Best memory of theta recruitment

ThetaPrincess24 · #1 08-30-2006, 06:30 PM

Okay ladies. I'm TOTALLY addicted to the recruitment threads. While reading them I often think back to the time I went through recruitment at a PNM and as a member.

So I'd like to ask:

What is your favorite memory of Theta recruitment as either a PNM or member?

As a PNM my favorite memories are talking with the girls at the Theta parties. I remember that the first party I went to on the first day, I was talking to two Thetas at one time. When the little bell rang signaling the end of the party and for the members to begin escorting the PNM's out, one of the girls talking to me (who made it a point to talk to me each day and later became a big buddy of mine) said "but I'm not done talking! Do you mind if i take you out towards the end of the line so we can talk some more?" So ofcourse i said i didnt mind at all! I honestly LOVED my chapter's parties. NO matter how tired I was, when I walked in the door and was personally greeted by name by members I had talked to at previous parties and hearing the chants I was instantly energized and always left in a happy/excited mood.

Any other stories?

thetalady · #2 08-31-2006, 12:26 AM

I have never been brave enough to post this, but I guess you girls deserve some entertainment! I swear that every word of this is true....

Lord help me, I was an awkward little duckling my freshman year at Ole Miss

Bless the Thetas, they saw past it, and there was a LOT to look past.

During one round of parties, I was chatting away as I was being escorted out of the Pi Phi house, not loking where I was going... and tripped over the threshold at the front door. I went flat on my face, bonked my head and sprained my ankle.

It gets worse....

They called an ambulance and carted me away on a stretcher in front of HUNDREDS of gawking rushees. OHMYGAWD was I embarrassed?

But ladies... it gets even WORSE!!!

Mary Kay Place and a film crew were at Ole Miss filming rush for a documentary that year. As Fate would have it, she was filming the front of the Pi Phi house as I made my "grand exit". I had no idea that she was there and caught me on film.

I heard from the rush counselors that when she heard that I had pledged Theta, she cut my swan dive from the film. I didn't understand why she would do that for me. Heaven knows it could have been exploited. It was not until later that I learned that Mary Kay is a Theta, too! She cut that embarrassing scene to preserve what little dignity I had left!

I know it may sound weird that this is my favorite rush memory, but it is.
It was my first experience with THETA SISTERHOOD and how Theta sisters everywhere look out for one another!

ThetaPrincess24 · #3 08-31-2006, 02:01 PM

LOL! Oh Patti I'm so sorry that happened to you years ago but atleast we can all look back on it now (especially you) and laugh at it

It didnt happen to a rushee, but one year we were doing a Theta version of Saturday night live for our skit night called " Theta Night Live." One of our sisters dressed up as the joyologist with high heels, pansies on her shirt, in her hair, on her shoes, wrist etc. So at one party during her skit when she is talking about Theta and how exciting Theta is, she stands up on her chair and kicks up her leg a little bit in excitement, and her shoe flew off her foot and into the audience of rushees. No one was hurt, but the rushees had a great laugh as did us actives and advisors

UCFStefanie · #4 08-31-2006, 11:08 PM

My favorite memory of Theta recruitment was video day. Theta had an awesome video and while Theta was always my #1 pick, that was the moment that I truely felt like I was getting to see the real girls in the chapter. You could see the emotion in the room and how well the sisters got along.

thetalady · #5 09-01-2006, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThetaPrincess24

LOL! Oh Patti I'm so sorry that happened to you years ago but at least we can all look back on it now (especially you) and laugh at it

I can laugh now, but it took years!!! Who knew that would be my closest brush with a celebrity!

The poor Pi Phis just looked HORRIFIED when I tripped. They didn't have the nerve/ lack of manners to cut me from the next round, but you can be sure that The Klutz was not invited back to pref! I went through the rest of rush on crutches, so everybody knew exactly who I was! That was OK. I knew I wanted only Theta.

kaokite · #6 09-01-2006, 01:38 PM

P-you take the cake with that ankle of yours!!

That's about as bad as my little sister having the flu during initiation. Funny now, but certainly not at the time!!

Mine recruitment stories aren't quite as entertaining, but hopefully you'll all enjoy. here's the favorites that come to mind today..

