Advisor's Recruitment Story

[KDMafia]

Hey guys,

I have been debating doing a recruitment thread from my perspective as an advisor and decided why not. There are not as many Spring recruitment threads and I know how sad I am when this forum starts to get slow. I figure at the very least it gives us something to read and may generate a different type of discussion than the usual type of thread.

I'm an advisor at a midwest school which as deferred recruitment in January. There are six NPC sororities and one other who does recruitment at the same time but is not a part of formal recruitment. Our recruitment lasts from Tuesday to Saturday with bid day on Sunday. The first day is an open house where all PNMS go to every house. Philanthropy night is broken up between Wednesday and Thursday and again all girls go to all five houses. The first round of cuts happen after Philanthropy. Friday is Skit night with a max of four parties and Saturday is Preference night with a max of 2 parties. Bids are given out Sunday. The recruitment is more no-frills than not. there is a strict budget that usually allows for some decorations and usually one type of snack and drink. There are no houses but instead all of the sororities are housed in the same dormitory with each one having a chapter room on the first floor. The PNMS visit the chapter rooms for all of the parties.

The chapter I advise has gone from a chapter that struggled to make quota to one that, within the last 4-5 years generally usually makes quota with one-four quota additions. Quota is usually set somewhere between 12-15. Retainment during recruitment has improved since moving to the new RFM and most chapters make quota or only miss by one-two and can quickly COB. Total is 42 and has recently been dropped from 51 after a concern by Panhellenic board that many girls felt it was easier to drop out during Spring and get the sorority you wanted during Fall informal. Fall is now COB events and is a lot less structured and obvious than it has been. The chapter I advise will be one under total at the start of recruitment due to a senior graduating at semester.

There have been a lot of activites leading up to recruitment this past month. The sororites have paired up to do different events. One was a slide show, one a "fall festival" with games and such and the final was a Bingo night (bingo is big on this campus). They also do a sorority showcase and a chapter open house. At this point in time there is some concern that numbers might be low so the Panhell is encouraging sorority members to work on registering girls with a small prize for the sorority that registers the most members. Some are concerned this could lead to dirty rushing but for the most part, that is not a real problem on this campus with the exception of one group.

The chapter I advise is working hard right now for outreach and are doing skit and preference night practices so as to not feel so stressed during recruitment week.

I think that's enough for now but if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.