[1964Alum]

With our rush deferred for a full year back in the Dark Ages, what we called "Rush Functions" were very common. And very useful both for the PNMs and the actives. Our alums did not get involved except with our Rush chair, who would ask us to invite a particular young lady we may or may not have earlier known. Or we would suggest someone known to us. They were organized strictly by the individual GLOs and generally weren't "Pumps and Pearls" events. At least I never heard of or participated in any such events. Ours were all informal, casual, and with smaller groups of PNMs and actives. We had them quite frequently.

They worked very well, more like going out with a group of girlfriends. Always Dutch. They generally started the second semester of the PNM's Freshman year after first semester grades came out. They gave PNMs a head start as well as the GLOs in terms of girls we really, really wanted and/or we knew we would have lots of competition for. By the time formal rush rolled around, many PNMs had met many different members from different groups and had a fair idea of the general personality of each.

The ONLY time I remember Formal Recruitment being mentioned or even referred to at all at these functions was to ask a young lady if she had signed up for rush the semester before as soon as registration began. The only exception to that were the breakfasts we would invite our strongest candidates to right before rush began, and we were all back at school. At that time we could say things like "I'm so happy to see you!" or "I look forward to seeing you!" as everyone went to all of the houses for the first round. After Silence began we were very, very discreet. I think both the actives and the PNMs were more discreet back then once Silence began.

Recruitment is so stressful as it is, I truly think the informal pre-rush functions take the edge off many on both sides of formal recruitment. I think it would have been much more difficult for me to chose had I not had those earlier and more natural opportunities to get to know active members as well as some other PNMs!

The downside were those young women we didn't meet until formal recruitment had actually started. We always ended up pledging a fair number of them so it did seem to work out.

Despite the pre-rush rush I had experienced, I took NOTHING for granted during formal rush and heaved a large sigh of relief after each round up to and including getting my bid card. And did the same as an active on the other side! As a PNM I saw the quality of other PNMs, and as an active knew there was lots of quality in other GLOs. Recruitment is a time to develop humility if you don't already have it! Many things have likely changed over the years, but not the qualities and attributes looked for on both sides of rush.