Scriptwriter looking for help

[Lafayette79]

Originally Posted by MikeEllis

What I'm most concerned right now with boils down to two things:
- The time schedule of rush. What kinds of events go, in what order, and how much time does the whole process take. (From what I've read so far, the guy seem to be expected to make a rather big decision in a few days. I don't remember being that rushed about it, but maybe we were.)

Although it seems strange to say so, Rusty's Rush events on the TV show, Greek were not atypical, (with the exception of Kappa Tau of course). At most campuses, at least those with which I am familiar, Rush is very open with only a minimum structure. If you look at the Fraternity Rushes in the Recruitment Stories section of GC, you will find only a few and those few have little drama compared to the NPC. Both the houses and the Rushees make hurried decisions which are usually correct. But it's OK since both the Fraternities and Pledges have a Do-over (see below).

Some big southern schools have their own culture upon which I can't comment.

I have learned on GC that it is generally easier to get a Fraternity bid than a Sorority one because of the intensity of Sorority Recruitment versus the more relaxed format of Fraternity Rush. The difference is, again as I have learned on GC, that once you get an NPC bid, you are pretty much in, since you have gone through so much to get it. With most NIC Fraternities though, the process is just beginning. The pledges must be bound to their pledge class and that class bound to the whole Fraternity. Not everyone makes it, and it's not unusual to pull some Pledge Pins after Rush.

My point is that for most of the NIC, it is not a done deal after the few days of Rush. Some leave on their own and some have to leave. Those who are left are the new brothers.

The OP is to be applauded for asking questions of those that he thinks may know something, instead of making it up, which is easier and much more common.

[angels&angles]

I will add that it seems that for many universities that pull students mostly from the same area (i.e. students from State U all live in State), fraternities will call graduated HS seniors attending State U and hold functions over the summer. I have heard of cookouts, NASCAR races, even outings for steak dinners and a strip club (NOTA BENE that the strip club is hearsay, but the other outings I know of people who went on them). This allows the guys to get a chance to know fraternity members, and also get an idea of who wants them (i.e. Went to one event for ABC but never got another call, has gone to 3 XYZ events) before school and rush start.

Sorority members are pretty strictly prohibited from holding this sort of thing. SOME sorority members might participate and help in fraternity rush, but it's a but frowned on.

//back in my lane.

[ellebud]

AZTheta: Please clear your pm for one spot.

[AZTheta]

Originally Posted by ellebud

AZTheta: Please clear your pm for one spot.

done. sorry - I tend to not delete things and it's a small mailbox.

[DubaiSis]

the thing about the texting of comments. That's something that might not be accurate per se, but might be a good way to abbreviate real life without being that crazy-off-base, like any sorority recruitment thing you've ever seen. Real life recruitment, if you're not in it, would be akin to watching paint dry. Or a VERY slow ballet.

I'm sure the fraternities (again - lane swerve) have some sort of member selection meeting, but if the story is about the rushee, he wouldn't know what happens there either. So the texting would be a fun, if fictional way of showing that, even if it wouldn't really be happening right in front of the rushees' eyes.

I don't think that would offend us as much as, say, the sorority recruitment scenes on Greek. But again, snooze, you'd never depict how it really is.

[DTD Alum]

Well, it's going to change depending on what type of school you are writing it at. When I was in school at USC, this is how it went:

Sunday: Kick-Off in the quad, every house had a booth
Monday: Open houses, every fraternity was required to stay on the row. Rushees could visit as many or as few houses as they wanted. Fraternities would have catered food (Morton's, Hawaiian luau, In-n-Out) or attractions like casino night to persuade rushees to stop by.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: Rush events, almost always off campus. These would differ by fraternity and were always free for the rushees. Examples: hockey games, baseball games, basketball games, hookah lounge, shooting range, dinner at nice restaurant, bowling, indoor skydiving, comedy club, paintball, etc. Each house was allowed to pick one night where girls could come. Everything had to be dry officially, but that certainly didn't stop drinking from going on with the top rushees behind doors.

