Spring 2008 - Q's

[coltsgrl]

My university is having spring recruitment, and i would like to rush two sororities. I'll call them Sophia & Olivia. Sophia's recruitment dates are Jan 31st-Feb 2, and Olivia's dates are Feb 4-8. So i have a couple of questions for your very helpful ladies.

Any idea of how these recruitments are going to be structured? (ie after day one do they usually do like invite from then on?)

Do Spring Recruitments share a common bid day usually? (in the fall they celebrated on the same day)

What would happen if Sophia hands out bids and i would still like to meet with Olivia? Not that Sophia isn't where my home is but i want to give both the same chance.


Any tips on saving to pay for dues? I have to pay it on my own. It's hard to go out to dinner and save money.



Some background info.
I did fall recruitment and wasn't invited back to Olivia or Sophia, but to sorority ABC. I changed my mind and was really considering ABC. However the last three girls i spoke to were so mean/rude to me... needless to say i didn't recieve an invite back to ABC or the other sororities i was invited back too.

Also i know several girls in Olivia because my roommate bid Olivia. They're all really nice girls, and i want to give them a fair shot too.

[Buttonz]

Call your Greek Life office, they can answer more of the questions that we can.

As for saving the money, do you work? Don't go out to dinner, use your meal plan, etc.

[violetpretty]

Originally Posted by coltsgrl

My university is having spring recruitment, and i would like to rush two sororities. I'll call them Sophia & Olivia. Sophia's recruitment dates are Jan 31st-Feb 2, and Olivia's dates are Feb 4-8. So i have a couple of questions for your very helpful ladies.

Any idea of how these recruitments are going to be structured? (ie after day one do they usually do like invite from then on?)

Do Spring Recruitments share a common bid day usually? (in the fall they celebrated on the same day)

These are very campus and chapter-specific questions.

For example, at my school, there is very little structure for informal; every chapter takes new members during informal, PHA gives us a day that we can both have parties and start to give bids (same day). Different chapters will have different numbers of parties. Most chapters call PNMs to offer them a bid. Bid days are different for each chapter.

I know that at Towson, there is a little more structure. They have open house and invite parties (not synchronized), and then there is a separate day to begin giving bids. I think they get bids from the Greek Life office. Bid day is on the same day for every chapter.

Your best bet is to ask your Greek Life office.

Also, are Sophia and Olivia the only ones participating in informal recruitment? I'd advise you to check out all chapters participating that you felt so-so or better about.

Originally Posted by coltsgrl

What would happen if Sophia hands out bids and i would still like to meet with Olivia? Not that Sophia isn't where my home is but i want to give both the same chance.

While at Sophia's parties, do NOT ask them this. You can ask them how much time you have to accept or decline your bid IF you get a bid from them. Save this question for when the time comes.

[KSUViolet06]

About your questions:

*Every sorority structures their spring informal recruitment events differently. Your school's Greek Life Ofice should have more info than we do.

*Most likely, since it's spring recruitment, the 2 groups will have separate bid day events.

*If you get a bid to Sophia, but still want to check out Olivia, you'll need to talk to the person at Sophia who's in charge of spring recruitment (most likely the VP of Recruitment). But don't worry about this UNLESS you get a bid. If you bring it up before that, Sophia might take it to mean that you're not interested in them.

About dues:

Be sure to ask about the financial obligations of the sororities you visit. They should be able to give some estimate of the costs. You need to know what you're getting into money-wise.

Some things you might want to know:

*How much are dues?
*Are socials, formals, or favors/tee shirts included or are those paid out of pocket?
*If the sorority has a house, what are the costs to live there?
*Are there fines assessed for missing events?


As far as dues go, paying for them yourself requires saving money. Here are some ways to save:

*Do you have a job? If not, try getting one. Even a little part time campus job helps alot with dues.

*Try not going out to dinner as much and using your campus meal plan or buying groceries and cooking (which is cheaper than going out to eat).

*Do you shop alot? Well, I know when I had to pay dues, I sometimes couldn't buy a new handbag or pair of shoes every week or so. Try seeing where you can cut back there.

I hope all of this helps you!

[violetpretty]

One of my sisters advises a chapter in her area. They have trouble getting members to pay their dues ($270 per semester if I recall correctly). She told me about one sister she confronted about dues. The member was wearing expensive jeans, standing outside her Lexus SUV, swinging her Gucci clutch around in circles when she told the advisor (alumna from my chapter) that "she can't afford $270 per semester."

