Hey babe, so sorry to hear you're going through this - we were stuck at 4 sisters for a full year, and only last semester did we double to eight. this semester we had 7 pledges but it looks like we'll only be crossing three, which sucks, but two are looking to try and pledge again in the fall, and the three girls crossing are really quality girls, so I don't look at it as a complete loss. we're celebrating 20 years this year too.
But yeah, it can be really disheartening where you're at, we're still not out of the woods yet, but I was recruitment chair this year and I think we've done really well considering we were close to shutting down as well.
This is what we did and you should too: wear your letters EVERYWHERE. Also, pimp your organization so much it's like second nature. Think about the reasons why you joined, and what you still love about your sorority, why you would rather be there than anywhere else etc and just say that to anyone you think could be an interest. another thing we did was HOUND anyone who had an interest in us. most of the girls we pledge only rushed us, but we got them interested outside of rush. the girls that come through rush at my school are generally not the girls we would take, even if we had 20 or 30 girls. I got one of the girls we bid to want to join just by having a one-on-one with them before rush, she ended up only coming to our events.
I also know how hopeless it can be to get alums to help, we have tons in the area and when we were at our worst all we really had were us 4-7 actives at recruitment. I love my sisters, but they make it a point to let us know that they've GRADUATED.
sucks, but one of our major turning points came when we stopped depending on them and just did things ourselves. another thing that helped us was when our school switched to formal recruitment, but obviously that's not something you can make happen now, and i don't know how your greek system works.
COB is another big asset. I got a COB and so did two of our girls from last semester. we hold COB events for any girl who has interest outside of rush so that we can grab them before they lose interest. i was given a bid in spring '06 to pledge in fall '06, and our two new sisters got their bids the week after rush before we pinned our class. I think that events held before rush are the best because you can go party with them and show them how cool you are. If you can set a goal to have already bid two or three girls by the fall, you're already on your way.
Another thing that I think helped us was an attitude change. instead of being like, "yeah, we're small and love it!" which tells rushes that you like being as small as you are, or being down on your numbers which never does any good, change the way you pitch yourselves. Instead of letting them bring up our size when we first started to talk about ourselves I would say "obviously we're a little small right now, we just had a bunch of senior graduate, so while we never want to be HUGE, we are definitely looking to grow." So what if most of those seniors graduated two years ago? lol it basically lets rushes feel like they'll be a part of helping you grow, which appeals to a lot of girls. And the girls who want some huge national will just go their merry way. IF you do want to be huge, all the better.
WHEW! Sorry to write an essay, but I really feel the spot you're in, so hopefully I've thrown some things at you that you can work with. I think the biggest thing is not to pretend you're anything other than what you are, and take pride in your org. Don't apologize, and present yourselves like, why would you want to be anywhere else? Growth will be small at first, but we always say that we would MUCH rather pledge one QUALITY girl than cross 10 who suck just for numbers. That will only breed more internal problems for your group later on. Think of this as your opportunity to grow your organization into what you guys want it to be!
Local looove and PM me if you need anything or want to talk further!
<3 Jen
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