Low-tier recruiting strategies

[LAblondeGPhi]

There are several threads on the forum that address this topic. Search hint: go to "advanced search" and search for terms in the thread titles and in specific forums. A lot of GCers will use Google Search instead of the native search, too.

In my personal experience, the #1 problem that weak-recruiting chapters have is that members aren't very good conversationalists. If you look through the recruitment stories on this site, it's an extremely common pattern: PNMs complain of awkward conversations at their least-favorite chapters. And it's a cycle: strong chapters tend to recruit the star conversationalists, weaker chapters tend to recruit the women who don't shine during formal recruitment and cocktail conversations.

Check out a couple of books:
I Heart Recruitment
How to Win Friends and Influence People

As far as picking "star PNMs" - it can be a challenge if you feel the members of your chapter are looking for different things, so have the chapter come up with the character traits they are going to look for. Many chapters will also spend a lot of time looking through recruitment registration forms to start looking for those traits ahead of time, and then match PNMs with members in your chapter with similar interests and/or personalities.

Good luck.

[33girl]

Also remember that sometimes the "star PNM that everyone wants" turns out to be a blah and uninvolved sister at best, and a divisive force in the chapter at worst. She might be a daughter of someone famous, drop dead gorgeous and involved in every activity there is, but she also might be crushingly wrong for your chapter. It doesn't pay to get too starry-eyed.

As the two previous posters said - CONVERSATION!!! Do some role-playing until all of you can successfully extract yourselves from ANY conversational landmines that might occur.