[ASTalumna06]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful words of encouragement!

I have desperately wanted to update, but I’ve been so busy the past few days! Anyway, on with it...

I figured out why they moved the Recruitment Kick-off event... because Club Rush, which is usually held in October, after recruitment is already over, was moved up to September 3rd. So what better way to get more girls to come to the recruitment event than to say, “It’s tonight, you should come!”

Each sorority had a list of names that they accumulated at Club Rush. I knew that our Recruitment Chair couldn’t attend, so I sent a quick text to the President to find out how many names they received. She told me that they had a list of over 20 names, there were even more on the list that Panhellenic was building, and that the Greek Advisor, through an email, had invited hundreds of women to attend! A little panic had set in, but I figured I’d wait and see how many PNMs showed up that night before freaking out completely.

All of the sisters started arriving to their designated rooms around 7:30. I had walked by the other two at some point, and I found it funny that all three sororities used streamers (in their respective colors) to decorate their rooms. But anyway, everyone was busy setting up and getting ready when some of the PNMs started to show up. The three rooms that we use are all lined up down a hallway, and perpendicular to that hall is another, which starts right in front of the middle room (the one us ASTs were in). The PNMs signed in and were then led into a large lecture hall, all of which we could see from our room. And they just kept coming!

Before the short presentation to the PNMs started, the Greek Advisor made a stop to each sorority to tell us that 62 PNMs were there!!! We realized that about 20 PNMs would be coming to our room at once, and with 19 active sisters, myself, and another alumna present, we were basically all going to have to take on one, maybe two PNMs at once.

When the PNMs were released into the rooms, it was crazy. There were so many people! There were some familiar faces from our other recruitment events, but there were also a lot of new girls to get to know. And I was happy to see that even the shyest of sisters were having conversations with PNMs.

Unfortunately, by the time the third group of girls had come, the group was noticeably smaller. While the PNMs are “required” to attend all three parties at this event, they really aren’t. It’s not formal, so they can still leave whenever they’d like. But there were still a whole bunch of people to meet and talk to.

Our Recruitment Chair, who is also the Panhellenic President, had to be impartial, not indicate which sorority she was a member of, and help move the PNMs between the three rooms. When the whole thing was over, she rejoined us. She told us that while some of the PNMs were moving from one room to the next, she overheard some of them saying that they liked how we had our party set up, and they really enjoyed the one-on-one conversations. I’m not entirely sure what the other groups did, but it was good to hear.

We were all sitting around afterward, talking for a bit, and the Greek Advisor popped her head in the door. She told us that while there were 62 PNMs that had attended, because we bid to total, there are only 55 spots open between the three sororities. She told everyone to keep a more formal kind of recruitment in the back of our minds, and that we’d have to see where the numbers ended up over the next two weeks or so before bid day.

While the sisters were kind of nervous about how membership selection procedures were going to go because there were so many PNMs, I reminded them to simply keep inviting girls to future recruitment events, and to see how many of them actually attend. I think that tomorrow and Wednesday’s events will give them a better idea of the girls they will really be focusing on.

I’m unable to attend the recruitment event tomorrow night, but I’ll get an update afterward, and try to provide as much information about it as I possibly can.

And the sisters have also planned an extra event. This Saturday, September 12th, they are co-hosting a kind of "Greek Olympics" with Delta Chi that will be open to all students. There will be games such as cornhole and ladder golf, and from what I understand, a few members from each organization will dress like Greek gods and goddesses and will act as judges and/or officials for the games. It should be entertaining!

Just a little over a week left until bid day...