Advisor's Recruitment Story

[KD4Me]

KDMafia - Just wanted to say that I'm looking forward to hearing about your chapter's recruitment. I think that seeing recruitment through an advisor's eyes will be very insightful. I'm an alumna, but my chapter struggles with a few issues similar to ones that you have described.

I am not very familiar with spring recruitment, and wanted to ask whether you elect new officers at the end of the fall semester. If so, is it difficult for a new recruitment chair to be ready for recruitment so soon?

[KDMafia]

there are informational settings and I believe one small greek picnic at the beginning but most take place within the month or so leading up to recruitment. We do have philantrophy events but most organizations, sororities and fraternities, favor events that involve teams, which means often times non-greeks can be involved without feeling like they are missing out by not being affiliated. In comparison, spring semester involves usually some type of greek olympics as well as a spring week which involves a dance competition between the sororities and fraternities. Also, there are less organized events for sophmores so many rush after they realize that a lot of the community they felt freshman year is gone now that they live in less cohesive dorms. The trick is getting them to want that connection freshman year.

i think we need to get in the freshmans view as soon as possible. We do help with move in day but with how excited everyone is you forget who helped you lug your boxes up. I would like us to be involved in the freshman orientation periods over the summer as opposed to just being presented as another option but as a completely different experience than joining some other clubs. Because greek life IS different than joining a lot of other organizations. I also think we need to capitalize on having fan pages and such on facebook. I also think there needs to be more of a presence on campus of having things like sisterhood events, whether it be study times at the library or caroling to the dorms in the winter. Something that is different but helps people feel the presence of greek life.

[KDMafia]

KD4me.

New officers are elected but the new recruitment chair does the following spring recruitment.

[Gusteau]

Originally Posted by KDMafia

KD4me.

New officers are elected but the new recruitment chair does the following spring recruitment.

Just to clarify - because I've always wondered how chapters with deferred recruitment did it - the new recruitment chair is elected at the end of the fall semester but begins her term right after spring recruitment, and her term will go until after the next spring recruitment which she will plan. Correct?

[KDMafia]

That's correct. This way they get to learn hands on during spring and will be prepared for next year.

[ScarletBlueGold]

If you ask me, it sounds like the solution to all of your problems is to get members of your sorority to get more involved.

Not only does it help defeat negative stereotypes, but it is an incredible boon for recruitment. Especially getting your members to join organizations like the orientation team or having them become residential advisors.

Getting involved in Student Government also helps a lot with spreading a positive message about Greeks. It doesn't hurt to have the most popular and influential students on campus all having experience working with the best examples of the Greek community.

Also, if members of your organization need jobs, highly encourage them to take some of the jobs on-campus. Remember that your campus tour-guide will meet PNMs even before the orientation team does. People working in the Student Union as attendants will meet literally hundreds of students in a single work shift, and having a few members working in the Activity Center gives you a good chance to scope out some potential good athletes and fitness minded individuals.

Your best PR materials are your own members. Never forget this and you will go very far very fast.

[KDMafia]

I absolutely agree that our members are the best PR. We do have girls involved all over campus and it has definitely helped our presence and I would say that most girls that go through recruitment know who we are and know at least one or two members relatively personally.

I really do think it's an easily fixable situation. The sorority just needs to get out of their comfort zone a little bit more. Valpo has a habit of following in ruts. I think most sororities still do the same skits that they did when I was there over five years ago and often times things won't change until someone else does them and the other sororities see they work.

I'm going to encourage a lot more freshman contact next year and perhaps using our National Women's Friendship day and the Confidence Coalition to really reach out and have events that show off sorority life and friendship better than just knowing the girls.
In a desire not to be seen as cliquey I think a lot of sorority members assure freshman that you don't have to be in a sorority to keep your friends which is very true in some ways but may give the impression that sororities don't do that much or are not that big of an experience. It's like the whole saying the best about of your sorority is that you're "diverse" sounds good on paper but does not really always convey what you want it too.

[KDMafia]

Hey guys, Sorry I'm late with an update but between recruitment, work and celebrating my Christmas it's been a pretty crazy time for me.

Just to back track a bit. Sororities and PNMS all returned to campus by Sunday night/Monday morning. My girls had skit practice and other workshops on Sunday night and it was revealed that the count for recruitment was up from the low sixties to the low nineties. Everyone was excited as this was at least close to the same amount as the past 3 years. I would love to see us get up to at least 100-120, Although with the size of our chapter rooms they would probably have to add more rounds. The girls were really excited although there still is a larger amount of juniors and sophmores going through and we don't get to have a separate upper classmen quota. It's not hard to get a bid as an upperclassmen at my school but it makes it harder just because with our total being so low and most people not having as many spots in the fall it's harder to build up a class if you don't bid enough freshman.

Monday consisted of workshops where we explained the process behind recruitment and why it's important to really get to know the girls and not make too much small talk because then you'll end the round and realize you have no idea if the PNM is really interested. The girls asked a lot of good questions. One person was worried that she was a bad judge of character in that she may really like a girl and it could color her from realizing that the girl had absolutely no interest in us. Another girl was concerned about the grey area between first meeting a PNM and segueing into asking them more focused questions.

