A very different type of story

[BeeVee]

So, some of you may have noticed me lurking around the forums and may already know why I'm different than most everyone on this site, if not allow me to explain. I go to a small, private Christian university and at my school they don't believe we should have the Panhellenic sororites/fraternities, so instead we have "social clubs" that work in much the same way. I thought maybe it would be cool to share my story so that some of you can see how it can be very different at other schools who don't follow the same procedures as Greek organizations do. It's very similar, but at the same time extremely different, as I'm sure you noticed by the title. I was just wondering if anyone would like to hear my story? If I do tell it, I won't share where I go to school or what club I'm in because we only have two chapters nation-wide and I don't wanna give anything away. I doubt anyone from my school frequents this site, but I just wanna be safe.

[gee_ess]

go for it

[BeeVee]

Okie dokie. So I just wanna start off by saying that from reading some recruitment stories and other general conversations about recruitment I kind of got the idea of how it works for most schools with real sororities. I also would like to clarify that at my school we can't pledge until sophomore year (to ensure we keep our grades in tact the first year away from home, etc...) and the rush process isn't split up into certain themes for certain days. We don't have houses, I mean there are some girls who live in a house with only members of their club, but there isn't just one house for each club and you don't have to live in it. So I hope that helps sort out any confusion while reading my story.

We have Spring Rushes (which we're about to start on Monday) which are for students who are interested in pledging in the fall. They can come out and see what club is all about and see if it's something they really want to do. It's also a chance for them to figure out which club they like the best and all that jazz. I didn't go to these last year because I didn't think I was going to pledge and didn't see the point at the time. Now that I'm on the other side I know how they work and what happens at them. They're really laid back and are more about networking so that we can keep girls interested over the summer so that when Fall Rushes start up those girls will still want us.

Just to provide some back story about how I came to decide I was going to pledge. Over the summer I decided it would be a lot of fun to pledge and it's a huge part of the college experience that I didn't want to miss out on. I turned in my online pledge registration form in June and was really excited about it, until August came around and money was tight and it was looking grim that I would be able to pledge. I emailed the Social Club Office and told them to take my name off the list because I wasn't going to be able to pledge. They sent an email back saying that if I changed my mind at any time that all I needed to do was re-register and I'd be good to go. At this point I was heartbroken because I had a lot of friends who were going to pledge and were really excited about rushing together and I didn't want to miss out on that, but at that point I wasn't going to pledge anymore.

So we came back to school and the first week of school they had a mandatory information meeting regarding pledging that I didn't go to because I still wasn't planning on pledging. I was sad to see it come and go because it seemed to finally set in that I wasn't going to get to pledge. The next weekend, before rushes started, they had a thing calls Teas (it's what kicks off rush season for clubs at my school) and my friends who were going to pledge went. Teas is where you find out even more about the clubs than you did in the Spring and each club hands out a schedule of their rushes. So my friends were really excited about pledging and were showing me all their information about the clubs and when their events were going to be and I was feeling really down because of it. That night up until Tuesday night (the second day of rushes, I had already missed rushes for clubs I was interested in) I wasn't sure what to do. Tuesday night I called my parents and was trying to convince them how much I wanted to do this and to see if there was any possible way I could pledge. They agreed that I shouldn't miss out on this part of college that I could never redo in the future and told me to re-register, that they would figure something out.

So, I filled out the registration form again with only a couple days left until the deadline for registering and was all set to go. I picked up my rush card and was so excited about what the future might hold.

Just to show the difference between rush period elsewhere and rush period at my school, there are five women's clubs and each club has four individual rushes (none overlapping) spread out over the Mon-Thurs period for two weeks, each club gets two rushes a week. It is mandatory to go to at least 1 of 4 out of the 5 club's rushes in order to receive a bid from any club. And the rushes are whatever the club wants them to be, we don't do Philanthropy Day or Pref Day, nothing like that. All the rushes are open to any PNM's and are really just about members meeting PNM's. At the end of the two weeks all the PNM's fill out rank sheets in order of preference and then the clubs have a week to vote on who they want and who they don't want (51 members is the cap on our pledge classes, it goes up every year to accommodate the big clubs though) and then they pass the first choice ranks that didn't get voted in onto their second choice ranks and so on...

I'll talk about the clubs by color.
Yellow
Pink
Blue
Green
Red


The first week was a little off kilter since I didn't start rushing until the Wednesday, so I had missed a lot of rushes already. I wanted Blue before rushing started and they had already had their first two rushes on Monday and Tuesday, so I kinda realized that club was too competitive for me to have a shot at getting a bid (turned out it was more competitive last year than it had ever been). So I started look at the other 4 clubs instead.

