For the Fraternity Men... Pref Dinner?

[lifesaver]

Do ya'll use this as a final event? Where I did my undergrad experience, a few chapters (2) did it as the final recruitment week event. After that a few more groups did it and now (approx 8 years later) the formal recruitment process is structured to where all chapters have a pref dinner on the last night.

So who else has Pref Dinner?

(Explination: Pref dinner is akin to a sorority inviting a girl back to the final pref party. We know we want them, we just cant bid them yet (although I suspect some groups do...). We imply that we want them, but also have them understand that they will have big decisions to make the next day at BidDrop.

[lyrica9]

most, if not all, of the IFC fraternities here did invitational formal dinners akin to pref on their last night of recruitment.

[ksig600]

Our fraternities call them "Smokers", and they are the night before Bid Day.

We dress up, have a sit down dinner, and invite pretty ladies. There are speakers and a slideshow.

At my school its the most serious night of formal recruitment, and by being asked to go the rushee is most likely on our bid list.

Many of the Smokers on campus are solemn events, and drive home the point of "brotherhood"

[Firehouse]

At Florida State, Sigma Chi and LXA both have big-production dinners during one of the nights of rush week. They consider it absolutely essential to their success.

[SoCalGirl]

I remember the guys on my campus did a Sports Day instead of Pref Dinner. It was alos invite only.

[sigtau305]

the closest we did was have a Spaghetti Night.

[Kevin]

90% of our rush is done over the summer and fall semesters (way before rush actually starts). There is very little formal to deal with. So no, we don't have any kinds of dinners. I'd be interested in hearing detailed descriptions of how formal fraternity rush works at different places.

[Firehouse]

KTSnake: Where is your school - Oklahoma State? Do you have rush functions in different cities in he summer? Do the Brothers attending then meet and choose who they will offer? Do you have a paid summer rush chairman? Do you offer housing contracts to the freshmen pledges before they hit campus? I know there's a swath of territory through the mid-west (Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa) where most all serious rush is done in the summer and housing contracts are signed. I'm curious as to the specific mechanics.
Fraternity formal rush is very similar to sorority rush, except that the fraternities are more free to make their pitch to the rushees in the ways they want. In formal rush, fraternities are usually forbidden to actually offer a bid until the end, and rushees are usually required to visit all chapters. For instance, PanHellenic tells sororities how they must dress and rigidly structures the presentations (ie. skits), even including rules as to what they can say. Fraternity formal rush used to be more that way. At Emory University - many years ago - the SAEs buildt a swimming pool behind their house in the summer. The IFC declared that during formal rush the SAEs were required to pull their curtains, and were forbidden to mention the fact that they had a pool. "Unfair rush advantage" don't you know...

[Kevin]

University of Central Oklahoma -- a DII school with an enrollment around 16K. There are six fraternities: Sigma Nu, Pi Kappa Alpha, ACACIA, Sigma Tau Gamma, Tau Kappe Epsilon and Alpha Tau Omega. There are 4 Sororities -- their quota is at 60 and there's only one group that's struggling to hit that, the other 3 hit it every year.

Anyhow.. this semester, from what I saw, around 200 men went through Rush. They changed it up this year a little bit. The first night, we all went to the University Center and were each given a classroom. We were only allowed 10 men from our group in each classroom. We gave 10 minute presentations to each group.

After night 1, the kids going through were issued their University bid cards. The bid cards look like a normal bid card on the front containing all the legal crap about joining. On the back are six squares, each containing the name of one of the 6 fraternities on campus. The idea is that for a bid card to be "legal", they must be stamped by each house. This makes everyone go around to each house and obtain a stamp. They have 4 days of "formal" rush to do this and houses are required to be "open" from around 8-11PM every night. Usually, every house throws a huge afterparty every single night. Chapters can continue signing guys (and they need to still arrange to get their stamps) the next week, but houses don't keep hours.

The unfortunate part of our system is that all the power of selection is really transferred to the guy going through Rush. It creates a situation where most houses that depend on formal rush have a policy of signing anyone and then weeding them out later. In my opinion, that's bad for the system. Particularly the small houses, one of which I was told only had 3 guys sign this Fall.

My chapter and the other chapters that are successful with Rush don't really bother too much with the formal system. We make a good showing, but about 90% of our Rush happens months before formal rush even begins. We don't pay a rush chairman over the summer. That' just his job like any other office. He and his team recruit guys all summer long. Our chapter is fairly new, but we alums give fairly generously to help out with this process. This gives us the opportunity to meet guys, see what they're all about and only bid the guys that we want. Otherwise, we just let 'em know that the Greek System is great and that they should definitely look into it.

I had the opportunity to speak with some members of IFC this year and they tell me that they're attempting to move to a more formal system, but they're using baby steps. My feeling is that the campus needs new life. It seems that the newest chapters are excelling while the older ones are falling behind. It could be due to their alums wanting to continue their old ways (I know this is the case with one house) or any myriad of things.

Our house signed 28 guys this semester. I think we were 2nd or 3rd. I was told that PKA got 36. One fraternity as I said earlier got only 3 so there are definitely things that could be done to the system to even things out. The best thing to grow a system is to have all of the houses at about the same size. Healthy competition leads to a healthier overall system.

[Rudey]

Is this only done because you're not allowed a rolling bid system?

-Rudey

[Firehouse]

Please explain.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by Firehouse
Please explain.

I guess when I used the word system, it probably made it sound all fancy.

Lifesaver explained that they weren't allowed to give bids until a certain point so these dinners are used as a way of letting them know they're getting a bid, before then.

Rolling bids...rolling admission...rolling anything is giving the bids as necessary up until some sort of deadline. So let's say you meet 10 guys and have 10 days for rush. The first day you don't bid anyone. Day 2, you bid someone. Day 3 another guy. Yada, yada.

I know a lot of colleges and graduate schools use rolling as well.

I guess it's just different.

-Rudey

[Firehouse]

So, rush is open until a certain date (?). I like that; I like the removal of all rush rules. Rules are barriers.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by Firehouse
So, rush is open until a certain date (?). I like that; I like the removal of all rush rules. Rules are barriers.

You know something funny? I knew you would say that. Even funnier I had thought you and Pike probably used this system instead.

If the fraternity has the ability, have them pick a date so they know how long to focus on rush. Meet guys and bid them as quickly as possible. Then have that final date be the date where you get all of them together and give them their pledge pins. After that they work together in the pledge period. Less rules, less fuss.

But I really am thinking you're pulling my leg about not knowing this.

-Rudey

[Firehouse]

I just didn't know the phrase "rolling bid", and I'm not certain I completely understand it now. I absolutely agree with you about keeping things open. I'm assuming that rolling bid doesn't mean you're restricted as to the number of bids you can issue at one time, or on any one night, just that there is a final cut-off date. Is that right? One thing I have learned is that there are some very strange rush rules out there, but sometimes they exist because of peculiar circumstances on a campus.