Informal Recruitment

[33girl]

If you're the only chapter that does this and you do it as a weeklong effort, it WILL make you stand out, and not in a good way. A better way might be to have several events after formal and every month or so after, and then choose a pledge class in the fall.

Are you open bidding to quota/total after formal rush?

Are you receiving a list of women who went through formal the semester before and either were cut from the other chapters or dropped out?

Are the parties open to anyone who is eligible? If so - and you are the only chapter having to COB - I would discontinue this practice and make the parties invitation only. You need to find girls who want to be in YOUR sorority, not A sorority.

Oh, and you can have a slight theme (like XYZ Picnic or something) but don't go overboard with skits and costumes - informal rush is supposed to be just that - INFORMAL. Take advantage of the openness to get to know the girls better and talk with them more.

Not to tread into membership selection stuff, but do you want them to come back because they need to go to x number of events before getting a bid, or just because you want to get to know them better? Try asking different groups of girls to different events. That way you can spend more time with each of them.

The whole idea is to make the rushees feel that they are special and chosen - not that you just want them there to get your numbers up.

[jlp531]

Last semester after formal recruitment, I divided up rush drop-outs and girls who did not receive bids and had the girls in the chapter who had spoken to them during formal recruitment contact them and invite them to events. This didn't work well at all, partly because a lot of the girls simply weren't interested after their various rush experiences, and partly because our sisters felt very awkward about contacting girls they had only met during rush. I planned events but they were simply not attended.

I agree that doing invitations for fall recruitment events is a great idea, my problem is getting names of girls to invite. Our chapter keeps a running wish list of girls we are interested in; however, getting our current members to contribute to it is difficult. Maybe what I need are suggestions on how to improve upon that. Off the top of my head, I can think of 5 girls who I would LOVE to invite to events next semester and see join our chapter, but for some reason, other girls in our chapter seem to have trouble doing the same. When I set requirements that people must provide x number of names, I still don't get a response. When I just ask at a chapter meeting, I really don't get a response there either.

Thanks for the help. I'm open to any ideas you might have!

[AlphaFrog]

Incentives - people like incentives.

If you invite X number of people to the next COB, you get a candle with letters/paddle/snickers bar, etc.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by jlp531

Last semester after formal recruitment, I divided up rush drop-outs and girls who did not receive bids and had the girls in the chapter who had spoken to them during formal recruitment contact them and invite them to events. This didn't work well at all, partly because a lot of the girls simply weren't interested after their various rush experiences, and partly because our sisters felt very awkward about contacting girls they had only met during rush. I planned events but they were simply not attended.

I agree that doing invitations for fall recruitment events is a great idea, my problem is getting names of girls to invite. Our chapter keeps a running wish list of girls we are interested in; however, getting our current members to contribute to it is difficult. Maybe what I need are suggestions on how to improve upon that. Off the top of my head, I can think of 5 girls who I would LOVE to invite to events next semester and see join our chapter, but for some reason, other girls in our chapter seem to have trouble doing the same. When I set requirements that people must provide x number of names, I still don't get a response. When I just ask at a chapter meeting, I really don't get a response there either.

Thanks for the help. I'm open to any ideas you might have!

I'm extrapolating a lot here, but it sounds like a lot of your members do sorority, and nothing else. All their friends are sorority friends. You might want to encourage them to get involved in extracurricular activities where they can meet more people. Lots of sororities have a bylaw or national policy that every member has to be involved in at least one activity outside the sorority and I think that's a great idea.

With the girls who went through rush - I don't know that I would have individual girls contact them if they only knew them through rush. A form invite from the rush chair might be better. This is kind of a crap shoot, but sometimes it works out. At least you know the women are interested in being Greek. Although, if there are women you cut or that you knew at your formal rush parties couldn't wait to get out of there, skip them.

[MaggieXi]

You might want to consider a welcome back to school event -- like a BBQ or something. Explain to your sisters that the goal is that they have to bring at least one non-greek woman to the event to hang out and get to know. Just because a person didn't go through recruitment, they may still be interested just shy or socially anxious, but still be a great potential new member.

[valmypal]

I was recruitment chair for my chapter a few years ago and now i'm a graduate advisor for a panhellenic community. Many of the groups have to do COBs in the fall and most of them struggle with this. I just bought the new book I Heart Recruitment, and honestly the information in it really seemed like it would help. I downloaded it to my computer so i had it right away but you can order a hardcopy too. The PhiredUp.com website has a link. It was mostly common sense but it gave a lot of activities to do with your chapter to help you actually do the right things to bring women in. It talked a lot about small activities with a few sisters and really getting to know girl before asking them to join. It did mention getting out there and being involved in other groups on campus as a way to meet new women. Just thought this might help. Our Panhellenic is going to do a workshop on it in the fall to help them with COBing.