Week One:


Green - It was at a club member's house that was really small and didn't hold the amount of people that showed up so we were all cramped into a small, hot house, not enjoying ourselves. The end of the rush was just as awkward. Everyone went to the backyard and the members went around the circle introducing each of the PNM's that were by their side. I got split up from my friends at this part and was with another random girl I had never met before. They pushed my two friends into the circle and said, "They like to tell jokes!" We figured out after the rush that this was their way of saying who they wanted in the club and who they didn't, anyone recognize that quote from Sidney White? Well, they said that I like pool parties and I had no idea what that meant. They circled up around the group of PNM's, introduced themselves, sang a club song, and then it was over. It wasn't a great experience and my friends were kind of insulted by the girls, so we decided we weren't interested in that club.

Pink - The rush I went to for this club was a joint rush with their brother club and it was a cookout. So it was really chill and it was really just a night for conversation. I thought it would be fun because this was a club I was considering, but we actually ended up leaving before the rush was over. I talked to over 20 girls and didn't remember their names after they walked away and was shuffled along the line of members, it's kind of hard to remember this rush actually, it's all a huge blur to me. I ended up having the exact same, three line conversation with every member I talked to... "What's your name?" "Where are you from?" "What's your major?" NEXT! It came off as very cold and it didn't seem like they were genuinely interested in getting to know who I was. So I decided I didn't want this club either.

By the end of the first week it was looking grim, but I still had three more clubs to rush and was hoping they would change my mind.

Week Two:

Red - I went to two of their rushes and this was the only club I did that with. The first rush was a traditional rush that was formal and was outside at a park. I originally didn't want this club at all because they were really small and a member I knew the year before kept hounding me about joining this club, so it turned me off A LOT! But when we got to the rush all of the girls I met were so nice and real with me. They didn't ask about my major unless I brought it up. One girl just played a game of "Would you rather?" with me as a way to start up conversation. It was nice because not only was she asking me questions that weren't necessarily hard to answer, she was also asking questions that got me to give answers that told her a little bit about who I was. It made a huge impact on me that she cared enough to really ask me questions and really find out about who I was. The same went for each of the other girls I met that night. They were sweet, down-to-earth, some were a little awkward, but it was endearing to see that they weren't just carbon copies of each other. This got my spirits up and really made me interested in this club.

Yellow - I didn't want this club from the start, but thought I'd be fair and give every club a chance. A friend went with me and we ended up not talking to a single member, I kid you not. All the girls who wanted to pledge this club (it's THE popular one at my school) were crowding around the members and the members didn't even seem to care (or notice) that there were girls on the outskirts not talking to anybody. So my friend and I sat there for 20 minutes and got fed up. We left with the same impression we had before we went in.

Red - The second rush I went to was a lunch rush and I had a noon class so I decided to just stop by and see these girls one last time before rank day. When I got there every single member I talked to either remember my name or at the very least remembered who I was. It meant so much to me that they took the time to invest in me and really cherished me as a person even when they didn't know I was interested in being in their club. I didn't stay for long, but even that little bit of time had such an impact on me and it was so easy to talk with these girls. As it turned out, the smaller club wasn't what I expected at all, and I liked that.

Blue - I didn't really need to go to this club's rush since I already had 4 of the 5, but I decided to go with my friends since they hadn't gotten all of theirs yet. It was another traditional rush and sounded very similar to what people have mentioned on this site as a combination of skit night/pref night (without the pref, of course). The first thirty or so minutes was spent talking to members and getting to know them. The last half of the rush was about us getting to know what the club was all about. The members showed a really funny music video they had made and then about 5 people got up and gave testimonies about why they chose their club or what has happened to them since joining that club that really made an impact in their lives. It was very touching and very meaningful and it was really cool to get to see that side of the club.

Rank Day:

At my school you can only rank one of the big clubs (to ensure girls aren't just trying to be in a big club, I guess? Not really sure why), so we had to choose four clubs in order of our preference. Here's how my card was filled out:

1) Red
2) Blue
3) Pink
4) Green


As I mentioned before, there is a week between Rank Day and Bid Day, so we had to wait for an entire week before we found out where we got bids! The following week all PNM's went to a classroom on campus and they called out names in groups of about 3 or 4 (all different bids). The card we received when our name was called had a location on it that would have the President of the club and our new pledge class waiting.


