Quality over Quantity

My organization is younger, and recruitment has been outstanding the past two years since we've been founded. We currently have over 50 members, with the goal of receiving an extension from a NPC organization and colonizing with them.

Although I love every sister in my organization, I feel as though we need to switch gears from obtaining a large membership, and focus more on quality of members (as I keep coming by 'quality over quantity' in the recruitment forum). I feel as though this will help ensure my organization remains strong throughout the years.

Just some background information about my campus:
- There are 3 greek life organizations (2 sororities, both local; 1 fraternity, international), totaling a current membership of over 150.
- We are located in Canada (Lethbridge, Alberta).
- Greek life here does not ask for references.
- Our recruitment consists of tabling beginning the Monday of the second week of school (tabling occurs all week), with events happening that week and the week after, and Bid Day being on the Thursday or Friday of the second week of recruitment.
- Recruitment does not include alcohol
- We have Fall and Spring recruitment
- My school has 10,000 students
- We do not have rho gammas during recruitment

Any other comments or suggestions pertaining to quality over quantity are much appreciated!

Thank you for your time!

Here are my questions:

1 - What qualities about a person do you consider to make them 'quality', and how do these qualities benefit the organization? (Please be honest.)

2 - How do you determine if the PNM has these qualities? Do you determine this before or after Bid Day? (and if after, would you vote them out immediately or wait until initiation voting).

3 - Do you 'interview' each PNM? What sorts of questions do you ask? How do you conduct the interview (this seems a bit intimidating)?

4 - What do references consist of? (ie resume, letter from employer, awards received, high school transcript, etc...)

5 - If we were to accept references (which would be new for us), as a way for a PNM to increase the likelihood of receiving a bid, what should we write in our brochures to advertise this?

6 - We currently have a membership of about 50 members. What should we cap recruitment at? (for fall recruitment, spring recruitment, or the year)

7 - Some schools/organizations don't have a spring recruitment. What are your opinions about this? Is it better only having fall recruitment? (In the past we have had large spring recruitment's, but recently they have become small)

8 - When giving out bids, do you also hand out letters of regret? (ie stating that they didn't make the cut this time but that we see potential in them and if they work on.... let's say, doing more volunteering, that they would increase their chances of receiving a bid in the future.)

9 - How do you vote on this if we cap maximum recruitment? Currently we look at about 50 PNMs and vote on whether it is a yes or a no that they would make a good sister.

10 - Greek life is prominent on campus, but has only begun. How do you seek out quality people? Currently we just table.

[KSUViolet06]

Membership selection is private info, so you may not get much in the way of that.

I will say though, that I've learned that quality and quantity are not mutually exclusive. Quantity of PNMs drives quality.

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Membership selection is private info, so you may not get much in the way of that.

I will say though, that I've learned that quality and quantity are not mutually exclusive. Quantity of PNMs drives quality.

Thank you for your response, KSUViolet06!

I never realized this was a private manner, other than what is immediately happening at your school and within your chapter. Maybe not here, but in a DM, would you know any methods OTHER organizations might use? I'm just trying to get a grasp on this concept.

That is very true that quality and quantity are not mutually exclusive!

[ASTalumna06]

What KSUviolet said. If only 10% of the people you meet during a semester end up joining your sorority, for example, then you're better off if you meet 100 people rather than 20.

10% of 100 > 10% of 20

My first suggestion would be to build a names list. Have everyone in your chapter write down the names of every non-Greek woman they know on campus. Build an Excel spreadsheet and add new names every time you meet someone new.

Then hang out with them. Invite them to lunch, to grab coffee, to study, to watch tv.. whatever. A good rule is that for every potential member you're hanging out with, only invite that many sisters + 1. So if you invite 2 potential members to lunch, make sure there are no more than 3 sisters there with them.

Don't rely solely on tabling. Keep in mind that you're trying to make friends. And you can't make friends with new people if all you're doing is sitting at a table with your current friends.

Meet as many people as possible!

Hope this helps

[WhiteRose1912]

Luchia, have you read the book I Heart Recruitment?

[DeltaBetaBaby]

One idea is to conduct a "chapter inventory" prior to recruitment. What do you have, and what do you need? Do you have a lot of women in one or two majors, and want to branch out? Do you need more women for the all-Greek sing? Do you want more women who are local and will stay in the area to support you as alumnae? Only your chapter can determine this, but it's helpful to go through this exercise FIRST, before you think about how individual women do or don't fit your needs.

