Suggestions for Formal Recruitment
 

Hey everyone,

I go to a Big Ten school and I'm a member of Lambda Chi Alpha. We do okay during rush, but we are by far not the best. The thing that really lowers recruitment for all fraternities and sororities is we are a "dry" Greek Community. So when it comes to recruitment we can't really throw any fun parties and stuff like that. So I was wondering if anyone out there is in a similar situation and has any ideas of how to improve our recruitment for this fall.

We have a dry rush but have rush parties anyway. Have them off campus, don't associate the house's letters and call it a birthday party or something instead of a rush party, but everyone there knows what it really is.

I'm sure that suggestion is going to get me chewed out by some of the national types on here.

It's a bit late now, but recruitment should be a summer-long affair. If you have most of your class put together by the time the Fall comes around, formal will just be gravy.

We have tried summer recruitment. We have had two events so far and we have bbq's in front of our house when the freshmen have their orientations. Both of our summer events no one showed up to. Our house is even located across from three major dorms that the students stay in for orientation. I'm not there for the bbq's so I don't know if something is going on. But I don't really understand. Our fraternity even called all the 750 guys interested in Greek life to invite them to these events and still there is poor attendance. :(

Maybe don't have it during orientation, there is too much else going on. If you have a summer semester where freshman can start class early have a BBQ one Friday afternoon and then invite the good guys from the BBQ either to an off-campus party that night or to go out to the bar with the brothers later (if there are bars that admit under 21 or if the rushees have fakes).

Let me get this straight -- you're having an event and no one's showing up, so you're frustrated?

Did you actually invite people? Did you have brothers actually make contact with potentials, make friends with them and bring them out?

Are people staying in touch with their friends from high school for rush purposes?

Are your alumni out there writing recommendations and steering kids your way?

It sounds to me like you're being very passive about rush. There are very, very few chapters in the country who can simply have an event and get any sort of turnout to speak of. You have to put yourselves out there and recruit.

I understand that. Our IFC gave us a list with all the guys interested in rush with phone numbers and emails, and all the brothers including me contacted everyone to invite them to all the events and we even sent out reminder emails to everyone. I have emailed all the guys who live near me, to see if they wanted to meet for lunch but still nothing. We are putting ourselves out there but no response. I know that the Greek system is obviously a lot more popular in the south than the north, but still.

That is part of the problem. Emails. Look all rush is about when you get down to it is making friends.It is alot easier to make friends if you have some kind of contact with them, something personal. Forget emails. Call up people, try to get to know them and whatever. Also remember that rush is 24/7. Get out there and talk to people and try to connect with them on a personal level. And honestly if you need alcohol to get people to come to rush events, there is another issue there.

Tell the University to stick it up it's collective ass, throw "birthday parties" or other type of false events with loads of alcohol at an off-campus house.

"No excellence without labor" - Joseph Houston Barbour

There is no waving your magical rush stick and recruiting guys, if it was easy, anyone could do, and pretty obvious they can't.

pretty much just throw parties outside of the house and call them unofficial. make friends with people. if you make friends with people they'll rush. if you try to bid everyone by the time formal rush comes around...you're screwed

i agree with crackerbarrel, there is too much going on during orientation. hold you parties at another time.

ditto what kevin and psi said. you all need to make personal contact with potential rushees. it would be the rare freshman who shows up by himself at a party, where he doesn't know a soul. make friends and then find your brothers.

You need to actually invite people. Orientation stuff works. You need to find these PNMs when they have free time and tell them you're BBQing for dinner and if them or their friends want some free, non-cafeteria grub, to come to your place. Then you can meet and talk with them.

You can't be so complacent as to just hold an event and expect people to come without them having no notice. Hell, if I was a perspective freshmen and saw one of the fraternities BBQing, I wouldn't walk up there on my own, I'd think it was a private event.

(Also it would help to have some fine sorority girls there too)

In the south, cold calling guys on the IFC list and inviting them to parties or asking them to lunch (especially asking them to lunch) makes a chapter look very desperate for members. I am not sure how that changes in other areas, but if other chapters at your campus are not calling people on the IFC lists as their primary source of rushees, then even though you are putting in some serious work- it still makes you look desperate.

If you are calling select people from select schools, that is one thing. But if you call everybody- it eventually gets around when rushees are chatting at various parties, and it suggests (rightly or wrongly) that the chapter does not have a steady source of guys eager to join. Cold calling is ok, but find a way to target your efforts.

Guys want social events and parties. The one-on-one recruitment concept is being promoted by more than one fraternity's nationals, but it is a terrible way to meet rushees for the first time. One-on-one should be reserved for guys you already know and who you think would take a bid. Most guys expect their first contact with a fraternity to be through friends or an invite to a party. Being asked out to lunch is just weird- and I know that applies everywhere.

As for dry events, there is a lot you can do in that arena that can help you in an overall rush effort. Get tickets to professional sporting events for the rushees and a few actives (and a few ladies.) Get tickets for concerts. There are plenty of things you can do to attract rushees to events where anyone under 21 would be unable to drink even if they wanted to.

Your best bet for finding good rushees is to start networking early. Get guys to find out who from their old high school is coming to your college. Ask the chapter to suggest people who are freshman now and would make good candidates this fall when they are sophomores. If your college tends to attract a lot of students from certain high schools who tend to go Greek, find out if you can get those lists- you often can- and that narrows down your initial list of target candidates.

Final thought- what are the other fraternities at your college doing? How do they rush? When do they rush? What chapters do you want to compete with and how are they handling rush? Answering those questions will help you out a lot- and it will be guidance specific to your school.

Hope this helps and that I have not been too blunt. You had some good ideas that took a lot of time to execute, and that is to be applauded. I just think if you refocus all that energy into some research you will be in good shape.

one thing i see some frats do are sports-related events.. like a game of flag football or volleyball. invite the girls to come play or just cheer and hang out. grilling out during and after the game is fun, too.

i'm also trying to help some of my guys come up with new ideas, too...