RFM Question

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by Titchou

With RFM, if you are on a bid list and you listed that group on your bid card AND maximized your options,you will get a bid. The issue is whether or not you made the bid list....and it's possible to attend a pref and not be on that group's bid list. Not probable - but possible.

But if you attend two prefs, and list them both, and for whatever reason, you are dropped from one big list, are you guaranteed a bid to the other?

[gee_ess]

^^^okay, without too much MS info being divulged, the confusing thing about this statement is that everyone who attends pref is on a list. So, I think the general prevailing thought, at least at Arkansas, is that everyone who attends pref( maximizes, blah, blah) gets a bid. And that is what the "officials" at arkansas always said. Now, they freak everyone out by very clearly saying- we can't be SURE you will get a bid, but we are pretty sure. And, I assure you, no one in those houses thinks they can leave a girl off those final lists. And, to further compound things, if you were to place/rank a pnm last in order to possibly achieve that, she is very, very likely to be a QA because that is where they come from.

Posted while deltababy was posting. I am wondering about her question also.

[pinapple]

In the University of Texas UPC Constitution (which is public and a link to follow) it states:

Guaranteed Placement: The following procedures should be followed if women whose bids did not match in the normal course of bid matching must be placed in fraternity chapters who have already reached Quota:

i. The potential new member will be matched to the fraternity chapter she has listed on her preference card that is the smallest in chapter size, as long as her name appears on that chapter’s preferential bid list. By matching her there, that group may exceed quota in order to place every potential new member eligible for guaranteed placement (see ii ) in a chapter.
ii. This procedure shall never include a potential new member who lists an intentional single preference on her preference card or one who has failed to accept or attend any recruitment event for which there was room in her schedule.

The way this reads I would gather that if a chapter does not have her on the bid list, she indeed would not get a bid if she was invited to, and attended one pref party OR she would go to chapter "B" if chapter "A" left her off their bid list.

I find it all very, very interesting.

Link to the constitution:
http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sfl...nstitution.pdf

Now my question is this: If a school "sells" guaranteed placement, I would say they are in a bit of pickle if a PNM attends two pref parties and then does not end up on either bid list. Probably not common, but I would think it could happen, especially if some type of bad girl behavior was stumbled upon between scheduled days....you will find so much "cross association" between girls at UT, that if a PNM makes a fool of herself in the night time hours during recruitment, it will spread like fire.

[gee_ess]

For me, the problem is the practice of calling the whole thing "Guaranteed Placement." The word "guaranteed" is misleading.

[Titchou]

There are GA's who will call and ask why you left someone off and if you had permission from your national to do it. Now that's not saying all of them keepthat close a tab on it but some do.

[33girl]

I thought we discussed on here before that UT has guaranteed placement (if you maximize, blah blah blah). In other words, if you get to pref, you WILL receive a bid, no exceptions. I don't think that anyone has ever said, intimated or guaranteed that any of the other schools we brought up do the same.

[gee_ess]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I thought we discussed on here before that UT has guaranteed placement (if you maximize, blah blah blah). In other words, if you get to pref, you WILL receive a bid, no exceptions. I don't think that anyone has ever said, intimated or guaranteed that any of the other schools we brought up do the same.

I must not have been paying close enough attention, because I thought that was the end result for all schools that use RFM. That GP a characteristic of it.

New question: is there a "magic percentage" that RFM /specialists work with looking ahead from registration to pref and crunching numbers for return numbers for each round?

For example, at Arkansas (ole miss, too) they surely can see what the numbers are doing each round. And even as they chant "quota range will be determined based on , blah, blah) I have to believe they can see where things are heading. Are they holding to an unspoken rule that no more than 10% will go bid less. Because each year, that is roughly how many drop, are released, etc. Why not 20% or 30%? Why don't they make those big cuts early. Then make another BIG cut in a later round.

