Rush in a small college

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by Gusteau

Ahh, gotcha.

OK - try making a list with three categories: Strong Recruiters, Adequate Recruiters, and Poor Recruiters. Make each strong recruiter a group leader and pair him up with guys from the other two groups. Make sure to pair people up so they compliment each other without being too much alike (For example, if one of your strong recruiters is not a sports fan, pair him with a big sports fan to strengthen the team's recruitment potential). Have your teams work on their names lists together and have them work together to set up meetings with potentials. To offer an incentive let the most successful team get first choice at little brothers, or reduced dues, or anything to give positive reinforcement to good recruiting. Ideally the team leaders will be able to encourage the weaker recruiters in their groups to be more active recruiters.

A couple of years ago, I would have agreed with this and thought it was a great idea. However, a lot of times, it doesn't work. I've seen it first-hand. The best recruiters, because they're in a group filled with "mules", end up doing all of the work on their own.. which isn't effective.

There are going to be people in the chapter who are apathetic, especially when it comes to recruitment. I would suggest asking the entire chapter who would like to be on a recruitment committee. And before you have people sign up, explain to them what you're looking for... those brothers who are outgoing, who are willing to really work to get new members into the fraternity. The brothers who sign up will probably be your strongest recruiters.

From there, take those guys and plan recruitment strategies. Do things that will make your chapter stand out. Not VISIBLE, but STAND OUT. Do something different. These are a few of my favorite examples from Phired Up...

Door Holding Campaign: http://www.phiredup.com/index.php?op...p=424&Itemid=2

Be Nice to People (at least for a Week): http://www.phiredup.com/index.php?op...p=418&Itemid=2

And this video was included in one of their blog entries... The Free Compliment Guys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QShPNcjgtfs

As Phired Up says... put your HORSES to work.

Originally Posted by 33girl

Don't look at every single encounter with a guy as "OMG HE MIGHT PLEDGE US!!" It'll have the same effect as it did when you were looking at girls going "OMG SHE MIGHT BE THE ONE WHO LETS ME TOUCH BOOB!!"

This made me literally LOL

[Gusteau]

Originally Posted by deepsouth

Book a band. Call everyone on your rush list invite them to the band party. Have all of the brothers call all of the girls they know and invite them to the band party. Buy a ton of beer, about 20 per rushee. Put said beer in a cooler and leave it somewhere out of the way(closet near by, bed of your truck) and make sure that its only for rushees. You will find that rush will no longer be difficult.

At a non traditional school, he's going to need to do more than that to succeed in recruitment.

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

A couple of years ago, I would have agreed with this and thought it was a great idea. However, a lot of times, it doesn't work. I've seen it first-hand. The best recruiters, because they're in a group filled with "mules", end up doing all of the work on their own.. which isn't effective.

I probably should have mentioned it before, but we never expected it to work completely. Realistically we know that the best recruiters will do all of the work. Our hope is that it will encourage the adequate recruiters to become better recruiters. I've found that a lot of the guys in that category are not inherently unsuccessful, they just don't think about recruitment all of them time and how they should use any situation as a recruitment event. Ultimately, the best recruiters may end up doing all of the work, and they won't be any more or less frustrated than they would have doing all of the work without trying to engage the chapter.