NPC Rush - Can something be done to reduce/eradicate the number of "bidless" rushees?

[adpiucf]

In my experience with snap bidding, the recruitment counselors did the actual calling on Bid Day morning to their PNM's who had not been matched (that is still one of the worst experiences of my college life-- I felt so helpless listening to them cry on the other end of the phone line when they found out that they hadn't gotten into their top 2 or 3). Some women got multiple offers; others only had one. This left the PNM not feeling as pressured by the sorority to accept, and it ran a bit more smoothly.

Where a woman declined a snap bid, she might receive a call from another sorority a few days later directly because they had girls who were no-shows at Bid Day.

[IvySpice]

that is still one of the worst experiences of my college life

Delivering bad news to a teenager is one of the most unpleasant tasks you can do in life.

I used to work at the admissions office at my college, and occasionally the admissions letter would get lost and the kid would call us a week later wondering if they got in. 90% of the time, the answer was no...so once we verified that it was really the applicant calling, I had to personally crush their dream that they'd worked toward for four years (or more).

I hadn't made the decision myself, and in some cases, the kid really hadn't earned an acceptance. But that didn't make it any easier or more pleasant.

[ADPi Conniebama]

I heard a story (ok go with me here I do have a point) about an ADPi chapter (I am not going to say which one) that had 18 sisters when total was ~150. So, these 18 girls picked themselves up by their "bootstraps" and with fantastic sisterhood, wonderful recruiting (cool recruitment dvd) MASS PR for a year or so and new release figures . . . THEY ARE NOW a chapter with 2 years of quota behind them and ~88 sisters in the chapter. I have seen this DVD and these girls were cute - I mean they didn't look like left overs from the greek system so their problem, apparently, was PR and allot of years without local leadership.

Now, I am sure that these "new" release figures from National Panhellenic are going to help the situation greatly. And, allot of otherwise great "small" chapters will move into the "STRONG chapter" catagory and then the whole greek system will succeed and grow.

I find it hard to "feel bad" for the pnm who won't take a "growing" chapter because she heard they weren't the best (unless that specific sorority has poor communication skills or can't smile at a party or really does make a horrible impression during recruitment) However I, too, come from a small greek university (4 panhellenic sororities.) I think it would be easier to pick from 4 because even the 4th best is still pretty good. But, I don't know how to think about the worst on a 20 sorority campus.

So, my point is if the pnm gets released by her 1st 2nd & 3rd choice on a campus with 20 sororities, I still don't feel bad for them because I mean how bad can her 8th choice be ( I mean 20 for goodness sake) and if she goes BIDDLESS she has only herself to blame - that is like your parent telling you you can live in my house but you cant smoke and then you moving out and telling your friends that your parent kicked you out - that is rediculous.

woops got alittle floopy there I hope it made some sense.

[SoCalGirl]

Can you get more than one snap bid? Yup! As long as you haven't said yes to a house, you can consider as many bids as you like.

If you didn't bid match, and turn down your snap bids; I'm pretty sure that you're eligible to do informal rush.

If a rushee hasn't signed a bid/pref card, she is still eligible for informal rush. The only exception I've ever heard on this is at Longwood College. We learned that back in the fall from a rushee.

[coffeemug]

Originally posted by CutiePie2000:
Only a few more questions:
1. Is it permissible for an "unbidded" rushee to get a snap bid from more than one sorority?
2. If a rushee turns down a snap bid from groups who weren't on the rushee's signed bid card, is it also a case of No Going Greek for a year?
3. What if a rushee attends her Preference Parties and then drops out of Rush (or she "refuses" to sign a Bid Card?) What happens then? Is she eligible for snap bidding too?

1 - Yes. The purpose of snap bidding is to allow those chapters that did not match quota to obtain it on bid day. In fact no one should know if a women received a snap bid except the Advisor and maybe the rush chair. Typically she would get her snap bid before all the women go to the chapter house to receive bids and she would just go with the other new members...no different.

2. No --snap bidding does not hold the same rules as Formal Recruitment Preference card signing.

3. Yes --theoretically any women who participates in any part of formal recruitment --even just open house--and then drops out in eligible for a snap bid.

