How does your school do bid day?

[BabyPiNK_FL]

I know there is probably a thread on this (but after trying to do a search and scanning through 2 years worth of posts) I haven't found anything specific to what I need so I hope y'all don't mind!

I'm on the Panhellenic Council at my school and we are looking for way to improve bid day for the PNMs and our organizations and ourselves. So one assignment that we have is to just look at what other campuses do.

Just so you know:

We have
Orientation Night (They meet the Rho Gammas and get a bit of info before starting
Round 1 -Sorority 101 (Info night)
Round 2-Philanthropy Night (Philanthropy/Dues)
Round 3-Values and Traditions (Sisterhood)
Round 4-Preference (Ceremonies & crying)
Bid Day

We gather on Bid Day with the Rho Gammas and wait until everyone is there (best case scenario) and then:

In 2005 we opened our bids with our Rho Gamma & Rho Gamma group and a few adults from the Greek Affairs office in a private room upstairs. We opened our bids together, laughed (or cried) and signed to accept, declined, or were counseled privately.

In 2006 they lost their minds and had the girls open their bids on the main floor of the main building of campus (it was a weekend so pretty much only recruitment related people were there still...) Rho Gammas had a hard time controlling people who ran off crying or were distraught, etc.

In 2006, they also changed the time at the last minute (because they didn't wait for all the girls to show up on time to get bids) and instead of the 4pm start time, they had members calling everyone to be there for a 2pm start time. (Imagine me on the turnpike driving like mad from my job to make it into another county in a torrential downpour.)

This year, we'd like to start early (and not change the time last minute!) Also, we're going to have some Greek Yearbook photographs taken (which will take time after the NM reveal their affilliation) before individual bid day celebrations will start.

We have around 500 women start recruitment and 200something finish and we have six sororities (NPC) on campus.
(This is all so you can be a little familiar with my campus)

My question is:
How does YOUR school set up its Bid Day?

Thanking you kindly for your responses and help,
R.

[susan314]

Rush counselors delivered the bids to the PNM's dorm rooms. Since rush groups were assigned by dorms, it made it fairly easy to do. I'm sure that some of the women were dying with suspense while waiting for us to get to their rooms, but on the bright side it allowed them a sense of privacy.

When I was a rush counselor, I appreciated this method - it gave us each a little one on one time with each of our members. Of course, most of them were terribly excited and just wanted to give us a hug then be one their way over to their new sorority home. But, for the ladies who didn't get their first choice, it was good to be able to spend a few private moments talking with them.

I must admit that I was a little surpised when I found out that some schools have their girls open bids in front of each other. Works out great for the girls who breeze through recruitment, I suppose, but I'd imagine its not quite as fabulous for the girls who hit bumps in the road along the way.

(We had 16 NPCs at our school, and quota tended to be between 30-40ish each year.)

[AnatraAmore]

This year, at our school, PNMs visited the Greek Office and met with their Gamma Rho Chi's between 10am and 2pm to find out if/where they were offered a bid. This affords them a bit of privacy while opening their bids. Our bid day celebration (and Gamma Rho Chi revealing) began at 4pm. This gave girls who might not have gotten their first choice a little bit of time to calm down - and sororities got the list of who had accepted bids in time to personalize and prepare (no last minute surprises if someone or several someones decide not to accept!)

[KSUViolet06]

My campus is similar to yours. We have the same # of PNMs finishing recruitment and 6 NPCs (plus a local).

Preference parties are on a Sunday morning, ending around noon. Bid Night is that night (last year it started at 6:30).
The PNMs go back to the student center, do their rankings and wait. They are not permitted to leave the 3rd floor of the Student Center. So they just have to sit and wait until bids have been matched and the bid cards have been made.

Once the bids are matched and bid cards are ready, each Rho Chi takes their group downstairs to the Greek Life office. Each group lines up outside the office. One by one, girls go in and open their envelopes (only the Greek Life advisor and the Panhellenic VP Recruitment are present in the room). They either accept or decline.

