Accepting a bid, but postponing pledging?

[ComradesTrue]

I am with everyone else on not opening the can of worms offering to let these girls delay their bid for a semester. In addition to all the excellent points they bring up, I am also concerned for their ongoing finances. If they need this semester to save up for next semester are they going to be able to afford the remaining 3 years of their sorority commitment? This sounds like financial resignation waiting to happen.

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by Blondie93

I am with everyone else on not opening the can of worms offering to let these girls delay their bid for a semester. In addition to all the excellent points they bring up, I am also concerned for their ongoing finances. If they need this semester to save up for next semester are they going to be able to afford the remaining 3 years of their sorority commitment? This sounds like financial resignation waiting to happen.

Excellent point!

And Dubaisis, good start on the statement. I hope that Greek life will address the problem and take the heat off the sororities.

[AXiDTrish]

We call it formal recruitment. Technically it's probably partial (ish). On a smaller engineering/architecture campus where there is 1 female to 7 or 8 males and PNMs tend to be VERY introverted it is safety in numbers. Most of these girls would never be greek if they went to a liberal arts school, but here it works and they fit into either chapter. Since Greek life never occured to the majority of them, neither did the financials. Some of it is purely stick shock I assume. On this campus it really IS the truth that if you want to be around other women, you need to be Greek. It's where the women are!

That said, last years quota of 6 was a small year in many ways due to bad pre-recruitment PR. We actually took in an additional 10 girls in COB later in the year and I know the other chapter took in a few from COB also. This year the PR has been better (thanks to a new, amazing greek advisor and a strong Panhellenic!) and our interest is back to where it used to be. We only added quota and total about 4 years ago. In my opnion it was needed. At the time it was added, one chapter had 40 and the other has 12. They really couldn't compete well and there was bad blood between the groups. Last spring one had 30 and the other 33. The system is MUCH more stable and they get along very well. Plus, they are both growing!

Both sororities hold open events together wearing panhellenic shirts just to get the PNMs to realize there are other women on campus. Imagine being the only female in all your classes. That's pretty common. PNMs tend to hybernate because there are so many guys around. These open events are simply to help them get comfortable and though we would love them to come to actual recruitment events, it's really just to make the PNMs feel comfortable on campus in the sea of men. After a few weeks we hold recruitment events, but it's still more relaxed then what other schools do.

I know all this small campus stuff is foreign to the large recruitments out there. I came from a larger system from this myself. The key is it WORKS for this campus. There has been 10 years of trial and error to get this process together and truthfully when you pledge 15-20% of incoming freshmen you aren't doing so bad, you just need to do better. Retention is GOOD! We've had 100% retention for a few years and I know the other chapter has had success retaining too.

Maybe this is just a weird year with funky questions.....looks like my message to my girls will be to gracefully and carefully recommend the PNMs with the concerns wait and COB in spring (if the chapters are below total).

Thanks for the advice!!

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by AXiDTrish

We call it formal recruitment. Technically it's probably partial (ish). On a smaller engineering/architecture campus where there is 1 female to 7 or 8 males and PNMs tend to be VERY introverted it is safety in numbers. Most of these girls would never be greek if they went to a liberal arts school, but here it works and they fit into either chapter. Since Greek life never occured to the majority of them, neither did the financials. Some of it is purely stick shock I assume. On this campus it really IS the truth that if you want to be around other women, you need to be Greek. It's where the women are!

That said, last years quota of 6 was a small year in many ways due to bad pre-recruitment PR. We actually took in an additional 10 girls in COB later in the year and I know the other chapter took in a few from COB also. This year the PR has been better (thanks to a new, amazing greek advisor and a strong Panhellenic!) and our interest is back to where it used to be. We only added quota and total about 4 years ago. In my opnion it was needed. At the time it was added, one chapter had 40 and the other has 12. They really couldn't compete well and there was bad blood between the groups. Last spring one had 30 and the other 33. The system is MUCH more stable and they get along very well. Plus, they are both growing!

Both sororities hold open events together wearing panhellenic shirts just to get the PNMs to realize there are other women on campus. Imagine being the only female in all your classes. That's pretty common. PNMs tend to hybernate because there are so many guys around. These open events are simply to help them get comfortable and though we would love them to come to actual recruitment events, it's really just to make the PNMs feel comfortable on campus in the sea of men. After a few weeks we hold recruitment events, but it's still more relaxed then what other schools do.

I know all this small campus stuff is foreign to the large recruitments out there. I came from a larger system from this myself. The key is it WORKS for this campus. There has been 10 years of trial and error to get this process together and truthfully when you pledge 15-20% of incoming freshmen you aren't doing so bad, you just need to do better. Retention is GOOD! We've had 100% retention for a few years and I know the other chapter has had success retaining too.

I came from a similar school environment (smaller Greek system, unbalanced ratio of guys to girls), and we didn't have formal recruitent at all. At the time, it worked. Things have changed over the years though, with more majors offered, more girls applying, and more interest in Greek life.

You claim that the system this school currently has is working, but in my opinion, based on what you've posted, it's not. If you're giving out more bids with COB and PNMs feel more comfortable in a relaxed get-to-know-you type setting, why would you continue using "formal" recruitment?

