Little Chapter, Big Recruitment: Spring 2009

[AlwaysSAI]

I'm hooked on this thread & pulling for your chapter!

I know how it feels to see your chapter make a real turn around!

Good Luck!

[silverpearls]

Originally Posted by AEcutiePhi

How many participating sororities are on your campus?

I don't want to disclose exactly how many, but I'll say there are fewer than 8 PHCs

[silverpearls]

The chapter is busily preparing for Recruitment to begin! Many sisters are back on campus and we have been working on decorations and logistics for parties. Our theme parties are very "decoration heavy" and we're trying to avoid situation that have happened in the past - namely, that we go to decorate the room on the day of the party and we don't have enough "stuff" to fill the room! Since we're a smaller chapter to begin with, having PNMs walk into a sparse-looking room is obviously less than ideal. This year we're trying to get as much made as possible as far in advance as we can. In addition, we've been working on gifts for New Members. We've found it's much cheaper to buy things from craft stores and decorate them ourselves rather than buying gifts online. Plus, it's more fun! Our Bid Day Shirts have arrived and our Bid Day packs are nearly complete, so we're pretty much ready for New Members. Now it's just a matter of recruiting them!

We've had some major t-shirt drama over the last few weeks. We decided to order all our recruitment t-shirts and our bid day shirts from a vendor who provided us with some very cute sisterhood shirts earlier in the semester. Their artwork is fastastic, but we've since learned that that's their only real redeeming quality. The customer service is horrendous! We were given great quotes for the work at the beginning of the process, but the representative working with our chapter has been rude, unresponsive and has changed our prices dramatically. When the shirts were all designed and we were ready to pay, the prices somehow changed and ended up being around $300 higher than we were originally quoted, plus miscellaneous hidden fees. Of course by then it was too late to start over with another company. Needless to say, we will NOT be working with them again! At least the Bid Day shirts have arrived and look fantastic. Most of our recruitment shirts look good too, but one party's shirts arrived and were completely wrong. The company used the wrong proof! We're very nervous hoping the correct shirts will arrive on time.


Skits aren't allowed, so we haven't been working on anything like that. On Wednesday we'll be starting Polish Week, where we finish up decorations, do sisterhood events, practice bumping and rehearse songs - one of my favorite parts of Recruitment! I remember as a PNM and New Member being very impressed that Venus had so many great songs. I'm a terrible singer, but most of the door chants just involve a lot of yelling and enthusiasm, which I can dish out all day! Well, provided my voice doesn't give out...

A lot of sisters have never been through Recruitment on the "other side", so we have a lot of work to do. Our pledge classes from last spring and this fall constitute about 60% of our chapter! Luckily what they lack in experience they more than make up for in optimism and enthusiasm.

My only big worry is that we recently found out that at this point there are only about 100 PNMs signed up for Recruitment. Last year there were over 200 at first round. There's still about a week and a half left until registration ends, so we're hoping for a late surge. I think the addition of JuicyCampus has really hurt the PHC groups on campus - most of what goes on there is bashing of the PHC sorority members and I think it's making girls extremely hesitant to go through recruitment because they don't want to be labelled or be a part of a system they perceive as catty and cruel. It's truly unfortunate. It's been especially hard on our chapter, but I have faith that we can overcome the "tent talk" with how great we'll do in the rush room.

I'm getting very pumped to get started! After a year of preparation, I wanna get this show on the road!!

[LucyKKG]

It's always interesting to read how different schools do recruitment. I'm excited for you guys!

[silverpearls]

I'm sorry I haven't had much to post! We're deep into Polish Week and I've been busy literally all day with my sisters working on bumping, songs, conversation, etiquette, etc. The decorations are coming along really well, but everybody is tired and Recruitment has even started yet! We have someone from Nationals here helping us and she's been super helpful, especially since many of our members have no idea what to do in the Recruitment Room.

It's amazing how close I've felt to my sisters this week. We've all been working together for a common goal and everyone has had such an enthusiastic, positive attitude. Interspersed amongst the nitty-gritty details of Recruitment training we've been doing a lot of sisterhood activities and it's been a lot of fun. I feel really good about how well we're all going to do because we're such a cohesive unit.

However despite all the warm-fuzzies from Polish, we recently got some pretty bad news for our chapter. I don't want to post exactly what's going on, but it's been pretty hard on me and the few other sisters that know. If you want more details, I'll post more when things are more set in stone. Sorry to be so vague!

I'll keep you all posted. A lot more will be happening soon, so hang in there for another week until Recruitment begins

[true_blue]

Can't wait to read more! Good luck!

[aggieadpi_01]

I am rooting for you. Good luck!

[agzg]

Ahhh... Polish as in go polish the silver. Not Polish as in polish dill pickles.

I was very confused...

Good luck!

[MSKKG]

She probably means they polish up their recruitment skills, skits, etc., making sure everything is perfect before recruitment starts.

[agzg]

Right I get that now. I was reading Polish as in the Polish nationality. P(oh)lish versus P(ah)lish.

[sailboatgirl]

I am loving this story. I hope this recruitment is a big success for your chapter!

[LucyKKG]

Aww good luck!

[Emilyzd]

Good Luck!!!!!!!

[rhochi2002]

I remember how much work we put into improving our chapter. I think it is really unfortunate that sororities get branded the ugly chapter.... sure you may not be the most beautiful girls but there are very few people that are ugly. (and the older I have gotten the ugly has become more the personality and less the appearance).
----sorry tangent
anywho good luck... I am really pulling for you girls.

[silverpearls]

First of all, thank you all so much for your support! I've gotten so many PMs and posts, and I really appreciate all your kind thoughts.

RECRUITMENT STARTS THIS WEEK! I'm so, so excited. Almost all of our decorations are done and the sisters are really pumped. It seemed impossible that we would pull everything together and get all the last minute details done, but it seems like a reality now. We got our first round shirts today and it's such a great feeling that's it's really happening! Not to mention the shirts are adorable

I'll post more soon!