about formal recruitment

[themouth80]

hi everyone! my name is stevy scarbrough and i am the recruitment chair for Sigma Lambda Epsilon a local sorority founded at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX. We have been associate members of Panhellenic Council since 1999, but have never been able to participate in formal recruitment with the National sororities. We have always had to start PR week the week after the nationals' bid day. We are drafting a proposal to request to be a part of the first night of the Nationals' Formal recruitment acitivities, to inform PNM that we are also an option, when choosing a sorority. We want every PNM to be able to find the group that they feel they fit with the best, but do not feel it is fair that we are not considered as part of the greek family in the recruitment aspect. So my question to everyone is, have any local sororities been able, in the past, to partially participate in NPC recruitment? If so, at what universities? If not, why?

[33girl]

Several of the PA state system schools have local sororities in their Greek systems. As far as I know, they participate in formal rush from beginning to end the same as the national groups do.

[aephi alum]

During the first year that my local sorority was in existence, they could not participate in formal recruitment, but they were allowed to have an information table where PNMs could stop by between parties, chat briefly with a sister or two, and pick up a rush schedule. Rush was held the following week. (A rho chi even stayed deaffiliated to distribute bids.)

The following year, Panhel invited my local to participate in FR. It was a disaster. As a new, local sorority with only 12 members and no alums, we simply didn't have the resources to compete with four well-established national sororities with 70+ active sisters each and strong alum support. We took zero pledges.

Looking back, it would have been better if we had just participated in round 1, given a little presentation to the PNMs as to who we were, and then stepped back and held our rush after the conclusion of FR. You could propose that; if Panhel doesn't bite, try the information table idea.

[themouth80]

thanks aephialum- that is actually what we want to do. we just want to be included on the first night so that PNMs know that we are also out there, then do our own rush as always. we have been around for 11 years so we have a good base of alumni and 20 current members to be there. We are very organized, so i don't think we would have a problem with that. We are also very diverse in appearance, beliefs, values, ideas, etc. which is one of the most important things we promote.

[shadokat]

All of our locals participate in formal recruitment, right along with the NPCs. Why can't you participate in formal recruitment?

[themouth80]

shadokat- thanks for the reply. actually, i'm not sure why, the national sororities think its great that we are doing so well, but there are others who don't want us to succeed for some reason (but they would never admit that). anyway, could you tell me what school you go to, what sororities natl and local that do formal recruitment together and the activities that take place. if you could email this info to me that would be great. my email is, themouth80@yahoo.com thanks for your time!