[pinapple]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I thought we discussed on here before that UT has guaranteed placement (if you maximize, blah blah blah). In other words, if you get to pref, you WILL receive a bid, no exceptions. I don't think that anyone has ever said, intimated or guaranteed that any of the other schools we brought up do the same.

But can we say even UT has GP if by their own wording, that a girl has to be to on the bid list? If you only have one pref party and a house chooses to NOT place the girl on the bid list, where is the RFM coordinator going to put her? Are they going to force the sorority's hand?

[SoCalGirl]

I can't recall the name of the school but I thought there was some smaller school (in the north?) that absolutely guaranteed bids. If a girl is released from all houses the GA forces a chapter to take her anyway.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by SoCalGirl

I can't recall the name of the school but I thought there was some smaller school (in the north?) that absolutely guaranteed bids. If a girl is released from all houses the GA forces a chapter to take her anyway.

Tufts.

[DubaiSis]

But I think people are discussing this worst case scenario as a fairly plausible option. Although it is POSSIBLE that a chapter could find out something heinous between inviting a girl to preference and completing the final bid list, that is not at all likely. Not liking her dress at preference or the girl burped unattractively is not going to be a good enough reason to pass muster with your headquarters or panhel.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

But I think people are discussing this worst case scenario as a fairly plausible option. Although it is POSSIBLE that a chapter could find out something heinous between inviting a girl to preference and completing the final bid list, that is not at all likely. Not liking her dress at preference or the girl burped unattractively is not going to be a good enough reason to pass muster with your headquarters or panhel.

You know what's not uncommon, though? A girl getting invited to one house she likes and one she doesn't, and acting like a total asshole at the latter.

[pinapple]

Haha...so true DeltaBetaBaby....

But she if house 2 left her off their bid list I suspect she would be somewhere on her #1s.

I don't disagree that it would be rare that a PNM was left off of a bid list altogether, but in today's world of social media, it doesn't take much for word of bad behavior to spread and spread quickly. 10 years ago it probalby would have never been an issue. Today...it does not take much for PNMs to shoot themselves in the foot. With frats throwing parties left and right, PNMs just don't listen to the warnings to not go. An instagram and 20 minutes later and word gets out.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by pinapple

But can we say even UT has GP if by their own wording, that a girl has to be to on the bid list? If you only have one pref party and a house chooses to NOT place the girl on the bid list, where is the RFM coordinator going to put her? Are they going to force the sorority's hand?

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

Seems like they are moving up the date that the sorority is making a commitment. Suppose that the sorority finds out the bad information about the PNM just after the bid day party instead of just after the pref party. At that point, the sorority is stuck, and will have to go through whatever its procedures are for removing a NM. Guaranteed placement means that the sorority is committed to the PNM at the pref list point rather than the bid list point.

This was my understanding, yes. (Of UT, just to double clarify)

[ksu4me]

OK, so I haven’t been on Greekchat since I was a freshman, but I have a question and didn’t know where to get the answer. I tried looking through RFM threads, but didn’t really find an answer.

I thought about changing my username, but given the details it’s not too hard to figure out my university. Trust me--everyone on my campus that cares about the situation is already well aware of it. It’s even all over the “other board”, if you know which one I mean. Still, I’d appreciate it if GC posters would just use the generic tags that I am going to use. I don’t want to aggravate those that already have been hurt by this, and it could happen to any of our organizations.

I attend “University X” and we have a fairly big, fairly competitive recruitment. I've never been on the recruitment committee, but I do know we use the RFM system—I guess about everyone has to anymore. Anyway, when the dust settled after recruitment, one of the best recruiting chapters (A) ended up a dozen under quota! Another fairly popular chapter (B) also was several under quota, but 2 houses (C and D) that have traditionally had more challenges in recruiting/retaining ended up bidding more than a dozen over quota!!

To jack things up even further, rumor has it that “A” can’t COB this year because they are already over chapter total!

How does this happen, and how often does it happen? It seems really unfair that a popular chapter is penalized by the system.