ICS Computer Matching System?

[soccerstar19]

Hi Ladies,

I am a Recruitment Advisor at a school that is switching to the ICS matching system for this upcoming formal recruitment period. Has anyone used this program before, and what are your thoughts? Their website has tons of testimonials, but I'd rather hear from "real" people.

Thanks!

Soccerstar19

[luv n tpa]

There are reasons I like it, and there are reasons I don't. I've used it on the chapter side as well as a Rho Chi.

I can see that at a large school, it's an immense help, but on my smaller campus, it's only caused more problems. This past spring formal recruitment, it CRASHED in between the time of the chapters doing their preference selections and the PNMs logging in to find out their prefs. My poor roommate was a Rho Chi and was on the phone for HOURS with the girls in her group.

We found out later on that we missed a step - the PNMs were supposed to rank the chapters they wanted for pref first [which we do not do] and then the system would match them with the chapter lists. Instead, the PNMs went to log on to find out what invitations they received and would then choose the two they wanted, but they were denied access to log in. The system assumed that since they skipped the one step, they had withdrawn from recruitment.

So even after spelling out to ICS how we run our recruitment and what we wanted from the program, they still managed to screw it up for us. My advice would be to use ICS this semester, but ALSO DO EVERYTHING ON PAPER as a backup. This way if it craps out, you still have everything you need. If everything worked out peachy, then you'll know for next year you're good to go.

[MaggieXi]

I've helped out at recruitment at two schools and the same thing happened at both places: the system hung and we would have to go back in and redo everything we had just done.

[Elephant Walk]

We use it for fraternity rush...I think. But the rushees don't plug in their choices into the computer, people do that manually.

[gatordeltapgh]

I have seen ICS work very well and I know of campuses that have had problems in the first year. I would make sure that your fraternity/sorority advisor is having training sessions for advisors as well as the collegians. Then I would go over the training again with the collegians that are managing your selection process.

Just take your time and make sure that you are following all the steps correctly on the chapter's end. The program can be very helpful but change is never easy so you just need to keep the communication lines open on all sides. Hopefully training for the PNM's will be strong - but we all know how exciting the recruitment week is so it is easy to make mistakes.

Let me know if you have any questions & good luck!

[Zillini]

We've used it for several years now. It's not perfect, but it is a vast improvement over what we used to use. What was that called? "So Rush" or something like that, where everything was still on disk?

Things I'd like to see changed with ICS:

1) It doesn't handle Upperclassmen separately. With an Upperclassmen Quota we treat them seperately with 2 sets of invite numbers, 2 Bid lists, etc. On ICS they are are mixed in with the Freshmen with only a (U) after the last name to diffrerentiate and no way to sort. It's up to us to make sure our invite numbers match up. Why not have a seperate column to sort by? Life would be so much easier!

2) Those invitaion/selection check boxes are really small. It's too easy to click just outside the box and move on. With our large Recruitment it's really annoying going back through to find 1 or 2 missed PNMs when the numbers don't add up. You can also accidently select the wrong person.

Simple solution, 1 person reads the list, 1 clicks and another watches the screen to make sure the correct PNMs are selected. In a pinch we'll go with only a reader/watcher and clicker, but with reading they can miss things. Having that 3rd person has pretty much guaranteed accuracy for us, though of course we still double/triple/quadruple check and it can still happen.

3) Save frequently!!! We've seen the system crash before too. Plus one year we discovered that inviting/clicking wasn't considered "activity". After going through our whole long 1st round invitation list, we tried to save and it came back telling us we were logged out due to inactivity. We had to start over. (FYI - The complaint was made to our Greek Advisor who was supposed to pass it along. Don't know if it was changed because not wanting to have that happen again, we always Save regularly.)

4) Not all the screens/reports are sortable. For example, the Legacy List. Some GLO's consider Aunts, etc as legacies while others don't. We don't. If we could sort by "relationship" all those who list Aunts, cousins, etc. would be grouped together. Instead we have to go line by line. Granted for those campuses without many legacies it's not a big deal, but on a campus like Bama it is.

Positives:

1) Easy to use.

2) Quick access to lots of information: Chapter Return Rates, Party Lists, active PNMs vs drop out rates, PNM Registration forms, etc.

3) Can be accessed from home and have more than 1 person logged on at a time. While normally I'm at the sorority each night until lists are finalized and submitted, there has been a time or two when I couldn't. I've been able to work through problems while on the phone and computer with my officers/advisors. I can also check Return Rates, etc. from home each morning rather than tracking down an officer whose probably scrambling to get everything ready for that day's parties.

[soccerstar19]

Zillini - for the quick access - does it give you this information before or after each round (party lists, active PNMs, etc)? That sounds very helpful!

I'm liking what I'm hearing, but I'm still fearful that bid matching will be a scary process for this first year. Thanks for the info, ladies.

[tangelo212]

Originally Posted by Zillini

2) Those invitaion/selection check boxes are really small. It's too easy to click just outside the box and move on. With our large Recruitment it's really annoying going back through to find 1 or 2 missed PNMs when the numbers don't add up. You can also accidently select the wrong person.