Rushees would pick which houses they wanted and usually focus on just their favorite. Some houses would be really good at cutting those they didn't want early, some would string them along forever. If you picked the wrong house and they didn't let you know early enough, it would indeed be too late to get invited to another house's Blue Chip. You'd have to wait until the next semester.

Generally everybody would be invited after Monday, and then cuts would begin. Those still in the running would get phone calls about where and when to show up...almost always at the house, and then actives would drive the rushees to the event (the best rushers and best cars transporting the most sought after rushees, of course). Some houses would even do cuts after Monday, and only invite selected rushees to the first event.

Friday: Blue Chip Dinner. This was a really formal dinner, usually at a very expensive restaurant or the house of an impressive alumnus. Suits were required. Some houses would do heavy cuts before and then bid everybody in attendance, some would invite a wider range of guys and then do heavy cuts after this night...it all depended on the chapter's voting culture. There were usually formal speeches from the rush chair, the president and prominent alumni. Think the fraternity equivalent of pref.

Saturday: Rushees would get phone calls. Usually "no" calls came out first (if they did at all, some houses just didn't call those they were not giving bids to). Yes calls would get a call to go to the house (usually pretending that they still needed to answer some more questions before they could get an answer). Generally pledge initiation would take place followed by a group dinner, and then a party later in the night.

Hope that helps.

[Elephant Walk]

There is a thread somewhere regarding the specifics of fraternity rush structure at a few schools but I can't remember the name of it.

[MikeEllis]

I got pulled off of this project for a couple of weeks to work on some steampunk thing, but now we're back on it.

Thanks for all the helpful information so far, especially to DTD Alum. Just like years ago when I was going through rush, Delts are still some of the best.

[MikeEllis]

Research continues, but I've run into a fundamental question: does pledging last one academic year or one semester? Or, like a lot of things, does this vary from school to school, too?

If so, which is probably more common, one or two pledge classes each year? If it's a year, there's more time to do things, both in real life and in these scripts, but if it's one semester then the house would have twice as many opportunities to recruit.

Please help me get this right.

By the way, there must be a simple noun for "being a pledge." What is it? Pledgehood? Pledgeship?

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by MikeEllis

Research continues, but I've run into a fundamental question: does pledging last one academic year or one semester? Or, like a lot of things, does this vary from school to school, too?

If so, which is probably more common, one or two pledge classes each year? If it's a year, there's more time to do things, both in real life and in these scripts, but if it's one semester then the house would have twice as many opportunities to recruit.

Please help me get this right.

By the way, there must be a simple noun for "being a pledge." What is it? Pledgehood? Pledgeship?

The pledge period is normally only one semester and it's just "a pledge" or "pledging".

[angels&angles]

At my school (small, private, liberal arts, Greek-dominated) pledging was a little less than a semester (10 weeks maybe?) but there was only one pledge class per year. MAYBE one or two fraternities might take one or two guys before or after rush (we had rush second semester), but it wasn't common. I have heard some state schools have both a fall (formal, large) rush and a spring (smaller, informal) rush, and that the spring pledges are looked down on a little, but this is all hearsay. This is something that could easily vary from school to school (and the flipside, no matter which way you write it, a bunch of Greeks will watch it and say, "Pfft, that's not how it works! These guys clearly did no research!")

[MikeEllis]

Originally Posted by angels&angles

...This is something that could easily vary from school to school (and the flipside, no matter which way you write it, a bunch of Greeks will watch it and say, "Pfft, that's not how it works! These guys clearly did no research!")

Thanks very much for this. The more I read here, the more I realize that there is no one right way to do any of this. And no one right name to call anything.

I'm even thinking of trying to work that in the dialogue. "That's not how we did it at University X!" "But you're not at University X now, and this is how we do it here."

I hate getting accused of not doing my research. Sometimes it seems like I do nothing but research.

[agzg]

Edited because I forgot that it was just fraternities he was looking into.

RIF

[Benzgirl]

New Member Period

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

New Member Period

Is there any fraternity that calls it this?