From Pref Night to Bid Day: What happens?

[tld221]

I really love reading the NPC bid matching scenario threads. I'm not even lane swerving, just standing across the street watching with extreme interest from my front yard.

Question: it was mentioned that when PNMs are invited back to all rounds including Pref, it's an unspoken "we want you, let's convince you to list us as #1 if you aren't already there." I liken this to graduate school preview days, where your acceptance is your bid and the school really wants you to accept their acceptance.

Now, this can go 2 ways. If it's a house that's quite popular, your pref night could be in a cardboard box lit by glowsticks and PNMs are still ranking your house #1 in the finest penmanship. If it's a house that's meh, you really are making a sell to at least half the women attending. To me, it's most likely your chapter "wants" them*. It it's a struggling house your PNMs don't really care for or know about, that Pref is as hard a sell as your first round rush party. Am I right on this?

On to my asterisk: how does NPC define "want"? Is it an intrapersonal "the last few days getting to know you have been amazing, let's go steady" want, or a straightforward "our quota is a number we need to fill and we want you to be a member"? Or is this respective to the scenarios I listed above? In other words, are there chapters that, when bid matching (either by hand or machine) want everyone on their first bid list? Like over the moon, "she NEEDS to be my sister" want.

Also, is the machine matching so automated that you get women on your list that everyone's like "...oh, ok. yay :/"

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by tld221

I really love reading the NPC bid matching scenario threads. I'm not even lane swerving, just standing across the street watching with extreme interest from my front yard.

Question: it was mentioned that when PNMs are invited back to all rounds including Pref, it's an unspoken "we want you, let's convince you to list us as #1 if you aren't already there." I liken this to graduate school preview days, where your acceptance is your bid and the school really wants you to accept their acceptance.

Now, this can go 2 ways. If it's a house that's quite popular, your pref night could be in a cardboard box lit by glowsticks and PNMs are still ranking your house #1 in the finest penmanship. If it's a house that's meh, you really are making a sell to at least half the women attending. To me, it's most likely your chapter "wants" them*. It it's a struggling house your PNMs don't really care for or know about, that Pref is as hard a sell as your first round rush party. Am I right on this?

On to my asterisk: how does NPC define "want"? Is it an intrapersonal "the last few days getting to know you have been amazing, let's go steady" want, or a straightforward "our quota is a number we need to fill and we want you to be a member"? Or is this respective to the scenarios I listed above? In other words, are there chapters that, when bid matching (either by hand or machine) want everyone on their first bid list? Like over the moon, "she NEEDS to be my sister" want.

Also, is the machine matching so automated that you get women on your list that everyone's like "...oh, ok. yay :/"

By the time pref comes around, most groups have sorted to their main competitors. The women at the pref parties for the weak recruiting chapters generally have accepted that they won't be getting a bid to a strong recruiting chapter, and the parties are no more hard sell than your other parties. Maybe your really struggling chapter with a mandate to fill a quota or lose their chapter may come across that way, but for the most part it's about building relationships with people who have something in common with you. A few women will feel out of place at any given place, but most will feel like they are welcome. I haven't seen many collegians that are comfortable with or good at the prolonged or impassioned "hard sell." Most move on to talk about something else after a couple minutes.

[DubaiSis]

Originally Posted by tld221

On to my asterisk: how does NPC define "want"? Is it an intrapersonal "the last few days getting to know you have been amazing, let's go steady" want, or a straightforward "our quota is a number we need to fill and we want you to be a member"? Or is this respective to the scenarios I listed above? In other words, are there chapters that, when bid matching (either by hand or machine) want everyone on their first bid list? Like over the moon, "she NEEDS to be my sister" want.

Also, is the machine matching so automated that you get women on your list that everyone's like "...oh, ok. yay :/"

You've nailed the preference conversation conundrum of the ages. How do you go about closing the sale? You have to customize for each rushee. One, you have to love and you're going to be just the very best of friends for ever and ever. Another will respond to offers of leadership. One will respond to a businesslike approach of responsibilities and benefits. And some you just have to make understand that really, it's going to be ok even though you didn't get invited to pref at your dream chapter. Putting it down to numbers would seem crass, but I was told that because of my chapter's smaller size I would have opportunities for leadership sooner than in a larger chapter. They found what button to push!

Technically with RFM nobody should end up at your preference party that you don't already want, but with 150+ members in a chapter, there will definitely be a variation of opinion about every girl on the pledge list.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by tld221

On to my asterisk: how does NPC define "want"? Is it an intrapersonal "the last few days getting to know you have been amazing, let's go steady" want, or a straightforward "our quota is a number we need to fill and we want you to be a member"? Or is this respective to the scenarios I listed above? In other words, are there chapters that, when bid matching (either by hand or machine) want everyone on their first bid list? Like over the moon, "she NEEDS to be my sister" want.

I was in a "weak-recruiting chapter", so here's a perspective from that end:

Every round, there were disappointments for us: women we wanted who didn't return to our chapter. We knew we were a WRC, and that we were competing with SRCs, and that Patty Perfect PNM might not be on our list, but I have been the one (as chapter president) to break the news to an active collegian that her little sister had declined our invitation. Those hurt.

But just as we tell PNMs (and as my Rho Chi once said to me) to have an open mind and to look at the chapters left on their invite list as the only chapters on campus, each round, we'd do our best to refocus on the pool of PNMs that we DID have, and find something to love about each one.

Are there women we are over-the-moon to have, versus women we aren't? Well, they are on the bid list in an order, but in a chapter like mine (over 100 women), it's not at all like we are going to have a homogenous opinion. There were women in my chapter who were "rush crushes" for some of my sisters that I didn't feel a strong affection for, and vice-versa. Further, someone who didn't shine during FR may just not have met the right women in the chapter to really "click". But the bottom line is that I loved my chapter and my sisters, and I firmly believe that any woman who meets the requirements of membership will be an asset to the chapter in one way or another, and many in ways you just can't know during FR.