Good Recruitment Icebreaking Questions

[ASTalumna06]

As has been mentioned, open-ended questions are always a good thing. For example, you ask her, "where are you from?" It's basic enough, but when she gives you an answer, you can take it to another level...

If she lives close by: "Oh, that's close. Have you traveled anywhere else farther away?"
If she lives far away: "What made you come to school all the way out here?"

Or when you ask about her major, if it's completely different than yours, a very easy way to open up conversation is to follow her answer by saying, "What made you decide on that?"

Another good way to go if you run out of things to say... talk about recruitment and/or sororities, without bragging about all the great stuff you do (because while winning Greek Week and getting the highest philanthropy award at convention might mean a lot to you, it means very little to a PNM). For example:
- What made you decide to go through recruitment?
- What do you like about recruitment thus far?
- Do you have any questions about sorority life?

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

- Do you have any questions about sorority life?

In recruitment workshops, we were always told not to ask PNMs "Any questions?" just because recruitment is such a nerve-wrecking situation that they most likely will go blank and not know what to ask, and they probably have a million questions.

I can agree with you on "what made you decide to go through recruitment?" That's a good question to ask because I found that you can learn alot about a PNM by asking that.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

In recruitment workshops, we were always told not to ask PNMs "Any questions?" just because recruitment is such a nerve-wrecking situation that they most likely will go blank and not know what to ask, and they probably have a million questions.

Good point.

I think that where I am, very few PNMs know much of anything about Greek life, so when I ask this, they'll usually ask me 10 different questions.

But when I do ask it, I generally give them "options" to choose from. Example: “Do you have any questions about sorority life? Scholarship opportunities, philanthropies, the time commitment...?” Usually something will hit them, and they’ll have a question to ask.

I also had one girl last semester who asked me about hazing. She felt bad asking about it, as she said she didn’t want to imply that we did it. But she was generally concerned. I said, “That’s a legitimate concern, one that I used to have at one point, but I can assure you that I wouldn’t have joined if I was hazed. Has anyone explained our new member program to you?” From there, we talked for 20 minutes, and the questions just poured out of her.

Another good option is to have numerous “visual aids.” Even though we don’t have a house, we make sure that we have as many paddles, t-shirts, mascots, awards, pictures, etc. there at our recruitment events. If you’re talking about why she’s participating in recruitment, and she brings up the fact that she's worked on many philanthropic projects, you can ask, “Can I show you some of the philanthropic activities we participate in?” We would then bring the PNM over to the table of stuff, and go through things with them. A scrapbook is always a good item to have. It can show PNMs a whole semester worth of stuff through pictures. It’s easier for you to talk when you have something to look at, and most likely she’ll have questions.