My friend and I were really nervous and got called out at separate times, she left before I did. When they called out my name a few groups later, I practically ran out of the room, my friend decided to wait for me to see if we got the same location. We had matching cards and set out to our detination. When we got there, no one was there. AT. ALL. We kinda started freaking out. We were wondering if we didn't get a bid from anybody, if maybe they gave us the wrong location, all sorts of crazy things. Then out of the corner of my eye we say the President of our first choice club walk up to us. She had been sitting in her car watching us freak out for 5 minutes. If you have seen my other posts, you may know I'm in a small club, so we were the only girls who weren't working and were first choice bids. They had a second location for girls that got bids from our club that hadn't ranked us first. She handed us our bids and we signed them immediately. My formal bid is still hanging on my doorway to my dorm room.

I wish I could tell you what club I'm in, but since you probably wouldn't have heard of it anyway, I guess it doesn't really matter. Here's a new perspective for you to think about. I hope you enjoyed my story and I'm sorry it was so long. Thanks for reading the whole thing if you did though.

[AnotherKD]

I found the school and club! Yay. I used to be really bad at guessing the schools for rush stories, but I'm on a roll!!

[twinkle555]

Originally Posted by AnotherKD

I found the school and club! Yay. I used to be really bad at guessing the schools for rush stories, but I'm on a roll!!

I did as well.

Cool story BeeVee!

[ree-Xi]

Originally Posted by BeeVee

Okie dokie. So I just wanna start off by saying that from reading some recruitment stories and other general conversations about recruitment I kind of got the idea of how it works for most schools with real sororities. I also would like to clarify that at my school we can't pledge until sophomore year (to ensure we keep our grades in tact the first year away from home, etc...) and the rush process isn't split up into certain themes for certain days. We don't have houses, I mean there are some girls who live in a house with only members of their club, but there isn't just one house for each club and you don't have to live in it. So I hope that helps sort out any confusion while reading my story.

We have Spring Rushes (which we're about to start on Monday) which are for students who are interested in pledging in the fall. They can come out and see what club is all about and see if it's something they really want to do. It's also a chance for them to figure out which club they like the best and all that jazz. I didn't go to these last year because I didn't think I was going to pledge and didn't see the point at the time. Now that I'm on the other side I know how they work and what happens at them. They're really laid back and are more about networking so that we can keep girls interested over the summer so that when Fall Rushes start up those girls will still want us.

Just to provide some back story about how I came to decide I was going to pledge. Over the summer I decided it would be a lot of fun to pledge and it's a huge part of the college experience that I didn't want to miss out on. I turned in my online pledge registration form in June and was really excited about it, until August came around and money was tight and it was looking grim that I would be able to pledge. I emailed the Social Club Office and told them to take my name off the list because I wasn't going to be able to pledge. They sent an email back saying that if I changed my mind at any time that all I needed to do was re-register and I'd be good to go. At this point I was heartbroken because I had a lot of friends who were going to pledge and were really excited about rushing together and I didn't want to miss out on that, but at that point I wasn't going to pledge anymore.

So we came back to school and the first week of school they had a mandatory information meeting regarding pledging that I didn't go to because I still wasn't planning on pledging. I was sad to see it come and go because it seemed to finally set in that I wasn't going to get to pledge. The next weekend, before rushes started, they had a thing calls Teas (it's what kicks off rush season for clubs at my school) and my friends who were going to pledge went. Teas is where you find out even more about the clubs than you did in the Spring and each club hands out a schedule of their rushes. So my friends were really excited about pledging and were showing me all their information about the clubs and when their events were going to be and I was feeling really down because of it. That night up until Tuesday night (the second day of rushes, I had already missed rushes for clubs I was interested in) I wasn't sure what to do. Tuesday night I called my parents and was trying to convince them how much I wanted to do this and to see if there was any possible way I could pledge. They agreed that I shouldn't miss out on this part of college that I could never redo in the future and told me to re-register, that they would figure something out.

So, I filled out the registration form again with only a couple days left until the deadline for registering and was all set to go. I picked up my rush card and was so excited about what the future might hold.

