Random: Recruitment

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

2) Getting "cross-cut" is a bit of a myth. That is not exactly how bid matching works. You should put your first choice chapter first, rather than trying to guess where you are on some chapter's bid list.

I agree completely that you should put down the groups in the order you are interested.

But I was wondering if getting cross cut was always a myth? I guess I'm kind of a rush/recruitment history student.

I can see how with computer programs, it's unlikely to occur today because the lists can all be run simultaneously. But in the old days of reps from all groups sitting around a table, didn't the order matter more?

(I have this impression that let's say you were on the third list of the group you put first, that your second and third choices, who might have had you on their first lists, were filling up while you were waiting to see how far down your first choice group was going to go. Was your spot on the other groups' lists secure until it was all over?

[AZ-AlphaXi]

re: bid matching ...

if the procedure in the "green book" was followed correctly, once you moved on to a group's first bid list ... whether you got there by being there to begin with or moved there from the second bid list ... your place was supposed to be secure. The group could not make quota without you getting a bid.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by AZ-AlphaXi

re: bid matching ...

if the procedure in the "green book" was followed correctly, once you moved on to a group's first bid list ... whether you got there by being there to begin with or moved there from the second bid list ... your place was supposed to be secure. The group could not make quota without you getting a bid.

I didn't think that is true. If a PNM lower on the list ranks the chapter higher than you do, doesn't she get the spot? It is hard without laying out lots of numerical examples, though, so I will try:

Quota is 20. Suzie is #21 on ABC's list, and she ranks them second, behind DEF, where she is #25. Jackie is #22 on ABC's list, and she ranks them first.

First thing that happens is #1 choices get matched to first bid lists. ABC matches 19 girls, as does DEF. Both chapters go to #21 on their bid list, but Suzie does not match to ABC because her first choice is still DEF. DEF's #21 ranks them low, so there are still two spots open.

Now, each chapter goes to #22 on their bid list. ABC picks up Jackie, because she ranked them as #1, and now has a full pledge class.

So, even though Jackie was ranked lower than Suzie, she gets the bid to ABC because it was her first choice.

If DEF had matched their first 20, then ABC would have become Suzie's "new" #1 choice, and she would have gotten the open spot in ABC.

And now that I typed that all out, it doesn't seem quite right, but I can't figure out where the example went wrong.

[AZ-AlphaXi]

Where you're going wrong is both chapters don't move to their #22 together. Provided that ABC's 20th name has gotten a bid to XYZ the last stop is open and Suzie as #21 moves onto ABC's first bid list. If DEF's 20th got a bid to PRQ then their #21 (Betty Boop) moves onto their bid list but has DEF listed as her #3. So the matching is attempted again. Suzie still has DEF as #1 and doesn't match and Jackie still isn't on DEF's bid list and Betty still doesn't match either ABC or DEF. This has become grid lock, nobody is going to match, and there's a procedure for breaking this that would end up giving a bid to ABC to Suzie. Depending on what's happening with Betty's first choice she may or may not get the bid to DEF. If she does get a the bid to her first then Jackie moves onto DEF's bid list and gets a bid. If not, Betty may end up getting it, if her first and second choices fill to quota.

Does that make sense? The thing to remember is that once a name has moved onto a chapter's first bid list, it stays there until it is matched or removed when you match elsewhere. PNM names and 1st choices continue to be read until the first choice fills to quota or in the case you have to break grid lock.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by AZ-AlphaXi

Where you're going wrong is both chapters don't move to their #22 together. Provided that ABC's 20th name has gotten a bid to XYZ the last stop is open and Suzie as #21 moves onto ABC's first bid list. If DEF's 20th got a bid to PRQ then their #21 (Betty Boop) moves onto their bid list but has DEF listed as her #3. So the matching is attempted again. Suzie still has DEF as #1 and doesn't match and Jackie still isn't on DEF's bid list and Betty still doesn't match either ABC or DEF. This has become grid lock, nobody is going to match, and there's a procedure for breaking this that would end up giving a bid to ABC to Suzie. Depending on what's happening with Betty's first choice she may or may not get the bid to DEF. If she does get a the bid to her first then Jackie moves onto DEF's bid list and gets a bid. If not, Betty may end up getting it, if her first and second choices fill to quota.

