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My school is similar, just over 6,000 with 6 NPC’s on campus sharing one dormitory. There always seems to be one that “struggles” but as AOEforme said, this is not necessarily a liability.
In agreement with what 33Girl said, make sure that your chapter is not the one stereotyping the PNMs. You might be surprised how many “legally blondes” might be interested in your chapter if you give them the chance. The chapter I advise did an exercise during work weekend where we flashed pictures of women our president met at convention. The chapter was asked to which sorority each of the ladies belonged. At the end, we then said that they were all presidents of our XYZ sorority and that you cannot judge by looks alone, etc.
Use formal recruitment as a warm-up for COB. You can control who shows up to your COB parties a lot more than you can at formal recruitment. For example, if you tend to draw a lot of members from the education department and your sorority wants to continue fostering this image, have current members in the education department specifically target their friends in classes or at other clubs. We all talk about wanting to have a great formal recruitment COB was specifically designed to allow the smaller chapters to bulk up their numbers in a less competitive atmosphere.
As for conversation, you have lots in common with every PNM that steps through that door! You are all women of about the same age, the greatest majority of you are all from the same geographic region, and you are all attending the same university. These similarities are a great starting place. Additionally, have of your members memorize 7-8 open ended questions per day to ask the PNMs. These questions MUST be open ended so that the PNMs have to respond in full sentences. Then, LISTEN!!! Nothing can continue a conversation better than listening to what the other person has to say and responding to them.
As may have said, I think that you need to get over the “poor us” attitude, act your age, and meet some potentially great ladies. Your PNM’s are not size 2 barbie dolls, they are real people that you should spend time getting to know better.
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