Help with Conversation and Stereotypes at Rush!

[maddie101]

Hello,

My sorority is in much need of help this recruitment. We are at a private school of about 6,000 students, one of five sororities on campus and approximately 150 girls go through rush every year. My campus does not have houses, so we set up shop in various rooms around campus the girls go to. The other four chapters on campus usually have around 75 or more active members, we currently have 16. We are encountering two downfalls, Conversation and Campus Stereotype that have led us to this point of only getting 3-4 girls to pledge every year, and was hoping for advice from anyone here been through the same situation:

While our sisters are smart, funny, well-rounded, caring, awesome women, our interests seem to vary from those of the incoming freshmen. In the nicest way possible of saying it, the freshmen going through rush are generally the girls at school for parties, not classes. Sure we can talk among ourselves and have plenty of friends, but are dead shy when talking to these girls and know they don't want to talk about the recent Twilight book that came out or how awesome the Olympics Opening Ceremony was. Let's face it, my sisters don't know this season Prada from last season Prada, we don't care if you drive a BMW or a Lexus, and we're not into the guy you met last night. Girls want girls they are similar to: We are on average a size 10, we don't get manicures because our hands work hard, we don't have the guys chasing us. But, we love who we are and are proud of what we stand for. Our strengths are within. The students our campus has accepted these past two years has changed greatly, and our sorority is a dying breed of what was, and has not been able to translate to what is. That is where our campus stereotype hurts us. The other sororities all do fulfill the legally blonde image, party like rockstars with frat guys, and know how to recruite. It is leading others, mostly frat guys, to say negative things about us. Also, the fact that were a sorority of 16 versus 75 makes us unable alot of times to participate in as many events as we'd like, hurting our image more to the other frats and sororities. We've been trying to do everything we can to change their impression of us, and as with the change in girls rushing, it just hasn't been successful yet.

So I ask:

1) Please give all the advice you can on conversation. We literally get in there and don't have a word to say to these girls. Also, motivation ties in with this. We're not marketing people- how do we sell it?

2) How to overcome and get rushees oversee our campus stereotype. We want to be big, varied, and awesome, and we need girls to believe in us enough, even if we're down down, to make us become that.

THANK YOU!