"No Frills" Recruitment - Need advice

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

I'm sure letting people wear clothes they already have saves money, but I think it was the norm at my school to buy some new stuff. We got dressed up for football games too, so I think you sort of shopped for things you could wear for both, which may sound insane, I realize.

I think I have matching clothing equals less expensive clothing incorrectly stuck in my head because of the shift in type of clothes too.

It sounds like from what PeppyGPhiB writes, there's still lots for a chapter to do for a "no frills" rush. Did the Rho Chis count balloons?

Usually we already had most of the stuff we were told to wear for rush. Jeans/denim skirt, khakis (it was the 90s!), black skirt, black slacks, different colors of shirts, black dress, black heels, etc. The key was picking wardrobe staples instead of creative or unique items. As you said, we could be creative with accessories if wanted.

Re: counting balloons...you know how I said things could get tedious? Yep, panhellenic exec. went into the rooms prior to the first party and counted balloons, checked outfits and other decorations. It was actually really fast and easy to do.

[UGAalum94]

I'm glad it went well and that your overall impression is positive.

It does seem like everyone would have the clothes that you described, and that you would look cute as a group.

I was just afraid that rather than being low maintenance, "no frills" was just a different kind of high maintenance. I'm glad to hear that it doesn't work out that way.

[PeppyGPhiB]

One more thing...I don't know how rampant rush violations are at other schools, but at mine they were practically non-existant. Probably because of how orderly no-frills rush tends to operate. The first year there were several, mostly because people were unfamiliar with the rules, but after that I don't recall there being many issues.

[aphidarlin]

Hi there-

I'm the Recruitment Adviser for a chapter with a total of 5 NPC groups, and we just completed our first year of "no frills." Like you, the GA is new, and wanted to make BIG changes that the groups were not ready for. However, she has been incredibly supportive and empowering of each group and their individual concerns.

I came through Formal Recruitment in Spring 2001, when chapters served drinks, did skits, balloon arches, individual stationary invitations for each PNM corresponding to the theme of the next round's party, etc... Basically, the "go big or go home" mentality.

Fast Forward to this past Fall (2006). The GA wanted no skits, chants, decorations, matching shirts, etc... Her purpose in proposing these changes was to give a more realistic view of sisterhood and sorority life to the PNMs. My suggestion was to take a look at what we had been doing in recruitment, and ask ourselves...Do we do this in our respective chapters at any other time, than for recruitment?

i.e. I don't get together with my sisters on a Friday night and perform a skit. However, we do wear matching sets of letters for various events.

We ended up using this as sort of a blue print for the recruitment rules. One of the rules regarding decorations was that everything in the room had to serve a purpose. Nothing could be just a thematic space filler. It forced us to pretty much be limited to table decorations, but to be intentional and creative with what we displayed.

Hope this helps...Let me know how it goes for you!

[33girl]

Originally Posted by aphidarlin

My suggestion was to take a look at what we had been doing in recruitment, and ask ourselves...Do we do this in our respective chapters at any other time, than for recruitment?

i.e. I don't get together with my sisters on a Friday night and perform a skit. However, we do wear matching sets of letters for various events.

We ended up using this as sort of a blue print for the recruitment rules.

That's one of the best ways to explain no-frills that I've ever heard. Too many people go overboard with it and use it as an excuse to tattle on the other sororities if they break the rules.

(I'm sure that occasionally things do occur outside of recruitment that would be entertaining as skits, however, they're probably best confined to sisters only, LOL.)

[Denise_DPhiE]

Originally Posted by aphidarlin

My suggestion was to take a look at what we had been doing in recruitment, and ask ourselves...Do we do this in our respective chapters at any other time, than for recruitment?

Amen (panhellenic) sista. Well said.

[emily0325]

I personally don't like the sound of no frills recruitement.. it sort of takes the fun out of it although I do see the reasoning... I just see it as if a girl wants to be in another sorority because they have cool shirts or cool themes then I don't want her. Girls going through that are quality and have honorable intentions aren't going to care about that stuff. So why not just let us do it?

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by emily0325

I personally don't like the sound of no frills recruitement.. it sort of takes the fun out of it although I do see the reasoning... I just see it as if a girl wants to be in another sorority because they have cool shirts or cool themes then I don't want her. Girls going through that are quality and have honorable intentions aren't going to care about that stuff. So why not just let us do it?

