[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

Ok, so I have questions.

I’ve never participated in formal recruitment, and my campus only does COB. From what I can tell, the Greek Advisor is slowly trying to make a change to formal recruitment for at least one semester during the school year. Whether this will work or not, no one really knows. The sisters from all three chapters seem to be against the idea, but I don’t know if all of the positives/negatives have been mapped out for them. I know as well as they do that to create such a system from scratch (or close to it) can be a large undertaking. But with a large interest in sorority recruitment among freshmen this semester (more than a lot of sisters have ever seen), this might start to become a more viable option over the next couple of years.

I’ve learned a lot about the process from this site, and from reading Panhellenic rules and guidelines from other schools. But if for some reason my campus does try to begin to use formal again, I want my chapter, that I now advise, to be fully aware of what exactly this kind of recruitment entails. And what better way to do that than to ask people directly!

And while this probably won’t happen very soon, the younger girls who are active now might have to start to learn about formal if Panhellenic eases back into it. Any kind of information that you all can give me would be great.

Some specific questions:

1.) For those of you that attend(ed) schools that have formal recruitment after the start of the school year, how do rounds conflict with class schedules? I know that during COB this semester, many PNMs could not attend one or two of our events because they had night classes. Are some rounds on the weekend? Are there two nights of some rounds so that everyone is able to attend? Please explain.

2.) How does this work in Panhellenic? Are there additional positions or a committee to handle the recruitment process?

3.) How do students sign up? Obviously for freshmen who can participate in recruitment before the start of school, there must be something that is sent home to them. But when formal takes place in the spring, how does this work? Is there a general sign-up somewhere, like at a specific place in the student union (I know that we do this on my campus for certain activities)? Is it online? Do members of each sorority have individual sign-up sheets that they submit to Panhellenic?

4.) What are your rounds like? Are some of them just basic discussions among actives and PNMs? I know that Preference Parties are ceremonies that aren’t ritual, but they still seem like they are kind of “secret”. But… is there anything that anyone can tell me about these parties? Any activities or things that are discussed?

5.) How are Rho Chis (or whatever your school happens to call them) chosen? Is it an application process? Who decides who they are?

6.) Rho Chis and attending rounds… how does this whole method work? This is going to be a “simple”, hypothetical story, and I’m guessing on all of this, so bear with me, and please tell me if I have this whole thing screwed up! haha. Ok…
I am a PNM, I have one Rho Chi all throughout recruitment. During the first round, my Rho Chi comes to the first recruitment party with me and all of the other girls in my “PNM group”. The next round, I get invited back to all three chapters, but my friend Hopeful Holly, who is in my PNM grouping from the first day, only gets invited back to two. She has the same Rho Chi as myself, and I have to go to one more party than her. My Rho Chi brings the same group of girls to all of the parties, and we all have the same schedule, in terms of what times we are to be at each chapter. But since Hopeful Holly wasn’t invited back to the second party that my PNM group has scheduled that day, she will attend the first party with us, have a break (for as long as that second party lasts), and will then attend the last party with myself, our Rho Chi, and the rest of the PNM group.


This is all for now, but I'm sure I'll have more! Thanks in advance!

1)on the campus of the chapter i advise, formal recruitment is held several weeks after the start of the fall semester. there are many night classes so recruitment parties are held after 9 pm, beginning on wednesday night with prefs. held on saturday evening and bid day on sunday afternoon. all pnms are required to be invited back to the 2nd round of parties, so voting is not necessary on the first night, however, it makes thursday night very late. parties on friday night can begin around 6, because there are no night classes on friday. there are 3 chapters on this campus.

my daughters college also holds recruitment a couple of weeks in to the fall semester. they have 5 chapters. recruitment starts for them on friday night-pnms attend three parties or two parties with one break and attend the parties at the other chapters on saturday. prefs(they can attend 2) are held on monday night and bid day(night) is around 7 pm tuesday. i would prefer this schedule, because that puts voting on the most girls on the weekend(the saturday and sunday parties are held in the afternoon).

2)there is usually a panhellenic vp recruitment and sometimes she has an assistant. all the panhellenic officers assist during recruitment and well as the recruitment counselors.

3) most college panhellenics have online registration and a predetermined deadline. they advertise in the school paper, on the panhellenic website and with flyers around campus. pnms can pay with credit cards or paypal.

4) the rounds can really be anything the campus wants: on some campuses there are just casual get togethers where the pnms and the sisters just chat. on other campuses it can be quite involved, with themed decorations(theme decided by chapter), coordinating outfits for the sisters, door songs or chants(sung or chanted as the pnms enter thru the door), timed videos that recap the chapters activites for the previous year, skits, crafts for the philanthrophy, etc. it is up to the panhellenic officers to decide and then the chapters work within the guidelines set by panhellenic. for instance, the first nights parties might be ice waters-where only water may be served to the pnms. panhellenic may designate that a 7 minute video recapping the years activities can be shown. your chapter may decide to have a "munchkin theme" and decorations might be murals hung on the wall where the chapters best artists painted giant flowers and the entire chapter is dressed like munchkins. the next night might be philanthrophy and your phil. might be "the old pirates rest home" so you put up murals that look like pirate ships and you all dress up like pirates and tell the pnms about the fund raising you do to raise money for the old pirates home. the third night might be sisterhood and you all chose another theme and perform a 10 minute skit based on your theme, which highlights the sisterhood in your chapter. the final night is preference-you all write a preference ceremony(or get one from your headquarters) that might give a little peek into your ritual without giving away any secrets, you usually all dress similarly-all sisters wearing black dressy dresses, or white, or red and you might serve sparkling cider or gingerale and cheesecake. bid day there would be a party where the new members would get a goodie bag with pencils, pens, writing pads, car decal, bid day t-shirt, and there would be festive food in a party atmosphere.

5) most often, recruitment counselors are chosen thru an application process. they are chosen by the campus greek life advisor and perhaps the rec. vp or the entire panhel board. they try to get an equal # of girls from all the chapters. sometimes one girl is chosen as the "head" rec. counselor and she (along with the vp rec. and greek advisor) train the other rec. counselors.

6) typically rec. counselors go with their assigned group of pnms for the first round of parties only. they do not attend the parties with the pnms. after the first round of parties, they meet with their group of pnms before and after that nights parties and are "on call" during the parties and they are available to their pnms for the entire length of recruitment.