Advertising Formal Recruitment

[DGTess]

Originally Posted by jevans28

This may sound like an odd question to most of you. But I go to school in Canada, and our greek system is small, last year quota from formal recruitment was only eight. All of the sororities always want quota to be around 30, but we have had trouble getting girls to come out to formal. Our school does not recognize any of the greek organizations so it makes everything harder. Any suggestions? If any of you did not think about joining a sorority before you went to college what changed your mind, or what caught your attention?

Most girls don't even know the greek scene exists.

Thanks
Canadian Alpha Gam

My school - 30 years ago; it's probably not permitted now - divvied up the incoming freshman women, and volunteer sorority women became pen pals for a group during the summer prior to matriculation.

It would seem to me if you don't have a formal greek system to get in your way, that might work. Today you'd probably use e-mail, of course, but the idea is the same.

Each sorority woman generally simply befriends the incoming freshmen. While it was permitted to mention sorority membership, I know my "big sis" (yes, that's what they were called) simply mentioned that she was a Delta Gamma. She went on to answer questions I had about school, what to expect, what the routine would be like for the first few weeks (we didn't have a formal orientation, either), etc.

That way, when I got to school, I had at least one friendly face.

Then the campus greeks helped us with move-in, though I didn't realize it. I was just naive enough to think this was a really, really friendly campus. Since no one in my family had ever gone to college, much less gone greek, I had no idea what those things on their shirts might be. That's probably not going to happen in today's world, but you never know.

[violetpretty]

I don't think that any of the "marketing" type stuff (t-shirts, pendrops, fliers, chalking) works. Authentic interaction with women does work. I was skeptical of Greek life myself when I got to Maryland, since I had heard weird stories from a friend who had just begun pledging down South. What changed my mind was meeting sorority women in real situations (class, in my case) and talking with them. If you have every woman in the Panhellenic community meet 5 (or 10 or 15 or more) women and make friends with them, you've just made your pool a bit larger.

[ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl]

Originally Posted by violetpretty

I don't think that any of the "marketing" type stuff (t-shirts, pendrops, fliers, chalking) works. Authentic interaction with women does work. I was skeptical of Greek life myself when I got to Maryland, since I had heard weird stories from a friend who had just begun pledging down South. What changed my mind was meeting sorority women in real situations (class, in my case) and talking with them. If you have every woman in the Panhellenic community meet 5 (or 10 or 15 or more) women and make friends with them, you've just made your pool a bit larger.

I disagree because I think on our campus it did make a huge difference. On campuses where Greek life is peripheral, sometimes low PNM numbers is just a result of incoming freshman not KNOWING that Greeks even exist, or how to become one. Our Greek adviser said we should strive to make them think Greek life was something everyone on campus just DID...we are definitely a minority, but the sheer volume of our advertisements made us look much bigger.