Beating "Small Chapter" syndrome - Page 2

ivysis · #16 07-24-2002, 12:45 AM

no, there is no "hotboxing". we are just that good!

at CU we get between 700-800 girls the first few datebooks usually 600 left by bidday). That means for small houses you usually have to double rush for the first party (possibly second datebook too, depending on size). Its harder to get to know 2 girls at the same time, but we begin learning *how* to recruit early. That way by actually parties everyone is comfortable and abble to handle 2 girls and how to move conversations along so more sisters get to talk to each PNM. Its a lot of work but its worth it.

DRau · #17 07-24-2002, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by CarolinaDG
I'm not absolutely certain that this happens, because I'm not in one of the sororities that does this, but rumor has it that some sororities just build into their dues the rush fines... For example, they invite girls out to eat dinner with them before rush, get caught, and hand over the $500 or whatever it is for a fine. Like I said, I don't know for sure that this happens, but it wouldn't surprise me... one of my friends already had her sign made up by one of the girls in a larger sorority... back in JUNE!

Believe me, IT DOES! It has been a big problem on my campus for awhile....

As for advice to build a smaller chapter? COB COB COB!!!! Get those girls in the off season when larger houses aren't recruiting.

ivysis · #18 07-24-2002, 01:00 AM

I agree with my fellow PHI-ster. COB does so so much. On average over the past 3 years we have gotten around 15-20 girls each year from just spring COB. (2 years we had classes of 20ish, 1 year we had 6, but we had a huge fall class so we couldnt take more).

DRau · #19 07-24-2002, 01:14 AM

Ivysis, thats the same way we built our numbers.

My Soph. year we were lingering somewhere in the middle in terms of size (low being 60-70, high 100), but then we Spring COB'ed and got 15 girls.... and it took off from there. We COB every quarter that we can. We've been one of the the biggest houses since we started this system. In addition, I've seen other chapters on my campus whom were smaller have similar success by doing this.

There will always be women interested in recruitment, and you can use this to your advantage!

bets · #20 07-24-2002, 01:43 AM

Ok. To all you COBer's out there, what kind of events or tactics do you use to COB? We've been doing that for 5 years, and we never get more than 5 girls a semester, sometimes just one or two. We have many girls attend, and many are interested, but they just never give in.

Our campus is a suitcase campus, and many girls that come here REALLY don't care about the sororities, except for the 200-250 that go through Recruitment plus maybe (what we know of at least--our barrel of fish if you will) 15-30 more girls that express the slightest interest but don't go through formal recruitment. Out of those 200-250, we place about 150 girls, b/c financial requirements and time requirements turn alot of girls off (rural, suitcase school, I reiterate).

So there is some knack that we are not getting. This year, we are not going to cob all semester, like usual. We are going to COB the first few weeks after Bid Day, and then just focus on our pledges, so they don't feel like their not good enough. Then if someone during the rest of the semester approaches us, then, fine, but we aren't going to go on the prowl all semester. This is what some of our National officers suggested, so we figured, why not?

ivysis · #21 07-24-2002, 01:50 AM

bets, i PMed you. hope that helps. youre in AR....im in SE Oklahoma. How far is where you are from ft. smith? (i am in need of intelligent people....i got accused of being a "book reader" today!)

bets · #22 07-24-2002, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ivysis
bets, i PMed you. hope that helps. youre in AR....im in SE Oklahoma. How far is where you are from ft. smith? (i am in need of intelligent people....i got accused of being a "book reader" today!)

Ft. Smith is on the other side of Arkansas (NWest) by Fayetteville (Pig-phhhooey territory). Jonesboro is in NEast AR. We are about 45 min away from Memphis, and maybe 4 hours or so away from Ft. Smith? It's hard to guage if you don't go there often b/c there is no direct interstate that goes from here to there. You have drive down almost to Little Rock and then back up.

Intelligent people and book readers are good! Is that a bad thing in your area?

shadokat · #23 07-25-2002, 10:39 AM

bets--

do you all have any rules about "replacing" yourself? My chapter is at a school where the # of rushees (70s) is very low in comparison to the # of sororities (8). So, COB is SOOO important. But, we always had a rule that before you graduated, you had to "replace" yourself. It may sound sort of odd, but it really does work.

It seems that you are getting girls to the house, which is half the battle, but closing the deal isn't happening. What sort of activities do you do at COB? Any idea why the girls who come don't end up pledging?

As someone else said, there are always girls who want to join a sorority, they just don't know it

You have to sell it to them!

bets · #24 07-25-2002, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shadokat
[B]bets--

do you all have any rules about "replacing" yourself?

Yes, we always talk about that, but it's not a RULE, persay.

Quote:

It seems that you are getting girls to the house, which is half the battle, but closing the deal isn't happening. What sort of activities do you do at COB? Any idea why the girls who come don't end up pledging?

Our events consist of every member and pledge being responsible for bringing 1+ PNM to an "open sisterhood." So they come "just to hang out," not to get "rushed", because thats basically why these girls aren't in sororities, b/c they don't like rush. We go to play lazer tag, do philanthropic events, rollerskating, any activity where you get to be dorky and casual. Through
the evening, you get to know the girls, and in casual conversation (sometimes a formal welcome) we let them know that if someone is interested, we can start to get to know them with the prospect of them pledging. Then we put those girls on a make believe "list", and we make sure they are invited to EVERYTHING they can come to for the next few weeks, like intramurals, games, 1 social, sisterhoods, anything so that they feel like they are a member. We even invite the fence-sitters to come to a pledge meeting to see "what's up". Somewhere along the way, after the chapter has expressed interest, we (myself and the NM educator) take girls aside and offer them a bid, giving them a deadline to respond if it is needed. The other girls that never said that they were really interested in pledging, we still invite to stuff, but mostly we just invite them to other sisterhoods, because we can keep a better eye on them at those.