[alrphimu]

My chapter is one of the few that participates in COB at my school (we have August rush), and when i was COB chairperson last year, my co-chair and I found it most effective to do "coke dates" -- one on one situations (ie, a sister takes a PNM out to Starbucks). However, we ALWAYS told the PNM that they should bring a friend along if they wanted (and 90% of the time they did, for comfort reasons) and BOOM! another PNM. We did have events, but only 2-3 a semester, and it was a one-time thing, and that was mostly to get girls interested in greek life/Phi Mu, and then we took them on a coke date if we saw fit and perhaps offered them a bid. The idea of a week of parties for informal recruiting does seem a little off-putting to me, so maybe change it up.

We also had a "bring a friend" event -- like a movie night or something, for our newest pledge class after recruitment -- the only requirment was that the friend had to be unaffliated and looking to join a house...that got us a lot of selection for coke dates.

[CrimsonBlues]

We are the only chapter on my campus that makes a big informal recruitment effort every year. A couple of the others discretely take a couple girls during COR, but we are the only chapter that consistently does not make quota every year.

What our membership director did was to solicit names from every member of the most recent pledge class She hounded the newer members until she got what she was after from enough of them. Our events were invite-only, but we ended up extending a few hundred invitations - all to women who had been personally referred to us by sisters or had expressed interest in our sorority at some point during the prior semester.

As you can imagine, we did not receive interest from the majority of the women to whom we extended invitations, but we probably got about 40 to come out. We ended with a special "pref-esque" evening where we did a more low-key version of our pref ceremony - of course, we didn't call it that, but we wanted to give the evening a slightly more serious atmosphere. We then had a membership selection and offered bids to most of the women who came to the event (I believe only one declined). We did lose a couple from that pledge class during the pledge period, which is normal, but we ended up initiating an uncharacteristically large group of enthusiastic, dedicated, and overall high-quality women that semester. Though we still didn't manage to hit total, we were as close as we'd been since I pledged, and the success of our informal recruitment gave our chapter a much-needed morale boost going into formal recruitment.

Anyway, that was really long winded, but I just wanted to share my chapter's experience/success story with informal recruitment and hopefully offer some ideas to other chapters in similar situations. I'd encourage considering it if you think that your chapter can support a "semi-formal" type informal recruitment effort and that it won't hinder you on your campus (really, it's possible that the other sororities won't even necessarily know about it, since you never publicly advertise - informal recruitment is very stigmatized on our campus, but we never experienced any backlash).

[ISUKiteFlyer]

Originally Posted by valmypal

It talked a lot about small activities with a few sisters and really getting to know girl before asking them to join.

When I COB'd this is what the three houses I visited did... (setting: mid-western state U. in the 90s.) I ate dinner at the houses at least once, usually with a house tour following. (Don't be afraid to NOT put this first. Doing something out-of-house with a couple of actives is a great first 'event' to warm up to. But it's ok if that's how it works out.) One house invited me to basketball games to hang out (they bought the tickets). With every house, I was always with the same active at each event, and usually one of their friends. With XYZ house, my pairing would have become my Big. At a second house, it actually turned out to be the informal rush chairman (who LOVED her position).

The house I joined had a game of "Clue" with a small group of PNMs, with each PNM paired up with an active (that familiar face!) so she wouldn't get lost in the house and I remember there being a lot of actives hanging out in their rooms. I got to meet a lot of girls that way, and got more familiar with the house, although it could be intimidating (or in the eyes of the paranoid, hazing, so be sure to dot all i's before doing this). I would recommend having a couple of events with each PNM before playing a game in a group like this, it makes it more comfortable and less overwhelming if there's a familiar face or three to "anchor" to.

Be cautious of dropping girls over semester break. My timing for COB wasn't probably the best, but picking things "back up" after 5 weeks of classes doesn't look good. I'm assuming what happened in my particular case is rare, but I thought I'd throw that out there.

It's all about keeping it low key and making the PNM feel comfortable yet special. As a COB, I wanted to see behind all the polish and frill of Formal. I wanted to see what the chapters were REALLY like on a day-to-day basis, and to see if I connected. I visited one house during dead week (see above note about not-so-great timing) and that let me see a lot. (Looking back, I'm surprised they had me...)

On the other side of COB, I remember going along with a rush group (sorry, 90s term...), and playing chess at a coffee shop with my now-bff. It just so happened we clicked, and her pairing assignment not as much. Again, stating the obvious, but if that happens, let it.

Good luck!