Does your chapter need help with recruitment?
 

http://www.sigmanufraternity.org/rec...tmentvisit.php

If so, please visit this link.

Here are some suggestions I was thinking about recently. Most are probably known and used by many chapters, but maybe not. I'll add new ones if I can think of them.

* Rush Chair: Depending on chapter size, I'd suggest at least 2 Rush Chairs (one as the main). We had a Tulsa and an Okla City chair (since both cities sent the most kids). The Rush "Team" consisted of 10 members to help out (of course the rest of the brothers would chip in when asked).

* Summertime: We had a "Rush Apartment" or a "Rush House" in our campus city during the Summer. The chapter house was closed except for end of Summer parties. So we'd meet at the Summer place. One Summer we had about 6 brothers go in on a Rush House (lease) with a pool. It was a deal closer. I only went back to my hometown for 1 Summer. The other Summers I lived/worked in my campus town to be near the rest of the chapter and help with Rush.

* Utilize technology over the Summer. Definitely look into Vonage for your Rush chairs places. Since they do a TON of calling, why not spend $25/month on Vonage (unlimited local and long distance).

* Can't stress this enough: Contact chapters that you are near. Get to know their officers. Help one another out. Sigma Nu is a very strong national fraternity, and should work together to bring everyone to the top of their campus.

* Alumni!!! You probably have Alumni that can help you in every aspect of Rush. Build up communications. Find the lost brothers. Reach out. The strongest chapters have incredible Alumni Relations.

* If you are going to do something, make it the best. Rush Videos, postcards. Don't half-ass anything. That's for other fraternities.

On the subject of Rush videos, when exactly do you use them? Is it something to play in the background during a rush event?

For us (and I don't know if we still do this), some older alums chipped in and had videos produced. They were passed out to incoming freshmen on those mini-cd business card things.

We used the video during formal Rush. When the rush group came in, some chit chat, food and drink, then we played it on the bigscreen.

We also use ours during formal rush, there are like 3 sessions that the rushees have to come to and each fraternity does a little schpill. I like it because we never have to say any of the "yeah, we're great, we get all the girls and party, yeah..." We just talk about our awards, how are GPA is always the best, then play the video which shows how much fun we have too.

They are also good for just running on a loop on the TV during rush parties or really just whenever. We always at least have a DVD of pictures running in the background.

We don't have formal rush groups at my school. During Rush Week we have two days designated as smoker days, where all the chapters try to do something cool on their front lawn (car smash, BBQ, basketball, ect) and freshmen wander around on their own accord. They aren't required to visit every house. The only rules are really no alcohol, and the rushees cannot be around brothers in between the period that the last smoker ends and bid signing the next day.

Strangely, the Sororities have extremely strict rush rules. Girls aren't allowed to bring potential rushees up to their house. They aren't allowed to have more then three sisters talking to a potential rushee at one time (hotboxing). Rushees are all put into formal groups and led to each house.

Ahhhh hot boxing. I remember doing that.

That's just as likely to backfire on you as it is to convince someone to sign a bid card.

Below is a link to a book on Amazon called "Good Guys." The book's subject matter is Fraternity Recruitment and improving it. It's $20. This might be worth checking out.

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Guys-Poss...7012997&sr=8-1

I used to be pretty good at it back in my day.

Yeah, I just don't think it pays to be dependent on whether or not good guys walk through your door during formal recruitment. From experience, the difference between working all Summer to get your name out and start to put together a list of guys who will accept bids and just going through formal rush, hoping you can out-hustle the opposition is night and day.

Bad Position
 

It is the week before rush and normally rush should still be going on. There was an agreement to all the fraternities on campus to go CLEAN this year. No dirty rushing, no talking to freshman till rush week actually begins, no parties or anything. Then the night of the agreement, three fraternities sneak freshman off campus to rush parties and what not.
I feel as if we may be in a bad spot as freshmen tend to stay with the first party they go to. Any advice on how to recover or handle this situation would be great.

Personally, I'd honor my word. If other fraternities persist in behaving dishonorably, simply push for a change in the rules.

If y'all have proof of this, perhaps your IFC has the power to sanction these organizations? Maybe suspend them from participating in formal rush?

In the future, my advice would be to not agree to rules which limit your recruitment options. Pre-rush is absolutely critical (in my way of thinking) to having a successful rush. I can think of the times when we went balls-out during the summer versus focusing on formal rush.

The difference is night and day.

Two wrongs does not make a right. Worst case, you have an anemic pledge class this year -- you will recover. The way you talk about these other groups, it sounds like their dirty rush tactics have been going on for awhile now. Love, honor, truth always. Take the high road.

We do a lot of one-on-one recruitment at Theta Eta (Northern Illinois). Here's how it works...

The recruitment chairman gets referrals from brothers in the chapter. He then calls the referrals on the phone and schedules an "interview" to meet the prospective member. The conversation goes like this...

"We have a common friend in Joe, who is in my fraternity. Joe certainly wasn't assuming that you were interested in Sigma Nu or even Greek life for that matter. However, Joe told me you were a high-quality individual that is going to be very successful in college and beyond. I'd simply like to meet up with you for a coffee in-between classes some day next week so we can get to know each other. Fair enough?"

At this point, all you are doing is selling the appointment - do not sell the fraternity or Greek life.

Once you get together, set the atmosphere by saying something like this...

"I'd like to know where you are in life today and where you are headed in the future. At the same time, I'll tell you a little bit about what Sigma Nu is like today and what our future looks like as an organization. If our values and directions are in synch - there we may have a lot to offer each other..."

We then ask meaningful questions like, "Tell me about your family" and "What do you expect to have accomplished by graduation" and such. A one-on-one interview sets the grounds for authentic, meaningful relationships. It shows the prospect that Sigma Nu is a quality organization in search of quality members.

If there is chemistry, the recruitment chairman will invite the prospect to a small group event or all-chapter event. It is much easier for the prospect to attend a larger function if he understands the values of Sigma Nu and has met one or two people already. It is a very overwhelming proposition for a new guy to trek out to Greek Row, enter a house he has never been to before, meet 50-100 strangers etc. The idea with the one-on-one is to screen out those who's motivation for joining may be questionable, identify quality and bring then into the fold gradually and with confidence that we are only entertaining good prospects.

This process also allows you to recruit year round and constantly have a pipeline of quality prospects. We had 7 of our 11 spring pledges in place before fall finals with this process.