Quote:
Originally posted by TSteven
I was talking with a friend of mine - she just got through writing recommendations - and the subject of preference ranking came up. She said that on some campuses (usually small), it is possible for a PNM to list on her preference card a chapter even if she didn't attend their preference party. That this 'extra' ranking shows interest and is often used for determining Snap bids. Is this possible? I would guess that she is rather knowledgeable on the subject since as an alumnae, she has helped with bid matching in the past.
From my understanding, she said there were two situations.
Situation 1: The PNM may - and does - attend up to two preference parties. But on her preference card, she may list a chapter even if she did not attend their preference party. But only as her 3rd choice. I believe she said that the chapter had to invite her to the preference party but she (the PNM) was required to decline (with interest?) one chapter. For example. The PNM receives invitations to the following preference parties: ABC, DEF, GHI. She may only accept two. She attends ABC and DEF. After the preference parties, the PNM lists on her bid card #1 ABC, #2 DEF, *and then* #3 GHI. If the PNM is not placed with ABC or DEF, and she is on GHI's bid list, then the PNM may receive a bid to GHI. Or GHI may Snap bid her.
Note: the PNM is not required to list GHI at all. It is just an option open to her. However, if she does, she must rank ABC and DEF above GHI. Even if after the preference party round, the PNM found that she did not like DEF at all, she would be required to rank DEF above GHI.
Situation 2: The PNM may attend up to three preference parties (could be two). However, she only receives invitations to attend two (or fewer than the total number possible) i.e. ABC and DEF. She attends both ABC's and DEF's preference parties and then ranks them #1 ABC #2 DEF. Since there is an *open* spot on the PNM's bid card, she may rank GHI *in the three slot* even though she was released by them. Again, this would just be an option and not required. And she must rank ABC and DEF above GHI.
Two things were stressed. To my friend's knowledge, she did not think that Situation 2 happens on a campus where there is guarantee placement. The other is that while these do not guarantee placement, they can afford the PNM to show interest. And in the case where the chapter had to cut for numbers, and then they do not reach quota, the chapter knows of the PNM's interest and may extend her a Snap bid if they wish.
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I would think that situation #1 (even with a small campus) would be tough to enforce. If they have 50 women sign pref cards who is going to go through each of them and check that their first two are the chapters they attended? Maybe the computer does it.
But in regards to situation #1, I would think that it wouldn't be very Panhellenic to make them place their groups in a particular order - even if it is just saying that ABC and DEF have to be 1 or 2.
I have worked with several chapters that allow women to place any chapter they wish on their bid card. Of course the women must understand that if they did not attend or were not invited to that chapters pref they probably will not get a bid. And really, even at a large campus, there isn't anything to stop someone from placing any group on their bid card. Think of Bama with over 1000 going through - who's going to make sure that they went to each group on their card. The computer will take the pref into account, but it's doubtful she will get a bid unless she actually went to their pref. In fact, I would think it could hurt her if she listed a chapter first that she had not been or was not inivted to for pref b/c she would be put on hold until her first choice made quota.
As to snap bids, the Green Book says:
". . . If none of the woman's preferences has matched a fraternity's bid list, the Panhellenic Membership Recruitment Committee may contact the woman and ask if she will accept a bid from a fraternity not previously listed among her choices,
provided the fraternity has her name on its bid list. . . ."
The bold is how is it is shown in the Green Book. Remember, snap bids are only given out by those chapters that don't reach quota through regular bid matching. The women eligible are those that are no bids. Technically, if ABC doesn't have her on their bid list, she isn't supposed to get a snap bid from that chapter. They would have to wait until after bids were distributed and COB began to offer her a bid - if she had not already accepted one from someone else.
Guaranteed placement basically makes sure that each woman maximizes her options. If she is able to go to 10 events and is invited to 10 she can't choose to just go to 8 b/c there are two chapters she doesn't like. Same goes for pref. If you must go to two but can go to three - to get guaranteed placement you must go to three and list all three (can't just list two) on your pref card. You are then guarnateed a bid from one of those three.
The problem I have with guaranteed placement is that it only helps the groups that are making quota. If you don't make quota then you won't get any other women from guaranteed placement. So the big get bigger, the medium get big and the small stay small. The new release figure method should help this as more chapter should be making quota.