[CutiePie2000]

Thank you to:
[b] ZTAngel[b/],[b] SoCalGirl[b/] and
[b]coffeemug[b/] for your answers! I have learned such a tremendous amount about the NPC Rush process on this board, it is quite remarkable.

[shadokat]

First of all, the campus should have more houses if they can't accomodate all of the rushees. I don't believe it's fair for a woman to go bidless unless she suicides a sorority. It's truly sad that 60% of IU's women don't get bids. That would make me not want to even bother.

I know on one campus, they petitioned for a new sorority, and a new national came in and started up to avoid from chapters having too many members. Also, they should consider raising total slightly, to at least make rush a 50/50 proposition.

Also, women on the campus could unite and form a group and then get a national to back them that isn't on the campus. Just a thought...

Heather

[shadokat]

For those of you wanting info on snap bidding, I can tell you that it's a good thing if it works. If a woman is given a bid in the "snap" process, she does not have to accept it, and can COB. BUT, if she suicided, she can't do anything for a year. This also applies to any woman who drops out of rush.

We have these rules on our campus to avoid sororities telling women that they can just drop out of rush and they'll COB them. This happened a lot, and it caused huge problems.

[PenguinTrax]

Shadokat,

According to National Panhellenic rules, if a woman does not receive an invitation to membership during formal recruitment bid matching, she is eligible for further recruitment either by snap bidding or C.O.B. This applies to any woman, regardless of the number of preferences listed on her preference card. If a potential member lists one choice or three, and doesn't get an invitation to join, she can be snap bid or pledged via C.O.B. Intentional single preferencing is strongly discouraged as it limits the opportunity for a girl to receive an invitation for membership.

There are times, however, when a potential member only attends one preference party and, therefore, has no choice but to put down one selection on her card. If this woman declined an event invitation 'with interest', she can put down the names of those groups on her preference card, if she wishes.

It is only when a potential member refuses to accept the invitation offered to her OR when a pledge drops out of a chapter before initiation, that the woman is ineligible from participating in recruitment for one calendar year.

Barbara
Rush Forum Moderator

[AOX81]

This is what I don't get. People say that they are out for quality not quantity...so why is it that you would COB or snap bid somebody that you didn't even put on your bid list? There is a sorority at my school that tries to pick up every single bidless rushee...even though they didn't put them on any of their lists. Does anybody else do this, if so, could you please explain to me why you do this?? I know why the group at our school does it, because of numbers, their national is alwasy breathing down their necks.

[gphi2k]

Originally posted by AOX81:
This is what I don't get. People say that they are out for quality not quantity...so why is it that you would COB or snap bid somebody that you didn't even put on your bid list?

I was gonna put this under the dirty rushing thread, but it's more dirty bidding than rushing. In answer to your question, at my school, once you sign a bid card, whether you are matched or not, you can't rush, informally or other wise for a year. That being said, you can receive snap bids, at least at my school, from any house. I got caught in a year where all 70 rushes wanted the same 3 houses and quota was 6. Many many girls did not get matched, including myself and my best friend. I ended up getting snap bids from 4 houses, only one of which I had put on my pref list.

The problem with the process of allowing certain houses to have the snap bid list before houses that reached quota can have it allows for the potential of dirty bidding, as happened to me and my best friend.
We both got snap bids from a house at our school, which will remain nameless. We both wanted Gamma Phi and had it put at the top of our bid card. My friend asked the girl who called her from XYZ if there was a possibility that she would receive a call from her number one choice. I asked the same question when I was called and we were both told no. It was a lie. My friend accepted their bid, cause she wanted so badly to be a part of the greek system at my school. I did not, because I wanted to be a Gamma Phi, not just a sorority girl. At 3 o'clock, on the nose (when, it turns out, the houses who made quota got the snap bid list) both my friend and I got called from Gamma Phi. It was a total shock and I, of course, accepted the bid right away. My friend, however, could not. She was stuck. She had to either refuse the bid from the other soror and be non-greek for a year, or simply stay where she was. She chose to stay at the house she had already accepted and I joined Gamma Phi.

My point is that the system is inperfect. In the end, it worked out well for the both of us, but the potential for dirty bidding is there when actives are incharge of offering the girls on the snap bid lists their bids. I just wanted to share my story because it was really a bad first impression for me and my friend of the greek system at my school, and also underscores the above asked question. Some houses really do want to go for quantity not quality. And as much as I love and respect my best friend, some girls are more intent on joining ANY house, than a particular one. These two issues join together to make houses either very weak or very strong. (Side note: with practices such as 'dirty bidding' the house that my friend joined ended up encounting a lot of problem with disintrested sisters who joined just to be in a sorority).

