Rho Chi/Rho Gamma/ HELP

[aphimilwaukee]

Hi guys
im replacing the current avp of membership for panhel here and i need ideas how what do with our rho chi's/ rho gammas/ recruitment counselors. We have to take them on a retreat for a night and do like bonding activities/ice breakers/ go through all the stuff they need to know and i was just wondering if anybody had any ideas of good games or activities we could do with them.

please help!

[adpiucf]

When I was a PX, we had a really fun retreat.

We played a game called "Get Up and Move." To start, everyone sits in a circle, except for one person. That person says "Get up and move if..."
and says something like "If you have ever visited New York City," "You love the color yellow," "your favorite food is sushi," "you are a legacy," etc. Everyone to whom this applies leaps up and runs across the room and sits back down. The last person to sit is "out." That person is the next to say "Get up and Move if..." The game continues until the last person is out. This is a great way to learn about people and the things you might have in common because you only get up and move if the scenario applies to you.

If you have limited space, you can do "Stand up/Sit Down." This is the same idea, except that no one is "out." It's just a way to learn about one another.


We also learned about first aid. Our recruitment takes place at the end of the summer, and it's hot outside. So it was important to know how to recognize heat stroke, etc.

We learned sorority songs and facts about the other organizations. We split into groups, too, and each group was responsible for making a poster to promote one of the sororities to the other PX's.

We had a campfire, sang songs and even made up songs about being PX's.

We also learned about recruitment infractions, and what do with PNM's in certain scenarios-- how to counsel them if they were sad, what to do if we encountered a question we didn't know how to answer, what to do with a PNM who was late or missed a party.


There's a book out there called "If"-- it is a book of questions that have no right or wrong answers. It's a great book for a group dialogue because you see how people "think."

Have lots of food and snacks on hand. If you're going to be at a campground, do a nature walk.

We did a special PX initiation. It's not ritual-- just something that our local Pan made up. We used electric "tapers" (no candles!), and took the Panhellenic Oath, and were given pins (safety pins with ribbons in our school colors).

One thing we did later when recruitment started were PX Buddies. Like having a Big Sis, but you're all mentoing one another since you're in the same class. We would leave notes for one another, give each other little gifts, etc.

A word of advice: being a PX can be a tough job, depending upon how well the Pan Exec communicates and the duration of disaffiliation. Make PX's feel appreciated, feed them (recruitment is a long day!) and allow the chapters to send them gifts and "We can't wait to see you on Bid Day" notes each day of recruitment. Integrating back into the chapter can be hard on PX's, so don't impose disaffiliation longer than necessary and give the chapters pointers on ways to re-acquaint the PX's with their sororities when they reaffiliate.

[SthrnZeta]

We did this in my church and I always liked this: Take a big ball of yarn and put everyone in a circle. Have each person throw the ball, while holding the end of the string to a person in the circle and say something nice about them (or their org) and have everyone keep doing that until the ball is gone. You're left with a tangled web of string between everyone. Then, have everyone work together to untangle the string. It's a powerful symbol that all Greeks are connected and can work together on big projects

I wish we had had a retreat when I was neutral - I think our group needed it cuz there were cliques even in our Rho Gamma group! We just had a couple days of workshops to learn about the other groups and Panhel FR laws. That sounds so fun, ADPi!

[MaggieXi]

I loved when I was a co-head PX! We had a day long retreat where we did ice breakers, learned facts about other organizations, we had one of the campus rec aerobics instructors come and we had a work-out and did some yoga so we could work on our own stresses, we learned the other groups cheers etc. We did a lot of role-playing of stressed out pnms and scenarios that could happen. Our panhellenic made sure to keep us mixing and really tried to keep the girls who were not of the same GLO together.

We also had our own T-shirts made -- greek life approved (besides the PX letters given to us by panhellenic and panhellenic shirts), 110% buttons (its an Elon thing with the buttons) that we would have on our bags, we all had PX buddies -- like secret santas and we would make crafts for each other, leave each other notes, etc. We also had our own date party and would all go out together. Our panhellenic had a rule that at least 3 rho chis had to be together to go to a bar or something, so we made a rule that it had to be at least 5. This got us to bond sooo much! We had our own cheers and we actually a very close group of girls. I still talk to other PXs that I would have never met or known had it not been for our PX program.

Right before recuritment started we learned about how the computer ranking system worked, release figures, and how girls would get their invites back, etc. Which is really helpful so it can be explained to the PNMs individually if they have questions.

Once recruitment started --which was over a week between winter term and spring term, so there aren't any classes -- we had daily meetings to go over problems and also funny things that may have happened during the day. We would also review facts about the different orgs and would have random dance parties in our room just to relieve some stress.

