Phi Retro Recruitment

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by CZAXOTerp

I completely agree with you- in fact while I was a collegian (way back in the days before Greek chat) we assumed that both of these organizations HAD to keep their legacies and that's why I thought that perhaps there were some organizations that kept their legacies on barring academic issues.

I do know that there are a few orgs that require a call to the legacy's relative with a reason before they can cut a PNM. Maybe those chapters would rather just suck it up and take the girl than have to call an alum and explain why they're not taking her precious angel.

[OtterXO]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

I do know that there are a few orgs that require a call to the legacy's relative with a reason before they can cut a PNM. Maybe those chapters would rather just suck it up and take the girl than have to call an alum and explain why they're not taking her precious angel.

I can't imagine many things worse during recruitment than calling a sister and telling her that her daughter is being released. Eek.

[carnation]

Boy, I know what would be worse. Either getting the call or not getting the call and finding out from your legacy. I know a mom and first daughter in one group and the second daughter was released last year and the chapter never called, the second daughter did--in hysterics. Mom went there immediately and the daughter pledged another group but Mom and first daughter haven't recovered yet. They wrote to their national office but only got the stock response--"we're sorry, each chapter makes its own membership selections".

Actually, few women around here do get the call when their daughters are released. There are just so many....

[SmartBlondeGPhB]

Originally Posted by carnation

Boy, I know what would be worse. Either getting the call or not getting the call and finding out from your legacy. I know a mom and first daughter in one group and the second daughter was released last year and the chapter never called, the second daughter did--in hysterics. Mom went there immediately and the daughter pledged another group but Mom and first daughter haven't recovered yet. They wrote to their national office but only got the stock response--"we're sorry, each chapter makes its own membership selections".

Actually, few women around here do get the call when their daughters are released. There are just so many....

We leave it up to the woman to notify her family.

[alphagamphi]

okay we had to let the girls who were cut from their legacy let their loved ones know. It sucked. I wasnt told till I got my list of what houses I was going to be going to.

[alphagamphi]

In case any of you are wondering i pledged






















Dolphin



Which is















Alpha
Gamma
Delta

[OtterXO]

Yay! Sorry we sidetracked your thread with that discussion though

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by SmartBlondeGPhB

We leave it up to the woman to notify her family.

Interesting. Is this the national or local policy of your group? Did you decide on it for philosophical or purely pragmatic reasons?

I'm interested in how it evolved that way.

I can understand that it's primarily the PNM's business where she's invited back, but from the perspective of an alumna, if I had a legacy for whom I completed a legacy form, and she rushed at a campus with my group, especially if it were my own campus with my chapter, I would want to hear from the chapter that they had released her. It's somewhat about my legacy, but it's also about my relationship with the chapter.

Because, I'll be honest, at the point I had a legacy cut by a chapter, I think I'm done with that chapter in terms of interest and support. Your rejection of my flesh and blood, particularly if you aren't a group at a campus with hundreds of legacies where a chapter couldn't possible give bids to them all, is going to put a big dent in my feeling of connection to you.

At least, you could reach out to me with a phone call, or so it seems to me.

How did Gamma Phi Beta view the issue?

[SWTXBelle]

In the most recent edition of The Crescent, ( you can find it at www.gammaphibeta.org) there is a legacy introduction form. On it, it states that it is the policy of Gamma Phi Beta to allow the legacy to notify her mother/grandmother/person who makes her a legacy. So, International HQ's policy is to leave it up to the PNM.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

In the most recent edition of The Crescent, ( you can find it at www.gammaphibeta.org) there is a legacy introduction form. On it, it states that it is the policy of Gamma Phi Beta to allow the legacy to notify her mother/grandmother/person who makes her a legacy. So, International HQ's policy is to leave it up to the PNM.

I actually like that we do this. Let's say that Suzy PNM is going through recruitment and after Day 2 she decides that she just doesn't like the Gamma Phi chapter that she iis an in-house legacy to and she is happier at the other houses she's visited. This way rather than saying "Mom, I hate your house and have ranked it last every day waiting to get dropped" she can just tell her mom/sister that she isn't going back to Gamma Phi, or even tell a little white lie and say she didn't get invited back. Maybe she'd rather wait to the end of recruitment and then just tell her mom how happy she is in XYZ.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

In the most recent edition of The Crescent, ( you can find it at www.gammaphibeta.org) there is a legacy introduction form. On it, it states that it is the policy of Gamma Phi Beta to allow the legacy to notify her mother/grandmother/person who makes her a legacy. So, International HQ's policy is to leave it up to the PNM.

