Yet to be Themed Re-recruitment Story

[Hartofsec]

Originally Posted by 1964Alum

Member selection policies can very greatly from GLO to GLO. And yes, they can seem unfair on the face of them. I'm not at liberty to disclose the information gathered and recorded on our rec forms, but they have to do with the personal qualities of the PNM. Matters of substance. And not the opinion of one sole alumna.

I think this is the original intent of a “recommendation.” The act of recommending anyone for anything requires personal knowledge of the candidate.

If I know a PNM well enough to write a rec, I know her well enough to call her and let her know I am doing so. I haven’t had a reason to send in recs for PNMs without their knowledge – I wouldn’t know every fact, activity, and honor to include without their input anyway (I don’t know how anyone would).

Perhaps this just reflects my experience with recruitment on my campus and how my local alum group is organized where recs are concerned – but the thought of an alum squirreled away somewhere furiously writing recs for girls she doesn’t know -- so that they may be offered bids -- is just a foreign concept to me. This seems to negate the point and meaning of having a recommendation that includes matters of substance, and seems to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of a national rec requirement.

So – question for those on a campus where recs are an anomaly but whose org requires them -- recs are written en masse for those being offered a bid instead of prior to recruitment? It’s difficult to imagine, otherwise, that entire new member classes across a campus just happen to all have mystery recs year after year.

Originally Posted by 1964Alum

I'm not at liberty to disclose the information gathered and recorded on our rec forms

An aside – in the younger days of the internet, logging into one’s member account of the national org site was usually required to view/obtain rec forms. Now, just about chapter’s form is available and viewable to anyone on the internet. I’m not sure why some alum groups and chapters upload these to the internet – or why the various national orgs don’t contact them and ask that these be removed from public view.