A (Not Quite) Retro Recruitment to help pass your day...

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I didn't realize that the BBT names would be so well-accepted! No one else I know watches the show, so all of this discussion is quite a surprise!

Philanthropy Round
This is where my experience is unlike any other that I’ve ever heard of. Rather than attending each sorority’s chapter room in the sorority hall, all of the PNMs met in a room in the university’s student center and stood at large tables around the room putting together care packages for the local women’s shelter. Then, throughout the party sorority actives walked around the room and introduced themselves and chatted us up. Looking back, I think it wasn’t a terrible idea, it was just really poorly executed, and my story is a great example of why, and I think this was the only year my school did this.

My PX group and I stood at table number two and began assembling care packages. A few minutes later the sororities came in. Table two was close to the door, so many of the actives stopped at our table right away. I don’t remember who approached me first, but I do remember that it was awkward. And though the active was very kind, I would parallel the interaction to being hit on at a bar (“So, hey, how are you doing”). We spoke for a few more minutes and then Marti’s friend Sarah Beth, who was a Sheldon, came to my table. We talked about our hometown, class, recruitment, mutual friends (we had quite a few) and Sheldon. She was very obviously proud to be a Sheldon, and that got me excited about the prospect of becoming a Sheldon too! A short time later Sarah Beth was joined by a sister whom she introduced as Claire, her “best friend in the whole wide world”. We chatted for a few more minutes about Sheldon, and then Sarah Beth informed me that Claire and I shared a mutual hatred for a girl Sarah Beth and I had gone to school with. (Girls are so fun aren’t they?) Claire and I spent the rest of the Philanthropy night talking about this girl (and Sheldon a little). I never spoke to anyone else in any other sorority, and that (IMO) was the biggest weakness with this sort of philanthropy night. The lack of structure meant that some sororities would never make it to some PNMs whether they didn’t see them or they didn’t want to “bump” an active that wasn’t in their own sorority. But in my naïve little mind I believed that this, plus knowing Claire and Sarah Beth meant that I would for sure be a Sheldon by week’s end.

(Looking back I think a better solution would have been to have had 20 minute parties in each room, and allow for each sorority to talk about their own philanthropy, but have the actual activity be the assembling of the women’s shelter care packages. This would have guaranteed that the PNMs would meet each sorority but still be united in a Panhel-wide philanthropy effort.)

Marti, on the other hand, had spent her time talking to various members of the four sororities as well as Sarah Beth and Claire. We reconvened in our PX groups, and did another meet & greet activity. Then I left for the night with Marti. Since no cuts were made after Philanthropy round, I was excited for a chance to finally meet all of the sororities during Values Night.