local rush

[rayray]

I'm currently the Rush Chair for a local sorority at sonoma state in CA. Being local is one of the best yet the hardest thing at the same time. Just curious to hear some stories aand or advice form any other locals.
Rachel
KDZ

(sorry kinda new to the site)

[AOX81]

I also am a member of a local sorority. At the school that I went to my sorority was a part of panhel so we rushed with the NPC sororities during formal and informal recruitment. Rush at my school was not very competitive...it is very hard for us to get girls to sign up for rush and come to events. I think it is because my school was a commuter campus. Back when I rushed (1996) there were ~45 girls signed up for recruitment. The numbers have been going downhill since then.

Over the summer my girls have been busting their butts to get more people interested in Greek Life...guys and girls. We would like to see a bigger Greek system at our school...right now it is probably less than 1%.

Do a search and you will come across a lot of threads related to PR. Promote your sorority and Greek life in general whenever you can!

[Damaris]

Recruitment at my school is nearly impossible. My school doesn't support sororities and/or fraternities thanks to some of the nationals that ruined it for the rest of us.

Every semester we try to think of new ways to recruit and get our name out. This semester we had business cards with the address to our website and spread them EVERYWHERE!

We don't have a traditional "rush" because it's just not allowed. That makes it so hard.

We have received a lot more interested ladies by wearing our jackets and t-shirts around campus and having ladies come up and say "wow, I didn't know there were sororities here."

[AOX81]

Originally posted by Damaris
"wow, I didn't know there were sororities here."

I have heard that line so many times!!

[AlphaXiDiva]

I guess I should feel lucky that on my ever so small campus (redlands,CA pop.:2000) we have a fairly strong greek system. About 20% of our sudents are Greek. And greeks lead our campus in student govt, and other orgs on campus. We are also the leaders in social events...no one goes to things sponsored by non-Greeks for the most part. There are only locals allowed on our campus, so we have a panhellenic council composed of all locals, and a fraternal council of locals. There are 5 sororities on campus now all founded before the 1930's. Unfortunately mine Alpha Xi Omicron died out in the 70's and was brought back in 98. We struggled for a while competing with the other sororities on campus for our respect (i'd imagine how a lot of you other locals must struggle with nationals on your campuses if they are there). We got called a fake sorority, and other things as we had to reconstruct our rituals and traditions and pledge process which is a huge deal on our campus. (luckily we got in contact with a ton of alum this past year and retrieved a lot of old info! we are really excited!) Everyone is aware of who is pledging who and what pledges were seen doing and things. anyways, I'm rambling.
We all hold an official rush that lasts about 2 weeks. There are 4 events. The first is an intro to all sororities and rushees come by in group led by panhel reps to each house. we sing songs and eat and give a brief summ of our org. then there's 1st rush which is a casual event of choice by each org. then there is open house where you visit each house you got invited back to during a 2hour period. Finally there's 2nd rush party which is formal and invite only. After this, actives hold bid meetings and turn in their bids to panhel pres to be given out and chosen by the rushees early the next morning. if anyone is in need of rush ideas or input more detailed than this, feel free to pm me. I am more then happy to help, and to recieve ideas myself!
greek love!