[aephi alum]

I'm coming from the perspective of an NPC sorority alumna. KSUViolet06, ASTAlumna06, and WhiteRose1912 are also all alumnae of NPC sororities. (Edit: DeltaBetaBaby is also an NPC alumna - she and I cross-posted.)

NPC sorority membership selection is private. No chapter will ever tell a PNM why she was released. That said, every NPC sorority has a minimum GPA requirement, so, if a PNM's GPA is low and she is released, she can make an educated guess that her GPA is the reason. So, you may want to give out letters of regret, but you are under no obligation to explain why you didn't offer a bid to a particular woman.

Since there are only two sororities on campus and both are local, you are under no obligation to cap your new member class size. That said, with 50 actives, you probably don't want to take a NM class of, oh, 200 ... you'd be overwhelmed.

It's a good idea to steer away from alcohol, and I'm glad that you're doing so. You want to be sober while choosing new members. My chapter has held mocktail parties - there are plenty of creative drinks you can prepare without adding booze. (AEPhi has a no-alcohol policy for official functions including recruitment, and the drinking age down here is 21 ).

[irishpipes]

Luchia, I am sorry that ths might sound harsh...
You are posting king of willy-nilly all over GC. While your enthusiasm is commendable, it is obvious from your questions that you have NO idea how an NPC sorority operates. That in itself is ok, but you need to do a lot of reading and learning before you decide if this is the path your group wants to take. I know you have to start somewhere, but I suggest reading lots of threads before posting a million really basic questions. Plus, posting in one thread that you are pursuing Kappa Beta Gamma and in other threads that you are pursuing NPC seems like you are putting the cart before the horse. By the questions you are asking, I don't know how you could possibly know what you want.

Best wishes to you and your chapter.

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

One idea is to conduct a "chapter inventory" prior to recruitment. What do you have, and what do you need? Do you have a lot of women in one or two majors, and want to branch out? Do you need more women for the all-Greek sing? Do you want more women who are local and will stay in the area to support you as alumnae? Only your chapter can determine this, but it's helpful to go through this exercise FIRST, before you think about how individual women do or don't fit your needs.

That is probably the smartest thing I've heard. Simple, but so smart! Thank you very much for the input, DeltaBetaBaby!

[AZTheta]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

Luchia, I am sorry that this might sound harsh...
You are posting kind of willy-nilly all over GC. While your enthusiasm is commendable, it is obvious from your questions that you have NO idea how an NPC sorority operates. That in itself is ok, but you need to do a lot of reading and learning before you decide if this is the path your group wants to take. I know you have to start somewhere, but I suggest reading lots of threads before posting a million really basic questions. Plus, posting in one thread that you are pursuing Kappa Beta Gamma and in other threads that you are pursuing NPC seems like you are putting the cart before the horse. By the questions you are asking, I don't know how you could possibly know what you want.

Best wishes to you and your chapter.

This.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

Luchia, I am sorry that ths might sound harsh...
You are posting king of willy-nilly all over GC. While your enthusiasm is commendable, it is obvious from your questions that you have NO idea how an NPC sorority operates. That in itself is ok, but you need to do a lot of reading and learning before you decide if this is the path your group wants to take. I know you have to start somewhere, but I suggest reading lots of threads before posting a million really basic questions. Plus, posting in one thread that you are pursuing Kappa Beta Gamma and in other threads that you are pursuing NPC seems like you are putting the cart before the horse. By the questions you are asking, I don't know how you could possibly know what you want.

Best wishes to you and your chapter.

Yea, wow.. I missed all of the other posts/threads.

What irishpipes said.

Originally Posted by aephi alum

I'm coming from the perspective of an NPC sorority alumna. KSUViolet06, ASTAlumna06, and WhiteRose1912 are also all alumnae of NPC sororities. (Edit: DeltaBetaBaby is also an NPC alumna - she and I cross-posted.)

NPC sorority membership selection is private. No chapter will ever tell a PNM why she was released. That said, every NPC sorority has a minimum GPA requirement, so, if a PNM's GPA is low and she is released, she can make an educated guess that her GPA is the reason. So, you may want to give out letters of regret, but you are under no obligation to explain why you didn't offer a bid to a particular woman.