Well, I guess it depends on what your chapter sees as "fun." Some chapters enjoy doing the skits, but many don't. My chapter would have hated it. In our case, taking out the skits made things more fun. When it came to identical outfits, that really wouldn't have worked on our campus, where each chapter had women of all shapes and sizes. It was hard enough convincing my chapter that we should coordinate colors/outfits. Sure, it would have been fun to be able to decorate the whole room, but any of us that had spent hours decorating the preference room knew how long it took and we were happy to spend those hours earlier in the week sleeping.

[AGDee]

I think the biggest advantage of "no frills" is financial. You've got to consider the return on your investment. The money we spent on food, favors, name tags, invitations, etc. was outrageous and my school was a mid-west, blue collar type of school. Without all those expenses, we actually had more money to cover formals, mixers, and sisterhoods. And, as several people pointed out earlier, the time involved in all that planning and implementation. It was exhausting. And, you can spend more time during each event actually TALKING to the PNMs so they get to know you and you get to know them.

I still find it a little odd that, no matter which sorority you got a bid from, each PNM had numerous favors with letters on them from all the different groups. It seemed ok at the time, but seems strange in retrospect, especially when the debates go on here about whether new members can wear letters.

Even at the "lowest frills" campuses that I'm familiar with, they still dress similarly, sing their songs and have formal preferences with ceremonies.

[adpiucf]

Originally Posted by emily0325

I just see it as if a girl wants to be in another sorority because they have cool shirts or cool themes then I don't want her. Girls going through that are quality and have honorable intentions aren't going to care about that stuff.

LOL. Then clearly you have never been a teenager.

[Glitter650]

Originally Posted by emily0325

I personally don't like the sound of no frills recruitement.. it sort of takes the fun out of it although I do see the reasoning... I just see it as if a girl wants to be in another sorority because they have cool shirts or cool themes then I don't want her. Girls going through that are quality and have honorable intentions aren't going to care about that stuff. So why not just let us do it?

That sounds great to say, and it's true that it's a stupid reason to join just because you liked a chapter's outfits or decorations. But it's not reality. People DO look at decorations and such when they step into a recruitment party, they look at how everything is presented. If having no frills puts every chapter on more of an even footing than girls will be more likely to choose based on the connection they felt with the women they met. (In theory)

[33girl]

Some schools have taken "no frills" to mean counting balloons, calling rush infractions on other groups because a PNM walked out w/ confetti on her shirt, etc. That is NOT what it's supposed to be about and completely violates the whole spirit of the idea - just as making ridiculous rules about sorority members having any contact with freshmen completely violates the intended point and spirit of deferred rush.

I honestly think it would almost make things easier if the sororities could all get together and say "we're going to do so and so, show this movie, this is our skit" and be fair and open about it. The reason you have silly crap like counting balloons is no matter what, everyone's afraid they're going to be one-upped somehow. It's easy to make rules about no frills, to actually make people understand WHAT THE REAL POINT IS is the hard part.

Let me say I've got no problem with things like skits and songs - they're fun and let the rushees relax and just be spectators. But when you only have a total of 5 hours to spend with women in rush (i.e. a girl rushing you from Meet the Greeks on through till pref will be in your company a total of 5 hours) and you eat up 45 minutes of it with a skit, then is when you should stop and think. Especially if the rushees are 95% freshmen women you've never set your eyes on till they walked in the door.

[MSKKG]

The Kappas at USC (S. Carolina) had to remove something out of their centerpieces because the centerpieces could only be 8" tall (I think). The actual flower part of the arrangement was, but they had these gold twirls coming out of the arrangement that made the centerpiece exceed the limit. Things like that seem kind of petty to me.

[exlurker]

Originally Posted by MSKKG

The Kappas at USC (S. Carolina) had to remove something out of their centerpieces because the centerpieces could only be 8" tall (I think). The actual flower part of the arrangement was, but they had these gold twirls coming out of the arrangement that made the centerpiece exceed the limit. Things like that seem kind of petty to me.

Doesn't surprise me. For example. the U. of Kentucky Panhellenic guidelines for 2006-07 recruitment go into detail about the size and number of floral arrangements. I'm having a vision of a dedicated Panhellenic officer or recruitment counselor marching around with a tape measure.

The UKY guidelines are in PDF:
http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/Greek/06RECGUI.pdf

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by exlurker

Doesn't surprise me. For example. the U. of Kentucky Panhellenic guidelines for 2006-07 recruitment go into detail about the size and number of floral arrangements. I'm having a vision of a dedicated Panhellenic officer or recruitment counselor marching around with a tape measure.

The UKY guidelines are in PDF:
http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/Greek/06RECGUI.pdf

Right, and this is why I wonder sometimes if "no frills" is actually worse. In full-frills rush, are there rules like this too, but we don't here as much about it?