Funny-in-retrospect Recruitment stories

[banditone]

I've never heard of this Jersey'ing a guy. Pretty interesting stuff!

[TrevorG]

Originally Posted by banditone

I've never heard of this Jersey'ing a guy. Pretty interesting stuff!

Its not really a jersey, its a black tshirt with our letters on the front and "Snake" on the back. We give them to candidates before they get real jerseys.

"Shirting" means bidding someone outside of formal recruitment. After Fall Rush is over, you can "shirt" someone by giving them one of these shirts and formally asking them to join. This is used to pickup guys who didn't sign up for formal rush, or weren't sure they wanted to join until they saw their friends did, latecomers, ect. Spring recruitment is entirely unorganized by IFC and is 100% shirting.

We have a pretty strange IFC at Stetson. Its funny because Panhellenic rush rules are straight out of Soviet Russia, while IFC rules are extremely relaxed.

[SnuKnight172]

We have always called that "Snap Bidding." Our chapter doesn't let guys wear, have stickers on cars or even write the letters until they are Knighted. Even on the shirts that then Candidate Class designs they have to spell out: S I G M A N U... If it happens that we are going to have shirts or something for Greek Week, etc... we simply provide them with shirts that are the same color so they will match.

I think the only chapter in So Cal that allows their new guys to wear letters prior to Knighting is CSULA and they only allow it for a few days prior to Knighting. We keep them from wearing anything with letter because it eliminates confussion when they visit Sigma Nu houses on other campuses.

(The only exception to using the letters prior to initiation is the paddles the Candidates give to their big bros or the gift they give to chapter.)

[banditone]

WE did the same with letters. Our bid day shirts had Sig Nu spelled out on them. Big Bro's would get the letter shirts about a week out from initiation.

[ZK761]

Yeah that's the same as Fresno St. We don't allow candidates to wear letters till they are inititated as a Knight. Makes them strive for not only their badge more but to wear OUR letters.

[TrevorG]

Yeah, we're the only fraternity on campus that allows candidates to wear letters. I'm not sure why that is, and I wouldn't be opposed to changing it, but we recently bought a bunch of the pledge shirts with letters, so it would be silly to change it now.

I figure it probably does help the candidates feel more included in the brotherhood while they are pledging and less like second class citizens or something. We're extremely good about treating our candidates as equals, theres none of the "pledge get me a beer" style stuff going on that happens at some chapters.

[banditone]

Badge! Trevor get me a beer