Quote:
Originally posted by bluefish81
At Iowa State, pairings for events decided like this, or at least they used to be:
Fraternities are partnered up for Homecoming and Greek Week, generally one large chapter and one small chapter(s).
Next, depending on the event, that determines who serenades. Fraternities serenade for Homecoming and VEISHEA and sororities serenade for GW and Varieties. (Not as many chapters elect to participate in Varts or VEISHEA so those pairings are generally one fraternity and one sorority.)
Serenades for all events are done in three rounds. For Homecoming and GW, each pairing is allowed to accept two serenades. However, the chapter doing the serenading, can only serenade one group. Then the chapter has to decide between which two groups they want to be partnered with, and the other group gets 'flushed' to the next round. Once a pairing is established, generally the pairing that picked you will 'return serenade.' For the first two rounds, serenades are done. After that, a large chunk of the pairings have been established and from there pairings are done via phone call.
When I was in school, a rule was established that for Greek Week, no pairing could accept a serenade from a sorority pairing that they had done either GW or Homecoming with in the past three years for the first two rounds. This was done in an effort to change pairings up a bit more. There used to be some 'courting' of sorts that was done ahead of time, but not to the tune of $500.
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I loved how our serenades worked. It usually sucked trying to get people to participating if you were doing the serenading, but they were lots of fun. Return serenades were fun, too. I don't remember much "courting" going on, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. And I think the mixing worked pretty well with everything but Varts, but since not everyone participates in it, you'd eventually get the same pairings every 2-3 years or so.
I remember being in the Varts office with Opie and Couch during serenades and it was hard for the groups who had been flushed both times. I can't even imagine what GW or Homecoming would be like.