How do you keep track of recruits during rush? Feedback needed for rush mgmt software

[EE-BO]

I would suggest keeping the information collected very simple- name and contact information, plus any purely objective information that is important for your chapter when recruiting.

One example of purely objective information would be, perhaps, the high school GPA. Or maybe involvement in sports.

As you surely know being freshly graduated, rush is a highly subjective process. I can see where it would be helpful to have some kind of electronic gathering of information to keep track of all rushees, but the more info you load into the system- the more work you create and the more you risk making rush decisions based on a few fields in an Excel file when the real art of rush rests in human contact.

This last point is very important I think. Both in my undergraduate days and as an advisor, I found that one of the worst things that can happen to a chapter is when the actives don't bother with rush and leave it to the rush captains to make all the decisions and do all the leg work.

Software programs can be very useful to a point, but they could also push a chapter further down the road toward lazy recruiting.

In my professional life I have encountered many people who looked great on paper- solid degree, all the right credentials- but turned out to be totally useless.

The opposite holds true as well. Some of the best guys in my fraternity were marginal on grades- and many of them have successful careers now.

Anyhow- hope this helps. I think you have a good idea if you restrict the use of it to a tracking tool only in the early stages of rush, but just be careful how much it is relied upon when decisions are made.

PS- a practical manual alternative might be to have the rushees fill out basic cards with name and contact info, and then at the end of the first night after the actives get together to talk- toss out the cards of those who do not make the first cut. I do not know how it works at Arizona, but at Georgia and Texas (where I spent undergrad time)- the first cut eliminates a LOT of people. The former in formal rush, and the latter in a more informal sense. Off the top of my head, I would speculate that after a first meeting we did not want to pursue things further with about 80-85% of the guys we met.