Simple solution, 1 person reads the list, 1 clicks and another watches the screen to make sure the correct PNMs are selected. In a pinch we'll go with only a reader/watcher and clicker, but with reading they can miss things. Having that 3rd person has pretty much guaranteed accuracy for us, though of course we still double/triple/quadruple check.

This point cannot be emphasized enough. I used ICS for 2 years, and at my chapter we actually use 2-3 computers to do this all-important box-checking/cross-checking step. Plus, it's a safety net if one of the computers malfunctions for whatever frustrating reason.
I also want to add that, for me at least, the part of ICS that took the most getting used to was navigating the different terms/labels used on the tabs for finding what information (e.g. released PNMs, party lists, etc.)
One minor thing I found slightly annoying (and maybe they have changed this because it makes no sense) was that while you are checking off PNMs who attended the "current" round you just completed, PNMs who you may have released in a previous round are still on that list. Be careful! Checking a name of PNM you released and hadn't attended your party that day can really get confusing/mess up numbers. Sorry if this point is a bit confusing, it had been several months since I have used the program. Feel free to PM me if you have any more specific questions/want more specific answers. I'd be happy to answer any Qs!

[Zillini]

Originally Posted by soccerstar19

Zillini - for the quick access - does it give you this information before or after each round (party lists, active PNMs, etc)? That sounds very helpful!

I'm liking what I'm hearing, but I'm still fearful that bid matching will be a scary process for this first year. Thanks for the info, ladies.

It's available as soon as Panhellenic runs the program to match up invitations. Specifically, in the past our PNMs used accept/decline. We submitted our invite list, PNMs went to Convocation, logged on under their ID and saw how many invites they received. Depending on the round, they were allowed to accept X# of invites. As soon as all the PNMs completed the process and Panhellenic "closed" the system, the Party Attendee Lists were generated. All that info as well as things like Return Rates, etc. was then available on the system.

This year Bama is changing to the Preferential Ranking System. After each round is completed PNMs will rank all chapters they attended. Chapters will submit their Invitation Lists and Panhellenic will match up the invites with ICS. They will tell us when lists and reports will be available, usually first thing in the morning way before the parties start.

Some other nice things I forgot to mention earlier. There's an Announcement feature. This is how our Panhellenic informs us of absentee PNMs, excused or unexcused, along with any other pertinent info all chapters should know. Granted they aren't always speedy about posting, but it's far better than waiting for someone to deliver a paper list to the front door, then hope whoever answered the door actually brings it to the proper officer, not to mention keeping track of it. I can't count how many times we've torn apart the room looking for 1 stupid misplaced piece of paper from Panhellenic.

Panhellenic also can instantly update the list of active PNMs. There have been several times when we've been going through our invitiation list and some PNM is no longer listed. Come to find out she decided to voluntarily withdraw after the round, but before invitations were submitted. Guess she decided sorority life wasn't for her.

BUT, always confirm these with Panhellenic. Once we had a double legacy that showed up as no longer an active PNM and we knew there was no way possible she would quit. Obviously we can't call the PNM. We called Panhellenic and they swore she did. We insisted this had to be wrong and they wouldn't back down. We called our Greek Advisor and he said the same thing. Finally we convinced him to call the PNM to confirm. Lo and behold we were right. If this girl hadn't been a double legacy with Recs out the wazoo, we would have never thought twice about her "quitting".

[MaggieXi]

Also, before you start the first round, check to see if you have double names. If you have two Lauren Smith's they end up next to each other on the list and it can get really confusing when your sitting there and are trying to figure out which Lauren Smith you want to cut.

[SigKapSweetie]

Originally Posted by Zillini

This year Bama is changing to the Preferential Ranking System. After each round is completed PNMs will rank all chapters they attended. Chapters will submit their Invitation Lists and Panhellenic will match up the invites with ICS. They will tell us when lists and reports will be available, usually first thing in the morning way before the parties start.

With this, PNMs receive only the list of parties they will attend that day, correct? I think this is a much better system - and it helps to reduce tent talk if girls don't know every chapter that invited them back, only the ones they'll actually attend.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by SigKapSweetie

With this, PNMs receive only the list of parties they will attend that day, correct? I think this is a much better system - and it helps to reduce tent talk if girls don't know every chapter that invited them back, only the ones they'll actually attend.

Agreed. I'll be interested to hear how this goes at Bama.

[gee_ess]

ICS is used at U of Arkansas and I have had a positive experience with it. I think our panhellenic keeps paper copies of everything the pnm's do but I am not sure. I do know that when I had a question about a pnm who cut us ( I was just sure it was a mistake and she didn't cut us!) they were able to pull her card to see exactly what her choices were for that round. And, she did cut us!

I agree with the above post - a much better system than was available previously and I am looking forward to seeing what other improvements and capabilities they can provide for chapters. (my dream: actives sitting with laptops during voting sessions, logged onto a secure area, casting ballots that are calculated and then sent to my computer. Instant tabulation. Can you imagine the time saved?!?)

[gee_ess]

Oh, and we also do the preferential ranking system.