What’s the backup plan for recruitment in August?

[SWTXBelle]

Texas State is going to all virtual. New Members will receive their bids via Zoom in their recruitment groups. Seems to me that could be a little awkward - I guess everyone will know where everyone else is going? Before, you really only had time to find out where your immediate friends got their bids before being swept up and going to the group.After they get their bids, each chapter will plan the second part of bid day. That's the plan now, at any rate.

[zTaalum]

Originally Posted by SweetHomeStL

Bama also announced today that bids were going to be delivered via email. It seems the pref rounds are in person still, but they had to cut out the run home and lawn Bid Day parties

Not necessarily the case. My friend's daughter will be a PNM and she was was told by an active that yes the bids are emailed but it will include a time for them to report to house to celebrate, pick up bid day bags and meet temp big sisters. Also that the overnight retreat can/will take place depending on the individual organizations decision .

[SweetHomeStL]

Originally Posted by zTaalum

Not necessarily the case. My friend's daughter will be a PNM and she was was told by an active that yes the bids are emailed but it will include a time for them to report to house to celebrate, pick up bid day bags and meet temp big sisters. Also that the overnight retreat can/will take place depending on the individual organizations decision .

Yep - I saw that too. They are definitely getting their bids via email and each PNM will have an assigned report time at the house to show up for photos & to meet their Bid Day Buddies. Point is though they still have to open an email in their own room and no one to celebrate (or cry) with at 1pm when they drop into their inbox.

Another SEC I am advising a girl at this year has stated that if they have to have “remote” bid delivery that it will be very old school with their recruitment counselors hand delivering the bids to their doors. That one makes me a little nostalgic.....

[carnation]

I remember a friend at Baylor who said that their bids were slipped under the door. Some kids on their floor thought it was funny to slip fake bids under the door...

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by carnation

I remember a friend at Baylor who said that their bids were slipped under the door. Some kids on their floor thought it was funny to slip fake bids under the door...

I just saw this! How terribly cruel!

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by carnation

I am thinking of my sorority's gorgeous pref ceremony and trying to figure out how it could even be approximated online. Well, it can't be.

IKR?? I think I'm going to re-read my Pref Party post, and sulk a little on behalf of the 2020 PNMs!

Originally Posted by ForrestGrump

Mizzou's Panhellenic has announced that it will do a mixed recruitment -- Orientation, Open House and the Philanthropy round will be virtual, while the Sisterhood round and Preference will be in-person. Not sure about Bid Day, but I can't imagine they'll have all those hundreds of women (both new members and a large percentage of the actives) congregate together out on Stankowski Field.

It is so hard for me to get my head around this, yet I know that the desire to become a Greek will sustain all those interested in learning the (new) process!

Originally Posted by TXDG

I hope we get some good recruitment stories this year! I’m so curious about how all this will work.

Thanks to all of the Panhellenic councils working hard (both collegians and Greek Life advisors!) These are big decisions and I know they are keeping everyone’s safety at heart.

THIS!

[aephi alum]

Originally Posted by carnation

I remember a friend at Baylor who said that their bids were slipped under the door. Some kids on their floor thought it was funny to slip fake bids under the door...

How cruel! So PNMs were showing up at bid day parties only to be told that nope, they weren't offered a bid after all? And I'm sure there was more than one poor girl who got a fake bid only to find out she hadn't actually matched anywhere.

Originally Posted by SweetHomeStL

Bama also announced today that bids were going to be delivered via email.

What a shame. I hope the chapters will be able to print up and issue physical bid cards at some point in the future. That's one of those things you like to keep well beyond your college years ... mine is in a scrapbook somewhere. It's also so impersonal. But sacrifices have to be made to keep everyone safe and healthy.

[NYCMS]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

I hope the chapters will be able to print up and issue physical bid cards at some point in the future. That's one of those things you like to keep well beyond your college years ... mine is in a scrapbook somewhere. It's also so impersonal. But sacrifices have to be made to keep everyone safe and healthy.

I agree. Bid cards at my school (Arizona) were not issued by the chapter, but by Panhellenic so they weren't the pretty ones with the sorority crest that I saw friends get elsewhere...that said, it was still very special and is secured in a Gamma Phi scrapbook along with a dried carnation and a card from my first Big Sister on Bid Day. I think my pledge ribbons are in there too.

[carnation]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

How cruel! So PNMs were showing up at bid day parties only to be told that nope, they weren't offered a bid after all? And I'm sure there was more than one poor girl who got a fake bid only to find out she hadn't actually matched anywhere. .

I got the impression that they slid fake bids from the less desired sororities under the doors of girls who were only wanting the top 3 or so.

[TXDG]

I hope we get some good recruitment stories this year! I’m so curious about how all this will work.

Thanks to all of the Panhellenic councils working hard (both collegians and Greek Life advisors!) These are big decisions and I know they are keeping everyone’s safety at heart.

[DZ_Turtle86]

Thinking waaaay ahead to 2021, and not knowing what the campus environment will be in a year, you could have a situation of sophomores who have never seen in-person recruitment, juniors who only know it from the PNM side, and seniors (the ones who have stuck around) who experienced it once but two year earlier. That's a lot of inexperience!

I'm afraid of junior and senior retention this year.

[ForrestGrump]

Originally Posted by DZ_Turtle86

Thinking waaaay ahead to 2021, and not knowing what the campus environment will be in a year, you could have a situation of sophomores who have never seen in-person recruitment, juniors who only know it from the PNM side, and seniors (the ones who have stuck around) who experienced it once but two year earlier. That's a lot of inexperience!

I'm afraid of junior and senior retention this year.

I suspect that most, if not all, NPC organizations are factoring in both decreases in actives returning to campus as well as decreases in new members, when planning budgets for the next fiscal year. Better to make general reductions now, and then recalculate after recruitment.

[NYCMS]

Originally Posted by ForrestGrump

I suspect that most, if not all, NPC organizations are factoring in both decreases in actives returning to campus as well as decreases in new members, when planning budgets for the next fiscal year. Better to make general reductions now, and then recalculate after recruitment.

Agree. And also factor in that on many campuses - such as Ole Miss - sororities have either just done massive house renovations (DDD and DG there) or are in the process of building new houses (KD and Kappa there). Not sure numbers will drop much at a Greek-intensive school like Ole Miss, but nevertheless chapters there and likely elsewhere have shelled out a lot of money recently.

And I do know that at many schools, Ole Miss included, the numbers of students have dropped in recent years, something that will increase due to parents' financial changes. Many people who lost jobs were at the mid to upper end of incomes as well and are hard hit too, particularly a problem for state schools that rely on out-of-state students for higher tuition. This impacts Mississippi schools heavily and I think Alabama as well since both states poorly fund their schools.

[BlueBayou]

Originally Posted by DZ_Turtle86

I'm afraid of junior and senior retention this year.

I know my daughter's chapter, at a non-traditional greek school with 4 sororities and no houses, has slashed their dues. I think she said they were going to be less than $200 for the fall. Like $40 a month. Hopefully that will help with retention.

[Herbie]

The University of Nebraska at Lincoln should be announcing soon their primary recruitment will be fully virtual. Dates have been moved back from the week before classes start to Saturday, August 29, Sunday, August 30, with Pref on Sunday, September 6, and a virtual Bid reveal on Monday, September 7. No word on what Bid Day activities will be like. PNMs will submit 90 second videos and then PNMs will view videos of each chapter in place of Open House round.