COB is only a month away!
I'm very excited to get things rolling and welcome a new pledge class. I'm pretty nervous, though... we don't have a ton of names and we rely heavily on our sisters to bring in COB women. Unfortunately, COB has a big stigma at our school - that it's only for the "loser" chapters who can't make chapter total, and the COB PNMs are all FR rejects, blah blah blah. It's very disappointing.
Fearing bad campus PR, our chapter is reluctant to advertise our COB events and wants to rely on sisters to bring in PNMs. While I don't think we should be shouting it from the rooftops, I don't see anything wrong with some advertising - especially since few names have been submitted to the recruitment chair. We send a ton of invites but usually get a smaller turnout.
Last year, we invited around 45 women, had 12 show up and bid 6. I'm pretty sure we had almost 100% bid acceptance. The year before that we bid 5, and before that, 2. This year, we're hoping to bid 15 or so, which would put us on par with the other chapters (size-wise) for the first time... ever! After our great success this spring, we're only about 20 women smaller than the other chapters, which are all about the same size. Every year, we go into FR looking really teeny compared to the other groups - and this year, PNMs may not be able to see a difference at all! When I went through recruitment, the chapter was about 1/3 the size of the others and it was VERY obvious. All the PNMs were double or triple-rushed, and in comparison, the other chapters had too many actives for each one to rush a PNM. Though we've gotten bigger, even this year we had actives who had to double-rush PNMs at every party.
But before I get too ahead of myself, dreaming about a successful COB and a big, beautiful room of actives during FR this spring, I should warn you - we only have about 30 names submitted. Of those, 8 are supposed to be women who will definitely accept a bid. I know most of those 8 are women that we want, too, which is great! One of them is a PNM you'll recognize from last Spring -
Vicky! She's become really close with a number of sisters this summer and very much wants to become a part of the chapter. She's told us that she dropped out of FR because she was overwhelmed by the intensity of it all, but really regretted her decision this semester. If all goes well, I really look forward to calling her my sister. I don't think she'll have any problem getting a bid.
Right now, we're concentrating on getting our girls - especially the new ones - to dredge up some more PNMs to bring in. I worry that the new girls are a little too complacent. The older sisters who joined the chapter when it was in deep trouble have been working very hard on recruitment stuff, because they know how quickly things can go downhill. Maybe it's just me being an old grouch, but the new sisters seem to take our recent success for granted. They had better not let things slip when we graduate!
COB is so laid-back that we don't need an official Polish week to frantically make decorations and practice bumping, but I'm sure we'll have a few workshops on basic recruiting and conversation. Soon, the party themes will be finalized and we'll really get the ball rolling! I'll keep you all updated!
Best of luck to all of you starting Formal Recruitment in a few weeks!!
Hybrid Mode