[coltsgrl]

I guess i should eat more ramen noodles. I go to a Virginia school, which on campus students are known to complain about A. Housing and B how nothing is open to eat on the weekends. That's the only reason why i've eaten off campus so much in the past. We have a window of time on the weekend where three places are open and two are fast food (which makes me sick). So i need to suck it up haha.

I'm getting a job on campus so that reminds me i can save what i would spend on gas. Thanks ladies for the advice, i feel a lot better about how to handle this and who i can call for help about my questions.
thanks girls.

[ZTAPrincessGMU]

Judging by the campus environment you just described i think I have a pretty good idea of which school you go to. I could be wrong though, but here's how I have known informal recruitment to work at my campus. Each sorority has a few days of parties followed by bid day and each sorority has a different bid day, although there may be some over lap. To echo previous posters I would wait too see if a bid is received before you bring up your desire to look into another group. As far as saving for dues, going out to dinner less helps, and try best to utilize your meal plans, also if your campus has a convenience store you can stock up on things there on the weekends when less is open. Most sororities offer a payment plan, so that helps too. Best of luck

[amanda6035]

Maybe I'm just not understanding the structure, but it seems odd to me that Olivia would wait until after Sophie was done to do anything.

What if the PNMs might jump the gun and accept a bid Sophie without giving Olivia a chance because they are afraid that Sophie will be mad if they wait until after Olivia is done to accept a bid. Olivia wouldnt get a fair shot at those PNMs, or be left over with the stragglers.

Unless both organizations wait until Olivia is done to hand out bids, I dont see how this is a good idea...I see advantages and disadvantages to both sororities. Sophie either gets them all, and Olivia missed their chance because they were last, or PNMs hold out for Olivia only to possibly be disappointed and look like the prodigal child going back to accept Sophie's bid. Yick.

My campus has COB just whenever, and they offer a PNM a bid as soon as they decide they want to. They dont have a real recruitment structure for spring semester. It's just invite girls out and possibly hand out bids in the few days after that if the chapter is ready to extend them.

[33girl]

I'm guessing that they had issues with sororities holding parties at the same time and girls having to pick one or the other to attend, or depending on the campus situation there might only be certain spaces where they can be held.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by violetpretty

One of my sisters advises a chapter in her area. They have trouble getting members to pay their dues ($270 per semester if I recall correctly). She told me about one sister she confronted about dues. The member was wearing expensive jeans, standing outside her Lexus SUV, swinging her Gucci clutch around in circles when she told the advisor (alumna from my chapter) that "she can't afford $270 per semester."

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard of this happening, I could retire comfortably today. Tells you a lot about priorities, doesn't it?

[ncse88]

Originally Posted by violetpretty

One of my sisters advises a chapter in her area. They have trouble getting members to pay their dues ($270 per semester if I recall correctly). She told me about one sister she confronted about dues. The member was wearing expensive jeans, standing outside her Lexus SUV, swinging her Gucci clutch around in circles when she told the advisor (alumna from my chapter) that "she can't afford $270 per semester."

$270 per semester? I am so jealous. My dues are more than 7 times that per semester.

[Zillini]

Originally Posted by honeychile

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard of this happening, I could retire comfortably today. Tells you a lot about priorities, doesn't it?

Exactly! I once had a member tell me she couldn't pay her dues because she needed that money for her Spring Break trip.

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by amanda6035

Maybe I'm just not understanding the structure, but it seems odd to me that Olivia would wait until after Sophie was done to do anything.

The sororities at my campus (back when I went there) did COR at their leisure with little or no regard to when the other groups were holding events.

This brought up an interesting question though -- I *believe* when I joined, about 5 years ago, either the campus Panhellenic or the chapter I joined had a 48 hour window to accept bids. Do other campuses have that?

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by texas*princess

This brought up an interesting question though -- I *believe* when I joined, about 5 years ago, either the campus Panhellenic or the chapter I joined had a 48 hour window to accept bids. Do other campuses have that?

Some specific chapters had this rule, but it wasn't a Panhellenic-wide rule. I know that we had a rule that if a girl was extended a bid and said she "wasn't sure/needed to think about it/whatever" we gave her 48 hours to contact us and either accept or decline. If we didn't hear from her, we treated it as a decline.