FYI: Girls who have not been matched are notified earlier (the Rho Chi pulls each girl aside into a separate room to tell her), like as soon as bids are matched, so they can leave before it's time for the matched PNMs to go down and get their envelopes.


If they accept, they go down to the first floor, line up in alphabetical order, and wait for Bid Night to start. Bid Night usually starts on time (since the PNMs are all in the same area for basically the entuire day, it doesn't take long to get them their bids and get them lined up.

The sororities are out in the plaza of the Student Center in their Bid Night shirts doing cheers and holding up signs. The PNMs are lined up just inside the Student Center. The first floor of the building is all glass windows so the PNMs can see us as they are walking down and getting in line so that's fun because you can see their excited faces as they are waiting to come out.


Hope this helps!

[susan314]

Since someone else mentioned Rho Chi revealing...I've been curious how that's done on other campuses.

Part of the tradition on my campus was that rush groups would guess which chapters their Rho Chis were from - usually by an anonymous ballot. It was kind of a fun thing for the PNMs, who of course had been curious and speculating all through rush anyhow.

It was fun, and all intended to be good spirited. (Though when I was a Rho Chi, my rush buddy did get a little offended that everyone in our group guessed that she was from the predominantly Jewish sorority on campus. She was Jewish, btw, but she also belonged to the "top" sorority on campus and was a little conceited...the idea that anyone would peg her as being from anything but the "top" sorority on campus didn't make her very happy. )

Anyhow, I was just curious as to whether the PNMs made official guesses on other campuses, or whether this was something that was just an unusual tradition on ours.

[_Lisa_]

At the University of Kentucky, Bid Day starts with girls who didn't get a bid receiving phone calls from their Gamma Chi (we called them Rho Chi back in my day! ) so they would know not to come to the afternoon's activities.

All the girls are gathered in one large hall wearing their white dresses, bids are passed out, & the Gamma Chi's do a skit to reveal who is from which organization. Before rushing off to the house the girls are shuffled into classrooms to meet their new member educator & sign their bid cards. If you are unhappy with the organization you were accepted to, this is the time to bow out & find your Gamma Chi for support.

After the bid cards are signed, you learn some cheers/chants/songs & then sing them as you walk to your new home. The Actives for each house are usually waiting outside with balloons, flowers, t-shirts, etc. The Actives usually have some kind of activity planned for the rest of the evening.

[AlphaFrog]

Ours was the Monday after rush week. Everyone met in the student union and bids were passed out by Rho Chis. Everyone waited until all the bids were passed out, and then we opened them all at once. Then, 2 girls from each sorority would call for their new members, and we ran up to the grand ballroom where our new sisters were waiting. Then the Rho Chis had a slideshow prepared, and did their revealing (they had matching letter shirts on under their jerseys, and revealed by pulling off their jersey - great for all of the "Sigma" groups we had, because they could keep the suspense going by only revealing their Sigma) and were accepted back into their group (usually with a lot of tears and excitement).

[BaylorBean]

Great thread by the way. It is really cool seeing how different bid day is everywhere.

Our bid day was also held the monday after recruitment (Recruitment started Wed, Pref was on Sunday). We all met our Rho Chi and group at the student union in the afternoon and then waited for her to call us into a room with just her where she gave us our bid. It was nice because if you were upset, the entire group wasn't there to see it. You then either accept or decline, go to another room and sign the bid card with the respective sorority's advisor.

Once everyone had their bids, all the groups went over to "the hill" and waited at the top with all the sororities waiting at the bottom. Then group by group sang "Hmm and a little bit more" with each girl yelling out the sorority she accepted a bid from and then run down the hill with out breaking their neck to their respective group. In the end the Rho Chis do the same thing to reveal who they are members of.

It was quite the sight with all the Fraternaties showing up to get a good laugh and the occasional streaker.

