partial recruitment

[dzbubbles83]

hey y'all I am a Delta Zeta at the University of New Orleans. And normally every fall we have formal recruitment, but greek affairs has decided to try a new rush called partial recruitment. We are a smaller campus, its a commmuter college w/ 4 sororities and 4 fraternities. If anybody body has any experience or stories or ideas for parties, i would appericate it if you would let me know!!!!Thanks!!!!

DEE ZEE luv,
Erin

[Buttonz]

We are slowly making changs to go to PSR, it has it's benefits. We have 3 NPCs and 3 locals who don't take part in rush with the NPC's

[gpb1874]

partial recruitment is brand new.....only a few schools have used the 3 new recruitment styles (structured, partially structured, minimally structured and COR).

might not get many responses just b/c there's not much experience!

[AGDee]

This is long, but I copied it from an NPC Word document I received.

Continuous Open Recruitment (COR)
Minimally Structured Recruitment (MSR)
Partially Structured Recruitment (PSR)
Fully Structured Recruitment (FSR)


SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS & STYLE ELEMENTS

The Panhellenic Council in consultation with the Greek Advisor and NPC Area Advisor should evaluate its recruitment to determine the style that is best suited for the campus. In determining the style, the assessment checklist and the Panhellenic community characteristics (listed below) will be considered.

Panhellenic communities can be grouped into four separate entities that usually relate to a specific Recruitment Style. However, there may be some Panhellenic communities that will need to combine elements from more than one style.


Style: Continuous Open Recruitment (COR)

Panhellenic Community¡¦s Characteristics:
ƒô NPC chapters number 1-3.
ƒô Quota is 2-9 (when fully structured recruitment is used).
ƒô Chapters recruit almost as many or more women through COR as during fully structured recruitment.

Style Elements:
č Most women exhibit little interest in or have no plans to affiliate.
č Prospective members will not participate in a centrally planned recruitment process.
č Continuous Open Recruitment is the preferred style of recruitment.
č It is acceptable to bypass a structured recruitment process so the chapters do not expend large amounts of time, energy and other resources for a handful of women.
č Growth could occur if the chapters placed all of their focus on recruiting new members using the one-on-one recruiting techniques, developing relationships and making friends.
č Panhellenic does not set dates for recruitment or for bid acceptance.
č There is no bid matching.
č Chapters pledge to Total.


Style: Minimally Structured Recruitment (MSR)

Panhellenic Community¡¦s Characteristics:
ƒô NPC chapters number 2-5.
ƒô Quota is no more than 10-12 (when fully structured recruitment is used).
ƒô Chapters need to engage in COR also to grow their chapters & community.


Style Elements:
č This style is well suited to campuses where the pool of interested potential new members is quite small but Panhellenic marketing is helpful in stimulating interest. Panhellenic members need to work together on marketing and promotions of events.
č A centrally planned process such as Partially Structured Recruitment or Fully Structured Recruitment (see below) presents a barrier in converting the interested women into members.
č Chapters collaborate to ensure that there are no schedule conflicts with their planned events.
č Potential new members are free to explore the available options at their discretion and are not required to visit all chapters.
č Panhellenic sets a date for bid issuance.
č There is no bid matching, as prospective new members are not required to visit all chapters.
č Chapters pledge to Total.




Style: Partially Structured Recruitment (PSR)

Panhellenic Community¡¦s Characteristics:
ƒô NPC chapters number 3-9.
ƒô Quota is 15-20 (if fully structured recruitment processes utilized).
ƒô Community may be losing chapters or has lost them.

Style Elements:
č This style is suitable for campuses where the pool of potential new members initially interested in Greek life is large enough for a central planning process but where the fully structured recruitment presents a barrier in converting the interested woman into members. (Large drop-out rates)
č Panhellenic members work together on marketing and promotions to stimulate interest.
č Panhellenic is more involved, logistically, with this style.
č Timing of recruitment is determined by the Panhellenic and recruitment events are scheduled with flexibility in mind so that potential new members will not withdraw because of scheduling format.
č Potential new members are required to attend at least one event for each sorority.
č Each potential new member attends several events.
č Panhellenic sets the date for distribution of bids.
č Bid matching is done in most implementations of PSR but in certain situations this may not be desirable.
č When bid matching is used, then Release Figures Method could be used.
č Quota/Total is used with bid matching.
č Using bid matching here depends upon
„X Number of chapters
„X Number of potential new members
č If bid matching is not used, there is no Quota and chapters may pledge to Total.


Style: Fully Structured Recruitment (FSR)

Panhellenic Community¡¦s Characteristics:
ƒô NPC chapters number 4 ¡V 26.
ƒô Quota is 20 or more.
ƒô More than 10% of women students usually affiliate.

Style Elements:
č This style is suitable for campuses where the number of potential new members is relatively large and registration for recruitment remains high.
č A central planning process is desirable with this style closely resembling the traditional fully structured recruitment process.
č Marketing for Panhellenic remains important and the program and promotions need to be assessed annually to ensure that they are relevant to incoming students.
č Panhellenic handles the logistics for this style of recruitment.
č Recruitment events are formatted in the traditional manner structured by rounds.
č The events should reflect values-based themes and reflect a lifelong fraternal experience.
č Release Figures Method must be used.
č Bid matching is always conducted in this style of recruitment and Quota/Total is in effect.
č Panhellenic sets the date for distribution of bids.

