Little Chapter, Big Recruitment: Spring 2009

[silverpearls]

First of all, thank you all so much for your support! I've gotten so many PMs and posts, and I really appreciate all your kind thoughts.

RECRUITMENT STARTS THIS WEEK! I'm so, so excited. Almost all of our decorations are done and the sisters are really pumped. It seemed impossible that we would pull everything together and get all the last minute details done, but it seems like a reality now. We got our first round shirts today and it's such a great feeling that's it's really happening! Not to mention the shirts are adorable

I'll post more soon!

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by silverpearls

First of all, thank you all so much for your support! I've gotten so many PMs and posts, and I really appreciate all your kind thoughts.

RECRUITMENT STARTS THIS WEEK! I'm so, so excited. Almost all of our decorations are done and the sisters are really pumped. It seemed impossible that we would pull everything together and get all the last minute details done, but it seems like a reality now. We got our first round shirts today and it's such a great feeling that's it's really happening! Not to mention the shirts are adorable

I'll post more soon!

Best of luck! Sounds like your chapter is prepared to have a successful recruitment!

[aggieAXO]

Good luck !!! I hope things go well.

[silverpearls]

RECRUITMENT STARTS TOMORROW!!!

I am beyond excited. I also can't wait to get the list of who signed up for Recruitment. A few girls I really love didn't seem sure if they were going to do it or not, so I'm crossing my fingers that they at least come to the first round to check it out! And if they drop out... well, there are always snap bidding

The last I heard about 150 women had signed up, compared to 200 last year... eek. Hopefully there's a last-minute surge.

I'm a little worried about some of our newer sisters screwing up the bumping. Some of them missed Polish (like finishing touches, not like Poland!) week and have never bumped before. We're having a short "catch-up" right before the first party, but I can see disaster on the horizon... at least for the first party. As long as no PNMs get left alone, it'll be ok! At least bumping isn't rocket science - I'm sure they'll pick it up pretty quickly. They're smart ladies!

I'm also a little apprehensive about the online world - yes, our old friend JuicyCampus. In the last week there have been a lot of threads about different sororities and nasty rumors about each one are getting aired out again, presumably (and sadly) from sororities trying to besmirch each other before Recruitment begins. Luckily for us, we haven't gotten too much bad press. I really wish our campus had some Panhellenic sprit

Ok, well, I have to run to class! I'm super excited for tomorrow, and I'll be back to let you all know how it went! For now, I'm stuck with a head full of Recruitment chants

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by silverpearls

RECRUITMENT STARTS TOMORROW!!!

I am beyond excited. I also can't wait to get the list of who signed up for Recruitment. A few girls I really love didn't seem sure if they were going to do it or not, so I'm crossing my fingers that they at least come to the first round to check it out! And if they drop out... well, there are always snap bidding

The last I heard about 150 women had signed up, compared to 200 last year... eek. Hopefully there's a last-minute surge.

I'm a little worried about some of our newer sisters screwing up the bumping. Some of them missed Polish (like finishing touches, not like Poland!) week and have never bumped before. We're having a short "catch-up" right before the first party, but I can see disaster on the horizon... at least for the first party. As long as no PNMs get left alone, it'll be ok! At least bumping isn't rocket science - I'm sure they'll pick it up pretty quickly. They're smart ladies!

I'm also a little apprehensive about the online world - yes, our old friend JuicyCampus. In the last week there have been a lot of threads about different sororities and nasty rumors about each one are getting aired out again, presumably (and sadly) from sororities trying to besmirch each other before Recruitment begins. Luckily for us, we haven't gotten too much bad press. I really wish our campus had some Panhellenic sprit

Ok, well, I have to run to class! I'm super excited for tomorrow, and I'll be back to let you all know how it went! For now, I'm stuck with a head full of Recruitment chants

Don't worry too much about bumping. There should be a few sisters watching for problems so they can jump in and fill any gaps or move things along.
As for JC, I hope that PNMs are stupid enough to let that trash effect their decisions.