Just to show the difference between rush period elsewhere and rush period at my school, there are five women's clubs and each club has four individual rushes (none overlapping) spread out over the Mon-Thurs period for two weeks, each club gets two rushes a week. It is mandatory to go to at least 1 of 4 out of the 5 club's rushes in order to receive a bid from any club. And the rushes are whatever the club wants them to be, we don't do Philanthropy Day or Pref Day, nothing like that. All the rushes are open to any PNM's and are really just about members meeting PNM's. At the end of the two weeks all the PNM's fill out rank sheets in order of preference and then the clubs have a week to vote on who they want and who they don't want (51 members is the cap on our pledge classes, it goes up every year to accommodate the big clubs though) and then they pass the first choice ranks that didn't get voted in onto their second choice ranks and so on...

I'll talk about the clubs by color.
Yellow
Pink
Blue
Green
Red


The first week was a little off kilter since I didn't start rushing until the Wednesday, so I had missed a lot of rushes already. I wanted Blue before rushing started and they had already had their first two rushes on Monday and Tuesday, so I kinda realized that club was too competitive for me to have a shot at getting a bid (turned out it was more competitive last year than it had ever been). So I started look at the other 4 clubs instead.

Week One:


Green - It was at a club member's house that was really small and didn't hold the amount of people that showed up so we were all cramped into a small, hot house, not enjoying ourselves. The end of the rush was just as awkward. Everyone went to the backyard and the members went around the circle introducing each of the PNM's that were by their side. I got split up from my friends at this part and was with another random girl I had never met before. They pushed my two friends into the circle and said, "They like to tell jokes!" We figured out after the rush that this was their way of saying who they wanted in the club and who they didn't, anyone recognize that quote from Sidney White? Well, they said that I like pool parties and I had no idea what that meant. They circled up around the group of PNM's, introduced themselves, sang a club song, and then it was over. It wasn't a great experience and my friends were kind of insulted by the girls, so we decided we weren't interested in that club.

Pink - The rush I went to for this club was a joint rush with their brother club and it was a cookout. So it was really chill and it was really just a night for conversation. I thought it would be fun because this was a club I was considering, but we actually ended up leaving before the rush was over. I talked to over 20 girls and didn't remember their names after they walked away and was shuffled along the line of members, it's kind of hard to remember this rush actually, it's all a huge blur to me. I ended up having the exact same, three line conversation with every member I talked to... "What's your name?" "Where are you from?" "What's your major?" NEXT! It came off as very cold and it didn't seem like they were genuinely interested in getting to know who I was. So I decided I didn't want this club either.

By the end of the first week it was looking grim, but I still had three more clubs to rush and was hoping they would change my mind.

Week Two:

Red - I went to two of their rushes and this was the only club I did that with. The first rush was a traditional rush that was formal and was outside at a park. I originally didn't want this club at all because they were really small and a member I knew the year before kept hounding me about joining this club, so it turned me off A LOT! But when we got to the rush all of the girls I met were so nice and real with me. They didn't ask about my major unless I brought it up. One girl just played a game of "Would you rather?" with me as a way to start up conversation. It was nice because not only was she asking me questions that weren't necessarily hard to answer, she was also asking questions that got me to give answers that told her a little bit about who I was. It made a huge impact on me that she cared enough to really ask me questions and really find out about who I was. The same went for each of the other girls I met that night. They were sweet, down-to-earth, some were a little awkward, but it was endearing to see that they weren't just carbon copies of each other. This got my spirits up and really made me interested in this club.

Yellow - I didn't want this club from the start, but thought I'd be fair and give every club a chance. A friend went with me and we ended up not talking to a single member, I kid you not. All the girls who wanted to pledge this club (it's THE popular one at my school) were crowding around the members and the members didn't even seem to care (or notice) that there were girls on the outskirts not talking to anybody. So my friend and I sat there for 20 minutes and got fed up. We left with the same impression we had before we went in.

Red - The second rush I went to was a lunch rush and I had a noon class so I decided to just stop by and see these girls one last time before rank day. When I got there every single member I talked to either remember my name or at the very least remembered who I was. It meant so much to me that they took the time to invest in me and really cherished me as a person even when they didn't know I was interested in being in their club. I didn't stay for long, but even that little bit of time had such an impact on me and it was so easy to talk with these girls. As it turned out, the smaller club wasn't what I expected at all, and I liked that.

Blue - I didn't really need to go to this club's rush since I already had 4 of the 5, but I decided to go with my friends since they hadn't gotten all of theirs yet. It was another traditional rush and sounded very similar to what people have mentioned on this site as a combination of skit night/pref night (without the pref, of course). The first thirty or so minutes was spent talking to members and getting to know them. The last half of the rush was about us getting to know what the club was all about. The members showed a really funny music video they had made and then about 5 people got up and gave testimonies about why they chose their club or what has happened to them since joining that club that really made an impact in their lives. It was very touching and very meaningful and it was really cool to get to see that side of the club.

