Alabama Recruitment Prediction (Fall 2008)

[UGAalum94]

Aren't we glad they are set to expand with two groups soon?

Wow.

Can I hijack: why don't they do the expansion recruitment during regular recruitment at Alabama? It seems like it'd be a lot better to recruit girls before regular recruitment might have somewhat disappointed them. I know there's a presentation, right? Why not do the whole thing?

I'm just thinking that starting recruitment after the groups have bid 1400 women doesn't leave that many women who are interested in being Greek in the pool.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Aren't we glad they are set to expand with two groups soon?

Wow.

Can I hijack: why don't they do the expansion recruitment during regular recruitment at Alabama? It seems like it'd be a lot better to recruit girls before regular recruitment might have somewhat disappointed them. I know there's a presentation, right? Why not do the whole thing?

I'm just thinking that starting recruitment after the groups have bid 1400 women doesn't leave that many women who are interested in being Greek in the pool.

Theoretically, there will be people who drop out because they are interested in the colony, plus there will be women who have been cut. I wouldn't be surprised if there are rushees who are even less open minded about the groups because they figure "I can join a colony and make it my own and not have to put up with these jagoffs judging me." Of course that's not the whole case.

Plus, if you go from regular recruitment to colony recruitment, it's a little jarring, and not all the women will get it. A sorority at my school attempted to do this with alumnae doing the rushing and I think it laid your basic egg.

[aopirose]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Theoretically, there will be people who drop out because they are interested in the colony, plus there will be women who have been cut. I wouldn't be surprised if there are rushees who are even less open minded about the groups because they figure "I can join a colony and make it my own and not have to put up with these jagoffs judging me." Of course that's not the whole case.

Plus, if you go from regular recruitment to colony recruitment, it's a little jarring, and not all the women will get it. A sorority at my school attempted to do this with alumnae doing the rushing and I think it laid your basic egg.

Not only that but you want a variety of class standings within the colony. (Sometimes reflective of the current groups.) You can't get that with a primarily freshmen recruitment. Another thing is that a good number of women who join colonies may never have gone through recruitment before for a variety of reasons. It is a great misconception that colonies pick-up all the "recruitment leftovers". Not that anyone here has said that but I have heard that comment IRL.

Colonization recruitment within the context of FR can work on some campuses but definitely not all.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by aopirose

Not only that but you want a variety of class standings within the colony. (Sometimes reflective of the current groups.) You can't get that with a primarily freshmen recruitment. Another thing is that a good number of women who join colonies may never have gone through recruitment before for a variety of reasons. It is a great misconception that colonies pick-up all the "recruitment leftovers". Not that anyone here has said that but I have heard that comment IRL.

Colonization recruitment within the context of FR can work on some campuses but definitely not all.

I don't really know of course, but I think Alabama is likely to be one of the places where it might work better.

I'm afraid for the new chapters that there aren't that many people on campus who are good candidates for Greek life who aren't already Greek or who couldn't go through formal recruitment because they have a separate junior quota. I sort of use perceptions of COR as part of my standard here.

The chapters are huge, so we're talking about trying to get up to 200+ members relatively quickly so you're not at a huge weakness when the colony does do formal. I wasn't thinking about filling the whole chapter during formal, but starting with 80 or so, which I think was the ballpark for last year's quota seems like a great start.

And even if you could recruit an awesome group of women from people who wanted nothing to do with formal recruitment, won't that be a big disadvantage when you have to turn around an recruit in formal the next year? You don't just need good people, you need good people who will be able to recruit other good people with the methods that are successful on that campus.

33Girls, I do take your point about some PNMs holding out for the colony instead of taking what they see as somehow a "lesser" bid during formal, but I just wonder if there will be enough of them who are actually well qualified PNMs to form as good a chapter than if you participated in formal and they knew they could get the whole Bid Day experience too.

I certainly hope I'm wrong. And I bet there are some great girls who have no idea how big Greek life is at Alabama until they get there and have missed recruitment, but I just think it makes a challenging process even more challenging not to participate.

Is it the existing but smaller chapters who prefer that colonies recruit after formal or is it the preference of colonizing groups?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

And even if you could recruit an awesome group of women from people who wanted nothing to do with formal recruitment, won't that be a big disadvantage when you have to turn around an recruit in formal the next year? You don't just need good people, you need good people who will be able to recruit other good people with the methods that are successful on that campus.