[PeppyGPhiB]

At my school, which had 8 sororities (7 now) and about 300 women going through recruitment, almost every woman matches, so fortunately the rho chis never had to deal with telling women they didn't get a bid. Unless they suicided, which several women did every year. We called those women ahead of time so they knew not to come down to collect a bid.

For the rushees that got bids, each rho chi was in charge of handing out their rushees' bids. We usually had a time frame in which our rushees could come get their bids; most women would show up right away, but some women that were nervous would actually wait until the last minute. Each rho chi group had a table in an area of a nice, private room, and we would hand out bids to the women as they showed up. Some women would tear open the bids right away, in front of everyone, whereas others would take the envelope and go into the bathroom or outside to open it privately. It was never a frenzy, and I don't recall a lot of crying, either. Note that we did not have an option to accept or deny a bid; we were told by NPC after preference parties that by listing sororities on our final bid preference form we were indicating we would accept a bid from any of them.

Once bids are handed out, all the new members and rho chis gather in the amphitheatre for the rho chi reveal. When I was there, all the rho chis would sing a portion of a rush song/chant from each chapter on campus, then on the second round of singing the medley, they'd remove their rho chi sweatshirts to reveal their GLO letters underneath (at the appropriate time, of course ) Then the rho chis gather up the new members of their sororities and lead them off to meet their chapters, who wait for them in assorted nearby locations on campus.

[aephi alum]

Back in the day, we didn't have a big bid day event. Each PNM met with her rho chi privately. She would be told, "You've received a bid from XYZ. You can accept it now, defer it, or decline it." PNMs who accepted or deferred would then go to the sorority's bid day party; PNMs who declined just went away. You could defer for up to 3 days, if you wanted to think about it or talk to your parents or whatever. There also was no rho chi revealing.

The bad thing was that PNMs who didn't get bids were not called ahead of time. There were always a couple of women who didn't match, and they'd show up all excited to get their bid, and walk away crying.

[AOE2AlphaPhi]

At my school, bid day is at 4 the day after preference. We had a seemingly endless initiation into NPC and an even longer process where we had to guess each Rho Gamma's affiliation. All the Rho Gammas wear a lot of layers of eachother's letters, and keep taking the layers off until they get to their org. I hated this part, because even though I was curious, I wanted to know where I had gotten a bid!

Around 5:15 each Rho Gamma group goes into a classroom, where the Rho Gammas pass out bid cards. Girls who didn't recieve bids were called in advance, and as soon as we get our bids we leave the room so that the Rho Gammas can concentrate on the girls who were unhappy.

Then we go back into the big room where we were early and break into chapters. Each pledge class goes into a classroom with the Rho Gammas who are in their chapter. Again, we wait forever and eventually three actives come into the room, give us our bid day buckets and start teaching cheers as fast as they can (at least for my chapter, but I think all the chapters did this.) Then chapter by chapter, all the actives line up in front of the main door cheering and their new members cheer out the window at them and then run down the stairs and out the door to join their new sisters.

[SigKapCoug]

Schedule according to greek life website:


Sunday:
Potential new members move into halls
Parents and Daughters say goodbye
Potential new members meet with Rho Gamma group
Parent's Orientation to Sorority Recruitment
Potential new members dinner with Rho Gammas

Monday:
PNM Orientation
First day of Open House Day (visit 5 chapters)

Tuesday:
Second day of Open House Day (visit 9 chapters)

Wednesday:
House Tours Day (visit up to 10 chapters)

Thursday:
Philanthropy Day (visit up to 6 chapters)

Friday:
Campus Picnic
Preference Day (visit up to 3 chapters)

Saturday:
Initiation into Panhellenic and Bid Day

Here's how bid day worked the past 2 years:

Bids are given at a large brunch. Women who received a bid sit with their Rho Gam, who will hand the the envelope. the PNMS then sit on the bid cards for like an hour (literally sit on them!).
Everyone opens all there cards at once, and then the PNM follows her new group's Rho Gamma to their meeting place. At the meeting place, they wait for everyone who was given a bid to that group to arrive, take photos, squeal, etc. There are usually several representatives from the chapter at the room to help greet the girls.
This large group (new members, re-affiliated rho gammas, women who came to pick up the NMs) head for the chapter house.
The remaining women from the chapter are the house, waiting in the yard screaming chants as their new members arrive. It's exciting because you can hear your group from a block or two away.


