"No Frills" Recruitment - Need advice

[MSKKG]

The Kappas at USC (S. Carolina) had to remove something out of their centerpieces because the centerpieces could only be 8" tall (I think). The actual flower part of the arrangement was, but they had these gold twirls coming out of the arrangement that made the centerpiece exceed the limit. Things like that seem kind of petty to me.

[exlurker]

Originally Posted by MSKKG

The Kappas at USC (S. Carolina) had to remove something out of their centerpieces because the centerpieces could only be 8" tall (I think). The actual flower part of the arrangement was, but they had these gold twirls coming out of the arrangement that made the centerpiece exceed the limit. Things like that seem kind of petty to me.

Doesn't surprise me. For example. the U. of Kentucky Panhellenic guidelines for 2006-07 recruitment go into detail about the size and number of floral arrangements. I'm having a vision of a dedicated Panhellenic officer or recruitment counselor marching around with a tape measure.

The UKY guidelines are in PDF:
http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/Greek/06RECGUI.pdf

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by exlurker

Doesn't surprise me. For example. the U. of Kentucky Panhellenic guidelines for 2006-07 recruitment go into detail about the size and number of floral arrangements. I'm having a vision of a dedicated Panhellenic officer or recruitment counselor marching around with a tape measure.

The UKY guidelines are in PDF:
http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/Greek/06RECGUI.pdf

Right, and this is why I wonder sometimes if "no frills" is actually worse. In full-frills rush, are there rules like this too, but we don't here as much about it?

[DeltaBetaBaby]

A couple thoughts on no frills:

The year I went through recruitment, they mandated that the PNM's wore the designated PNM t-shirt. Obviously, most of us paired it with some variation of jeans/khaki pants/skirt. So, when I walked into houses where the sisters were wearing sundresses, I felt ridiculous. It just makes sense for the sisters to be wearing something equivalent. (BTW, what other schools give the PNM matching shirts? In retrospect, it is a great idea, and Illinois is still doing it)

Yes, it was expected that most of the stuff you wore as a sister, you already had in your wardrobe, i.e. black skirts, pink tops, sundresses, etc. However, it is CRITICAL that you do a fashion show a week early and let the recruitment committee see everyone's outfits. You probably do this for pref dresses anyway, but let me tell you, there is always that one girl who thinks the slit all the way up the side of her skirt is not a problem.

If your first round lasts for more than one night (as ours does), and you all have matching t-shirts that you ordered, you better believe your rush chair is not going to let anyone wash those shirts in between. You won't want to show up on day 2 with eighty different shades of pink. Therefore, you spend about eight hours in the August heat wearing your shirt, and can do nothing but febreeze it overnight.

We went through a back-and-forth every year, because we hated doing a skit at open house. We only had 25 minutes, and when you have approximately 50 PNM's coming to each party, that is barely enough time to do an opening song, introductions, talk to the PNM, and get her back out the door. However, most other chapters did skits, and with as many groups as we had, we needed to do something that the PNM's would remember. It was even better if a chapter had a theme that they repeated for each stage of recruitment.

From the PNM's side, the skit is usually the part where you get to sit down in a real chair and zone out. If you get caught doing this, however, you may get released because they think you are not interested. It is like they've set a trap, and the more grueling the rush schedule, the harder it is to stay alert and smiling while someone dances around to "we are family".

One nice thing about decorations is that they sometimes hide flaws in older houses. Of course, if you are still allowed to hang photos and stuff like that, it can accomplish the same effect.

And finally...if you do no-frills for three rounds of rush, it makes pref that much more special. Remember the first pref you went to, and what the house looked like? I would never want decorations to overshadow the meaning of pref, but how many PNM's are certain they could only join one chapter, and pref helps them see all chapters in a whole new light? Pref night is magic, when you give the PNM's a glimpse of ritual, and it should be as special as possible.

[AUDeltaGam]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

(BTW, what other schools give the PNM matching shirts? In retrospect, it is a great idea, and Illinois is still doing it)

At Auburn during Philanthropy round (2 days) the PNMs all wear the same shirt, provided by Panhellenic.

