MIT Sorority Recruitment 2006
 

Reportedly a "banner year" for the MIT sororities, there were a record number of bids accepted (137):

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V126/N1/panhelnumbers.html


One question: the article says, "Women are now able to decline a bid by designating “regret with interest,” allowing them to participate in informal recruitment, [a Panhellenic officer] said. In previous years, women who did not accept a bid after ranking their preferences could not participate in recruitment for one calendar year. " Just curious -- is this a reporter's misunderstanding, or a new NPC option, or a new MIT procedure?

That's a direct violation of NPC policy. I'm surprised the PHC advisor for MIT didn't nip that in the bud. Being able to do that negates the whole purpose for Formal Recruitment.

that's really odd. I hope that's just a misunderstanding. When I've talked to chapters who did a "regret with interest" it had to do with pref invitations. If a woman was offered 6 invites to pref, but could only accept 4, she could "regret w/interest" to tell the chapters she liked them, but she obviously couldn't attend all pref parties.

very weird.

I don't understand that either. At MIT, PNMs were always offered the "decline with interest" option for parties (at least, this was true when I was there) - and you could decline party invites even if it brought you below your max # of invitations, so if you received 4 invites and could accept a max of 3, you had to decline 1 but you could choose to decline 2 or 3 (or, of course, withdraw entirely). But "declining with interest" an actual bid??

At any rate, I'm glad to see that MIT had such a successful recruitment.

Don't school rules have the power to supercede NPC rules? At my school, if a PNM turns down a bid, she is eligible for open bidding within that same semester. We tried to bring it up at greek council saying that it shouldn't be done, but it was voted down.

No school rules do not have that power..........

But then that's also a vote that belongs to the PHC and not to a Greek Council (assumes your Greek Council is more than Panhellenic).

It was voted on in sorority council. Our sorority council consists of the three NPC's and the one local on campus (us). We are included in it because we follow all NPC bylaws and do NPC recruitment.

Under NPC guidelines, the above is doable under Partially Structured, Minimally Structured, and COR styles of recruitment...so long as they are not signing a Membership Recruitment Agreement Binding Agreement form (formally known as a Preference Card). So it depends on your recruitment style.

PsychTau

There are two things to consider - NPC Unanimous Agreements and NPC Recommendations. The Unanimous Agreements must be followed. And one of those agreements is that if a PNM submits a Membership Agreement Card (AKA Pref Card), and then declines a bid to one of the groups listed on her card, she is ineligible for Recruitment for 1 calendar year.

If she declines a bid to a group NOT on her card, she is eligible for Open Bidding (COB/COR).

If MIT is not using binding Membership Acceptance Cards, then I suppose they could allow a PNM to decline an invite. That's a bad precedent to follow though - the big groups will just get bigger and the small groups may get smaller.

What are pref cards? Is that when you rank all of the sororities in order? Here PNM's have to rank all four of the sororities.

It's more than ranking, it is a binding agreement to accept a bid from one of the groups listed on your card. Technically, you are only supposed to list the groups to which you attended a preference ceremony. Some list less, some more, but usually never more than 4. For example, let's say Sally gets invited to 4 pref ceremonies (a, b, c, d). She regrets with interest the party to group c. She attends prefs at a, b, and d. She decides that D is really not for her, so on her pref card she may list a, b, and c. OR she could decide that she'd be happy at any house, and lists a, b, c, and d on the card.

does anyone know the actual numbers for each chapter at MIT. I am curious to know if the new house affected AEPhi's numbers. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post it.

I regretted with interest when I went through. I got invited to 3 parties for pref and could only go to two and it was hard picking out two out of the three because I loved all three!

I would only agree to havign that option though if you are invited to more parties/prefs than you are allowed to attend, otherwise I think a PNM should attend all parties they get invited to. Opinions change through out the recruitment process(mine did anyway!).

I've inquired and I'm waiting to hear back, but they're understandably busy with their new members :)

FYI - the Panhellenic rep was misquoted in the article re: declining bids. There is supposed to be a correction published in the next edition.