[silverpearls]

There are a few threads on JC about last night, and so far no one has said a single bad thing about Venus! Yay!! It really reaffirms my belief that the stereotypes that my sisters are "ugly, fat, awkward losers" are completely unfounded and that it really shows in the rush room. Ironically, it's the top chapters that are getting a lot of bad press... basically, I think girls go in there with unrealistic expectations that every single sister is going to be some sort of greek goddess (pun intended!) and are kind of upset to see that they're just normal girls, the same as all the other chapters. Odd.

One thing I was struck by last night is how many PNMs have friends that are already greek at other schools. A lot of their friends went through last fall, and now our PNMs are really excited to get started after having to wait a whole semester. A lot of girls I talked to had friends that are Venuses at other schools, so that was exciting! And hopefully their Venus friends will convince them to give us a shot

Tonight we're working on finishing up the last of the decorations and preparing food for the parties tomorrow. It'll be good to get everything done - or at least mostly done!

[silverpearls]

I just saw our invite list for tonight... and Kelly isn't on it. I'm completely shocked. I know for a fact that she was at the top our our list, so the only explanation is that she ranked us dead last. After talking to our Recruitment chair and a few other sisters about it, we concluded that she probably succumbed to the tent talk. She seemed like she was having a great time in the rush room and had really good conversations with everyone... she even told me that she didn't like some of the other groups she went to. The fact that she ranked them above us is really, really disappointing - she didn't seem like the kind of girl that was hung up on reputation or which groups are "the best". A lot of my sisters are friends of hers. I'm really shocked and disappointed... I honestly thought we were going to be sisters. I know these things happen every year, and I told myself not to get too attached, and I know it's not personal... but yes, I do feel really hurt and betrayed.

We'll see how things go tonight. We have pretty good returns - about 125/200 are coming back.

[OPhiAGinger]

Originally Posted by silverpearls

I just saw our invite list for tonight... and Kelly isn't on it. I'm completely shocked.

So sorry to hear that about Kelly. I know how hurtful that must be, but you kind of anticipated it when you described her lack of exposure to the other sororities on your campus. What about Lily? You said they were good friends and might go together to the same sorority....

[PenguinTrax]

Originally Posted by silverpearls

We'll see how things go tonight. We have pretty good returns - about 125/200 are coming back.

Just curious - did you extend 200 invites or less than 200?

[silverpearls]

Last night was third round! It went really well - our decorations were great and our sisters were really on top of their game. We extended around 180 invites and got 122 back (out of 200 PNMs). We had a number of PNMs go through who were only invited back to Venus - a few dropped before the party, but most came. Some seemed kind of bummed coming in, but our advisors remarked that as they left everybody seemed happy and like they had a good time. A few girls even told sisters they were glad they were only invited back to Venus because it was the only one they wanted - that was a great surprise! A lot of them also told us our decorations were the best, so that was really nice to hear. We have some PNMs who are really excited and who we really want, so hopefully Pref will go well tomorrow.

In terms of the PNMs...

As I mentioned before, Kelly didn't come back to us. I'm not sure where she went last night because we didn't have that info. A lot of sisters were really upset, but we have a lot of other great girls to focus on!

Lily was back last night, but I don't think she'll be at Pref.

Danielle, Ashley, Jenny and Elizabeth were there and seemed to be having a great time! I didn't get to talk to them but they're all consistent favorites with the sisters.

Sasha & Tasha were back, which was great news! They're very desired by other chapters too, so we're hoping we can hold onto them. I got to talk to Sasha and we had a great time... she seemed really happy to be there. All the sisters love them!

Zoe was there and seemed like she had a good night! This was her first round of Recruitment because she was sick for the first two, but she made a very good impression.

Vicky dropped out of Recruitment last night before the parties began. I don't know what happened, but we all loved her so she may get a snap bid. She could also do informal COB with us next week after formal ends, so I'm not giving up hope! I think she was just really overwhelmed by Recruitment since she's a pretty quiet girl.

I met a few others who I really loved, so I'm really hoping they'l be back for Pref! We're planning for about 100ish at Pref with about 50 at each party. Right now we're really busy with Preprations, so I'm going to leave off here for now. I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about Pref... then BID DAY on Thursday!!!