Do you know how or why it got to be the policy? Has it always been that way?

(I understand why from a purely pragmatic and bureaucratic standpoint why it might be the "best" policy, but it seems like it would cause a great deal of harm over time with alumnae who had legacies released. I don't know, maybe it turns out that the phone call doesn't help anyway: if you cut the PNM, maybe nothing the chapter does affects the mother's future behavior with the chapter.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

Because, I'll be honest, at the point I had a legacy cut by a chapter, I think I'm done with that chapter in terms of interest and support. Your rejection of my flesh and blood, particularly if you aren't a group at a campus with hundreds of legacies where a chapter couldn't possible give bids to them all, is going to put a big dent in my feeling of connection to you.

That's kind of petty. You and your (fictional) daughter aren't the same person. The CHAPTER itself is not the same. You'd rather they kept your (fictional) daughter, no matter how bad of a fit she is with the house? What if she rushed just because you put all kinds of pressure on her to rush, she acts like an ass at all of the parties and is rude to PNMs? Would you still expect your chapter to keep her?

[AGDLynn]

On another note, it's interesting how the member hasn't had contact with the GLO, may or may not even receive the magazine, for decades but suddenly seems to "know" how it operates...even though procedures may have changed since she/he was a collegiate.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

That's kind of petty. You and your (fictional) daughter aren't the same person. The CHAPTER itself is not the same. You'd rather they kept your (fictional) daughter, no matter how bad of a fit she is with the house? What if she rushed just because you put all kinds of pressure on her to rush, she acts like an ass at all of the parties and is rude to PNMs? Would you still expect your chapter to keep her?

AlphaFrog,

Actually, I wouldn't care if my legacies even went through recruitment, so there's not likely to be any pressure put on the girl from me.

But honestly at 150+ chapters like where I went to school, I don't buy in much to the idea of the chapter deciding a legacy is authentically "not a good fit for a the chapter" during rush because it's going to be based on a couple of very superficial meetings. There are all types of folks in each organization, really. What not being a good fit would likely mean on my old campus (but not so much at my chapter) in most cases would mean would be A. not cute enough/plump B. not popular enough in high school. C unknown by girls presently in the chapter. Are those the standards, particularly A and B, that you would want used in releasing legacies because that's what folks are probably using in most cases? (We also might add "not from the right type of family" when right type refers mainly to wealth and prominent social position, but that's only for a couple of chapters.)

I suspect that at my old campus legacies don't get much deference because many of the chapters have a couple of new members classes going through rush in any one year. If you know you can't give bids to them all, they you have to evaluate they just like non-legacies. But I don't think the standards actually used are particularly deep and meaningful assessments. Great girls get cut every year probably most often because they don't have connections in the chapter already.

And in the interest of honesty, your hypothetical that someone I raised or was raised with me would "act like an ass" at all of the parties and be rude is just insulting, don't you think? Sure some legacy might act like that but in that case, don't you think the girl is going to drop the group at the earliest opportunity?

I think less harm in done to alumnae relations when chapters communicate with alums about the decisions that they've made. Cutting someone's daughter is going to do harm to the relationship with that person, and not just to "petty" folks like me.

[SWTXBelle]

Thanks for sharing your story!

As to the issue of legacies - my collegiate chapter advisor had a daughter who went to the same school as she had - but went Chi Omega. I don't know the details, but I do know that Sylvia loved Gamma Phi for what it had meant for her, and she was an active Chi Omega mom because of what it meant to her daughter.
I love Gamma Phi Beta as an organization, and should a few collegiate members decide, for whatever reason, that my daughter would not be a good fit, I would still love Gamma Phi. I'd be an active mom to whatever org my daughter were to join.
I don't know what caused Gamma Phi to institute the policy they have, but it seems to me to be the one most respectful of a PNM's privacy, and it also takes a burden off of the chapter. I do think a chapter should write a note to ANYONE who writes a rec, especially a member who sends a legacy rec.