1) we had recruitment in the student center in rooms that were accessable from a big hallway and there were multiple directions from which to enter the hall. There was one PNM who was SO excited to be a theta after she got her invitation to the next round (starting ~30 minutes later) that she came to our room straight away and LET HERSELF IN!! She didn't know that the party hadn't started yet... we're still doing setup and no one was paying attention, but I looked over and there's Heather, closing the door behind her and looking around. A mild panic ensued because we were not supposed to talk to PNM's outside of recruitment parties and there she was IN OUR ROOM!?! the recruitment chairs hustled her out v. quickly and quietly and she came back when the party started.

Talk about gung ho! We ended up extending her a bid, and of course she accepted.

2) I was a charter member: one of 7 freshman in a charter class of ~54. but when I graduated, there were 27 seniors who left the chapter-we picked up LOTS of upperclassmen over the years because these women on campus realized they wanted to be a part of our sisterhood. I also did my fair share of dragging all my friends in 'cause I wanted to share Theta with them. The dragging was the first time, and then after that they decided on their own and wanted to be a theta.

I knew the chapter could hook 'em in as long as I got them to the event. So my senior year, after pref, one of my 'drag-ees' (another senior who was in our first new member class immediately after we got our charter) is bawling as the doors are closing. We are singing a weepy pref song and so emotional 'cause it's our last recruitment party ever as undergrads.. and she turns to me and says "It's all your fault!" long pause while I am in a mild state of panic thinking that she's mad at me. "I"m so glad you made me do this! I'm really sad though that I was not a founder." Of course more bawling ensued...

3) my favorite aspect of our recruitment was that because we were so new, we had many upperclasswomen come out of the woodwork who came in and ONLY wanted theta. I didn't actually drag them all in myself!

I can think of at least 4 women off the top of my head and I know there were tons more.. We had quite a join as seniors (!), and all of these women were such wonderful additions to our chapter.

It was really touching how these upperclasswomen would talk about the chapter and why they were going through recruitment with us & only us. They noticed the membership on campus and liked the diversity; they couldn't quite figure out why, but we were 'different' than all the other groups on campus; they met one member and thought "I LOVE HER" and had that experience multiple times until they just got fed up with not being a member; they had a friend like me and came to appease her and then realized they really did want to be a part of theta; or they met someone they really respected for her leadership and then saw her letters at a later date and realized "hm, maybe that's something I should do".

The singular focus of these women was striking: "I want to be a theta and get as much as I can out of the short time that I have left at school. LET ME IN!" We were fortunate to also have a panhel that considered Juniors & Seniors "free" and not included in quota, so we could bring these women in and not worry about upsetting the graduating class balance of the chapter too much.

One final comment on recruitment that I was always so proud of: we were not the ones that spent the most on decorating, and we didn't always have the most polished party themes or skits. But we did make quota (or at least that's what I remember 'cause we didn't COB after our first year) and we got our top picks because of the chapter that we were and the way we were able to express our sisterhood to the PNM's. They could see how much we cared about each other.. Not sure how we did it, but it worked.

DominoTheta · #7 09-02-2006, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaokite

P-you take the cake with that ankle of yours!!

That's about as bad as my little sister having the flu during initiation. Funny now, but certainly not at the time!!

Mine recruitment stories aren't quite as entertaining, but hopefully you'll all enjoy. here's the favorites that come to mind today..

1) we had recruitment in the student center in rooms that were accessable from a big hallway and there were multiple directions from which to enter the hall. There was one PNM who was SO excited to be a theta after she got her invitation to the next round (starting ~30 minutes later) that she came to our room straight away and LET HERSELF IN!! She didn't know that the party hadn't started yet... we're still doing setup and no one was paying attention, but I looked over and there's Heather, closing the door behind her and looking around. A mild panic ensued because we were not supposed to talk to PNM's outside of recruitment parties and there she was IN OUR ROOM!?! the recruitment chairs hustled her out v. quickly and quietly and she came back when the party started.

Talk about gung ho! We ended up extending her a bid, and of course she accepted.

