This week we have had a few events to get to know freshman women interested in rushing. So far, they have gone really well! We've had a ton of interest and we've met a few legacy girls we didn't know about yet. A lot of freshmen have friends who have already rushed at other schools, so they're very excited to rush this spring. A few told me that their friends just joined Venus elsewhere, which makes us more appealing to them!
I'm a little skeptical of all this initial interest because it always seems to happen this way - PNMs come out to the events and get excited, then a few weeks in they start hearing tent talk from fraternity guys and upperclassmen and their interest drops off pretty quickly. BUT I'm hoping we can combat that this year and keep that enthusiasm going! This weekend the Greek Life Office put on an event where all the fraternities and sororities had booths and freshmen could meet everyone, and we got a lot of really good interest. Our booth was right next to Minervas, but we had a lot more sisters and ended up talking to a lot more PNMs. One sister whose roommate/best friend is a Minerva told me that the Minerva sisters were really annoyed that we were "monopolizing" the PNMs. Um, sorry?
In terms of COB, we're getting close! Our "unofficial" COB/sisterhood event is this Thursday, and I can't wait to see who comes out! This first event is invite-only, but we'll be putting out flyers to get more girls interested for the upcoming events. I think there may be more girls waiting in the wings - three sophomores came up to our booth this weekend to tell us they wanted to COB! They didn't really know any sisters, so we didn't know about them.
One of them I'm not sure about, since she has kind of a rough history with sorority life. She went through the first two days of FR last winter, then dropped. We invited her to COB, but she said no because she didn't want to join an NPC group. She then pledged a local, got a big sister and lasted over a month, but dropped before Initiation. At the booth she told us that she de-pledged because she realized she really wanted to be in an NPC (specifically, Venus). I didn't get a chance to meet her, but I'm curious to. I don't know how things ended with the local, but she de-tagged herself in every single picture that had to do with them... which could be a red flag? Anyway, since I'm going to name a few PNMs I know will be coming through, I'll call her
Greta.
Vicky will in fact be COBing (contrary to what I posted earlier)! I'm not sure how things are looking on the financial front for her (this was her main concern), but she's going to give it a shot. Fingers crossed that it will work out this time! I know this is something she really wants.
Robin is the best friend of one of our sisters. She's a very pretty, accomplished young woman (she has actually done some modeling for a very well-known magazine) who is friends with a lot of girls in one of the top groups - I really wouldn't expect her to go Venus. However, she's pretty set on joining, which is exciting!
Kerry is very good friends with a lot of our new sisters. She's come to almost every date party and formal we've had since her friends joined, and everyone kept joking that she should just "make it official" and join - so she is!
Frances COBed last semester and received a bid, but could not accept because her parents (who are foreign) wouldn't allow her to. They didn't understand about or approve of sororities. She's going to try it again, and hopefully she's worked things out with parents this time...
That's all for now! I'll let you all know how things go on Thursday!