Does that make sense? The thing to remember is that once a name has moved onto a chapter's first bid list, it stays there until it is matched or removed when you match elsewhere. PNM names and 1st choices continue to be read until the first choice fills to quota or in the case you have to break grid lock.

Right, it does. This is not as fresh in my mind as it used to be. You are always matching top choices to top choices, even if they only became top choices by moving up from second choices when first choices are no longer available. That is why getting "cross-cut" is just a myth.

I think where I went wrong was with breaking the grid-lock. In the situation you described, I don't think I understand why Suzie gets the bid to ABC if it is her second choice and Jackie's first. I thought PNM preference trumped chapter preference.

[bruinaphi]

Getting cross-cut is more of a myth today than it was pre-RFM. PNM Suzie would have been cross-cut when both chapters where she attended Pref events filled to Quota before reaching Suzie. That is why we match those women as Quota Additions when the list both of their chapters: to prevent women who play by the rules and maximize their options from getting cross-cut.

[susan314]

I'll be attending my first bid matching session this fall, so all of this is so educational. I'm vaguely familiar with how it works, as I was a Rho Chi and on Panhel Exec...we had to have a bit of a clue. But, I never actually had to sit through the matching process.

Will be interesting to see...

[SWTXBelle]

I was an advisor back in the bad old days of bid matching by hand. I am so glad it is computerized now, and that quota additions exist. Cross-cutting was very real, and heart-breaking.

[carnation]

Oh, you are so right that it was real. I can remember sitting in one bid-matching session in Mississippi...there were several unmatched girls because due to the quota, sororities just ran out of space for more. Several times that year, I would see girls who had barely made it into their groups and they were acting very superior about being an ABC and I'd think, "You don't know how very close you came to not being one, jerk."

[FSUZeta]

susan,if you don't have an npc greenbook-get one. read, read and re-read the bid matching process. take the book with you to bid matching.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I was an advisor back in the bad old days of bid matching by hand. I am so glad it is computerized now, and that quota additions exist. Cross-cutting was very real, and heart-breaking.

But it is not being "cross-cut". There is this myth out there that if you are on a chapters top bid list, but you put them as #2, and the group you have as #1 puts you on their second bid list, you will end up without a bid (assuming only two chapters on pref night). That is just not the case. If you end up without a bid, it is because you were too low on BOTH chapters' bid lists. I know that is a a harder thing for PNM's to face, but as we discussed above, if you are on a chapter's first bid list, you stay there until you are matched there or elsewhere.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

But it is not being "cross-cut". There is this myth out there that if you are on a chapters top bid list, but you put them as #2, and the group you have as #1 puts you on their second bid list, you will end up without a bid (assuming only two chapters on pref night). That is just not the case. If you end up without a bid, it is because you were too low on BOTH chapters' bid lists. I know that is a a harder thing for PNM's to face, but as we discussed above, if you are on a chapter's first bid list, you stay there until you are matched there or elsewhere.

Isn't that what "cross-cut" refers to? The PNM is cut (released) from all of her preference chapters because she never moved onto any of the chapters' first bid list. Thus she was *cut across the board* - i.e. cross-cut.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by TSteven

Isn't that what "cross-cut" refers to? The PNM is cut (released) from all of her preference chapters because she never moved onto any of the chapters' first bid list. Thus she was *cut across the board* - i.e. cross-cut.

No...that's just CUT.

Cross cut is when the PNM went to two prefs, and then supposedly gets cut because of the order she ranked them in.

[lyrelyre]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

No...that's just CUT.

Cross cut is when the PNM went to two prefs, and then supposedly gets cut because of the order she ranked them in.

It's not cut, so much as failing to match.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by lyrelyre

It's not cut, so much as failing to match.

You say tomato, I say tomahto...either way, they're bidless.