My sorority is lucky in that we still have to release lower amounts of girls with the release figures due to previous years of bad returns. However, they have been consistently making quota and even having quota additions that one day that will change and I was encouraging them to not wait for the day where they come in and realize they have to release more girls than they thought and they weren't prepared.

There is a tendency at my campus to treat recruitment like the white elephant in the room in that everyone knows why everyone else is there but there's a lot of reluctance to ask the more in-depth questions which can result in some broken hearts on both sides. We also talked about what to do if a girls starts talking about any forbidden topics by figuring out if she's trying to ask an appropriate question but doesn't really know how to word it?

Tuesday was Open House which consists of seven rounds. Everything seemed to go smoothly and the girls were all really excited. A Few girls dropped before hand but even more joined so we have a current total of 94 going through recruitment. There was one mix up where a pnm dropped and we weren't told so the sister who was supposed to meet her got someone else's pnm and there was a bit of confusion but it worked out well, especially since this is an early round and not like pref or anything. Also one of our girls was waiting to pick up her PNM as she walked in but was waiting behind girls who were going to rotate in later. After she realized the line wasn't moving she kinda busted through to grab her PNM but as this sister is pretty tall I'm sure it probably startled the girl a bit to see someone much taller than her basically leaping towards her.

Wednesday and Today are Philantrophy rounds. We're really empathizing our new connection with the confidence coaliton by building picture cubes with empowering messages for our girl scout troop. We also have a short video which I love, that involves a lot of great quotes and inspirational messages based on women achieving whatever they want. After Tonight is skit which is when the PNMS can only go back to four houses.

[KDMafia]

Alright girls, today is bid day so I am anxiously awaiting my call from our membership chair to find out how we did.

I last talked about philantrophy night and that after which we gave our first round of cuts. The new members rank and then come back on Friday to see who invited her back. We had to cut the largest amount of girls ever due to our continually impressive return rates. The girls were happy and glad that we had talked about making sure you make a good connection in the first two nights and not just wait until skit to really get into the issues. We had an 82% return rate for skit and our skit just rocked. People were really into it and the sisterhood really shined. We do a music awards skit with around seven songs that highlight different areas of our sisterhood. The sisters all were black pants and sparkly shirts. It looks great in the lower light of the chapter room. My favorite part of skit was when our emcee was introducing Taylor Swift as the most excited to be in a sorority and another sister came and did the whole Kanye West, I'm gonna let you finish thing, and a bunch of girls ran out and did a dance to Single Ladies (All my KD Ladies). The girls all really liked it. We also did songs from Taylor Swift, TI, Nelly, Pink, JayShawn(?) and MC Hammer.

After skit we then invited girls to pref. We had a 75% return rate and what was also awesome was that there were not many "disappointments" I say this in quotes not because people were usually upset with our returns but that there were less girls who had started to get attached to a PNM and then have her not return. I attribute this both to our improved conversation skills and the girls ability to detach personal feelings from whether or not a girl is truly interested in the sorority.

Our pref night was last night and again it was really powerful but in a different way than skit. 4 members gave smaller speeches about what Kappa Delta means to them and they had kept their speech a secret from the rest of the chapter so it was also the first time most of us had heard it. They were very touching and emotional and many PNMs were in tears. ( I always find it funny how making so many girls cry is a good thing in recruitment ).

We get our bid list today at 1:30 and meet with the new members at 2:45. At our campus the PNMS meet in the union and stand on their bids. Then usually our rho Gamma and our recruitment chair go to the union and led them to a place on campus. My sorority usually stands on the nearby stairs of another building with signs and bags screaming as the girls come towards us. We then go to our chapter room for bid day activities and others run and decorate the girls dorms while they are in the Chapter Room.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by KDMafia

After skit we then invited girls to pref. We had a 75% return rate and what was also awesome was that there were not many "disappointments" I say this in quotes not because people were usually upset with our returns but that there were less girls who had started to get attached to a PNM and then have her not return. I attribute this both to our improved conversation skills and the girls ability to detach personal feelings from whether or not a girl is truly interested in the sorority.

Our pref night was last night and again it was really powerful but in a different way than skit. 4 members gave smaller speeches about what Kappa Delta means to them and they had kept their speech a secret from the rest of the chapter so it was also the first time most of us had heard it. They were very touching and emotional and many PNMs were in tears. ( I always find it funny how making so many girls cry is a good thing in recruitment ).

This is GREAT and these two things tie together. Obviously you develop some feelings but if you get too hung up about the fact that your favorite PNM didn't come back it's hard to give your all at pref to the women who ARE there for you. Not to mention that just as sometimes you love a girl but don't feel she's right for your group...so too the rushees have the same feelings. Just because they don't feel part of you doesn't mean they dislike you.

[Just interested]

Hope all went well!! Report soon.

[KDMafia]

I just wanted to let you all know that we pledged 14 amazing new girls. I have not gotten any info on what quota was specifically but looking at our range it looks like we either made quota or got quota additions.

I am so proud of my girls and all the work they put into recruitment this year!

[tld221]

Yay! that's exciting news to hear, from one advisor to another. congrats!

[CougarGrad]

Yay! Congrats to the ladies in the chapter for their hard work, and welcome to the new babies!