No Frills Recruitment...

[PsychTau]

I think your campus Panhellenic needs to define what "no frills" means to them. There's nothing wrong with putting decorative sorority items in your recruitment rooms (T shirts, pictures, etc) that sisters would normally have in their rooms/in the house lounge. There's nothing wrong with having basic drinks available (water, tea, lemonade, etc) because people do get thirsty. There is something wrong (in the "no frills" aspect of things) to have balloon ceilings in gigantic rooms, painting murals on sheets to hang on the walls, and spending tons of money on decorative items that you might only use one year (based on a theme).

The no frills concept was to direct recruitment away from "join the chapter that is the most entertaining!" to "join the chapter that you connected with through meaningful conversations". Hence the reasons why skits are being cut...I've known chapters to do a 20 minute elaborately costumed skit for a 40 minute party. They were doing their best to "entertain" the PNMs instead of really talking to them. Some groups still do slideshows (the 3-5 minute ones), and personally I think that's fine because it can be used to show the PNM the different activities of a chapter and be used to spark discussion for the rest of the event.

Everyone's campus interprets "no frills" recruitment differently. Some count how many balloons you have in a room and allow nothing hanging on a vertical surface. Some just limit the budget and food items (yes, I've experienced the recruitment where the chapters tried to outdo each other on food...so much so that it was a topic of discussion among PNM decisions). If I were that Panhellenic, I would try to envision/define what exactly they were going for in a "no frills" recruitment, and that will help chapters plan accordingly.

PsychTau

[kchaptergphib]

As far as I know, NPC Unanimous agreements started saying schools were supposed to phase-out frills starting in the early 90's. That is now when some PNMs were born. This shows how entrenched frills can be.
I pledged at the University of Minnesota in 2002, and fall '02 was the last year we were allowed a skit. I'm not sure if they now allow slideshows there, but we never had one in 03 or 04 (some schools are switching to slideshows instead of having skits).
At Minnesota, during the first 2 rounds, we were not allowed to have any decoration that was not normally in the house. That meant we could get away with, say, a small bouquet or two of flowers in each room, but that was about it. We were allowed a little bit of decor for Pref, but it wasn't much- we did have one balloon arch in a formal living room, and some (electric) candles and larger bouquets in the dining room. I think PHA mandated all that through extremely specific (kinda nit-picky) Recruitment Rules and budgeting.
We were allowed cutesy matching nametags for each round, and allowed to order matching shirts for certain rounds, but nothing like doing a mass order of the same JCrew sundresses for pref or anything. They tried to keep food less-frilly by putting restrictions like no flavored or special-shaped ice cubes, I don't think we could have monogrammed napkins or anything, they wouldn't let us use placecards or write the PNM's name in icing on the desserts, etc.
At Northwestern (where I'm on the advising team) they still get away with a ton of frills. The women essentially transform the main floors of their chapter house to fit with their set 3 theme (cover walls, bring in different furniture, costuming, etc). They really enjoy it, and it is certainly impressive, but I can't help but think they're spending a lot of time on something that doesn't necessarily translate to being a better rusher. They may very well impress the PNM's with their decorations, but are they getting to know them and having effective conversations?
So, after that long story, I would say make sure PHA is clear about what each chapter can and cannot do, as it is not fair for some folks to follow the new rules and not others, enjoy doing the frills you are allowed, and take the extra time you have that would have been spent decorating and polish your sisterhood and conversation!