Leslie



[This message has been edited by gphi2k (edited February 20, 2001).]

[CutiePie2000]

Originally posted by gphi2k:
We both got snap bids from a house at our school, which will remain nameless. We both wanted Gamma Phi and had it put at the top of our bid card. My friend asked the girl who called her from XYZ if there was a possibility that she would receive a call from her number one choice. I asked the same question when I was called and we were both told no. It was a lie. My friend accepted their bid, cause she wanted so badly to be a part of the greek system at my school. I did not, because I wanted to be a Gamma Phi, not just a sorority girl.

Leslie,
If your friend verbally accepted the bid from XYZ, then got a call from Gamma Phi Beta (who she truly wanted), would she have been able to "get out of" being in XYZ, since she didn't actually sign a bid card yet?

If these girls deceived you into thinking that there was no way that more bids were forthcoming, then a formal complaint might have been the way to go. Did your friend have to wait a year, but did she get Gamma Phi in the end? Please let us know.

[gphi2k]

Leslie,
If your friend verbally accepted the bid from XYZ, then got a call from Gamma Phi Beta (who she truly wanted), would she have been able to "get out of" being in XYZ, since she didn't actually sign a bid card yet?

If these girls deceived you into thinking that there was no way that more bids were forthcoming, then a formal complaint might have been the way to go. Did your friend have to wait a year, but did she get Gamma Phi in the end? Please let us know.[/B]

In this situation, snap bids can be accepted verbally, without actually signing a bid card. It's stupid. Verbal acceptance is binding. The girls at Gamma Phi were great and put in a complaint to Panhell at our school. Originally, Panhell said 'Tough. She accepted XYZ's bid. If she's that hell bent on joining Gamma Phi, she'll be willing to wait a year." Nice huh? It was all the more difficult because the Panhell president was in our house, and she had also mislead my friend into thinking she would not be called (she did not know my friend wanted Gamma Phi so I don't think it was personal). It caused a big controversy, but my friend decided that in the end, she didn't mind being in XYZ and that fighting what happened would mean XYZ would find out she didn't want them as badly, and if she lost, it would be difficult for her to be accepted at XYZ. So she gave up. She became a member of XYZ, not Gamma Phi. I was upset as were all the girls in my house who were trying to fight for her. But as I said, some girls just want to be in a sorority.

Leslie

[shadokat]

CutiePie,

Technically, yes the woman could've accepted the bid from Gamma Phi if she had not yet signed a bid card.

I just did bid matching at a campus where nine women out of 45 went bidless (20%) because they all wanted the same two houses, and those two houses reached quota by the time they got to these women. And in most cases, these women either intentionally single pref'd or only put down the two houses. Now, with that being said, quota was 7 and only the two "popular" houses made quota. So instead of opening up the possibility of snap bidding, they are letting all those bidless women COB, which means the top two houses will take all those bidless women through COB. If that isn't a prescription for dirty rushing, I don't know what is.

On my campus, we had a big problem with sororities telling women to intentionally single pref their house, and told them they wouldn't get a bid through formal rush, and that then the women could COB. And this worked for awhile. Then, finally, the Greek Advisor listened to the complaints of the smaller groups who thought this was the case, and they made a rule that any woman who intentionally single prefs a house and doesn't get a bid cannot COB at that house. This did cut down on intentional single preferencing, and it also stopped a little of the dirty rushing.

It's a shame that women go bidless. What's a bigger shame is that sororities give women the idea that they have a chance to get a bid by inviting them to preference, with no intention of offering a bid in the first place.

But that's all just my opinion

[CutiePie2000]

Originally posted by gphi2k:
She became a member of XYZ, not Gamma Phi.

Leslie,
Is she happy now, or does she still kind of harbor the wish/ that she was a Gamma Phi?

Believe me, I know where girls are coming from when they initially think "better to go Greek somewhere than not at all".
The important thing is to be *happy* no matter where you finally end up!

[This message has been edited by CutiePie2000 (edited February 20, 2001).]