...I don't know what happens if a PNM is upset, though.

[AOII Angel]

I really loved the way my campus did bid day. We didn't have houses, but each of the four sororities had half of a wing in the sorority dorm. The dorm was set up with a central foyer with a wing on each side. AOII had the bottom right hand wing, Phi Mu had the bottom left. Kappa Delta was on the top left and Sigma Kappa on the top right. Ms. Gilmore (our NPC advisor) put blackout paper on the windows to the foyer. At the appointed time, after girls with no bids had been notified, each Rho Chi would escort her group from the dorm housing the rushees over to the sorority dorm. The PNMs would wait outside until their turn. You'd meet privately with Ms. Gilmore, who would give you your bid. This allowed you a chance to be counseled if you were upset by your bid. If you refused to accept the bid, you could exit through the back without being seen. Once you accepted your bid, you would run down your respective hallway (which worked best for the girls going to AOII or Phi Mu since for KD and SK you'd have to go outside to get to the stairs.) All of the sisters would be in the hallway singing chants as you came down the hall. It was very nice to have a personal welcome to the chapter. This of course took a long time, though. My senior year we had quota of 36 so it took a long time to get through that many girls.

[speedsters]

my school is similar to AOIIangel.

our chapter rooms are all on the same hall in a dorm (where two of the three have a hall) and so for us seniors are in the chapter room, underclassmen are in the hall and pnm's are in the stairwell.
alum from each sorority are in the lounge , one at a time a pnm goes into the lounge is presented with her bid, if she accepts she is escorted into her new chapter room! after all bids are presented the rest of our chapter comes down.

girls who do not recieve a bid are called earlier in the day.
we have a smaller recruitment with 3 chapters and quota about 20. recruitment usually starts with about 80 girls.

[SthrnZeta]

Our FR started Thursday with Orientation, then Friday was Round 1, Saturday was Round 2 (Philanthropy) and Sunday was Preference when you filled out your Bid Card to which two sororities you'd accept bids to. Monday night was Bid Day and the Rho Gamma (it was Rho Chi when I went through) would call people during the day that day if they did not match anywhere. The sororities had no idea who accepted their bid until they entered the room. On Monday morning you'd go down to get your bid from your Rho Gamma (so everyone there got a bid and you'd know why someone was missing from your group) and you had the rest of the day to get ready for Bid Day if you accepted it. On the bid card it would tell you where to be. Rho Gammas would escort each group of girls to their respective sororities that evening and when each member entered, the NM Coordinator said their name and everyone gave you a hug and your goodie bag and a bid day shirt. Then, the Rho Gammas would leave you with your new sisters and go to this big room in the Student Union Building and we'd hold Bid Day festivities where all the groups would take turns singing (your group would teach you a couple before you filed over to Bid Day) and competing for who was the loudest and then the Greek Advisor would make a speech and the Rho Gammas would reveal themselves however they chose - Most would just hold up letters after making a short speech and then you'd be knocked over by your chapter welcoming you back with lots of presents and balloons. As for our PNMs guessing our affiliations, it was done informally before you handed out bids to your group. After Bid Day, your chapter would take you out or have a party with a fraternity - my class was brought to Friendly's for ice cream At Bid Day while you were still with your chapter, they'd assign you a Strawberry Sis also. What an exciting day. I like the stories about running across to your chapters though - you see pics of girls sprinting across the grass or across the street and that looks like fun. At W&M, I hear the fraternities are out and you have to try to break through them to get to your group!

Sorry if my post is a little disjointed - Bid Day was too crazy to remember everything clearly and the next one I was neutral for so I only had one recruitment on the sister side and I was a senior by then...