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Originally Posted by GammaDelt
We advertise with flyers in all the dorm bathrooms on campus, and facebook events. anyone is welcome to come to any of the rush events - we keep these 6 open in case someone who is interested in pledging can't make it to some of them. Unfortunately, this allows for anyone to come to the events, which means we get alot of girls who just come for the alcohol. I am totally aware this is a good reason why our membership is down - alot of girls are driven away by the partiers that come to Rush, but most of my sisters are adamant about having alcohol - so any suggestions on how to avoid this would be great.
We structure our Rush over a period of 2 weeks, with 6 events, 3 events a week. Our events are generally just a social, like Cosmos and Sex and the City ( i know - we should not have alcohol at our rush events because it gives the wrong idea, but most of the sisters insist because they feel like no one will come if we don't have it.) Anyway, we have 2 wine and cheese meet and greets, two other events like cosmos and sex and the city, or champagne and charades, plus a frat party each week. This year, we had all our rush events in an apartment where 4 senior members lived. Our events are not too formal - their is a brief informational section in the beginning, and the rest if getting to know us. After Rush, we blackball/give bids, invite our bids to invitational where they fill our a questionnaire on why they want to join the sorority, and then we invite those girls who we feel want to pledge for the right reasons to Acceptance night. The pledging.
Unfortunately, as we're losing our house this year bc the seniors are graduating, we are running into a problem for rush. We are either going to try and co-rush with the (one) frat on campus, and if that doesn't work out, we're going to have off campus rush events like bowling. The co-rush with the frat could be a bad idea, though, because that's, again, drawing girls in may think our sorority is only about drinking.
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1. Alcohol at rush?
People keep telling you, and you keep saying that the sisters would not allow it, but you really have to take alcohol out of the equation. That alone might help you out.
If you need a good reason to go "dry", how about risk management issues? I am going to guess that you do not have insurance. If someone attends a group-sponsored "rush" event, they drink, and something happens, who is responsible?
2. Have at least one rush event on campus, if only to show that you are a "real" group. That is a great way to take alcohol out of the equation as well, bc you probably aren't allowed to bring alcohol to conference or class rooms. I know that I would be wary to go to an off-campus apartment... it's kind of isolating to do so. Plus, you run the risk of drunk driving going back and forth.
3. Events like "Sex and the City - I am guessing you watch the show during your event - don't allow for PNMs and sisters to get to know each other. Watching television doesn't really allow people to mingle. You can do informal events but you have to have some sort of structure in terms of keeping track of who came to which events, etc.
4. When you say "blackball", do you mean that you are not extending a bid, or does it mean something more? That term is pretty antiquated and very negative. How do you handle telling women that they are not invited to pledge?
5. Take the "frat" out of your events. If you are a sisterhood, then keep your recruitment events strictly women only. I cannot imagine being able to get to know sisters when the PNMs are probably more interested in hanging out with the men.
Lastly, I would try to be more open to the many suggestions people have shared. People here have been through recruitment on either side, and many here are very experienced. Some have been members of struggling chapters, others in very strong chapters. Why not benefit from others' experiences instead of shooting down their suggestions?
Best of luck.