Snap bids

[mommamagnolia]

So is snap bidding different than quota additions? For example, quota was 58, but ABC actually takes 63. So are the 5 extra girls quota additions or snaps bids?

(sorry the pun, but this is all greek to me )

[violetpretty]

Originally Posted by mommamagnolia

So is snap bidding different than quota additions? For example, quota was 58, but ABC actually takes 63. So are the 5 extra girls quota additions or snaps bids?

(sorry the pun, but this is all greek to me )

Your example would be quota additions. Quota additions happen when ther are women who have maximized their options throughout recruitment (i.e. attends 3 preference parties and ranks all 3 chapters) and they end up bidless at the end of bid matching. Quota additions are to match as many women as possible. A PNM will never know if she was a quota addition or not.

Snap bids are for chapters who did not make quota at the end of bid matching. They will have a snap bidding list composed of women who released them or dropped out of recruitment that either the Panhellenic Association or the Rho Gammas will call to offer a bid. This takes place before bid day festivities and she will open an envelope like everyone else.

CR(continuous recruitment) happens after bid day and chapters that either did not make quota or who did make quota and are under total can hold informal recruitment events and offer bids.

[seraphimsprite]

Snap bidding procedure really does seem to vary from campus to campus. At the school where I went to undergrad, we were given a list from panhellenic of the girls who either dropped out of rush or did not get a bid after bid matching. We then went through the list, decided who we would be willing to offer a snap bid to and had a member call them to offer them a bid. We did the calls after bid matching (so if they didn't get a bid, they had already been notified by their Rho Chi and usually given a heads up that they might receive calls from sororities offering snap bids) but before the actual bid day activities. So if a girl accepted our snap bid, we told her to come to the bid day field and she would have a bid card waiting for her. The only people who knew that she was a snap bid were the members who were on the snap bidding team and panhellenic.

At the campus where I was an adviser, my chapter didn't ever have to snap bid so I'm not quite as familiar with the procedure but I know it was very different from what we did at my undergrad school. Instead of the chapter members being responsible for contacting the women who were eligible for snap bidding, the greek advisers called them and let them know that XYZ was offering them a bid. What I'm not sure about is how it worked when there were multiple chapters offering a snap bid to the same girl. I believe the greek adviser would let them know that XYZ and ABC were both offering her a snap bid, but don't quote me on that...

[UGAalum94]

These answers explain why you wouldn't really know how it worked unless you actually did bid matching or were the one who extended the snap bid. Thank you for explaining.

But in almost all of these examples, it seem like the only way that a girl might get a snap bid from a chapter that cut her would be in she dropped out of rush (which makes sense because if she continued, she would probably have matched with someone else).

Those of you who did snap bidding as advisers or bid matching teams, can you think of cases in which you gave a snap bid to a girl who you cut? (Not to be too darkly cynical, but isn't this where the stories about "computer glitches" usually have their origins?)

[seraphimsprite]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

Those of you who did snap bidding as advisers or bid matching teams, can you think of cases in which you gave a snap bid to a girl who you cut?

I can think of one case from my undergraduate chapter where we gave a snap bid to a girl we had cut (although she ended up declining anyway.) But the reason I remember it was because it ended up being a bit of a "situation" in the chapter - basically the snap bidding team decided to offer the girl a bid because they had liked her even though she had been released by the chapter. But that definitely isn't how it's supposed to happen and we were chewed out by our chapter consultant for that one because we are not supposed to snap bid women who we have released. That might vary by sorority though so I can't speak for everyone.

As for the success of snap bidding...most of the women who I've seen picked up through snap bids (and actually accepted) were women who had dropped out of recruitment right before preference or decided not to sign their pref card and then had a change of heart the next day and were regretting their decision.

[NUBlue&Blue]

Do you think it happens more often when you only have 2 chapters at pref? We preffed 3 chapters because we had a bigger greek system, but I don't think I even knew what a snap bid was until my daughter went to college. I don't ever remember it happening in our sorority, but we also didn't (and still don't) have a quota system like most schools. But it would seem that just by adding that one more chapter to pref, you would have a lot more chances of matching as many girls as possible. (Keep in mind, I had a major with no math required )

[carnation]

I am all about quota additions! Somewhere on GC I started a thread about how we could maximize Greek membership--it kills me that we lose so many top girls during recruitment--but I like that girls who maximize their options are getting bids from 1 of their 3 preffed groups. Back in the day, so many women went to 2 prefs and were crosscut...

