Help! AGR and recruitment?

[Wontevershutup]

Hi sisters-
Another post from a sister at the Tau Chapter... I have two questions not really related, but we need some help.

1- Our chapter used to do a lot of activities with AGR, but for some reason (there are assumptions why) we no longer do anything with them--their sister sororities are social. Whatever happened to cause this falling out between our chapters occurred before I was a freshman (I am now a senior), so everyone has graduated that knew anything about it. We're trying to get back with AGR now, but our sisters are wondering what other Sigma Alpha chapters do to mix with AGR. They are not dry and we are, so we don't know how to entice them into hosting activities with us. Any suggestions would definitely be appreciated...

2- Our chapter just voted on and accepted 5 MCs. We had 10 girls show up to rush, but for the first time ever only 1/2 of the girls showed up for interview night. Five is a really great number, don't get me wrong, but when I rushed there were 13 of us as MCs and the year before there were 20. Our chapter is down to 15 active sisters and many of us are graduating in May. What else can we do for recuitment? We sent out brochures during the summer and the rush chair spoke at EVERY freshman and transfer orientation for the animal science department over the summer. We sent out mass e-mails to the college of agriculture, forestry, and life science, and put information on the university webpage, as well as on flyers around campus. What else can we do? Does anybody rush through/during panhellinc rush?

Thanks for your suggestions!
Tanya~

[agnerd]

Some stuff my chapter did with our AGR are BBQ's, a scholarship dinner and we tried volleyball once but due to scheduling it fell through. We luck out here because our AGR is real supportive of Sigma Alpha. I'd suggest doing some social cookouts with the guys. Just make sure that they know for the hours of the event between you two it's dry. If you do a cookout during the week it more guys may attend since 'going out to drink' seems to usually be a weekend thing. Make sense? And if the guys make a huge deal out of stuff being dry it's really their loss. I am sure once you ladies start coming up with ideas of cool stuff for the two chapters to do together the men will jump at the chance to do joint events with the awesome ladies of SA! :-D

Hope this helps

Shelley

[Buff]

At Michigan State, our Sigma Alpha is active with both Farm House and AGR. We have remained on good terms with both frats since I can remember, but it does take some time to establish these relationships. We do tend to do more with FH than AGR, but are working toward increasing that involvement. One activity that allows us to bond is dinner. About once per month Sigma Alpha cooks dinner for FH (I think they have started doing this with AGR also since I graduated). We cook in their kitchen since it is larger, then everyone sits down to eat together. Because dinner is in the evening, most people are just getting out of class or working in study groups; noone is even considering drinking this early in the evening.

As far as rush class size is concerned, I think sometimes there is very little you can do to influence this. I think it runs in cycles, some years high, some years low. Each year our rush chair works very hard, doing many of the things you mentioned. Most classes before mine avg. 10 girls, mine was seven. The year after my class had 3 girls finish rush, only one remained active after that semester. The next class was around 7, then the next fall we had 16, which was a huge rush class (especially considering we had more rushes than active actives). So keep up the good recruitment efforts, make sure you vary your themes, styles, etc alittle each rush. Each rush theme will attract a different set of girls.

[BFulton]

Re: AGR (or other ag-related fraternal groups), another thing I've seen work for chapters is inviting them to join in (or volunteering to help them with) a philanthropy project. This can be especially good if there's a link to agriculture in some way.

Re: rush -- you have received some good advice already... it may also be useful to review the recruitment materials in the National Chapter Guide (if you have not done so yet). It sounds as though your chapter did some great publicity work w/rush, which may have raised awareness, but sometimes it is still tough for a new student to talk themselves into going to something like rush all by themselves. If that is an area you feel that your chapter could work on, brainstorm some ways to make personal contact, particularly with those people you REALLY want to get to rush SA! (this is assuming you are not going through Panhellenic rush with its associated rules)
p.s. 5 MCs is a good number -- particularly if you get 5 MCs twice a year!

