I think I may lose my MIND!!!

ashmo08 · #1 09-13-2005, 06:44 PM

Well...its 4 days before recruitment and my VP Membership gave me a call saying that she will be resigning her membership. I am being thrown into her position because Im President. I have absolutly no idea where to even start. I have no "running recruitment" experience. I was even a Rho Chi last year--so I am 2 years rusty. Basically I am looking for whatever advice I can get. I am going to sit down and try to make a list of what needs to be done. Basically my head is spinning cause I have a million other things I am trying to get done and this just adds to it. Thanks!!

Kasis-anon · #2 09-13-2005, 06:54 PM

Did your VP have an assistant? If so, she may help you in being able to pick up the pieces. You also need to contact all of your advisors and ask them for their help immediately. I would also try and give a call to the last Membership VP (if she has graduated) and try and have her give you the run-down of the all the jobs and areas that need immediate attention.
I wouldn't try and do everything yourself. Instead I would delegate jobs asap. Present the issue to the chapter as honestly as possible and let them all know that each and every one of them needs to work very hard this coming week. I would suggest appointing a chair-person for each event and co chairs each party for decorations, food, costumes, skits, and conversation-then you would oversee their work.
I feel your pain in this, being President of a sorority is more work than people ever truly realize. After this experience you'll be ready for anything!

KSigkid · #3 09-13-2005, 07:03 PM

Not to pick on you, but this is a good reason why President should know at least a little bit of every position. You never know what may come up, and if things break down or someone leaves you have to know how to cover for that person.

While I was President of my chapter we lost both our treasurer and our ritualist, and for short time periods everyone else had to cover.

Good luck with everything.

Aphigal · #4 09-13-2005, 08:42 PM

Deep Breath!! I would call you HQ and see if they can send a consultant or national visitor in to help you out.

The other thing is make sure you have the details taken care of...nametags, food/refreshments/ cups paper products.

Get bump groups organized and pref parts memorized.

Appoint a sunshine or spirit chair to keep people motivated.

Don't crumble be confident in front of the chapter and they will respond.

SmartBlondeGPhB · #5 09-13-2005, 09:26 PM

Haven't you all been working on this for a while, or has she just been pretending to work on it and really done nothing?

We had committees for each of the days (and this is a smaller greek system) so even without her, things would still go ok.

CarolinaDG · #6 09-13-2005, 10:36 PM

And if nothing else, throw stuff to us alums. I don't know what chapter you're from, but I'll help out with anything I can. I was a rush party chair

KSUViolet06 · #7 09-13-2005, 11:03 PM

Get on the phone with EVERY SINGLE alumnae chapter in your area. SOMEONE in one of those chapters HAS to be a former VP Recruitment. That's the best advice I can give you.

hannahgirl · #8 09-13-2005, 11:30 PM

Ok hun....first and foremost. BREATHE!!

Secondly.....I've been in your position before (not with the chapter, but with Panhellenic) so I can relate to what you're going through.

Everyone has great things to say....so I'm not going to reiterate. However.....do you have a Recruitment Advisor? If you do....USE HER! She will be the biggest help if she's got the time to do it. You should have COB chair or Sponsorship chair.....appoint them to "take over" the position so you can still do your job as President.

You definately need to find out what has and has not been done and delegate to the members what needs to happen. You cannot do it all on your own and the chapter should step up to help you out. Make them aware of the circumstances and you'll be surprised at what gets done!

Please do not be afraid to tell anyone that you need help and I would also be willing to help you through it if you'd like. PM me with any ???s or if you'd like to talk over the phone. I'm always willing to help chapters in need!

KSUViolet06 · #9 09-14-2005, 12:01 AM

When you're THIS close to recruitment, everything should be (key words) pretty much planned out, just tying up loose ends. It's a stretch, but could you get the outgoing girl to AT LEAST help you figure out what's what instead of just dumping it on you?

honeychile · #10 09-14-2005, 12:31 AM

You've been given such good advice, I hesitate to add any - you could move ahead with all of the above easily.

