Motivating the Membership

[daisy7289]

Here's my initial question:

How do we inspire the membership without souring them on Recruitment with fines, pleas for participation and required meetings? How do we convey the importance of "putting in the time now" so that we can make Quota/Total and have fun events instead of CORing for a month?

Background Info to help with this question:

My sorority has a required recruitment training session every Spring in preparation for Fall Recruitment. It's set on the calendar almost a year in advance, and the fine for not attending is very steep. It is our major planning and preparation session so that the Fall is not so stressful. It was on a Saturday and it lasted four hours.

Even with these factors, over 50% of the chapter did not show up. We are a medium sized un-housed chapter. I am on Exec and heard every excuse. Most were "I was busy with school". Most were fined as this event has been on the calendar for months and talked up at chapter for weeks on end. There were even prizes!

We are set to have an amazing recruitment this year. All of the chairs are dedicated and the plans were set back in January. Everything is going so well compared to past experiences! This chapter has a history of not performing well during Formal Recruitment, and finally being in the right place as a chapter to do well and possibly bid quota & total this year is SO HUGE.

The biggest problem is the general membership. Five sisters have already said they can't participate in Recruitment at all (no real reason yet), and many others are saying that they may only be able to come to Preference and one other round - keep in mind recruitment is four months away! There are four rounds (frilly), and every sister is of vital importance - if we lose just three sisters one night we have to start taking two PNMs off the door. In the past sisters have showed up in the middle of a round (!!!) or walked in five minutes before parties start because they were "busy". In the recruitment chair's opinion, the girls just don't get the importance of finishing recruitment in one shot - we've said so many times that if we do it WELL once, we don't have to do it for another year! We drastically increased the fines at the last Exec for missing parties/arriving late and missing practices with no excuse as a very last resort to curb this problem.

Again, here are the main points I'm seeking advice with:

How do we inspire the membership without souring them on Recruitment with fines, pleas for participation and required meetings? How do we convey the importance of "putting in the time now" so that we can make Quota/Total and have fun events instead of CORing for a month?

[AOII Angel]

There may not be much you can do with the current women in your chapter. I suggest that you find the core women who see the importance of preparing for recruitment and make an effort for all of you to instill this importance to every NM you get. After a few years, you will have a chapter that values the recruitment process because they don't know anything different. My chapter made recruitment practice mandatory, as well. We actually had a sisterhood retreat off campus that included recruitment practice and sisterhood activities the entire weekend. Everyone went to these retreats...I can't think of a single person who even thought of trying to get out of it.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by daisy7289

In the recruitment chair's opinion, the girls just don't get the importance of finishing recruitment in one shot - we've said so many times that if we do it WELL once, we don't have to do it for another year!

If they didn't come in that way - i.e. if they received their bids through COR or snap bidding - this is going to ring very hollow with them and probably also offend them a bit as well. I know what she means, but putting so much importance on FR can make people who joined in other ways feel kind of second class. (Oh and COR should be laid back - not elaborate parties that people dread attending - they should almost be non-events. But that's another thread.)

You need a rush chair who can positively motivate the sisterhood (even those who would rather walk over hot coals than go through FR prep) to do well and make everyone feel like they are part of securing the chapter's future. If you don't have that, it is going to be a hard row to hoe. If women are made to feel like they wouldn't get a bid if they walked in the door today, they're not going to be too high on rushing.

AOII Angel is right - you have who you have right now. If you want to take the chapter in another direction, you still might have to wait a while.