[Wontevershutup]

Hey sisters-
Just wanted to thank y'all so much for all of the advice so far. I think we've gotten some great ideas and we're really going to try to raise awareness this semester so we can get some great girls in the spring. Keep bringing the suggestions!
In sisterhood-
Tanya~

[sus]

I really like Beth's idea about a joint philanthropy project with AGR. I would think that would help with the difference in alcohol policies. Perhaps they could help you with an ag in the classroom project. Who would argue that alcohol should be allowed there?!

For your rush, you may want to consider hand delivering individual invitations to select girls you'd like to recruit. Talk to the professors about who they think would be an asset to you. Then, assign a member or two to deliver the invitation to a social at the beginning of rush week (or maybe even an activity before rush). Ask them to bring a friend, too. Sometimes, girls with a slight interest won't rush because they think they're not really "wanted" or that they'd feel left out because their friends aren't involved. Once they realize they have been singled out and are VERY wanted, they feel flattered and their interest is piqued.

Again, tho, I need to agree with Beth in that 5 new members is not bad. Numbers will go up and down but you'll recover. It's better to get 5 very active leaders than 10 who don't make it thru the MC period.

[tifflnuf]

Ok, so be prepared, this is going to be long, and probably sound funny coming from the "new" chapter. We have been around as an organization with similar ideals and rules to Sigma Alpha for 13 years before we became a SID, so we have been through both of the problems you talked about, as well as probably just about any other one you can come up with.

We have, however, managed to repair a similar problem with our AGR chapter. It helps that a lot of our girls know the guys on a more personal basis, through class, ffa, 4-H, breed assoc, etc. Once you get a few friendships, its easy to expand those. We include the guys in our rush events with a social every rush week. This years is "surfer and beach babes" themed. We are having this one at their house, although we have hosted it at a sisters house or on campus facility before. We also attend their functions as a show of support. We have also had bbqs, picnics on a lake our univ. owns, volleyball, we always go cheer on each others teams in intramurals.

Every little thing you do, however small makes an impression. Even if its a Christmas card sent to their house, a thank you note for their attendance, going to their chapter to announce an upcoming activity(sched. prior with their NR), cookies delivered on a late night during finals week, or even stopping a guy in an AGR shirt and introducing yourselves.

As far as the alcohol thing, if the guys respect you as a sister, as a group, and as a chapter who is trying to further your sisters towards the same goal as their guys, then they should respect that we are dry.

As far as rush, for some reason its never really been a problem for us as far as getting enough girls. We had over 80 girls attend information sessions last semester for the Alpha class, and we had 22 MCs, 19 were activated. We just started rush last night for this semester, and we had 29 at our first night of rush. We have set a limit of 30 MCs for this semester, as we have 30 actives and dont really want to get ahead of ourselves. We send out a letter to every eligible woman in the college of ag at the beginning of the semester, before panhellenic rush takes place. We post fliers, update our website, send a mass email to the college, any listservs we are on, maake announcements in our classes. Word of mouth is still the best mode of communication though. Thats where the majority of our girls come in. Dont forget about people out of the college who would be interested, but arent ag majors. Hit up the FFA chapters and 4-H chapters in your state with fliers.

Also remember though, that you are looking for quality women who will be dedicated and actiive actives. When you get to be as large as we are, you get into a whole other set of problems that require a different approach. As long as you stay above the minimums, then you should be proud of the girls you bring in, however big the class might be

Tiffany

[AnSciChick]

When Alpha Rho was still a SID chapter, I know one way we got AGR involved was to do a professional developement with them. We held a resume workshop at the house. We had professionals from the College of Ag come over, fed them dinner, and then they looked at our resumes. It also helped that most of the Sisters were good friends with almost all the guys in the house.

Lately though, the current actives have been involved with both AGR and Aggie House. So I guess at the UofA, we've been pretty lucky to have a good relationship with both houses.