2) I was a charter member: one of 7 freshman in a charter class of ~54. but when I graduated, there were 27 seniors who left the chapter-we picked up LOTS of upperclassmen over the years because these women on campus realized they wanted to be a part of our sisterhood. I also did my fair share of dragging all my friends in 'cause I wanted to share Theta with them. The dragging was the first time, and then after that they decided on their own and wanted to be a theta.

I knew the chapter could hook 'em in as long as I got them to the event. So my senior year, after pref, one of my 'drag-ees' (another senior who was in our first new member class immediately after we got our charter) is bawling as the doors are closing. We are singing a weepy pref song and so emotional 'cause it's our last recruitment party ever as undergrads.. and she turns to me and says "It's all your fault!" long pause while I am in a mild state of panic thinking that she's mad at me. "I"m so glad you made me do this! I'm really sad though that I was not a founder." Of course more bawling ensued...

3) my favorite aspect of our recruitment was that because we were so new, we had many upperclasswomen come out of the woodwork who came in and ONLY wanted theta. I didn't actually drag them all in myself!

I can think of at least 4 women off the top of my head and I know there were tons more.. We had quite a join as seniors (!), and all of these women were such wonderful additions to our chapter.

It was really touching how these upperclasswomen would talk about the chapter and why they were going through recruitment with us & only us. They noticed the membership on campus and liked the diversity; they couldn't quite figure out why, but we were 'different' than all the other groups on campus; they met one member and thought "I LOVE HER" and had that experience multiple times until they just got fed up with not being a member; they had a friend like me and came to appease her and then realized they really did want to be a part of theta; or they met someone they really respected for her leadership and then saw her letters at a later date and realized "hm, maybe that's something I should do".

The singular focus of these women was striking: "I want to be a theta and get as much as I can out of the short time that I have left at school. LET ME IN!" We were fortunate to also have a panhel that considered Juniors & Seniors "free" and not included in quota, so we could bring these women in and not worry about upsetting the graduating class balance of the chapter too much.

One final comment on recruitment that I was always so proud of: we were not the ones that spent the most on decorating, and we didn't always have the most polished party themes or skits. But we did make quota (or at least that's what I remember 'cause we didn't COB after our first year) and we got our top picks because of the chapter that we were and the way we were able to express our sisterhood to the PNM's. They could see how much we cared about each other.. Not sure how we did it, but it worked.

This is just the PERFECT example as to how Theta attracts so many amazing girls! Theta, to me, through all the recruitments I have been privilaged enough to participate in, has ALWAYS proven to me that Theta loves these girls for everything they are and that nothing is superficial or fake about it. I have always known that no matter what, Theta attracts the BEST pledges because Theta connects with them on such a deeper level than anyone else can see. Whether a chapter has a flashy and "big bang" recruitment, or they are on a very tight budget and things kept going wrong, I will always be confident in Theta recruitments because of the quality of the girls that are attracted to our sisterhood.

Sniff. Sniff. Now I'm REALLY missing recruitment! I posted my recruitment experience in a different thread awhile back. It wasn't exactly one particular thing that happened. It was just how the whole week felt. The ONLY time I have ever been scared, from the beginning of recruitment until now, was after Pref. I was so nervous that night, but I was ever so wrong!

ThetaForLife · #8 12-11-2007, 12:42 PM

The first night of recruitment I decided that I was going to dislike Theta because I didn't want to start out liking it because my mom was a Theta and my goal was to avoid mentioning being a legacy. Neither of those worked out, I walked into the house and our VPM was the first person to greet me and her ultimate goal was to have me say that my mom was a theta because I had written it on our recruitment form. I did end up mentioning my mom when she finally asked if anyone in my family had ever gone greek. I also loved the energy of the house and my sisters, it was my favorite by far. After the 3rd of 4 days of parties I couldn't believe that I went into recruitment wanting to dislike theta.

Amberashley · #9 12-11-2007, 04:21 PM

I had a non-traditional Recruitment because we were the charter class...
The event was almost surreal, we met with the Grand Council members (who are amazing and so nice), all the ELC's, local alumnae chapter members, and members of a neighboring chapter. I can't even put it into words, really...
Our first Formal Recruitment is this Spring, I'm so excited!