Very sweet short recruitment story

honeychile · #1 09-17-2007, 10:46 PM

PSU & UofI are two schools which really should utilize recs!! There is just no possible way to make the proper impression to over 15 sororities in one week!

PeppyGPhiB · #2 09-17-2007, 11:57 PM

I would argue that most recs are probably full of sweet nothings anyway that don't really help you "know" a woman any more than what you find out from actually meeting her. Recs seem especially pointless to me when EVERY woman on a campus is told to get 1 or 2 to a chapter, as if she was checking off a list. What is the point of recs if they're a requirement and everyone has one? Recs are supposed to be for young women that are standouts, women that alumnae want to get special attention. Well, not every woman in recruitment can be given special attention...there's just no time for it. Not saying that recs are bad, just that once every woman has them anyway, they become insignificant.

honeychile · #3 09-18-2007, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

I would argue that most recs are probably full of sweet nothings anyway that don't really help you "know" a woman any more than what you find out from actually meeting her. Recs seem especially pointless to me when EVERY woman on a campus is told to get 1 or 2 to a chapter, as if she was checking off a list. What is the point of recs if they're a requirement and everyone has one? Recs are supposed to be for young women that are standouts, women that alumnae want to get special attention. Well, not every woman in recruitment can be given special attention...there's just no time for it. Not saying that recs are bad, just that once every woman has them anyway, they become insignificant.

On a large campus, the value of the photo is really high. You don't have a huge chance of meeting more than a couple sisters, so having a photo to put that name to is wonderful.

My campus doesn't allow photos to be taken during Recruitment any longer, but when I was there, there were a few sisters whose sole job was to get a photo of every PNM, so that we could put a name to a face. Now that you can't do it, having the photo with the rec is the next best thing.

LionTamer · #4 09-18-2007, 11:07 AM

After graduation I was a member of a group that had a selection process, and we used photos and applications, and I agree that big schools like Penn State actually might benefit from the use of photos, since I know great girls were accidentally passed over because people couldn't remember them, or couldn't tell two girls with similar names apart. We took Poraroids of 2-3 people at a time - we weren't looking for professional headshots - just something we could pass to a current member and say "you DO remember her - I saw you talking to her at the beginning of the party."

I also have no problem with the concept of alums sending letters to their own sororities about their nieces or next door neighbors, saying "don't miss Marlee - she's a real star".

But the idea of requiring reccs or professional photos just infuriates me because it essentially ensures that the only girls who will be successful at recruitment will be those who arrive at college as freshman knowing all about recruitment because they're from "good" families who have a history of college graduates and are part of a strong social network of college graduates. It eliminates the chance of someone arriving at school, finding out about Greek life, and thinking "maybe I'll give this a shot".

bamagirl09 · #5 09-20-2007, 09:07 AM

No school requires recs. Some chapter do, but a girl can just as easily get a "no rec." as a good rec. If an alumni sends you a rec about a girl you don't know and it is a "no rec" then that is a good tip off that the girl will not fit in your chapter. It's not about all the girls having glowing recs. It is about finding the one's with not so glowing recs.

SthrnZeta · #6 09-20-2007, 09:25 AM

When I went through Formal Recruitment, the Rho Chi's would take a group photo of their group, and those photos in turn would be made into overhead projector pics and given out to each sorority to use during MS. Very helpful, though sometimes it was hard to pic out certain girls if the groups were too big (heads were too small!) I'm not sure if they still do this or not, but it seemed like a good idea at the time and no PNM was really sure why their pic was being taken other than maybe for the Greek Life website

33girl · #7 09-20-2007, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bamagirl09

No school requires recs. Some chapter do, but a girl can just as easily get a "no rec." as a good rec. If an alumni sends you a rec about a girl you don't know and it is a "no rec" then that is a good tip off that the girl will not fit in your chapter. It's not about all the girls having glowing recs. It is about finding the one's with not so glowing recs.

Yes, we know that by the "letter of the law" recs are not required. What LT means is that if you're a first gen college student (as a lot of Penn State people still are) or you haven't had a lot of Greek relatives (again, this applies to a lot of Penn State people), you may be completely unaware of the fact that securing your own recs can often help your chances in rush.

I'm sure that there's some groups at Penn State that require a rec for a woman to be pledged, but I'm betting that a lot of the time those groups just call up the nearest alum chapter and say "here's our pledge class, sign please."