Since there are only two sororities on campus and both are local, you are under no obligation to cap your new member class size. That said, with 50 actives, you probably don't want to take a NM class of, oh, 200 ... you'd be overwhelmed.

It's a good idea to steer away from alcohol, and I'm glad that you're doing so. You want to be sober while choosing new members. My chapter has held mocktail parties - there are plenty of creative drinks you can prepare without adding booze. (AEPhi has a no-alcohol policy for official functions including recruitment, and the drinking age down here is 21 ).

Hi aephi_alum,

Thank you so much for being so kind and clarifying this process for me. I really appreciate this.

I am curious as to how you acquire a GPA from a freshman, as I assume many of the PNMs would be new. Do you ask them for their high school transcript?

Also, that is good to hear that NPC organizations do not disclose the reasons why someone does not receive a bid. We operate in the same manner. In the past, I have been the one to run 3 very successful recruitment's. Our current chair plans to run for a position in EC, so I thought I would get back into the game and run for rush chair. My plans are to switch gears from seeking numbers to becoming even more exclusive then we currently are. I’m just having some trouble figuring out how to do that exactly so that when I sell this to my sorority they know that this choice is in the best interest of the future of our sorority.

Having over 50 actives is quite a bit for a university that has only 3 organizations at the moment. I like being able to know everyone in my sorority very well. I feel that if we were to become even more exclusive than we currently are, this would help boost our GPA even more. I think it would also be good to have a smaller recruitment as we can focus more time into teaching them valuable skills!

Yeah, I also really like that we do not associate alcohol with our recruitment and all our socials. We strive to create a positive image for greek organizations on campus, as there is a lot of negative associations due to the media. We strive to ensure the sisters we invite to join us are doing so because they like to volunteer in the community, and not because they want a cool group of people they can drink with. Yes, we do drink from time to time (we are university students after all and it is legal for us), but that is not why we are here.

Originally Posted by WhiteRose1912

Luchia, have you read the book I Heart Recruitment?

No, I have yet to read the book "I heart recruitment". I am assuming you would recommend it?

I am very familiar with the marketing and process of recruitment here as I have organized 3 recruitment's, have been trained on sales by Brain Tracy as well as one of Canada's top sales experts, formerly worked for redbull, and have been the head manager/promoter for many companies. What I am unsure about is the selectivity process of recruitment. This is very alien to me. Does that book explain it better? We mainly look at whether we think someone is nice and is excited about philanthropy (anyone that demonstrates that they are just looking to join so they can have a cool group of women to party with are dismissed, because that is not what we are about).

I have been thinking, however, that yes there are a lot of really nice people out there, but is giving each and every one of these PNMs who fit the criteria of being nice and excited about philanthropy in our best interest? That is the idea that I am struggling with. We are only as strong as our weakest sister, and if we are to recruit someone who has a low GPA, this would hurt our application for extension, right?

...There's just so much to think about...

PS thank you for taking your time to reply to my post and for being so kind.

[Titchou]

Yes, we use high school GPAs and the vast majority of NPC groups have a minimum requirement. Individual chapters may vote to raise that. So, if the national requirement is 2.5 a chapter may increase that to 3.0 or even higher. And then the chapter will have a GPA to remain in good standing the entire time one is in college. So, yes, NPC groups monitor GPA very closely....very closey. Not making one's grades can be grounds for expulsion.

[andthen]

OP by your posts yes it is apparent you are excited and are trying to gather information and I will say some of your questions were well thought out. The process that NPC sororities is different than what ΚΒΓ as they are not an NPC group. Some of your other posts you were using the two interchangeibly which they are not.

As far as the selction criteria, we can't tell you that information because there are just a lot of variables and to give you an example. I'm a student at Jonas Brothers University and I want to join ABC and I eventually become a member. Even though I'm a member of ABC, I'm not going to know the selection criteria of Miley Cyrus University because their critieria might be different.

If you and your local group are weighing your options, on whether to go ΚΒΓ I would suggest you check out npcwomen.org there you can find more information about the groups that are a part of the NPC. It seems based on your other posts you want to make a informed decision and that is wonderful. But I would strongly encourage you to do some additional research on other threads here and check out NPC website.

Best of luck to you and your group.