Bid Day

[Little E]

I go to a school w/out formal rush. We have a very quiet bid night. My house has shirts but we're the only one. We vote, and go in twos to extend bids to PNM. They have two days to decide, yea or nay. Then we have a ribboning ceremony and that is it. What do other small greek communities do? or places w/out formal? We'd like some ideas.

Tau Love and Mine!
Lil E

[mmcline]

We have a small greek community.. The PNMs pick up their bids around 5:30 on a friday, once all classes are done with.. Then they have to sit in the student center with their rho-chi group until everyone is there. They then open their bid, there rho-chi tells them where each sorority is on campus.. Usually, one is at their house, one is on the soccer field or track and one is on the academic quad.. So the PNMS go to where we are, and everyone sings and receives presents.. Then maybe an hour later all sororities come back to the student center and the rho-chi perform a skit and reveal who they are.. We are not allowed to throw bid day parties on campus or off ( last year 2 of us went to gatech(another college) for bid day, my sorority was outside and the one drove by on a scavenger hunt, so we caught each other, and we both ended up in trouble), anyways since we can't throw parties everyone does something different. We talk the new member down to Olympic Park in the middle of downtown atlanta and have fun. There are fountains to run through and a playground and so we all just have fun and then the new members spend that night with the sisters.. I know Tri-Sigma has a lock in that night for everyone.. In a way, the not having parties lets us all bond as new sisters, but a party would be nice.

[kayla_adpi]

At the University of North Alabama...on bid day PNM's meet up with their rho chi group in the university center. then all the groups will each go to different rooms were its quiet. the rho chi explains things to everyone....then the PNM's close their eyes and and wait for a bid to be dropped in their hands....when everyone has their bid everyone will open them all together....theirs usually a lot of smiles and screaming...although there are a few tears when people don't get the bid of their choice. after all of that the PNM's all walk outside to where the event is being held. of course all the sororities are standing there chanting and screaming waiting for the new girls to come. and each rho chi group will line up one at a time and then all run to the sorority they received a bid from.....where all the girls are running up to you giving you hugs and everything. they will hand you a bid day shirt which you of course put over top of the shirt you already have on. after all the new girls are with their sorority then the rho chi's come out and reveal who they are by taking off their shirt and underneath will be the sorority that they belong to. its a lot of fun.....people are mostly screaming. (of course there are all kinds of fraternity guys around watching too) after all of that is done everybody goes outside for a group pic and a new member pic. and after that is over you will all go back to the chapter room to congratulate the new members and give them their bags. and last you will all load up and cars and go somewhere to have bid day fun..last year we had it at a lake house where we grilled out....and had zap man come and take more pictures. bid day is the day before school starts so usually it doesn't last real late. and this year we are having the alpha ceremony later on that night. so it will be a long but fun day. i know this is really long...sorry...but its the best way i could explain it.

[anniesigkap]

I LOVe our bid day! First bids are given out early on monday morning and you have till 2 to go sign them at the greek life office. Rho Chis call so no one will come and be upset if they do not get one. Then you have to wait till 5 for what we call yell in. This is really hard, especially when like me I had a class with 4 soon to be sisters right before! You can't tell anyone. Then we all go to this hill where all the sororites are waiting with balloons and t-shirts at the bottom, after parading through campus trying to out yell each other.

At the top of the hill the rho chi groups line up. Each group of about 8-9 holds hands and sings:

I want to be a sorority girl, hm and little bit more
I want to be a sorority girl, hm and little bit more
I want to be a XYZ!!! (each yelling her own!)

Then they run down the hill toward their new house. This chaos because everyone is screaming, crying and trying to see who went were. I had a lot of fun but I slipped on my flip flops and ran through our banner fortunatetly someone caught me before I fell flat on my face.

Last the rho chis sing the song and peal off 2-3 t-shirts to reveal their letters. Most new girls don't even find out what their rho chi is till later 'cause most the time half the sorority will run half way up the hill to tackle them.

Afterwards we walk to someone's house (we don't have one just a chapter room) and have pizza and show the rho chis our skit and just hang out.

Later that same night a fraternity will host our bid day party. When I went through it was Betas they were so sweet they made us a huge banner outside the house that said "We love our new Sig Kaps!"

[anchorjenni]

Eevn though we have deferred recruitment, Bid Day at my school is sorta like some of the other ones I have read. PNMs go to a room inside our student center where they are given their bids one by one. On the other side of the student center (which is not a very large building - I go to a small school), the three sororities are grouped together in their matching Bid Day shirts in the bottom level of our cafeteria. The sororities sing, use noisemakers, hold signs, and chant - pretty typical. The neat thing is that the bottom level has a ramp that is sectioned off by glass that comes down into the cafeteria. The RCs make posters for their respective organizations to cover up the glass so the sororities can't see what is happening on the ramp.

