Just wanted to correct/clarify some things. The chapters do not have a say in how many women they get through Formal Recruitment nor does Chapter Total have any bearing on this number. Panhellenic attempts to match bids so that the maximum number of PNMs receive bids AND the maximum number of chapters achieve quota.
All chapters who participate in Formal Recruitment are obligated to take Upperclassmen. There is a seperate Upperclassmen quota for them and handled in an identical manner as Freshmen quota. If a chapter misses the Upperclassmen quota they may snap bid another Upperclassmen to achieve it. They may not snap another Freshmen to fill Upperclassmen quota or vice versa. FYI - Panhellenic only reports the Freshmen quota to our I/natls. So from an I/natl
statistical standpoint, Upperclassmen are counted as quota additions.
Panhellenic also determines who quota additions are and how many each chapter receives. This is not based on Chapter Total either, rather a continued attempt to place as many PNMs as possible in the chapters which the PNMs preffed yet didn't match. Panhellenic balances them out so that no single chapter receives say 20 quota additions while everyone else gets 0.
Snap bidding only occurs during Formal Recruitment to get up to Quota. After that it is called COB (Continuous Open Bidding) or COR (Continuous Open Recruitment). Chapters that achieved quota through Formal Recruitment yet are still below Chapter Total don't snap up to Total. In "regular" years (for lack of a better word), any chapter that was still below Total could COB/COR right away or throughout the semester/year until they achieved Total. However this year with Alpha Phi's colonization there is a moratorium on COR so that they may recruit without potential competition. (I don't recall the date when the moratorium is lifted.)
Thank you! I'd also like to thank all alums who contribute their time to their local chapter's Recruitment -- especially the Advisors. I'd also like to thank their families who put up with them being away from home so much. Recruitment is pure insanity with ridicously long hours, especially at a large competitive school like Bama. For the college age girls it's not nearly as big a hardship since this is the only thing going on in their lives. But for the alums who are juggling families, jobs and other real life obligations, it takes a real toll -- physically with the long, crazy hours and emotionally with the intense stress to make sure everything is done perfectly. The world
will come to an end if the wrong PNM gets invited/cut.
The earliest I got home on any night was midnight. Those were the nights when it was the first half of a two day round. The latest was 4:30am. Yet I still had to be up everyday at 6:30am to get my kids ready for school. I saw my Hubby long enough each day to say "Hi". I was ready to walk out the door as soon as he got home from work to take care of the kids.