Recruitment Methods

[naraht]

Originally Posted by kaitapoul

Oh, wow. I go on vacation and come back to such a lively thread.



We're a Big East School for athletics. Our men's basketball previously coached at an SEC school, in state.

Hmm. Cool Puzzle, only two schools in the Big East are in the same state as an SEC school and it looks like the University of South Florida basketball coach has never coached at any other Florida college. See below for commentary specific to your school.

Originally Posted by kaitapoul

We currently have around 22 actives, but like I said, 10 or 12 of us graduate this year. We are trying to rebuild, essentially because our previous leadership didn't have the best reputation (simply put).



I designed our shirts for rush this semester (which is the first time in a while that we've even had shirts). On the front is says "Be a Bro. Rush A-Phi-O" with a fleur de lis on the front. On the back it says "Alpha Phi Omega: Be a Leader, Be a Friend, Be of Service. Ask me about rush or check us out on Facebook Alpha Phi Omega - Chapter Chapter."

Our PR person is really trying to stress our values, so I agree with this, however we are trying to find a happy medium with our letters and the values. Obviously we are service fraternity and that is what we do, so it's important for us to stress that.

I really like the idea that Senusret I had about emailing the socials...I'll have to look into that. We do have a few people that are in socials as well as with us, and we are hoping to maybe team up with those fraternities/sororities to do service projects.

Another issue we have is reaching our to our minority peers on campus. Do you have any suggestions on how to recruit a more diverse population? We are an extremely urban campus, and our lack of diversity is disheartening.

Unfortunately, there is nothing to indicate that a woman should be checking it out. A woman may see it on the back of a man and think it is only a fraternity.

I've found that some socials have their service programs organized enough that they can really partner with APO, but others are just happy to find someone organized enough in service for them to be able to use to get the required service. I'm not sure how to find that out in advance, but something to keep in mind with flexibility in how to contact them...

As for minority issues, if you are where I *think* you are, there is an extension effort at the Primary HBCU for your state which is *most* of the way from your campus to the campus that your basketball coach used to coach at. Perhaps you can invite them to campus for rush events?

There are some chapters that have turned school rivalries into service projects, I *definitely* think you could pull it off with the school where your coach used to be.


Speaking of which, for "safety"'s sake I'd make sure that you have Gold be the primary color of the t-shirt. Wouldn't want people on campus to think you are wearing Wildcat blue.

[kaitapoul]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Hey hey hey! I pledged at a Big East chapter, too! (Mu Alpha - Georgetown)

- Co-sponsored service projects majority-minority clubs/organizations

And although APO is not a multicultural fraternity, you can create rush fliers which highlight the fraternity's diversity. At Mu Alpha, it's a big deal to have fliers with Bill Clinton, because he's a Mu Alpha initiate. Why not create a series of fliers to hang around campus?

Here is a list of African American brothers you might want to include in your advertisements:

Michelle Obama
Melody Barnes (White House Domestic Policy Advisor)
St. Claire Bourne (African American Documentary filmmaker)
Rashid Darden (Author - jk jk haaaaa that's me)
H. Patrick Swygert (Former President of Howard University)
Togo West (Former Secretary of the Army, Former Secretary of Veteran's Affairs)
Mike Garrett
Bob Love
Sid Williams (husband of Maxine Waters - not sure if he is black though)
Samuel Pierce (Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development)
Howard Thurman
and
Martin Luther King, SENIOR

Pick a few of these to go with other brothers on your fliers. If nothing else, it's positive public relations.

Good luck!

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll pass them along to the appropriate people.

Originally Posted by naraht

Unfortunately, there is nothing to indicate that a woman should be checking it out. A woman may see it on the back of a man and think it is only a fraternity.

I've found that some socials have their service programs organized enough that they can really partner with APO, but others are just happy to find someone organized enough in service for them to be able to use to get the required service. I'm not sure how to find that out in advance, but something to keep in mind with flexibility in how to contact them...

As for minority issues, if you are where I *think* you are, there is an extension effort at the Primary HBCU for your state which is *most* of the way from your campus to the campus that your basketball coach used to coach at. Perhaps you can invite them to campus for rush events?

There are some chapters that have turned school rivalries into service projects, I *definitely* think you could pull it off with the school where your coach used to be.


Speaking of which, for "safety"'s sake I'd make sure that you have Gold be the primary color of the t-shirt. Wouldn't want people on campus to think you are wearing Wildcat blue.

As far as our shirts go, we actually sort of went with the opposite of what you are saying, color wise. We have a bright blue (kinda like the skype shade of blue) to stand out against all of the school colors on our campus. The font and design of the shirt is actually pretty girly, and a majority of us are females. But I see you're point...we didn't include the word fraternity because we didn't want people to be turned off, but we left the word bro. It's definitely something for us to look into for next recruitment.

We have been in contact with the expansion chapter at our HBCU and we plan on working closely with them in the future, with events etc since it's not to far away. We are very excited for them to be joining us!

Planning a rivalry service event is very plausible. I'm really close with brothers at the rivalry, since that's where I grew up, so coordinating it should be easier. (Minus the fact that they have 100+ in their chapter and we've got 20 haha....I think we'd make it a campus wide event of course).

Thanks for the suggestions, friends!

[naraht]

Originally Posted by kaitapoul

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll pass them along to the appropriate people.

Remember that it is MLK, Senior *not* Junior. I still run into chapters making the mistake. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._Omega_members for more info (though for some reason that author is missing. )

Originally Posted by kaitapoul

As far as our shirts go, we actually sort of went with the opposite of what you are saying, color wise. We have a bright blue (kinda like the skype shade of blue) to stand out against all of the school colors on our campus. The font and design of the shirt is actually pretty girly, and a majority of us are females. But I see you're point...we didn't include the word fraternity because we didn't want people to be turned off, but we left the word bro. It's definitely something for us to look into for next recruitment.

You can always go with really obvious
*SEX* We have both of them!
I'm sure other brothers have seen better...

My chapter didn't have to worry about our school colors, it was a plaid. (I'm not kidding)

Originally Posted by kaitapoul

We have been in contact with the expansion chapter at our HBCU and we plan on working closely with them in the future, with events etc since it's not to far away. We are very excited for them to be joining us!

Planning a rivalry service event is very plausible. I'm really close with brothers at the rivalry, since that's where I grew up, so coordinating it should be easier. (Minus the fact that they have 100+ in their chapter and we've got 20 haha....I think we'd make it a campus wide event of course).

Thanks for the suggestions, friends!

Cool on the HBCU. Note, the distance from you to your HBCU will get me to 9 chapters (2 in VA, 2 in MD, and 5 in DC)


Ideally, you get to the point where the chapters award a trophy at halftime of the basketball game. (Are you guaranteed at least one basketball game a year?)

Blood battles are good...


Do you want to do the reveal for what your chapter is since I have apparently guessed?

Randy