After the PNM signs her bid (remember that it is one by one), the RC's walk her over to the top of the ramp. One goes into the cafeteria to let the president and recruitment chair of the sorority she has excepted a bid from know that they "have one coming". The president and recruitment chair give the chapter a sign and the chapter goes wild. Then the PNM runs down the ramp where she gets a Bid Day shirt thrown over her head and is mobbed by the sorority. It's one of those things that is so wild, you just have to see it.

After all the bids have been handed out and accepted or declined, the RCs (in their respective sorority's letters) run out to rejoin their sisters. Since it goes one by one, it does take a little while but it is highly enteraining - even if the PNM is not coming your way or if you're just a bystander. Our fraternity Bid Day is similar, but it is held outside (in January weather) and the guys run down stairs halfway and are pulled down the rest of the way by thier new brothers. Also, very entertaining!

Jennifer

To start off at Um the OGL hands out bids. You go in and say your name and they either will or will not pull out a invite for you. You only find out what sorority you got into when you tear open the envelope. Thats how it use to be. Considering Bid Day seems to be on a Sunday this year, they might do it different.

but someone asked if we do anything special with or for the new members. At UM, not long after Bid Day but during that week, sororities and fraternities in tradition hold what is called a Carry-in. Its basicakky either the members of a fraternity carrying each new member of a sorority over the threshold of her house while the actives sing songs. vice versa with sorority members carrying the new members of a fraternity over the threshold of their house. its usually 2 guys carrying a girl, and about 3-4 girls carrying a guy. there is also Carry-Out, where the seniors aew carried obviously out of the house to their alum status. Pictures are taken and parties are thrown afterwards.
Anyone else do anything like this?

[anchorjenni]

Anyone else do anything like this?

No, I've never heard of this before, UMgirl, but I think it is so cute! I love the idea, but we don't have houses at my school so we wouldn't have anywhere to Carry-in or Carry-out of.

Jennifer

[S_A_I]

Yah! I'm sooo excited for rush! Everything is going to be so exciting! Yah!

-Jessica

[justhey76]

Originally posted by S_A_I
Yah! I'm sooo excited for rush! Everything is going to be so exciting! Yah!

-Jessica

Ditto, girl!! I go through so many mixed emotions about rush after reading threads on this site. I get discouraged when I read about the competitiveness, and how you have such a SHORT amount of time to make a good impression, and I have been stressing about outfits, and resume's and everything, but it is threads like this (i actually cried reading this one) that make me SOOOOO excited, and anxious to find out what is going to happen at the end of rush, er, formal recruitment. I cant wait!!!!!

Don't get yourselves worked up. Just have fun and be yourself

[Little E]

what do you do with the bid cards after they've been signed? does that chapter get them? does the school keep them? We don't have formal but we want to do something w/the bid cards. Just looking for ideas. Thanks
Lil E

[SigmaKappaKelly]

Bid day is soo much fun.
At my school we have pref parties early in the morning and afterwards we all go back to the Bronco Mall (which is like a student union) and make our final decisions. During the day houses fill out invitations for their new girls and are given to the Rho Chis. The PNM's are called to the mall at 5pm that night and put in a room where they are made to sit in their rho chi groups. The Rho Chi makes each girl in her group sit up while she puts their invitation on the chair, the PNM then sits on it until everyone has gone through it, the person incharge of Rush gives a speech and announces that the girls are to immediately rip open their invitations. The President, VP of Recruitment and New member educator from all houses are there with t-shirts. All the New members put on their t-shirts and cover up with hooded sweatshirts. The Rho Chi's pile all thier group members into cars and drive over to the football stadium just as the sun is setting where all the girls are waiting with decorated cars. Each group goes in front of all the girls (who are screaming) and reveals the house she is to join by ripping off her sweatshirt and running to her respective house. When all the girls are received the rho chis have thier chance. The girls pile the new members in the back of convertibles, trucks etc. and parade them through campus to Fraternity village where every fraternity is waiting outside their house with hoses and buckets of water, the new members chant while getting soaked. Back at the house the girls are preparing for the "babies" to come home. When the "babies" come home they are given warm dry clothes and lettered shirts to wear only for 24 hours. We play games and bond all night. ohhh I miss it!!!
As for my Invitation I have it displayed on one of my Sigma Kappa boards, but it's permanent spot will be in my scrapbook.

[sbhill2]

I pledged DG this year during Formal Recruitment and since bid day was a monday night we made our celebration short and wonderful. We just went to the Sc Botanical gardens and met and chatted with all the members while eating lots of food. we took class pictures and chapter pictures. We followed all that by the ribboning ceremony and then cleaned up and went back to campus. It was nice b/c we all came back and talked to friends in different sororities about if they were happy or not. It was a really nice night not to have any big deal about it.