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I think we forget sometimes that while RFM is great for increasing a PNM's realistic options by forcing her to return to groups she has more of a chance at, at the end of the day it can't force a girl to join a WRC if she would rather implode than accept that bid. I see it happen a lot on my campus where many girls, especially sophomores, will draw a line in the sand and say "I will not accept a bid/pref invite from any chapter 'below' XYZ" and then withdraw from recruitment if those chapters she deems unworthy are her only choices. During recruitment I remember looking around the holding room the PNMs were in and seeing a line to go into one chapter's pref party that was easily twice as long as the others, and that chapter still didn't make quota that year.
RFM may not be able to save those spiraling chapters, but I do think it does a good job at helping prevent those chapters from entering that spiral based solely on formal recruitment, because the number of girls each chapter invites back can be adjusted year-by-year.
Also, at the Pi Phi presentation at Clemson on Monday they mentioned that of the 240 girls in their Delaware colony, only 15 had gone through formal recruitment and then withdrawn. Some of that might have had to do with them having deferred recruitment and girls who are sophomores or juniors not bothering with formal, but I was still surprised at how few had done so.
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