PsychTau

I'm no green book expert, but I would think it is against NPC rules to give out more bids than you have slots to fill. As for retracting a bid, never heard of it.

Agreed! That's not right- a chapter can only offer as many bids as they have room for- talk to the Greek Life office. Hopefully you saved those emails from the Rect. Chair & you could print those out & take them in with you.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

To be quite blunt, it sounds as though the alum didn't like something about you and told the chapter to retract the bid.

This is wrong on about 10,000 levels. Speak to the Greek Life office and I would also make the chapter's national office aware of the situation.

If you didn't have grades, they would have told you flat out.

I would also advise while you want to make sure the proper people know about this and that it doesn't happen again... this is probably not a group that you would want to be a part of anyway.

Contact the Office of Greek Life and report it. The chapter needs to review their Green Book and recruitment practices.

You didn't do anything wrong, and you're not going to get in trouble for reporting the chapter's error. If anything, you will be helping this chapter get back on the right track.

Human error is normal in recruitment. Consider that the women in these leadership positions and their volunteer advisers are new to their roles, and in many cases, executing a recruitment for the first time. Mistakes happen, and it is unfortunate this occured.

Does anyone have a Green Book handy? Please correct me if any of the following statements are not current:

I'm not certain whether it's one calendar year or the remainder of the school year, but once a bid is extended, isn't it valid for a full (school/calendar) year?

I've been at schools where too many bids have been extended through human error, and it puts a chapter above quota/total, but the chapter is allowed the extra member because it isn't the PNM's error, and she shouldn't have to go bidless because of a computer or human error.

If you didn't sign a bid card, then you're free to re-rush this school year. Check out the Rush Forum for helpful tips, but remember to take advice on this board with a grain of salt, and to consult your own university's Office of Greek Life for real-life statistics and advice about your recruitment.

I'm not certain whether it's one calendar year or the remainder of the school year, but once a bid is extended, isn't it valid for a full (school/calendar) year?

I think that only applies if she signed a bid card. The chapter may have it's own policies as to how long a bid is good for. Since she didn't actually sign a bid, not sure how that would work.

If she had signed a bid, she would have to wait one full calendar year (until next spring) before signing another one.

I've been at schools where too many bids have been extended through human error, and it puts a chapter above quota/total, but the chapter is allowed the extra member because it isn't the PNM's error, and she shouldn't have to go bidless because of a computer or human error.

this happened at my campus once during formal and the chapter was allowed to keep the NM.

Sorry-mis-read

gpb- i thought there wasn't npc at your school while you were there?