A question about bid lists...

[33girl]

Originally Posted by lyrelyre

I don't think it violates MS to say that Panhellenic suggests that the first bid list is in alphabetic order, for ease of matching. The remainder of the list is in order of preference.

So, if "Stacey Xylophone" is the first person on the second list she will be the next person to move onto the first list and would receive a bid before "Julie Anderson" if Julie is below her on the second list.

On campuses using ICS it doesn’t even matter if the first list in in alphabetic order.

I hope that helps.

I mean when Panhell is calling out names (so to speak) - do they (i.e. the Panhell officers) do so alphabetically?

[jwright25]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I mean when Panhell is calling out names (so to speak) - do they (i.e. the Panhell officers) do so alphabetically?

Yes they do - when matching is done by hand. AZ-AlphaXi's description on how to arrange bid lists is great.

And now to throw a further wrench into it. I'll bring up the topic of Quota Range! With the new RFM, Quota is not determined until AFTER chapters have submitted their lists and PNMs have ranked. Let's say Quota Range has been determined to be 30-34. So the question would be - how many names do we put on our first bid list? Two options:

1 - Put 30 on your first bid list in alphabetical order, and arrange the second bid list in ranking order. So if quota winds up being 34, #s 31, 32, 33, and 34 are automatically bumped up.

2 - Another option that campuses that do QR either already do or are considering is to have ONE bid list with everyone in ranking order - period.

[FloridaTish]

Thanks for all your responses, the process makes much more sense to me now! I really appreciate the help!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by jwright25

Yes they do - when matching is done by hand. AZ-AlphaXi's description on how to arrange bid lists is great.

And now to throw a further wrench into it. I'll bring up the topic of Quota Range! With the new RFM, Quota is not determined until AFTER chapters have submitted their lists and PNMs have ranked. Let's say Quota Range has been determined to be 30-34. So the question would be - how many names do we put on our first bid list? Two options:

1 - Put 30 on your first bid list in alphabetical order, and arrange the second bid list in ranking order. So if quota winds up being 34, #s 31, 32, 33, and 34 are automatically bumped up.

2 - Another option that campuses that do QR either already do or are considering is to have ONE bid list with everyone in ranking order - period.

Alphabetization is for ease-of-use on campuses that are still hand matching. If you use a computer program, I can't think of any reason it would matter.

On a related note, why are campuses still hand matching?

[jwright25]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

On a related note, why are campuses still hand matching?

There are some who just refuse to change! The "We've always done it this way" mentality. And I was part of that, and to a certain extent still am. When the campus has only 3, 4, 5, 6 chapters and only a couple of hundred PNMs, it really only takes about an hour or two. The part that I like best about it is being able to fix problems on the spot. Here's an example:

In 2005, a PNM ranked my chapter #1. She was on our first bid list. When we did hand bid matching, she matched immediately - no problem. But then when we ran the computer program, something caused her to match to her second choice. We don't know what it was - a misread on her scantron, whatever. But she would have assumed we didn't want her, and we would have assumed she didn't want us. (We used D&D that year.)

In 2006, a PNM showed up for bid distribution but didn't have a bid anywhere. When she was leftover, the GA discovered that for some reason she entered her Pref rankings incorrectly the night before. Turns out she wound up wanting us, so we got her. But if we had been hand matching, we would have noticed that her name and card had never been read off - because she would have still been on our list as unmatched to anyone. As it was, when she wasn't on our new member list, we assumed she ranked another chapter 1st. Could have saved her the "embarrassment" of going to bid distribution and not having a card. (We used ICS that year.)

I participated in hand matching for several years, and every year the advisors were able to talk out things like gridlock, quota additions, etc. We all got along well and knew how our chapters felt about each PNM, so that we could make the correct decisions for both the chapters and the PNMs. But we only had 4 chapters and about 120-150 PNMs each year.

It just isn't practical for campuses who have more OR for campuses where the scheduling is too tight to allow for it. Like if they have Preference in the morning and Bid Day later that afternoon. There are pros and cons - no computer system is perfect and it doesn't allow for human error (like what we experienced in 2006).

So it's really all determined by campus culture. If you have overpowering advisors and a Greek Advisor who isn't willing to stand up to them, they'll generally get their way. I don't think hand matching is bad - as long as the alumnae are willing to sit through it, it has some positive benefits. The only downside I've seen is the time it takes. But someone else might have other opinions - and I'd love to hear them!

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by jwright25

There are some who just refuse to change! The "We've always done it this way" mentality. And I was part of that, and to a certain extent still am. When the campus has only 3, 4, 5, 6 chapters and only a couple of hundred PNMs, it really only takes about an hour or two. The part that I like best about it is being able to fix problems on the spot. Here's an example:

In 2005, a PNM ranked my chapter #1. She was on our first bid list. When we did hand bid matching, she matched immediately - no problem. But then when we ran the computer program, something caused her to match to her second choice. We don't know what it was - a misread on her scantron, whatever. But she would have assumed we didn't want her, and we would have assumed she didn't want us. (We used D&D that year.)

In 2006, a PNM showed up for bid distribution but didn't have a bid anywhere. When she was leftover, the GA discovered that for some reason she entered her Pref rankings incorrectly the night before. Turns out she wound up wanting us, so we got her. But if we had been hand matching, we would have noticed that her name and card had never been read off - because she would have still been on our list as unmatched to anyone. As it was, when she wasn't on our new member list, we assumed she ranked another chapter 1st. Could have saved her the "embarrassment" of going to bid distribution and not having a card. (We used ICS that year.)

I participated in hand matching for several years, and every year the advisors were able to talk out things like gridlock, quota additions, etc. We all got along well and knew how our chapters felt about each PNM, so that we could make the correct decisions for both the chapters and the PNMs. But we only had 4 chapters and about 120-150 PNMs each year.

It just isn't practical for campuses who have more OR for campuses where the scheduling is too tight to allow for it. Like if they have Preference in the morning and Bid Day later that afternoon. There are pros and cons - no computer system is perfect and it doesn't allow for human error (like what we experienced in 2006).

So it's really all determined by campus culture. If you have overpowering advisors and a Greek Advisor who isn't willing to stand up to them, they'll generally get their way. I don't think hand matching is bad - as long as the alumnae are willing to sit through it, it has some positive benefits. The only downside I've seen is the time it takes. But someone else might have other opinions - and I'd love to hear them!

It really seems that it would be worthwhile even on a big campuses to spend sometime double checking any unmatched names just to make sure. You never would have caught the girl who matched to her second choice, but maybe more people and groups could be matched without going to snap bids and COB.

Do most campuses already do this when they do QAs?

[FSUZeta]

we hand match at fgcu but there are only us and tri delta-with chi o colonizing after formal recruitment in the fall. it is cost prohibitive right now, and i do not anticipate computerized bid matching for some time.

[jwright25]

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum

It really seems that it would be worthwhile even on a big campuses to spend sometime double checking any unmatched names just to make sure. You never would have caught the girl who matched to her second choice, but maybe more people and groups could be matched without going to snap bids and COB.

Do most campuses already do this when they do QAs?

I think it depends on the campus. Most with RFM already match the quota additions through the specialist. They match only the ones who maximized their options (i.e. didn't intentional single preference).

[aopirose]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

On a related note, why are campuses still hand matching?

There are several campuses that have only two or three groups and have less than 100 PMs. The costs associated with a computerized system like ICS might be cost prohibitive and it might be easier to do it by hand.


jwright was too quick for me!