Spring Recruitment

[carnation]

If y'all are Birmingham Southern, I know quite a bit about your school and probably what you need to do is talk to all the sorority members and ask them whether it would have made a difference to them to rush in the fall vs. the spring. Some schools go to spring recruitment only to find out that a lot of the possible members have lost interest by then. Plus there would be, I feel, quite a bit of dirty rushing...

Yes, spring recruitment would let you know more about your PNMs--whether they're disasters (there was one major one there about 7-8 years ago) or future flunkouts. There are good and bad points to be weighed. However, don't let Panhellenic decide alone! Talk to lots of women!

[BSCKt]

Originally Posted by carnation

If y'all are Birmingham Southern, I know quite a bit about your school and probably what you need to do is talk to all the sorority members and ask them whether it would have made a difference to them to rush in the fall vs. the spring. Some schools go to spring recruitment only to find out that a lot of the possible members have lost interest by then. Plus there would be, I feel, quite a bit of dirty rushing...

Yes, spring recruitment would let you know more about your PNMs--whether they're disasters (there was one major one there about 7-8 years ago) or future flunkouts. There are good and bad points to be weighed. However, don't let Panhellenic decide alone! Talk to lots of women!

I won't be there when the switch happens, but most of the girls in my chapter are excited about the potential for it moving. Our panhel delegate said we will probably have a meeting to discuss it with our panhel advisor (not sure when or if it'll happen). But I just wondered how other people felt about it. I know no girls personally who went through formal spring rush. I just wanted to gather intel to possibly fuel a more investigative and helpful discussion.

Personally, I worry about dirty rush. We are getting much better about keeping violations to a minimum and I would hate to see all that work go to waste. Because nothing burns my recruitment butt more than hot boxing and pressuring these poor, scared PNMs.

[KDMafia]

I come from/advise a chapter that has deferred rush. However it's a small school with total set at 42 currently.

We haven't seen many issues with dirty rushing that is directly related to it being deferred. We had more issues of it when he had a partially structured in the Fall for COBing upper classmen and I believe this more related with people struggling with the partially structured nature and not knowing how to effective recruit their friends (bid promising was usually seen with sophomores who were not yet familiar with their chapter's selection process and seemed to come more out of an awkwardness then maliciousness).

The one bad thing I've seen is that even on a small campus where most individuals do no come in very aware of greek life the first semester then allows a lot of rumous to flourish and make it easier for PNMs to become to attached to the idea of one sorority.

The second issue is girls losing interest due to either feeling like they have solid friendship circles and not wanting to break those up or just not caring as they have joined other organizaiton, started volunteering elsewhere and have their own social circle. the problem comes when they come back from sophomore year and are in different buildings from their friends and realize no one is knocking on their door to get them involved anymroe because they are no longer freshmen.

This second issue can be easily dealt with if you utilize the first semester like it's supposed to be. As one long, casual recruitment event. Keep Greek Life in their face and have Panhellenic events as well as making sure sororities are putting one events geared towards showing the positives of greek life. If the sororities just put on a handlful of events and then disappear you run the risk of girls feeling that there is no reason to be in a greek organization, or you have them making their decisions about sororities based on their interactions with one or two individuals and not seeing Greek Life as a whole.

[33girl]

I think that overall, it results in better placement. You've had a semester to see what the sororities are like outside of rush. Yes, there might be more tent talk, but the advantage is if a girl decides to join the "geeky chapter" or "fat chapter" - she knows that's the stereotype she's going to have to contend with. It won't blindside her. Rather than feeling as though she's been tricked, she'll more likely to want to go out and prove people wrong. On the other side of that coin, the partying chapter can't fake clean up their act for a week and attract girls they have nothing in common just for the sake of getting their GPA up. If they want to change, they have to TRULY change.

Yes, there are girls who decide they only want to join one group. Sometimes with good reason (they become friends with many members), sometimes with no reason. That happens in first semester rush too.

The key is normal interaction. Make friends with freshmen women because you like them, not necessarily to end up bidding them.