PNM Registration -- How does it go at your school?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AnonAlumna

Geez...excuse the heck out of me. I guess I should have given more details. I've been involved with the chapter for a couple of years.

Well then, perhaps you could have avoided sounding like you were watching animals eat their young.

Lots of women here (of course, this depends on the school) don't sign up for rush until the last minute and don't have recs or anything like that and would balk at a request to fill out something that from your description sounds like the equivalent of a resume. "For a SORORITY? You gotta be kidding."

Where are you from and what's your major take a big 30 seconds to ask. You should follow up with something like "so what movie have you seen lately? (and the rushee answers...)"American Gangster." "OMG, our sister Susie is the biggest Russell Crowe fan. Let me introduce you to her." Now you've got an opening for the rushee to meet more sisters, and so on, rather than being stuck with the same sister (who she may not click with at all) for the whole party. I just don't like the sound of "pairing" up people. If I had been "paired" with someone from my high school, my rush would have probably been a disaster. I had no idea when people talked about it all these years that they actually matched you on interests - I thought it was random.

If your chapter wants to take photos at the parties go for it, or if you want to bring it up to Panhel, but if it's something new to the school it could be perceived by administrators or the campus as picking who you want on appearance only (everyone's seen the photo scene from Animal House). I know that's not what it's for, but it can come across that way.

I mean, are several chapters (other than yours) complaining that MS takes too long or something? Are they not getting the pledges they want? Is this really an issue?

[KSUViolet06]

At my school, we use ICS Recruiter so all we had was the basic registration form with name, hometown, GPA info, legacies, extracurriculars, etc. We didn't ask for photos or resumes. All we had was the info on the sheet.

On the first day of parties, the PNMs entered the rooms in alphabetical order so there was no strategic pairing of PNMs with sisters. You got whomever was in the doorway when your turn came. Now for the later rounds like Pref, we would put sisters with certain girls that they had rushed before, just so that they didn't end up with someone they'd never met preffing them.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Well then, perhaps you could have avoided sounding like you were watching animals eat their young.

Lots of women here (of course, this depends on the school) don't sign up for rush until the last minute and don't have recs or anything like that and would balk at a request to fill out something that from your description sounds like the equivalent of a resume. "For a SORORITY? You gotta be kidding."

Where are you from and what's your major take a big 30 seconds to ask. You should follow up with something like "so what movie have you seen lately? (and the rushee answers...)"American Gangster." "OMG, our sister Susie is the biggest Russell Crowe fan. Let me introduce you to her." Now you've got an opening for the rushee to meet more sisters, and so on, rather than being stuck with the same sister (who she may not click with at all) for the whole party. I just don't like the sound of "pairing" up people. If I had been "paired" with someone from my high school, my rush would have probably been a disaster. I had no idea when people talked about it all these years that they actually matched you on interests - I thought it was random.

If your chapter wants to take photos at the parties go for it, or if you want to bring it up to Panhel, but if it's something new to the school it could be perceived by administrators or the campus as picking who you want on appearance only (everyone's seen the photo scene from Animal House). I know that's not what it's for, but it can come across that way.

I mean, are several chapters (other than yours) complaining that MS takes too long or something? Are they not getting the pledges they want? Is this really an issue?

33girl, your tone and aire of superiority on this topic is offensive. Implying that chapters that do use pictures and women's biographical information are shallow and care only about what the parent's professions are is offensive in the extreme. Maybe since you didn't experience recruitment with these aides you just don't understand how helpful they are. Last time I participated in rush, we didn't have any rushers talk only about something a girl had indicated on her recruitment info form. In the old days when you had unlimited time to do MS, the pictures and info weren't as important, but from what I have witnessed at my current advisee chapter, MS is limited to two hours after the party. Since we don't get pictures for these girls, the majority of this two hour period is spent describing the PNM being discussed because otherwise no one knows who the girl is! At some schools, you have recruitments with more than 100 women going through so this actually does help. Don't be so quick to assign malignant intentions to everyone that posts on this site! Anon is clearly interested in helping her sisters streamline the process...not weed out the "undersireables" before they ever get to recruitment.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Implying that chapters that do use pictures and women's biographical information are shallow and care only about what the parent's professions are is offensive in the extreme.

Please reread my post that you quoted. I didn't say I thought that about pictures, rather that it might be perceived that way by administrators or other people that weren't familiar with it. I even said "I know that's not what it's for."

If these chapters at the OP's school are doing fine without detailed forms and pictures - why change it? Why make it harder for women who might be on the fence anyway to participate in the rush process?

Perhaps I came off a little bitchy, but when there's an implication in someone's post that everyone north of the Mason Dixon is an uncouth bumpkin who will never know how to run a proper rush, trust me, I ain't the only one thinking what I said.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Please reread my post that you quoted. I didn't say I thought that about pictures, rather that it might be perceived that way by administrators or other people that weren't familiar with it. I even said "I know that's not what it's for."

If these chapters at the OP's school are doing fine without detailed forms and pictures - why change it? Why make it harder for women who might be on the fence anyway to participate in the rush process?

Perhaps I came off a little bitchy, but when there's an implication in someone's post that everyone north of the Mason Dixon is an uncouth bumpkin who will never know how to run a proper rush, trust me, I ain't the only one thinking what I said.

Why indeed you aren't! In fact, back in the dark ages when I went through recruitment, before these new-fangled iPod things came out, we had no idea who was coming to our recruitment parties, or how many girls, until they rang the doorbell! Mercy me, we managed to muddle through despite that by saying such colloquial phrases as:

Hi Martha Washington, nice to meet you!

Oh, you're a political science major? You simply MUST meet Eleanor, she's very involved with the model UN!

<bump!>

What's that Susan B? You're majoring in Women's Studies? Do you know that our founders blah blah blah women blah blah feminism...

Elizabeth Cady over here is very interested in get out the vote drives, let's go meet her!


Now I know, having to make small talk spontaneously can be very difficult and is certainly not a skill necessary later in life, but I do think it gives we sorority women that little extra edge.

[violetpretty]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Perhaps I came off a little bitchy, but when there's an implication in someone's post that everyone north of the Mason Dixon is an uncouth bumpkin who will never know how to run a proper rush, trust me, I ain't the only one thinking what I said.

A-Freakin'-Men. The OP might actually be at my alma mater, because that sounds like our recruitment.

[Benzgirl]

This year was the first time I helped with recruitment in 25 years, so I had a chance to view a large recruitment vs. a small recruitment.

When I was in school, all we got was a list of PNMs and their home town. If we were lucky enough to get a rec and a picture, that was gravy. Recs were not a big issue then, so we had no clue what other girls were coming through until we received the knock on the door. There was no alphabetized lists so we grabed the next girl coming through the door. First round was 1200 PNMs, and 20 parties at 15 minutes each. It was an organized chaos.

When I helped at another school this year, they had about 150 PNMs, 5 parties, of 30 minutes. They also didn't receive a list until the knock came. Again, they grabbed the first girl coming through. When I asked the advisor about recs pictures, she said, they always use Facebook.

Is it awkward? Maybe, maybe not. One observation of this method of madness: I noticed the excitement of one collegian pulling her PNM across the room to meet her sister that was from the same city across the country. Talk about a smooth bump! I don't think you could get that same excitement if recruitment was so orchestrated.