Should we change the way PNMs think of Recruitment?

[WCsweet<3]

Originally Posted by Jen

I actually liked how it worked in the past. When I went through, I was told all of my invites and had to choose between them if there was more than there were parties - so I got the experience of having to cut a group or two. I also could hear and see straight up that a group I liked didn't invite me back. There was some transparency there that appealed to me.

Now that happens automatically because of the rankings done after parties, so even if they DO have to cut, they never participate in it in the moment because it's already been done. I definitely see the benefit to having it done so automatically now (a definite time saver), but I think the explanations need to be improved so PNMs aren't getting an skewed sense of where the "power" lies when it comes to choosing. It's only mutual when you have more invites than you can accept.

I really like the idea of seeing the invites and then choosing. Two questions though:

1. How does it work? The chapters on my campus are matched with a specific PNM who comes to a party. Basically Patty PNM is matched with Sorority Sue at XYZ during party one. Would the PNM see her invites, choose and come back later for her schedule or what?

2. Does tent talk play more in these situations? I'm imagining all the PNMs sitting in a dorm room chatting. On the other hand, having more time to think on the interactions at each chapter aka sleeping on it might help.

I remember going through recruitment a second time and someone in my group asked how our invites were chosen. They were amazed that members would vote/rank/judge the pnms. I don't know how she thought it was before, but she was amazed that her invites depended on what the members thought of her.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by WCsweet<3

I really like the idea of seeing the invites and then choosing. Two questions though:

1. How does it work? The chapters on my campus are matched with a specific PNM who comes to a party. Basically Patty PNM is matched with Sorority Sue at XYZ during party one. Would the PNM see her invites, choose and come back later for her schedule or what?

It was my understanding that some campuses still do this, and yes - basically just like that. The PNMs meet with their Rho Whatevers in the morning, sit down at a computer and see their invitations for that day and decide who to go back to, and who to regret. In that case, they truly are 'cutting' a chapter because they've already received invitations. My concern with this is two-fold: 1) logistically, it seems like such a waste of time to do this the day of parties (which means a potential time crunch in determining party schedules, and less time for chapters to prepare for the returning PNMs) when they could have PNMs rank while the chapters are ranking. and 2) Yes, I would expect that tent talk would play a greater role when the PNMs have an entire evening back at the dorms to gossip before they have to make their final decisions.

I think it shouldn't be too hard for Panhellenics to take 5 minutes to explain that chapters decide who to invite back, while PNMs are ranking their preferred returns. Chapters have limited numbers of invitations, so not everyone can be invited back to every chapter. You will be matched for the next round with chapters that have invited you back, in order of your preference. Now, whether the PNMs understand and choose to hear it is another issue.

Something that might help the whole situation is an additional print-out showing the results of the previous day's matching, in addition to their party schedule, for example:

Ranks:
#1 - ABC - Invitation / Return
#1 - BCD - Invitation / Return
#1 - CDE - No Invitation
#1 - DEF - Invitation / Return
#2 - FGH - Invitation / Return
#3 - GHI - Invitation / No Return

Party Schedule:
BCD
FGH
DEF
ABC

[SLAM<3 Always]

I think the mutual selection comes more from the PNMs ability to not rank a particular organization. I see it very often at my university where girls will not rank all of the organization available to them.

However, I have always wondered this and maybe someone can explain this better to me. A guy can go through multiple rush's on campus and actually receive more than one bid. It's his choice than to accept one of those bids. What caused or was the reasoning behind a girl only being able to receive on bid at the end of formal recruitment?