Looking for feedback!

[TriDeltaSallie]

Hi to all! I'd like to see if anyone here would be willing to offer some feedback.

I'm a Tri Delta and a contributing writer for Suite101.com. I just posted a series of articles on joining a sorority, recruitment, etc. I would welcome any feedback or suggestions from those here at Greek Chat.

As background... Suite101 is about providing basic information on any and all topics. So these articles were written with that in mind. They are written to be generally informative. I've tried to hit all the major topics in this series while focusing on NPC sororities at this point. I still plan on doing one about sorority life after college. And I still need to do one that talks about all the other stuff of recruitment (COB, deferred recruitment, etc.). It is really hard to cover such a broad topic in 400-600 word articles!

Anyway, if anyone would care to read them, here they are. Feel free to leave comments here regarding suggestions, corrections, additions, etc. I can edit them even though they are up. I'm sure I did not think of everything which is why I'm asking for input here. If you can think of any other articles I should add to the series, I would love to hear your ideas!

THANK YOU!!!

Sallie

Sorority Membership Recruitment

Preparing for Sorority Recruitment

Sorority Terms to Know

Joining a Sorority

Choosing a Sorority

After Recruitment and Bid Day

[SthrnZeta]

I think you did a generally good job and like you said, it's hard to put a lot of detail into short articles. Maybe an article about all the "sticky" subjects - not receiving a bid, informal recruitment, colonizing, etc. And I look forward to reading the alumane stuff when you're done with it!

[honeychile]

I like the structure, very much. There is one thing I'd change, however. Some campuses have a different number of parties, or a different schedule, and I'd allow for that. I think saying that the parties will almost always include Open Houses, a skit day, a philanthropy day, and pref parties, but that they may be in a different order, or they have another party or two thrown into the mix.

I would also include under "After Recruitement... The First Few Weeks" that the New Member may feel a let down after the parties, or even after initiation. It's not uncommon for either to happen, and knowing that others have felt that way ("what, they have me, so I don't get their full attention anymore?") may actually help with retaining new members!

All around, though, it's great!

[KSUViolet06]

There is alot of good general info in your articles.

Something to think about is that (as I'm sure you know) recruitment is not a guaranteed process, so be sure to include some info addressing the subject of "What if I don't get a bid?"

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

There is alot of good general info in your articles.

Something to think about is that recruitment is not a guaranteed process, so be sure to include some info addressing the subject of "What if I don't get a bid?"

Going off on what KSUViolet06 said, if I were a PNM, I might wonder why I didn't get a bid. As most of us know, that info is not available as Membership Selection is private.

If a PNM goes bidless, I'd strongly encourage them to still get involved on campus. Perhaps you could also include that in your article as well.

I agree with the others -- great job on the articles!

[33girl]

I would edit the "size matters" blurb to specify you are talking about large Greek campi only, mainly because it makes it seem like ANY small chapter will have the same issues. If a chapter is only 12 members, it doesn't matter as long as the other chapters on campus have 10 and 15.

[texas*princess]

I think it might be helpful to include that not all campuses do recruitment the same.

My campus for example got away from the "frills" rush and instead of doing skits we have a lower key 'house tours' day.

For someone who doesn't know anything about sorority life they may be thinking "what?? did i miss something? i haven't seen any skits yet!"

You might also want to include a part about Rho Gammas (or Pi Chis are whatever they are called nowadays). I think it would be important for the pnms to know that they won't be going throught the process alone and that there will be someone there to help guide them during the process.

[gee_ess]

What a good idea! I know that girls going through recruitment will find this info helpful.

Suggestion - it would be helpful to discuss the issue of illegal "contact" between pnm's and active members so that pnm's will know and understand why actives are not allowed to interact with them during specific times of the year. This varies from campus to campus, but Facebook, email, text messaging, etc are all illegal forms of contact all summer prior to fall rush.

Also, I agree with an earlier post that you should explain that each campus has different rush rounds. We no longer have a skit night on the campus I am affiliated with, so to publish info that represents certain rounds as sure "things" would be misleading.

[skylark]

I co-sign on the above posts about qualifying the membership recruitment article to say that this is a typical schedule for a large campus. The trend in many parts of the country is to come up with innovative recruitment styles that might not have "house tours" (note that there are almost as many unhoused sorority chapters now as housed chapters) and may not have "skit nights" either. I think the article is fine as long as you make some statement that warns readers that their recruitment may be very, very different depending on where in the country the campus is, how traditional the greek culture is, and how large a greek system they are a part of.

[TriDeltaSallie]

Thank you so much!!! You all have provided some excellent points. I will start working my way through your ideas and see how I can implement them.

I truly appreciate your taking the time to give me this feedback.

Sallie