[violetpretty]

My Rho Gamma training was a sham. We were selected in late September, began disaffiliation in October, and we had 6 Rho Gamma classes on Wednesday nights in the fall semester (we do spring FMR).

The first two classes we did a few icebreakers, but none of them stuck out to me.

I do know that we spent the third class learning about counseling skills with the [Chi Omega] house director of a fraternity on campus. And then the fourth class, we learned the same exact thing from a sorority woman who works in the counseling center.

The fifth week, they tried to teach us about recruitment as a numbers game (ie release figures, bid matching, quota additions, etc). I was already considerably knowledgeable about the subject, so I started asking Green Book type questions that the Rho Gamma coordinators didn't even understand. (The Panhellenic advisor was able to answer my questions). Most of the Rho Gammas barely had a grip on what the difference between total and quota was. So then the PHA VP Recruitment finally says, "Ok you guys don't really need to know this, let's focus on counseling. If one of your PNMs asks you a question that you don't know the answer to, you can ask us." That's fine if you want to be bombarded with questions or have your Rho Gammas giving out information that they THINK they know but is actually wrong.

I know one of my sisters who pledged a year after me said her Rho Gamma told her she had to suicide. She went to SigKap, Tri Delta and KD for preference, and she is a KD and Tri Delta legacy. Her dumb Rho Gamma told her that she had to suicide SK if that's what she wanted, because even if she put KD or Tri Delt below SK, she'd get whichever one was higher because they wanted her more. NO NO NO NO NO! Thank God she matched with us even though she suicided.

I had one of my PNMs ask me a similar question. She attended preference at her legacy chapter, along with two others. Her legacy chapter was not her first choice and she asked me if that would mean that she'd automatically get her legacy chapter if she listed them regardless of her choices. Fortunately, I told her that if it is indeed true that this chapter puts legacies on their first list, you'll still get your first choice unless they fill quota before getting to your name. You will have a "spot" at your legacy chapter until you match elsewhere. She ranked all 3 chapters and got her first choice

Ok, sixth class, we did nothing other than put labels on postcards to be mailed to the homes of all unaffiliated freshman and sophomore women over winter break advertising recruitment. Sure, it was great use of 34 pairs of hands since we got it done in about 30 minutes. My complaint is that the Rho Gammas were not armed with enough knowledge to answer questions that PNMs will have. Their attitude was "If you know too much, you'll probably tell PNMs things that they shouldn't know."

Make sure your Rho Gammas are knowledgeable.

[SthrnZeta]

Easy fix to that - arm the Rho Gammas with all the knowledge possible and then make it clear how to tactfully answer questions that involve info the PNMs shouldn't/don't need to know. My training included a lot of info on the logistics of FR and some of the mathematics (didn't have release figures at that point so it was a little easier) - but I think mine was more about catching dirty-rushers and counseling PNMs. We definitely stressed to PNMs not to suicide though - I remember that being drilled into our heads.

[adpiucf]

Yeah, we just tried to answer PNMs questions in ways that didn't overload their fragile little minds. They don't need to know about COB and snap bids on the first day of recruitment. And if you don't know something, you shouldn't be afraid to say, "You know, that's a really good question. Let me get back to you."

I think it would be a good idea to have a one-sheet of common PNM questions and ways to answer them. AND to role play.

Some common questions:

"Why was I cut from ABC?" or "Is it true ABC doesn't take juniors?"
Blanket answer: Each sorority conducts membership selection in its own way. Cuts are final. The best thing to do is to put it behind you and give the other sororities your full attention.

"What happens if I don't get a bid?"
We'll talk about your options when the time comes. While formal recruitment is the best way to meet all of the sororities at once and have the most options, there are other types of recruitment opportunities during the school year that we will discuss later on in recruitment.

"What sorority are you a member of?"
You'll find out on Bid Day.

"What if I get cut before Bid Day? How will I know what sorority you are a member of?"
Let's all exchange email addresses, phone numbers and friend one another on Facebook so we can all keep in touch.

"I've heard all of the ABC's require study hours."

"I've heard all of the ABC's haze."

and so on...

[MaggieXi]

We used to get alot of problems with PNMs when their friends got cut from a chapter and they didn't. Its a hard situation to handle and thats always a good question to have an answer ready for!

Also, we had a counselor come from our mental health service that talked about how to deal with the girls "dumping" their problems on us, how to counsel being while being neutral and positive, certain red flags to look for, who to contact in case of a psychological emergency etc. While I think this was a little dry at the time, it was important for us to hear. That year we did have a girl completely lose it in the middle of our student center when she didn't get invited back to preference for a certain chapter. She was screaming at her rho chi and yelling profanities about all sorority women, etc. Since classes were not in session her voice and anger echoed in the entire building. Security ended up showing up but also one of the rho chis called mental health services.