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Release figures and smaller systems
Has anyone had any experience with release figures and small Greek systems? I am involved with a campus where there are four NPC chapters of roughly the same size (25-35 women). Total is 50.
I can see where RFM would be beneficial at campuses with many NPC chapters, but I need more information on how this can help a smaller system grow. |
From my experience at a campus with only 5 chapters. Even if there are only a few chapters there always is a bigger group and a smaller group. Release figures help the smaller chapters because it doesn't allow the larger and usually more popular group to string girls along who will not get a bid from them. Let me know if I am totally off on this, it has been a while.
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I'm not thinking release figures would really affect much, but maybe I'm wrong. I tend to think they'd only help at campuses where things are kind of lopsided among the chapters. You also need to have enough rounds of invite only events that PNMs would get release by the big groups early enough that they still had time to look at the other groups. |
We used it for the first time on our campus last Fall. We have 6 NPC groups. I think it went pretty smooth for the 1st year.
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AGDLynn, what's the average chapter size and total on your campus? Did it make any difference?
AlphaGamUGAAlum, most every woman attends every party up to pref, unless she is cut for grades. Yes, every chapter does COR (some with more success than others). Sueali, has your campus used RFM? What were the results? |
If most of the chapters are 25-35, why is total 50? Maybe that's something that needs to be examined.
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You both raise good points about lowering total.
Most of the time, two of the four chapters have been very close to total, if not at total. However, in the past semester or two, chapters have been reporting numbers in the same range, plus or minus ten. It might not be a bad idea to evaluate total after this fall's recruitment. I'm really interested to see how RFM might work on a campus like mine. Any examples would be wonderful! |
My school just started using release figures on recruitment software this past spring. The numbers we have to cut are based on each individual chapter's recruitment history. When our consultant from nationals came to visit us this year, she told me that these systems are only 'fair' after a few years. The initial years try to even out the sororities.
Since our chapter was one of the chapters achieving total, the numbers we had to cut by seemed unfair. I'm not sure if these systems really work. Even though a girl may give a smaller sorority more of a chance, she might still find out the same thing. Sometimes you just don't feel comfortable in certain places. I know plenty of girls who dropped out of rush because they were cut by their top choices. As VP of Membership, I can say that we cut a lot more girls than we would have liked, and there are perfectly wonderful girls who have gone unmatched because they didn't get a sorority they fit in with. It might be fair to give everyone an equal chance of being considered, but I don't think it will prove effective on our campus. When 5 out of 7 of the NPC sororities are at, above, or near campus total, and the remaining two are less than half of that, it is not fair to those achieving total to not be able to raise total. Also, statistics nationally have always shown that lowering total will only attempt to kill Greek life on a campus. It will just make everyone smaller. |
Stats?
dzcouture, what national statistics are you referring to? I'm not being snarky - I really would like to see them as I educate myself about all this new-fangled release stuff!
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dzcouture...there is a great article in the archives of ZTA's magazine on the ZTA website that gives some background insight into why the RFM is good for all chapters of all sororities and PNMs everywhere...it is about an advisor at Cal State Fullerton (a small school with 6 sororities that has grown up to be a big school!)
Following the RFM isn't about lowering chapter total, which your college Panhellenic should only consider when the number of women participating in formal recruitment steadily drops over a period of several years. If interest in greek life on your campus is steady or growing, top chapters will still have the "pick of the litter" so to speak among the PNMs. And if your chapter has a good rate of retaining members, your chapter can still exceed total by pledging quota or quota plus additions. You'll just be focusing on recruiting the women you most want to pledge early on, and releasing the ones you don't have that much interest in early so they have the opportunity to focus on the groups that are most interested in them. When everybody plays fair and it all works right, the largest possible number of PNMs are offered bids and the largest number of chapters pledge quota and everybody goes home happy and smiling and feeling good about sororities and the greek system on your campus is stronger! |
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