[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Barbie's_Rush

Indeed.

I have a question about invites to rounds prior to RFM being put into place. From what I understand, it was a badge of honor for chapters to have huge numbers of pnms return with each round and really big cuts at the "popular chapters" were done toward the very end. The popular chaters ended up with almost all of the "best" pnms to chose from. The other chapters had a considerably smaller pool by preference because many pnms had previously dropped them while being strung along by the popular chapters. Before RFM, were there no rules or guidelines about how many pnms you had to cut each round?

Not to my knowledge (and I was active pre-RFM). Every chapter had its own way of determining how many to cut/keep. You could invite back the entire list if you wanted to, or cut half of it. It was up to each chapter to determine what was best for them (regardless of what was best for the PNMs in the end).

I seem to remember that it was the goal to have close to 100% returns and full (max) parties.

Generally speaking, More Popular House would cut however many they wanted because they just kind of knew that whoever they DID invite back was going to accept and the party would be full no matter what. Some bigger houses cut a little and some a lot.

Less Popular would invite back larger portions of the list just in case some girls declined, they'd still have shot at a full party and a decent return rate.

Whether chapters were actually interested in the women in their full parties was a different story.The choice was up to the chapters.

In the beginning of RFM, I remember many chapters being up in arms about it because it told them how many to cut. Chapters were used to being able to decide that for themselves.

The problem was, the whole "everybody decide numbers for yourselves" didn't really help PNMs. The goal was "full parties" and not necessarily "full parties with PNMs we actually want." So chapters would keep a girl they only sort of liked for 3 whole rounds. This was why the heaviest cuts used to come right before Pref.