Maryland Recruitment as a Rho Gam

[UMDRhoGam07]

Since PhoenixAzul started a thread as Rho Chi, I decided it was time to start mine! I am a senior member of my chapter, and a Rho Gamma this year! I am so excited to be a Rho Gam because mine was awesome and I want to "pass forward" the favor of supporting and helping PNMs.

Maryland has a pretty unique Greek community. We have characteristics of both northern and southern schools. We are a frills campus in that we have pretty elaborate decorations, door chants, coordinated (but not identical) outifts. I wouldn't say that our campus is super competitive, as our number of women who are cross-released is pretty low (last year 11 out of about 500 were released from all 14 chapters). Total is 95, and quota is usually in the low 20s.

One thing that makes Maryland's recruitment unique is that every chapter participates in informal recruitment in the fall. It's because quota x 3 does not equal 95. We are hoping to keep quota as high as possible (which means retention) so that only chapters that need to "catch up" participate in informal recruitment and do not have to compete with larger chapters. My goal, albeit a lofty one, is to have all of my PNMs go to preference and then decide whether or not to drop out.

The Panhellenic Association is giving the PNMs their invite lists right before the parties instead of during the "off" days in between rounds to help retention. This makes it easier on the Rho Gammas, plus the PNMs are dressed and ready to go, so the thinking is that they're more likely to stick it out one more round if they are dissappointed with their invite list.

Recs are basically unheard of at Maryland. MAYBE if you're a legacy you should get one, but chapters will check up on the relation, so it really doesn't matter.

Greek life at Maryland is well-regulated and focuses on vision, but we still have fun, I swear! We have 6 full time employees in our Greek life office, as well as a bunch of part-time advisors and residential fellows supporting us.

Maryland has 14 amazing NPC chapters:

Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Phi Epsilon
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Delta
Phi Sigma Sigma
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Kappa
Zeta Tau Alpha

Our schedule is as follows:

Tue Jan 23: Last day to register for recruitment
Recruitment orientation
Wed Jan 24: Classes start
Thu Jan 25: Recruitment kick-off (we meet our PNMs this day)
Sat Jan 27: Round 1
Sun Jan 28: Round 1
Tue Jan 30: Round 2
Wed Jan 31: Round 2
Fri Feb 2: Round 3
Sun Feb 4: Preference
Mon Feb 5: Bid Day

Round 1 is in the student union. PNMs will visit all 14 chapters. Each chapter goes for one of the days, so we only have to rent out 7 rooms each day instead of 14, and chapters only have to set up 1 of the days. The PNMs will visit 7 chapters each day during round 1.

Round 2 is philanthropy and house tours. The PNMs can go to a maximum of 10 chapters for this round. They will go to the chapter houses and get a tour, plus help with a philanthropy project at each chapter.

Round 3 is skit round. PNMs can visit a maximum of 6 chapters this round. Again, this round is at the chapter houses and chapters will decorate the non-sleeping floors of the chapter house for a themed skit. This round is definitely "frills".

Preference is also at the chapter houses and PNMs can visit a maximum of 3 chapters. It is in the afternoon so it does not interfere with the Superbowl, which is kind of weird, but better than the alternative that we tried in 2005. In 2005, we had preference (a Saturday) the day after skit round (a Friday), which was hell taking down the skit decorations and putting up pref decorations overnight, and the PNMs had to wait a whole day between preference and bid day (a Monday) to find where their new homes were.

I will be discreet and generic, because I do not want any PNMs to be hurt by something I say. I will reveal my affiliation and where my PNMs end up on bid day!

I can't wait!