Good Recruitment Icebreaking Questions

[psusue]

Some questions I've used are:

Where is the furthest that you have traveled? What have you spent your past few summers doing? Do you have any brothers or sisters? Where did they go to school? Has anyone else in your family attended this university? What are some of your favorite books? Movies? TV shows? Do you have a significant other? How did you meet them? What kind of activities are you looking to get involved in here at school? Is anyone in your family Greek? What did you think you were going to be when you grew up?

Basically, I have a list of topics in my head that I can make questions about and then I return to my internal list when the topic starts to run dry. Some tips I have for recruitment are:

Listen to the PNM's ENTIRE reply. Yes it is important that you keep the conversation going, but let them breathe and think for a second! I definitely struggled with this as a first timer in recruitment, I was so nervous that there would be an awkward silence that I cut some PNMs off! Not a great way to make a first impression. Besides, both of you are likely tired, overwhelmed, and really nervous so if you can make the conversation more laid back (although interesting), it could make the PNM more comfortable and allow them to think of your chapter as one they felt comfortable in.

Also try to think of questions that really get at the heart of the issue-- would this PNM make a good sister or not? Some good questions that I've thought of (some of which have been mentioned already) are why are you going through recruitment, what do you hope to get out of a sorority, what are you looking forward to the most if you do join a sorority, what is your family like, do you have a significant other, how did you meet them, what are they like, do you have any good friends from home, how did you meet them, how long have you been friends with them, do you have a job, have you ever had a job, what was your most memorable job, how did you find out about it, what kind of activities were you involved in in high school/are involved in in college, did you spend a lot of time with those, what is your favorite brand of makeup/hair stuff/clothing, do you usually pay for things yourself or do your parents, etc.

Some of these may sound odd at first (especially the last one), but I've though about them and most of them reveal how the PNM is is various aspects of her life-- how she acts in a family, with her friends, with her significant other, does she work, how committed she is to her involvements, does she save money, etc. All of these are part of what makes a good sister. At least I think. I hope to try these out for formal fall recruitment and hopefully it goes well. I am already excited to see my sisters again and meet my future sisters. =)