Hi! I was the Panhellenic RVP last year for Jacksonville University, and I am the newly elected President. Our school is a little smaller, we usually have pledge classes of about 15, but our Greek population is about 15 percent. Hopefully some of this will be helpful. And starting early is the best idea!! Prepare to be overwhelmed when you arrive back to campus. I do not know how your recruitment works, ours is about 1 to 2 weeks after school has started, which raises the stress. I started early in the semester by making sure that the rules were set and all of the sororitities had been notified of them (we held a large all Greek women meeting to discuss them). Make sure that you have strong Rho Chis, they will be your lifeline in Recruitment. If possible have an application process where you have a say in which girls are chosen instead of the chapters just giving them to you. Train them about the other sororities, mottos, founding etc. It will be obvious what chapter they belong to if they can only answer questions about one organization. We had a short one day training, and we are looking to improve that and actually purchased Recruitment Counselor handbooks from NPC which may help. Last year our t-shirt slogan was "When it is all you can think about" and the year before it was "W may stand out but we never stand alone" I do not know any that would go with your motto though
We had a lot of girls sign up this year but not a very good retention through our preference round. Mostly due to discouraged girls who had been cut from the organization that they thought they really wanted. Try and encourage the girls as much as possible to stick with it and remind them that the system works if you let it, just because you have your heart set on one chapter does not mean that it is the right place for you... I felt like a mom all through recruitment. To help the girls we made an "info book" that we pass out on the first night with information about Panhellenic and what it does and also information about each chapter including open motto, founding, and even dues. In the back it had a small one page dictionary of words they may hear that they are not familiar with, PNM, new member, initiation etc. you have to keep in mind that most know nothing of Greek Life. And then the last two pages had things to keep in mind during recruitment / encouragement and then a blank page for notes. If you can have the Rho Chis spend time with their girls outside of recruitment, this is something new we are trying to help the girls feel more connected to Panhellenic and to Greek women in general to try an improve numbers. We are doing an informal recruitment this spring and trying some new things too!
Sorry this is so long! But I hope it helps some. There are going to be times of high stress, just remember that while you do have a commitment to the chapters, you also have a stronger commitment to the PNM's to make sure that they have the best experience possible. Have fun abroad and let me know if I can babble about anything else! Haha
Bri