33Girls, I do take your point about some PNMs holding out for the colony instead of taking what they see as somehow a "lesser" bid during formal, but I just wonder if there will be enough of them who are actually well qualified PNMs to form as good a chapter than if you participated in formal and they knew they could get the whole Bid Day experience too.

I think that there are probably more women at Bama (and other similar schools) than we realize who enjoyed doing formal rush and that sort of recruitment who may have just had bad luck - getting paired w/ a sister they had nothing in common with, missing a party for this or that reason - and didn't get a bid because of that. At a smaller school they could probably rush again and get a bid - to a top chapter - and be a great member. But at Bama those top chapters can have classes full of freshmen without having to consider anyone else so that's not going to happen. Those are the kind of people they want to get in a colony - who are on a par w/ any other sorority member there but "fell through the cracks."

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I think that there are probably more women at Bama (and other similar schools) than we realize who enjoyed doing formal rush and that sort of recruitment who may have just had bad luck - getting paired w/ a sister they had nothing in common with, missing a party for this or that reason - and didn't get a bid because of that. At a smaller school they could probably rush again and get a bid - to a top chapter - and be a great member. But at Bama those top chapters can have classes full of freshmen without having to consider anyone else so that's not going to happen. Those are the kind of people they want to get in a colony - who are on a par w/ any other sorority member there but "fell through the cracks."

But the number of women who see recruitment through and don't get bids is really tiny and you have upperclassmen/person quota so actually you could re-rush at Bama more easily than at the rest of the SEC, I think.

I'm certainly not saying that the colonies won't be successful. I fully expect them to be and I think that the groups expanding there will understand what they need to do.

I just see recruiting after formal as being harder than participating in it and I wondered why it happens like this.

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Can I hijack: why don't they do the expansion recruitment during regular recruitment at Alabama? It seems like it'd be a lot better to recruit girls before regular recruitment might have somewhat disappointed them. I know there's a presentation, right? Why not do the whole thing?

I'm just thinking that starting recruitment after the groups have bid 1400 women doesn't leave that many women who are interested in being Greek in the pool.

Not that I know how other groups execute a colonization recruitment, but I know from my experience at the University of Arkansas, what you are suggesting would have never worked. I would suspect that Bama would have similar issues.

It would be unfair to the colonizing group to "compete" against the existing, established, sororities during FR. In a colony recruitment you don't have cute girls doing door chants and bumping and doing MS. It is a very different approach and would likely not go over well with your average 18 year-old PNM. I know at Arkansas we had another SEC chapter of ours come in and do a cutesy party during the first round of FR, but colony recruitment (which took place after FR) is completely alumnae. It is fun, but definitely more a series of informational events, activities, and interviews. I don't think too many PNMs are brave enough to cut an existing group to take a chance on the new one that isn't presenting itself in the same way. It might work out if PNMs didn't have to make cuts during recruitment, but since they do, I would highly suspect that the colonizing group would meet the chopping block right off the bat with a great many PNMs. You know that most PNMs truly believe that they will be one of the lucky ladies that gets a bid to the absolute top sorority on campus. Until they learn otherwise, they aren't realistic enough to cut that group in favor of a colonizing group. I think this was a HUGE issue at Arkansas which has so much Greek history and PNMs know which chapters they want before they step foot on campus. It creates an immediate disadvantage for a group that obviously doesn't have that recognition on campus. I would think Bama with its Old Row would have similar issues. The colony needs to have its own time to shine and show what it has to offer. That's my opinion.

Additionally, the point that has already been made is very important and that is about getting a mix of classes. You just can't take a bunch of freshmen exclusively. Although Bama has a separate quota for juniors, I would think most PNMs would be freshmen, not leaving enough of a pool of upperclass girls. I know many of the terrific upperclasswomen we took at Arkansas would never have gone out for us if they had to go through FR. They weren't, for the most part, girls who had previously rushed and "failed." Most of them never rushed and didn't want to. (Intimidated by the process, not interested in the chapters on campus, etc.)

Just my oinions after participating in a big SEC colonization. If everyone on campus who is a good fit for Greek Life is already spoken for after FR, the colony isn't necessary.

[UGAalum94]

You all are almost certainly right. It just seemed to me that there's be some advantages to participating in formal too, rather than instead of only colonization recruitment after. (I kind of imagined that you could do both, but maybe you can't)

As I said earlier, I expect the expansion recruitments to be very successful; it just seemed that not doing formal made it harder.