It is a combination of factors as to why the girls don't rush. Part of the reason is b/c of finances, many of the girls that come to our school are working HARD to pay for college, and a sorority would break their back. Part of it is time restraint, b/c our greek system has a MAJOR problem with overprogramming. The whole "they don't know it yet thing" is really true, and so we try really hard to convince them, but it is in the end our fault b/c something we do) or don't do, doesn't sign the deal.

But we're not giving up! While we try to get new girls, we are becoming SUPER tight as a chapter, because we are always spending time with each other as a whole chapter.

Shoot, I don't know the answer, b/c if I did, there would be no question!

FuzzieAlum · #25 07-25-2002, 05:33 PM

I'm feeling negative today, so a few cautionary words...

What do you do on a campus where even the biggest chapters have COB? What do you do to get them to look at you, the smaller chapter, then?

What about rush burnout? COB is a great tool, but if it really is continuous, you spend more time rushing than enjoying sorority life. (I'm talking four months of several events a month. Yes, I've seen it.)

And don't rely on COB as your only method of getting new members. You end up with a chapter where no one has been through formal as a rushee, making it harder to put on a good rush. Or worse, you end up with a chapter that thinks formal is stupid and does it because they have to - wasting their time and money, because the rushees can tell when the sorority doesn't want to be there.

Plus, a lot of the girls who join other chapters will form their opinion of you during formal rush. You want them to say, "Mu Mu is a really nice sorority," not "Oh my gosh, they had the worst rush parties" or "They're not a real sorority; they don't even participate in formal rush." Rushees are more willing to take a chance on the smaller chapter if they know the other chapters respect them than if they're known as the chapter you join if you can't get in elsewhere.

I guess what I'm saying is that COB is great if used properly, but you cannot neglect formal rush, either.

aephi alum · #26 07-25-2002, 06:01 PM

FuzzieAlum, good point. The AEPhi chapter at Duke has all but disappeared, in part (I believe) because they do not participate in formal rush.

My chapter does a lot of COB rush, but our largest new member classes have always come from formal rush. We participated in fall formal rush, then held a COB rush week some time in the middle of fall semester and another early in the spring. (This will be changing as my campus is changing to deferred rush.) So we weren't constantly having rush events - but we were constantly rushing, in that we made ourselves very visible on campus and made an effort to get to know unaffiliated women. If someone approached one of us with an interest in joining, and a rush week wasn't coming up within the next month or so, we would strike while the iron was hot - we'd try to arrange for her to meet as many of the sisters as possible (take her to dinner, etc) and then vote on whether to bid her. We got some great sisters that way.

Peaches-n-Cream · #27 07-25-2002, 06:23 PM

Our formal rush was in the spring semester so we had informal in the fall and COB after formal. We focused on recruiting classmates and dorm or floor mates. One fall semester seven of our nine pledges came from one dorm. Also, every sister was required to join a club or activity outside of the sorority so we could meet new people.
If finances prevent people from pledging, you might want to consider fundraising as a way of covering fees and expenses.

damasa · #28 07-25-2002, 08:23 PM

There are many advantages to being a smaller chapter. I don't think that being a smaller chapter is always a bad thing. You may have half the number of members as the next organization, but there are pros and cons to everything. I have friends that go to other schools and belong to organizations that have 100, 150 and sometimes more members. One of my friends tells me that he can never remember all the guys, he forgets names and stuff, and I could never imagine trying to get to know that many guys on a personal level. I thought it was difficult when our chapter was at almost 70 members. We have now declined drastically due to this and that politics, but mostly because we began a process of weeding out those that weren't helping the org, we'll call them the "wasssssssup brothers." Needless to say, after all the petty bickering and shat that still goes on, I think we are closer than ever before, and with the uncertain future ahead of us, I think we are ready to make probably one of the biggest decisions in the history of our org; going national.

DWAlphaGam · #29 07-25-2002, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by damasa
There are many advantages to being a smaller chapter. I don't think that being a smaller chapter is always a bad thing. You may have half the number of members as the next organization, but there are pros and cons to everything. I have friends that go to other schools and belong to organizations that have 100, 150 and sometimes more members. One of my friends tells me that he can never remember all the guys, he forgets names and stuff, and I could never imagine trying to get to know that many guys on a personal level.

This is a really good point. I know quite a few people who can only recognize other people in their organization when it's letter day. I can't imagine feeling the same bonds of sisterhood with 100 women as I did with 30. I loved my small chapter and I wouldn't trade my experiences for anything, but it does get frustrating during recruitment when you're competing for girls you really like and they decide that they want to be in a larger chapter instead.

Pi Kapp 142 · #30 07-25-2002, 09:29 PM

There are always pros and cons to being bigger. My chapter has been hovering around 40 members for the past two years. Let us call that size medium, not to big not too small. It is nice to know lot of those guys really closely, but I still do not know all of them realy well. That does not mean that I would not take a bullet for anyone of them or if they would do the same for me. I just want to have as many quality men to have the positive experience I am having as a Pi Kappa Phi. When you limit your group to a smallish number then you are not giving others an oppurtunity to have the same great experiences you have.