Quote:
Originally Posted by OPhiAGinger
Haven't recs really deviated a lot from their original purpose? Originally a rec was supposedly a way for an alumna who knows the PNM well to assure her GLO that the PNM would be an asset to the organization. There had to be a relationship between the alumna and the PNM, or it was meaningless.
Now recs seem to be given so casually, by friends of friends of your parents, or by an alum chapter member who meets the PNM for 15 minutes at Starbucks. How much meaning can those types of recs really provide in the membership selection process? Think of a job recommendation: would you ever provide a formal job recommendation for someone that you didn't know really well? I would not, and I think sorority recs should be treated the same way.
And to the alumnae who agree to provide recs to young women they don't know or don't know well: obviously you are doing the PNMs a big favor as they scramble to check off all the GLOs on their campus, but might you be doing your sorority a disservice?
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I think that the main thing is that rec. writer indicates the level of knowledge of the young woman. You make clear if you know her personally, for how long, etc, or if it's really more of an informative rec. without personal knowledge. But in most cases even a friend of a friend who did a little research would know anything that would keep a women from being an asset to the organization. If you hometown reputation was terrible, a hometown rec. writer would probably know it. (For example a girl from my hometown who embezzled from her part time job probably would have a hard time getting a strong hometown rec.)
In a lot of cases, it's just a question of finding out the affiliations of the people that you do already know. Unless you're from an area without a lot of female college graduates, you probably know more people who are greek than you realize.