[ASTalumna06]

Delta Sigma Pi on my campus was never big on "recruitment" to begin with. I never really heard about it. I know a couple people who were involved in the fraternity, but for the most part, they got involved by someone in one of their business classes saying "hey, have you heard about Delta Sigma Pi?"

It sounds as if it's a bit different at your school. What do you do for recruitment? Do you have activities similar to the social fraternities? If you do, having your recruitment at the same time as theirs could become confusing.

Like Kansas City said, I believe that members of the social organizations can join yours, also. Take advantage of that. Ask some of the fraternities and sororities on campus if you can market your organization at one of their business meetings.

You say that people don't understand that you're a professional fraternity rather than a social one? Set yourself apart. How are you trying to sell the idea of Delta Sigma Pi? Pretend that you're a company trying to sell a product. That should be easy considering you're a business fraternity! haha. First analyze your goals and purposes and try to get the students to buy into that.

You say you don't want to be seen as an honor society. Then don't come off that way. On my campus, in the social fraternities and sororities, we struggle to recruit people because of the stereotypes of Greek life. We don't have people "rushing" to become part of our organizations. So our challenge is to get our campus to believe that we're not all stupid, drunk, hormone-driven people, but are in fact intelligent, philanthropic, hard-working members of an organization founded on years and years of rich tradition and values. The trick is to project the positive aspects of your organization, and to force people to understand what you're about.

Decide what you want people to see, hear, and feel about your organization first. Then try to market it based on those ideas. When and where you can recruit should then fall into place.