Bama Fraternities

[DG4evah]

At my children's private school here in Mobile, AL, there are several high school boys who already have the fraternity stickers on their cars. I started noticing them before Christmas!

I know that's the way it is, but all this early rushing doesn't seem fair to those who are coming in from out of state. They did send out an IFC brochure outlining how they give out bids during recruitment.

As far as sorority recruitment goes, some around here think being from one of the bigger cities, say like Mobile or Birmingham, actually hurts your chances. That it's too competitive. Just a theory based on seeing lots of great girls get cut at Auburn and Alabama from Mobile and other larger cities in Alabama.

Is there a quota of some kind in fraternities at Alabama, or Auburn,for certain areas? At Southern Miss (granted- not a big Greek School) we never had a quota, but certain sororities and fraternities did pull an unusual amount from certain areas. Still, it was pretty spread out, not that localized.

[Elephant Walk]

Originally Posted by DG4evah

Is there a quota of some kind in fraternities at Alabama, or Auburn,for certain areas? At Southern Miss (granted- not a big Greek School) we never had a quota, but certain sororities and fraternities did pull an unusual amount from certain areas. Still, it was pretty spread out, not that localized.

I wouldn't call it a "quota" but the same as most other fraternities throughout the SEC and elsewhere tend to pull guys from certain areas specifically. For example, I could name the predominant cities/schools that each fraternity at Arkansas pulls from.

[DG4evah]

Yeah, that's what I figured.

Now, do fraternities at Alabama have a certain number of new members to shoot for, like sororities do? For instance, ours was up to 30 new members. We couldn't get more than that.

I noticed on the Scholarship and Membership totals from Fall 2006 (they didn't have a more recent one up) that the new member number for each fraternity is all over the place.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by DG4evah

Now, do fraternities at Alabama have a certain number of new members to shoot for, like sororities do? For instance, ours was up to 30 new members. We couldn't get more than that.

I noticed on the Scholarship and Membership totals from Fall 2006 (they didn't have a more recent one up) that the new member number for each fraternity is all over the place.

Generally speaking, each IFC chapter usually has a specific target number (or range) in mind regarding new members. These numbers are self imposed/selected and not mandated by the IFC.

For example, a chapter may need twenty new members to meet it's financial obligations over the course of the next four to five years.. Thus, twenty would be the "minimum" target number. Most chapters will continue to bid over that number if there are men that they (the chapter) feels are worthy of a bid.

[Elephant Walk]

That's only sort of true here.

Depending on the size of the chapter is how many bids can be given out. A smaller chapter (60-70 guys) can give up to 50 bids out (which is a bit much). As the size of the chapter grows, the amount of bids that can be given grows.

[DG4evah]

Originally Posted by DG4evah

Now, do fraternities at Alabama have a certain number of new members to shoot for, like sororities do? For instance, ours was up to 30 new members. We couldn't get more than that.

Not only was our number up to 30 new members, so were all the other sororities- provided they had made quota the previous year. Our advisor had a whole science, mostly psychology, to it because it was vital that we made the quota! We always made quota, thank goodness!

I worked with recruitment, and it was interesting how it all went down. At the time, we had 9 sororities and pretty much all would make quota except for 2-3 sororities. Sometimes they were a good sorority and didn't have a good advisor ranking people correctly on the bid list. I never even knew what a continuous open bid was until I became an advisor.