Little Chapter, Big Recruitment: Spring 2009

[silverpearls]

This is a different kind of recruitment story – one told not by a PNM, but by a chapter. Or rather, by one sister in a chapter for which this Recruitment is very important. I know there are many of you who have been in my shoes, and some who are right now. I also know there are a lot of PNMs who automatically write off the smaller chapters because of tent talk or preconceived notions. This is a story of one small chapter with a lot of potential, and our live journey through Recruitment over the next few weeks. As you read it, hopefully you'll enjoy the view into what it's really like to be the newer, smaller chapter going into Recruitment with a lot of bigger, larger chapters. Right now it feels pretty scary, but exciting because we know what we can accomplish!

I am a sister in a PHC chapter at a medium sized college somewhere in the United States. Greek life at my school isn’t huge, but is still something a fair number of students participate in (about 25%, to be exact). Fraternity and sorority life tends to be pretty laid back, and so does recruitment. Most of our chapters are unhoused, so parties are held in various buildings around campus. I won't be revealing my school or the names of the chapters on our campus. If you figure it out, please don't tell! I want to protect the privacy of our members and PNMs.

My chapter, which I will call Venus, is one I love and am extremely proud of. We are the newest PHC group on campus and though we’ve been here for a number of years we’re still working up to equal footing with the others, who have been here longer and are larger. When I first joined as a freshman, I wasn’t sure Venus was the place for me. I had gone into formal recruitment with my heart set on another group – “Minerva”. When I was cut from Minerva, I began to consider Venus, and eventually found my home. My initial reservations were due to the fact that the Venuses were considered the “losers”, with the awkward, unattractive, overweight girls no one liked. Though the sisters were sweet and seemed like genuine friends, like most impressionable freshmen I didn’t want to be “labeled”. After all, to be completely honest, some of the sisters really were awkward, unattractive or overweight. But as I went through the New Member program, I grew to love them as great sisters and friends. I learned that someone’s looks don't matter as long as she's a true sister. Despite my happiness, I slowly began to learn other problems existed in the chapter. There was a rift between sisters who wanted to grow the chapter and those who didn’t want to change anything, and Nationals was putting a lot of pressure on Exec to bring our numbers up.

Fast forward to one year later. Going into recruitment as a sophomore, I was excited and hopeful. My pledge class, though small (about a third the size of the other groups’), had worked extremely hard and was slowly turning the chapter around. All but a handful of us had recently been elected to officer positions and we were essentially running the chapter. I was honored to have been elected to a position in which I could do a lot to change our “image” on campus. Many of the women who resisted change had graduated, though a fair number were still left in the senior class. We went into Recruitment optimistic and worked very hard, trying to make up for lost time – since our recruitment is deferred, we need to do a lot during the fall to recruit freshmen, but our some of old exec board had fallen off the wagon (so to speak) and little had been done all fall. It was in our first Recruitment on the “other side” that my pledge class first experienced the disappointments and joys that are a part of the experience. Our biggest competition, Minerva**, made quota-plus on Bid Day and pledged many of the girls we had our hearts set on. My pledge sisters and I shared our despair when some of our favorite PNMs – a number of whom had told us they definitely wanted Venus – sailed past us on Bid Day in their new Minerva Bid Day shirts. One of them, “Kate”, was a truly sweet, involved and bright girl whom the entire chapter had fallen in love with. She had sworn she wanted to go Venus because she had so many friends here, but had Preffed Minerva and pledged there. She stopped speaking to most of our sisters after Recruitment.

On Bid Day, our New Member class was tiny, and a few girls who had accepted their Bids never showed up to celebrations (probably due to pressure from their friends not be a “loser Venus”). Though shocked and disappointed at the low numbers, we celebrated the fact that the girls we had gotten were excited, sweet, fun and would make great sisters. Not having made quota, we immediately went into COB and were able to more than double our pledge class, bringing the class up to around half the size of what the other groups had bid (and more than double what we had bid the year before!). After COB, our pledge class was the biggest we had ever recruited, and we were ecstatic. Not only did we have quantity, we had quality – these girls were amazing young women who were every bit as determined to turn Venus around as my pledge class was.

This last fall, our chapter has worked exceptionally hard to make Venus into an incredible group. Though Nationals is still pressuring us on a few issues, we have created a stronger sisterhood and bettered our image a great deal. Our Fall COB went well and we drew a small but really exceptional class of sophomores who will be great assets to the chapter (including some who were being heavily recruited by Minerva and some top tier groups!). We have worked exceptionally hard at promoting Venus. We have been at every freshman event wearing our letters, we have had as many events as allowed by Panhellenic and we have personally befriended many freshmen who are very interested in becoming our sisters (though many are torn between us and Minerva, our old rival).

I have heard from alumnae that Venus is better than it has ever been. A few years ago, most students didn’t know Venus even existed. Now, not only do they know about us, but the trash-talking by the fraternities and unaffiliated students has gone down considerably. All the sisters who strongly resisted change and progress have graduated, and we are a solid, committed group. Our sisters are involved on campus and are popular, outgoing, friendly and amazing, kind and caring sisters. Though there are still students who say we’re “fat, ugly losers” and that our “pretty girls” are the exceptions, it’s getting harder for them to make that accusation because it’s just not true. When we’re all together in the Recruitment room, I don’t see how any PNM could think we’re a bunch of losers. I find it disgusting and disheartening that even now GLOs are judged by the attractiveness of their members, but I include these observations because they are somewhat important to our story.

This Recruitment is extremely important for us, both for our growth and for our morale. If we can double the size of this year’s pledge class from last year’s (the way we did last year from the previous one!), we’ll make quota. Though we’re still planning to COB, we have high hopes for Formal Recruitment Bid Day. We’ve worked hard, and this will be a tangible measure of whether all that work has paid off. If we fail, missing both quantity and quality, it will be extremely difficult for our chapter – it’s very hard to keep on working hard when there’s no payoff.

I’m optimistic. I believe my chapter is on the brink of taking off and becoming just as great, if not better than our rivals like Minerva. This Recruitment will be a strong litmus test for the direction this chapter will take, and for how I will leave it when I graduate next spring. I think we can prove to ourselves how great we really are.

** Don’t get me wrong, “Minerva” is a great org with many really wonderful sisters. A few of my close friends are Minervas! I only mention them because they are our biggest competition because they are most like us. Their sisters tend to be similar to ours and many of them are friends with our sisters, so naturally there is some competition. Most PNMs who are interested in Venus also Pref Minerva, and vice versa. However, Minerva has been more successful than we have in the past in terms of Recruitment.