I know it's not really your decision to make, but from what little I've read here, this screams "We should only be using COB"

[33girl]

We used to do this back in dino days. It is Green Book permissible. The fact of the matter was that it was partially 1) to snap up the women and 2) to up our numbers. We were small and this option was mostly offered to women who already knew most of the chapter but for one reason or the other weren't able to pledge when the bid was offered, but did want to "declare their intentions" with us. For the most part it did work, but then there were a couple women it didn't work with plus the Greek life director said it was hazing (which is bullshit but whatever) so we stopped.

However, if you have women ACROSS THE BOARD requesting this option - and not the sororities offering it - for monetary reasons almost exclusively, that means dues are too high for the campus. Something's got to go. I know people don't like to hear this but if the house is killing you get rid of it. Try a block of apartments instead.

I also think that deferred rush would solve a lot of your problems. If I was a brand new freshman on a campus with that male/female ratio I'd be clinging to my girls every minute too. They need a semester to relax and get to realize that dudes are just smelly and gross.

[amanda6035]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

I know it's not really your decision to make, but from what little I've read here, this screams "We should only be using COB"

I know the campus Trish speaks of, and only COB is a terrifying idea to me. I simply don't understand the logic behind COB only campuses, and how chapters can be successful. This school had one year, before quota and total were implemented, where one chapter for 16 NMs, and the other got 8. There was alot of bad blood that year, unpanhellenic drama, and the following year was when quota and total were implemented. COB doesn't force you to have quota, and quota is absolutely necessary. "Formal recruitment" at this campus is also necessary, because as Trish said, safety in numbers, and the PR aspect of it. Girls who wouldn't consider sorority membership come out because their roommate is going, etc.

So if you do have experience with COB only schools.... how does it work? How do the chapters recruit fairly? Do they still have quota? And if so, how is it set? If you don't have formal preference and a set number of girls signing bid cards, how does quota get set at a reasonable number that all chapters can have a fair shot?

Not that I see this campus changing anytime soon... but I'm curious to know how this would work without one chapter getting completely screwed, or greek life interest completely dwindling (this was the fate of one chapter on campus before the other arrived...) because the engineering super nerds won't come out of the dorms. Hah!

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by amanda6035

So if you do have experience with COB only schools.... how does it work? How do the chapters recruit fairly? Do they still have quota? And if so, how is it set? If you don't have formal preference and a set number of girls signing bid cards, how does quota get set at a reasonable number that all chapters can have a fair shot?

Not that I see this campus changing anytime soon... but I'm curious to know how this would work without one chapter getting completely screwed, or greek life interest completely dwindling (this was the fate of one chapter on campus before the other arrived...) because the engineering super nerds won't come out of the dorms. Hah!

I've worked with campuses that have only informal recruitment. No Quota is used. The way you keep things even is by having a realistic Total. Chapters can't go over that.

I would suggest, as a possible solution, working out a payment plan over the entire year, ensuring the amounts that need to be sent to your organization are covered prior to Initiation but the amounts that stay in the chapter are spread over the spring term.

Example (trying to use easy to round numbers):
New member term:
New member fee (to HQ): $50
Initiation fee(to HQ): $200
Monthly member/new member dues: $100 x 4 months (Sept-Dec)= $400
Monthly member/new member dues: $100 x 4 months (Jan-Apr)= $400

Total fees for year: $1050

Typically, $650 of that would be due the first term and only $400 the second term. However, why not even it out monthly so each young woman is paying $131.25/month instead. The $250 owed to HQ is still covered during the new member period but the dues are spread out more evenly through the whole year.

I say this as the parent of a college sophomore who was pretty freaked out about money that first month of her freshman year. Having just paid tuition, buying all that dorm room stuff, travel expenses to get to school, etc. it would have been a very tough time to come up with all that money. Also, work study type jobs take a few weeks to get and then a couple weeks before the paychecks start rolling in so the student has no income for a little bit. By second term, it's all in place and is much easier. I'm glad Hypo had deferred recruitment!

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by amanda6035

I know the campus Trish speaks of, and only COB is a terrifying idea to me. I simply don't understand the logic behind COB only campuses, and how chapters can be successful. This school had one year, before quota and total were implemented, where one chapter for 16 NMs, and the other got 8. There was alot of bad blood that year, unpanhellenic drama, and the following year was when quota and total were implemented. COB doesn't force you to have quota, and quota is absolutely necessary. "Formal recruitment" at this campus is also necessary, because as Trish said, safety in numbers, and the PR aspect of it. Girls who wouldn't consider sorority membership come out because their roommate is going, etc.

So if you do have experience with COB only schools.... how does it work? How do the chapters recruit fairly? Do they still have quota? And if so, how is it set? If you don't have formal preference and a set number of girls signing bid cards, how does quota get set at a reasonable number that all chapters can have a fair shot?

Not that I see this campus changing anytime soon... but I'm curious to know how this would work without one chapter getting completely screwed, or greek life interest completely dwindling (this was the fate of one chapter on campus before the other arrived...) because the engineering super nerds won't come out of the dorms. Hah!

As AGDee said, there is no quota, but you keep total at a reasonable number. Therefore, no chapter can ever go above total. It works the same way that fraternities recruit, but with a limit on the total number of members.

If strictly COB wouldn't work, then I agree with others that there should be some kind of deferred recruitment. I have experience working with chapters where girls don't come in thinking, "I need to be Greek!" and if they're not thinking that week 1, then it's going to take some convincing. And most times, that convincing doesn't occur in a week or two... at least not with large numbers of girls.

Having half as many new members in the fall through formal recruitment as you have in the spring during informal recruitment means something is backwards.