[UGAalum94]

Yes, I agree that being able to pref an additional group and quota additions are great!

The way I see it, quota additions don't do any real harm to the groups because if someone didn't pref at your house, you couldn't/shouldn't have much realistic expectation that a pnm is interested in your group. AND it's such an incentive for the girls to keep an open mind and list all the groups.

Sure there are a few girls who are removed from the possibility of snap bids for the smaller groups, but since the process is theoretically about mutual selection, I don't know that blocking a group that the girl did pref in favor of a group that she didn't is exactly "fair" to her, for lack of a better word.

Girls just need to be really careful about being ready to join any of the groups on the bid card.

It's really peculiar to me how little I can remember about how we actual got our members when I was in school, not that I'd want to discuss the details of membership selection here anyway, but really I'm almost a complete blank slate. I did pledge later, so I didn't do it three years that everyone else would, but other than a few contentious situations with particular girls, nada.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

These answers explain why you wouldn't really know how it worked unless you actually did bid matching or were the one who extended the snap bid. Thank you for explaining.

But in almost all of these examples, it seem like the only way that a girl might get a snap bid from a chapter that cut her would be in she dropped out of rush (which makes sense because if she continued, she would probably have matched with someone else).

Those of you who did snap bidding as advisers or bid matching teams, can you think of cases in which you gave a snap bid to a girl who you cut? (Not to be too darkly cynical, but isn't this where the stories about "computer glitches" usually have their origins?)

Hahaha, there is NO SUCH THING as a computer glitch...only user error.

Without getting too much into MS, many snap bids at Illinois were women who dropped out of rush. Keep in mind that schools with tons of chapters have GRUELING schedules, so there are plenty of women who drop out for reasons other than "didn't like invites".

Another type of snap bid went to women who did not participate in formal recruitment. Think of this as early COB, but if you could get the girl to sign a card on bid day and join the NM class, she would then be in the mix with everyone else, and she would be bound to your chapter for one year. The key here is that the girl would have to have been contacted after the FR deadline.

And yes, plenty of chapter abuse the privelege if they know they will be under total even if they make quota.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Another type of snap bid went to women who did not participate in formal recruitment. Think of this as early COB, but if you could get the girl to sign a card on bid day and join the NM class, she would then be in the mix with everyone else, and she would be bound to your chapter for one year. The key here is that the girl would have to have been contacted after the FR deadline.

And yes, plenty of chapter abuse the privelege if they know they will be under total even if they make quota.

Wow. I had never even thought of this! It it allowed everywhere? It seems like it would be really helpful for chapters that appeal to and are willing to make contact with girls who would never consider going through formal rush. I always assumed you'd have to wait until after formal rush was completely over and you were having COB events. Do these kind of snap bid count against the fall rush quota?

[UGAalum94]

Is that above type of snap bid allowed at UGA?

[Drolefille]

That wasn't considered a "snap bid" at our school. It was a COB. But the girls were called to show up on bid day so that no one would really know the difference. Occasionally we'd do this with someone we wanted to bid the previous semester but didn't get a chance before it was too late in the year.

[UGAalum94]

It just seems like an amazing opportunity to get a lot of girls who would never do formal rush at a time of the year when it would be best for everyone to do it if most of your campus doesn't do COB or spring rush.

Did it count against your quota for the fall or just against chapter total? Could you do it if your graduating senior dropped you below total over the summer or only if you were below chapter total with all the senior members?

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Another type of snap bid went to women who did not participate in formal recruitment. Think of this as early COB, but if you could get the girl to sign a card on bid day and join the NM class, she would then be in the mix with everyone else, and she would be bound to your chapter for one year. The key here is that the girl would have to have been contacted after the FR deadline.

And yes, plenty of chapter abuse the privelege if they know they will be under total even if they make quota.

Correct me if I misunderstand how this works, but if a chapter is under campus total (regardless if they make quota or not), NPC rules allows them to bid until they make total. So the sooner a chapter can bid a PNM, the less time (and numbers) the chapter needs to COB during the rest of the semester to reach total. That doesn't sound like an abuse at all. Snap bidding when you aren't at total early on seems like smart membership recruitment to me.

[UGAalum94]

It might be abused if a chapter made contact with people in ways that were contrary to the deadlines.