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I think your campus Panhellenic needs to define what "no frills" means to them. There's nothing wrong with putting decorative sorority items in your recruitment rooms (T shirts, pictures, etc) that sisters would normally have in their rooms/in the house lounge. There's nothing wrong with having basic drinks available (water, tea, lemonade, etc) because people do get thirsty. There is something wrong (in the "no frills" aspect of things) to have balloon ceilings in gigantic rooms, painting murals on sheets to hang on the walls, and spending tons of money on decorative items that you might only use one year (based on a theme).
The no frills concept was to direct recruitment away from "join the chapter that is the most entertaining!" to "join the chapter that you connected with through meaningful conversations". Hence the reasons why skits are being cut...I've known chapters to do a 20 minute elaborately costumed skit for a 40 minute party. They were doing their best to "entertain" the PNMs instead of really talking to them. Some groups still do slideshows (the 3-5 minute ones), and personally I think that's fine because it can be used to show the PNM the different activities of a chapter and be used to spark discussion for the rest of the event.
Everyone's campus interprets "no frills" recruitment differently. Some count how many balloons you have in a room and allow nothing hanging on a vertical surface. Some just limit the budget and food items (yes, I've experienced the recruitment where the chapters tried to outdo each other on food...so much so that it was a topic of discussion among PNM decisions). If I were that Panhellenic, I would try to envision/define what exactly they were going for in a "no frills" recruitment, and that will help chapters plan accordingly.
PsychTau
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