P-you take the cake with that ankle of yours!!
That's about as bad as my little sister having the flu during initiation. Funny now, but certainly not at the time!!
Mine recruitment stories aren't quite as entertaining, but hopefully you'll all enjoy. here's the favorites that come to mind today..
1) we had recruitment in the student center in rooms that were accessable from a big hallway and there were multiple directions from which to enter the hall. There was one PNM who was SO excited to be a theta after she got her invitation to the next round (starting ~30 minutes later) that she came to our room straight away and LET HERSELF IN!! She didn't know that the party hadn't started yet... we're still doing setup and no one was paying attention, but I looked over and there's Heather, closing the door behind her and looking around. A mild panic ensued because we were not supposed to talk to PNM's outside of recruitment parties and there she was IN OUR ROOM!?! the recruitment chairs hustled her out v. quickly and quietly and she came back when the party started.
Talk about gung ho! We ended up extending her a bid, and of course she accepted.
2) I was a charter member: one of 7 freshman in a charter class of ~54. but when I graduated, there were 27 seniors who left the chapter-we picked up LOTS of upperclassmen over the years because these women on campus realized they wanted to be a part of our sisterhood. I also did my fair share of dragging all my friends in 'cause I wanted to share Theta with them. The dragging was the first time, and then after that they decided on their own and wanted to be a theta.
I knew the chapter could hook 'em in as long as I got them to the event. So my senior year, after pref, one of my 'drag-ees' (another senior who was in our first new member class immediately after we got our charter) is bawling as the doors are closing. We are singing a weepy pref song and so emotional 'cause it's our last recruitment party ever as undergrads.. and she turns to me and says "It's all your fault!" long pause while I am in a mild state of panic thinking that she's mad at me. "I"m so glad you made me do this! I'm really sad though that I was not a founder." Of course more bawling ensued...
3) my favorite aspect of our recruitment was that because we were so new, we had many upperclasswomen come out of the woodwork who came in and ONLY wanted theta. I didn't actually drag them all in myself!
I can think of at least 4 women off the top of my head and I know there were tons more.. We had quite a join as seniors (!), and all of these women were such wonderful additions to our chapter.
It was really touching how these upperclasswomen would talk about the chapter and why they were going through recruitment with us & only us. They noticed the membership on campus and liked the diversity; they couldn't quite figure out why, but we were 'different' than all the other groups on campus; they met one member and thought "I LOVE HER" and had that experience multiple times until they just got fed up with not being a member; they had a friend like me and came to appease her and then realized they really did want to be a part of theta; or they met someone they really respected for her leadership and then saw her letters at a later date and realized "hm, maybe that's something I should do".
The singular focus of these women was striking: "I want to be a theta and get as much as I can out of the short time that I have left at school. LET ME IN!" We were fortunate to also have a panhel that considered Juniors & Seniors "free" and not included in quota, so we could bring these women in and not worry about upsetting the graduating class balance of the chapter too much.
One final comment on recruitment that I was always so proud of: we were not the ones that spent the most on decorating, and we didn't always have the most polished party themes or skits. But we did make quota (or at least that's what I remember 'cause we didn't COB after our first year) and we got our top picks because of the chapter that we were and the way we were able to express our sisterhood to the PNM's. They could see how much we cared about each other.. Not sure how we did it, but it worked.