[UCFalumna]

I love the Panhellenic t-shirts for PNMs during recruitment. UCF doesn't do that. They give the girls t-shirts for registering, but they're never required to wear them. It just seems like a nice way to begin the week on a somewhat more equal playing ground.

[UCFalumna]

Originally Posted by jessXIca

This year, we were given them after we went home on Pref night and we had to wear them for the opening of our bids.

That's cool that they've change that. You used to get all of that stuff at Greek Forum. On bid day, some girls would wear them and some wouldn't. I like the uniform look and I was implying that using them earlier in the week would be a nice addition to a no-frills recruitment.

[CarolinaCutie]

The matching shirts are a great idea... as long as Panhellenic doesn't ask the PNMs to wear them during Round 1! It would be impossible to remember what girls you met if they were all wearing the same shirt, I think.

[bluefish81]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

(BTW, what other schools give the PNM matching shirts? In retrospect, it is a great idea, and Illinois is still doing it)

Iowa State does and I think it's a great idea too. The PNM gets a white t-shirt with red letters to wear for the first day. Each chapter also has a shirt to wear for the first day, except the chapter gets to pick two different colors, i.e. purple with pink letters or whatever. The only difference in the shirts is that the respective chapter has their name at the top of the chapter "wheel" of sorts on the back of the shirt. I think this also helps so that the chapter nor the PNM is too dressed up on 14 party day.

[SECMom]

[quote=DeltaBetaBaby;1362366]A couple thoughts on no frills:


If your first round lasts for more than one night (as ours does), and you all have matching t-shirts that you ordered, you better believe your rush chair is not going to let anyone wash those shirts in between. You won't want to show up on day 2 with eighty different shades of pink. Therefore, you spend about eight hours in the August heat wearing your shirt, and can do nothing but febreeze it overnight.


This reminds me of what happened to my daughter when she went through rush at Ole Miss in October....they had really cute T-shirts to wear to the 2 nights of Philanthropy parties, and after the first night she was starving, got a hamburger, and managed to get ketchup all over her shirt. She took it to the basement to wash it and before she could get back down to get it someone stole it out the washing machine. Her Gamma Chi managed to get her another one to wear for the next night's parties, but believe me it was a "prozac moment!"

[KSUViolet06]

In 2004, when my school first started moving toward the "no frills" recommendations, Panhellenic required all the PNMs to wear KSU clothing for the first round. That was a mess. Girls are already hard enough to remember, but it was really hard when 90% of them wore the SAME KSU t-shirt (because it was on sale for $5 at the time). You can imagine the frustration when someone said things like "You know, the one with the blonde hair in the KSU t-shirt." Well gee, that really narrows it down.

[SigmaPsi_Star]

The way we do it is, what I would call, light on frils. It's not bare minimum blank room no matching at all type...we just can't go overboard. We don't do rush in our houses, we do all of it in different rooms in the student center. They changed the rules a little this year so that we can only have baloons and food at two of our parties (I suppose this is assuming that we'll use the "shiny" things where we feel they're the most important). We still wear matching outfits, but only to the extent of we order shirts for three parties and say what sort of bottoms/shoes to wear, and wear our black (ritual) dresses for ther fourth set. Some groups do skits, some don't. Basically it's cut back enough that the focus winds up being on meeting people and getting to know people, and not how pretty someones decorations are. Though, that still happens no matter what.

I think how we do it works out pretty well, because it still lets us do the fun slightly frilly part of rush, but keeps it from being insane and super expensive...and really it keeps it from being a "who can spend the most and be the most impressive with stuff" competition.

[UGAalum94]

It's so interesting to read about schools where people seem to be making their decisions primarily based on what happens during rush.

The reputations of the groups (and who from your hometown is in which one) are so important at some schools that I think certain groups could not decorate at all and wear pajamas and still get ranked in the top three by 90% of the PNMs.* It's weird for me to imagine a school at which what the groups wore would really change how PNMs ranked them.

*Of course their conversations would still be charming because that's who they are.