Promise Bidding?

[starletdiva]

hey everyone...a few of my sisters and i were discussing recruitment, and we've heard of the term promise bidding, but none of us really knew exactly what it meant...if someone could help me out with this or knows where i could find it written down...it would be greatly appreciated...thanks!

[chideltjen]

isn't this related to COB? I am gonna take a wild guess... cuz I don't know.
so a house is almost at total and have 4 spots left. Well 6 girls come out that are really cool and would make good sisters. can they give a promise bid to the two other girls they can't take at the moment and tell them to come back next semester?
I honestly don't know. But that's what I think it is.

[texas*princess]

I've never heard of promise bidding... I don't even think that is "legal" in the NPC world.. but I could be wrong

[aopirose]

You’re right. In formal recruitment, it is against Panhellenic policies to promise someone a bid. It can be tricky. Sometimes it happens unintentionally because the PM misunderstood what a member said. Other times it is blatant. A member will tell a PM things like, “We all really want you to be a sister and you will be come Bid Day.”

[WhiteDaisy128]

It *might* also be this:

For some larger Greek systems, girls that make it through a certain invitational round are promised a bid to a house - this promise is made by Greek Life. Does anyone know what I'm talking about enough to discuss it further...my Greek system does not do this, but I know it's out there.

[aopirose]

I heard of them doing this at Tufts not long ago. There was thread about this topic but I can't recall the exact name of it.

Originally posted by WhiteDaisy128
It *might* also be this:

For some larger Greek systems, girls that make it through a certain invitational round are promised a bid to a house - this promise is made by Greek Life. Does anyone know what I'm talking about enough to discuss it further...my Greek system does not do this, but I know it's out there.

[bruinaphi]

What aopirose mentioned is called guaranteed placement. Creighton also has guaranteed placement. I do not believe that NPC supports the concept of guaranteed placement because it is the right of all NPC groups to have membership selection procedures.

[aopinthesky]

Aopirose was quoting WhiteDaisy and what WhiteDaisy was describing is "Guaranteed Placement". Some schools guarantee that if you go through the recruitment process and fill out your bid card the way you are supposed to for each round, that you will receive a bid to a sorority at the end. This is legal, although I don't know any schools that use this process so I am not certain how common a practice it is. It does not take away a sorority's right to select their members. It also does not guarantee that a potential member will not be cut from all groups or that she will get her first choice. All it does is guarantee that if you are still attending parties up until the end of recruitment and you stay with the process, you will receive a bid from one of the groups who's pref party you attended.
That is not the same as "Bid Promising" which is when a sorority member tells a potential member that they will get a bid at some point in the future.
ChiDeltJen - bid promising is against NPC rules. Since you are a local, you can do whatever your rules dictate. If you are going by NPC rules, however, it is a no no.

[PenguinTrax]

FSU uses guaranteed placement.

[bruinaphi]

There are different levels of guaranteed placement though. What most schools use (if you follow rules and make it so far) is generally perceived as being a good thing.

At Creighton and Tufts though I believe they take it a step further. I think that anyone interested in joining is guaranteed a bid on these two campuses. I know it's been a big issue in the past. Sorry I can't shed more light.

[AlphaFrog]

Bid Promising is when Suzy SKEPi (or whoever the soroity) tells Pam PNM that either she is getting a bid (before bid day), or it can be that she tells her to drop formal rush and she'll be given a COB bid.

[breathesgelatin]

I've never heard of this term before. I'm guessing it has a similar usage to the term "oral bidding". An oral bid would be one that is given verbally to a potential new member who is going through formal recruitment. Oral bidding is not allowed in formal recruitment; members are not allowed to tell PNMs that "you have a bid here" or "everyone likes you" or things of that nature. Oral bidding is a recruitment violation that is typically used to influence PNMs to feel as if they definately have a spot waiting for them at a particular house and thus to pref that house #1.

Or I could be totally off base. Someone correct me if I am.

[aopirose]

I think that the extreme level of guaranteed placement like at Creighton and Tufts is bad. It does take away the sorority's right to choose its members. At these schools, a girl can be dropped from all houses after say the second of four rounds. We'll say that the reason is because she is a jerk. However, she did attend all parties to which she was invited and per the GP rules she will appear on somebody's bid list.

Originally posted by bruinaphi
There are different levels of guaranteed placement though. What most schools use (if you follow rules and make it so far) is generally perceived as being a good thing.

At Creighton and Tufts though I believe they take it a step further. I think that anyone interested in joining is guaranteed a bid on these two campuses. I know it's been a big issue in the past. Sorry I can't shed more light.

[33girl]

Originally posted by AlphaFrog
Suzy SKEPi

I'm SO glad you're my sister!!!

[CarolinaDG]

Originally posted by BrownEyedGirl
The University of South Carolina uses guaranteed placement, to my understanding. If a PNM attends two pref parties and plays the game (ie, ranks both and does not "suicide"), she is guaranteed a bid. CarolinaDG or one of the lovely KKG advisors at USC may be able to help clarify this though...

Yes, this is true. Unless you are cut before pref night, you are guaranteed a bid to one of the sororities you pref. If you pref only one, you'll go that sorority--except in suiciding! If you are only invited to one, you'll go that sorority. If you are invited to two and decide that you are going to suicide-choose only one of the two sororities-then you are not guaranteed a bid.

This is VERY controversial, and I'll explain why.

It's kind of hard to explain, but I'll try. Let's say I preffed Delta Gamma and ABC sorority (I won't tell who else I preffed). I picked Delta Gamma as number one, and ABC sorority as number 2. If Delta Gamma put me on their A list and ABC put me on their A list, I get Delta Gamma. If Delta Gamma put me on their B list and sorority ABC put me on their A list, I get sorority ABC. If Delta Gamma put me on their B list and sorority ABC put me on their B list, I would go Delta Gamma. What happens then is this: If Delta Gamma puts 50 girls (quota when I rushed) on their A list, and all 50 girls put Delta Gamma as number 1, they meet quota. Then, lets say there are 15 more girls that put Delta Gamma as number 1, and Delta Gamma put them on their B list. If whichever sorority that was these girls number 2 put the girls on their B list, they would go Delta Gamma, too, putting Delta Gamma at 15 over quota. Now, let's say that these girls all put sorority ABC as their number 2 (which wouldn't happen, but try to follow). Let's say that ABC ends up with 30 girls... those 15 girls that Delta Gamma took over quota could have gone to ABC, but instead went to Delta Gamma. Also, in 2001 at USC, sororities were used to quota (and pledge classes) being 30, so all the sudden not only did quota jump to 50, but sororities were taking around 60, which was twice the amount of girls that they were used to taking, which is hard to handle. One sorority ended up even pushing initiation back due to the fact that they didn't feel as if their girls knew each other well enough. They had taken 65 girls that year. Hence the controversy.

Now, the good side. Bid guarantees keep the girls spirits up. They say if you play by the rules, you are guaranteed a bid, assuming you don't get cut before pref night. Now, there are girls who are not asked back by any sorority, and this does not apply to them.

You can decide what your opinion is.