Rank Day:

At my school you can only rank one of the big clubs (to ensure girls aren't just trying to be in a big club, I guess? Not really sure why), so we had to choose four clubs in order of our preference. Here's how my card was filled out:

1) Red
2) Blue
3) Pink
4) Green


As I mentioned before, there is a week between Rank Day and Bid Day, so we had to wait for an entire week before we found out where we got bids! The following week all PNM's went to a classroom on campus and they called out names in groups of about 3 or 4 (all different bids). The card we received when our name was called had a location on it that would have the President of the club and our new pledge class waiting.


My friend and I were really nervous and got called out at separate times, she left before I did. When they called out my name a few groups later, I practically ran out of the room, my friend decided to wait for me to see if we got the same location. We had matching cards and set out to our detination. When we got there, no one was there. AT. ALL. We kinda started freaking out. We were wondering if we didn't get a bid from anybody, if maybe they gave us the wrong location, all sorts of crazy things. Then out of the corner of my eye we say the President of our first choice club walk up to us. She had been sitting in her car watching us freak out for 5 minutes. If you have seen my other posts, you may know I'm in a small club, so we were the only girls who weren't working and were first choice bids. They had a second location for girls that got bids from our club that hadn't ranked us first. She handed us our bids and we signed them immediately. My formal bid is still hanging on my doorway to my dorm room.

I wish I could tell you what club I'm in, but since you probably wouldn't have heard of it anyway, I guess it doesn't really matter. Here's a new perspective for you to think about. I hope you enjoyed my story and I'm sorry it was so long. Thanks for reading the whole thing if you did though.

Red.

[BeeVee]

I didn't even think about people just googling the school. Thanks for reading though. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[Barbie's_Rush]

You have a "club" named Alpha Kai Omega? Daaaayam.

[jessica.lanelle]

I spent my first semester of college @ a private university, where there were only social clubs. I pledged one, and I have to agree, that while some things were sort of like NPC recruitment, there were a lot of differences. Good story.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Barbie's_Rush

You have a "club" named Alpha Kai Omega? Daaaayam.

I actually think there are a couple schools with a club named that.

[pbear19]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I actually think there are a couple schools with a club named that.

It really makes perfect sense that there would be, especially if it's a Christian club. I'm not sure why anyone would assume that a campus without any NPC presence would think to be sure their group/club's name doesn't resemble some organization they know absolutely nothing about, and have no reason to know anything about.

That'd be like a new company in one state checking the secretary of state's office of another state to make sure no one in another state has a similar name. If you are local and plan to stay that way, it just doesn't matter.

[GammaPhi88]

While I really like this story, as it actually is different, I don't quite get why they had one location for girls that ranked them first and others that ranked them second. BeeVee, do they do this for a specific reason or am I missing something?

[BeeVee]

Since everyone figured out my school, I might as well talk about it. :P

AKO: It's actually a biblical reference, in classical Greek (that the Old Testament was originally written in) Alpha Kai Omega roughly translates "beginning and end." Which if you are familiar with the Bible is a term people used for God in Scripture. And no, I don't think the girls who created the club knew it was very similar to Alpha CHI Omega.

GammaPhi88: The different locations was for a purpose. My club is really small, as I mentioned before, and we usually extend bids to girls if they came to our rushes. So a lot of girls who didn't get their first choice bid, get a bid from us, and as most people who don't get their desired bid know, it's heartbreaking to see another group of people celebrating that they got the club they wanted while they didn't. And it also gives the members of our club who didn't pick it as their first choice to tell these girls about how this club may be the right place for them. I thought it was a good idea.

[AXOmom]

BeeVee - Since my father taught in Christian college for quite a while (he and my husband are both ministers), I enjoyed your story a lot. Interestingly, most of the Christian colleges I know about don't have a Greek system or social clubs, so it was fun to hear about one that did.

I do have to nitpick about one little thing (and it is little). It is the New Testament was written in Greek (not classical - koininia which was everyday Greek). The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic but not Greek. That has no bearing whatsoever on your reply which is otherwise correct - the letters themselves do mean what you stated (they are specifically and solely used to refer to Jesus).

Sorry for digressing. I still liked the story.

[BeeVee]

I thought I had it backwards. I always mix-up which one was written in which. :P Thanks for the clarification. I'm glad you liked the story.