One thing I would remind your Chapter - YOU did not do this! THEY must all work together, for the good of the Chapter!

So, whomever is put in charge, be she from your HQ or your Chapter, everyone must pull together.

Right now, you're in an understandable panic - but there's a rainbow through the rainstorm! You all need to find that part of yourselves that says that you can do this, and accomplish!

Good luck, and be sure to let us know how it goes!!

FSUZeta · #11 09-14-2005, 10:20 AM

you need to get the notebook back from the defecting vp recruitment. if should have lots of notes from prior recruitments that could give the chapter great insight. hopefully, the vp membership did work on recruitment planning after her election and thru out the summer, so that as others have said, there are just loose ends to tie together. appoint an acting vp recruitment.

don't try anything new-revert to themes and skits used in past recruitments. hopefully there are lots of storage boxes in the house with decorations that the chapter can re-use.

divide and conquer!! appoint someone(or have your advisors do so) to coordinate everything and appoint someone to be in charge of decorations, somone in charge of skits, someone in charge of displays, someone in charge of financial information distributed to pnms, etc. and divide the chapter up into committees to help these leaders. the chapter i advise(for recruitment) has party chairwomen, who have committees.the vp divides the chapter equally(or as equal as possible) and assigns them to serve on a party committee the chairs run the committee meetings, people on the committee are assigned certain tasks, and a deadline and report back to the party chair, who in turn reports on their progress to the vp recruitment, who keeps me updated. pleae keep us posted on how everything turns out and good luck to you. i am sure that you will get it all worked out and do great!!

ashmo08 · #12 09-14-2005, 10:34 AM

I cant even begin to start thanking you all for advice and encouragement. To tell you the truth, I was so nervous about taking on such a huge responsibility. We held our 2nd to last workshop last night. I couldn't believe how many people stepped up to help out. The chapter's morale skyrocketed last night. Day heads were helping day heads. People were volunteering left and right. All night I had girls asking me what they could do. I got to the point where I had nothing left for them to do. My day heads are absolutly fabulous. We're running through mock-recruitment Thursday night with a consultant from nationals who will fly in today. I am so thankful that I took the time this summer to sit down and read the recruitment handbook. It has absoltuly saved my life. Recruitment starts Sunday, so that means I am going to have a busy busy weekend. The only thing I am stuck on is nametags. I have done a few different ones, but does anyone have any ideas?? I'm also appointing a spirit person because I think we're going to need it. Does anyone have any ideas for awards they can give out? Again, thanks so much. I really didn't think anyone was going to respond to this. I will keep you all updated once recruitment starts--probably with questions. Until then....I need about 3 cups of coffee to get through my day!!

MaggieXi · #13 09-14-2005, 11:19 AM

I was the Recruiment Chair for my chapter a few years ago (gulp 5!) and we had a huge prob w/ name tags as we had a flood in the closet that was next to an old bathroom and it ruined our name tags right before the first day of parties. The artistic girls in my chapter went right to Michaels and got cute stickers that we hand wrote in fancy lettering with paint pens the sisters names and put glitter in our sorority colors all over them. They ended up looking really cute and were VERY easy and inexpensive to do.

Hope that helps a bit.

hannahgirl · #14 09-14-2005, 12:22 PM

Glad to hear that you'll have a consultant from nationals to help you out!

I like Maggie's idea on the name tags. I've seen them handwritten on cute paper or cutouts (like anchors or ship wheels). Just make sure that you find someone that could do all of them somewhat the same.....it looks better that way. Your CDC should be able to give you more ideas also!

Sounds like it is working out for the best! Glad to hear it! Best of luck and let us know if you need anything!

lagirl33 · #15 09-14-2005, 12:29 PM

Another option for nametags if you have a decent color printer:

http://www.officemax.com/max/solutio...&searchBtn.y=0

*If that doesn't work, go to officemax.com and search for "nametag"
You can get anchors/other image artwork from anchors online, and print them out. This would work well if you want unity and are pressed for time.