[PsychTau2]

Hmmm...Partially Structured Recruitment. Really, the campus is open to designing it however they want to. You can use quota and bid matching, or not. You can have invites back to rounds, or not. You can have an invite only pref night (whether or not the rest of the rounds are invites) or not.

The scheduling is more like COB...each group has a party time that isn't overlapped by any other group. PNMs aren't required to attend all of the parties, only the ones they are interested in attending (after that first required event...which is a good idea).

The campus that I advise tried PSR this Spring in place of formal. The girls didn't move too far away from formal rules, but we're taking it in baby steps. I will say this...if you choose not to do bid matching/pref cards/quota, make sure that all of the chapters are far enough away from total to accomodate the number of PNMs. While some chapters will have to be more selective in their bid lists because they are closer to total than others, you don't want to have 50 PNMs coming through recruitment with only 15 slots divided by all the chapters.

It is interesting to say the least. This campus historically has had 18-25 PNMs complete the formal recruitment process (3 chapters on campus) out of a starting number of 40-50. This year we had about 55 PNMs start and 32 finish, with only 5 lost due to GPA. We're not sure if it was the recruitment style change (PNMs probably didn't know the difference), or the group of women coming through were more interested in sorority life, or better recruiting/marketing in the fall semester. In any case, it was a wonderful surprise!!

PsychTau

[roqueemae]

We tried it a couple of weeks ago. Really it ended up being a hybrid of Minimally and Partially Structured Recruitment. I don't know if your area advisor is Corre Stegall but this is how she told me to structure it through an email.

"By minimally structured, I mean that you'd have a sign-up...have open houses by all groups on Thursday and Friday...the women who sign up would simply visit the lodges at some time between the hours of 8-10 (or whatever they choose). Each participant would have to visit all the lodges at some point by Friday evening. After that, the groups would invite for a very
informal, low budget preference party at some time on Saturday and offer bids shortly thereafter. No transportation...no recruitment advisors...nothing. Very minimally structured, and you can work out the details to suit the campus.
This should allow each group to add more members; you'd set a quota based on the number of participants...any group below total can pledge up to total either then or whenever, of course. "

Our girls had real issues with not having rules. They would call and ask "Can we put candles around the house? How about the length of a slide show? Are we allowed to wear matching outfits?" Drove me crazy for a few weeks. We set a budget of $35 dollars and I told them that they could use that for whatever they wanted and that the house should remain as-is. It went pretty well. We had 46 girls sign up (which is about 1/3 of what we get in a formal recruitment).

We made a card that needed to be marked by each house as she visited so we would have proof of that visit. We did end up doing bid matching though because we could not get the chapters to agree to not having it.

I have no idea if I said enough or explained what we did well. I would be happy to answer any questions though if you would like.

[roqueemae]

Originally posted by ariesrising
I'm going to add some of these terms to my Greek site....you think you know them all and wham, new things to learn lol.

I love your site. Some greeks came in my office looking for some info on GLO history and I gave them your web address and a copy of Baird's to go through!

[AchtungBaby80]

Wow...I had no idea there were all these categories of rush. This is totally foreign to me! Thanks for the lesson.

[roqueemae]

Originally posted by AchtungBaby80
Wow...I had no idea there were all these categories of rush. This is totally foreign to me! Thanks for the lesson.

They are mostly new. Don't feel bad!

[LightBulb]

At my school, we use FSR, and we are not allowed to give PNMs anything other than food and drinks (but they cannot leave the parties with them) and info booklets (new this year - each NPC sorority gave these out on the same night). Is this the same way with PSR and MSR, or could we give out party favors if we were structured that way?

[roqueemae]

Originally posted by LightBulb
At my school, we use FSR, and we are not allowed to give PNMs anything other than food and drinks (but they cannot leave the parties with them) and info booklets (new this year - each NPC sorority gave these out on the same night). Is this the same way with PSR and MSR, or could we give out party favors if we were structured that way?

Your rules can be anything you want them to be for whatever type of recruitment you have. The guidelines are there for ideas of how to personalize your recruitment. For instance, Formal Recruitment at UL-Lafayette allows no items to be taken from the house and no food to be served. McNeese State gives out party favors and a larger amount of food every night. Both are allowed to do this because those are the rules set by their Panhellenic.

[PsychTau2]

Originally posted by LightBulb
At my school, we use FSR, and we are not allowed to give PNMs anything other than food and drinks (but they cannot leave the parties with them) and info booklets (new this year - each NPC sorority gave these out on the same night). Is this the same way with PSR and MSR, or could we give out party favors if we were structured that way?

It's my understanding that you can't give out "party favors" under the No Frills Guideline by NPC. Informational booklets containing dues and general info about the chapter activities wouldn't be considered "party favors" (although the Panhellenic at your school would probably set guidelines for the booklets).

I could be interpreting this incorrectly, though. In any case, I think party favors just aren't necessary in recruitment anymore...but that's just my opinion.

PsychTau

[LightBulb]

Thanks Mae and Psych!