A chapter recruitment story.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by 33girl

This is a great idea, and definitely doable (tm Seinfeld) with the shorter pledge programs that many groups have. If your group isn't one of them, contact your national pledging specialist or whatever she is called to see if you can tweak it. It's all about thinking outside the box.

It's one thing if you have a COB party 3 days after bid day with people the majority of the sorority already know quite well. They usually can fit seamlessly into the pledge class. It's another if the people at the party are women with whom you are not as well acquainted.

My chapter did this as well. Obviously, the week or two after FR, we picked up friends/roommates of our new PNM's, where we could, but then there was a second wave a couple of weeks later.

[lilabelle]

Newest update:

We have our big sister reveal next Monday, and we are so excited for our new members to find out who they are! Unfortunately we have had more women drop, so our NM class is about 2/3 the size it was at bid day. Very disappointing, but since bids are good for a calendar year, we are working to re-recruit the women we have lost so far, as well as meeting new women to recruit. Campus total has again been raised, so we are now further from reaching it, which is also sort of disheartening. We are doing our best to meet snd recruit new women, though everyone does seem less enthusiastic anout jt than in the past. It's very difficult when we continuously recruit awesome women, who then drop because of finances and there's simply no way around it - we do present finances initially, but many women feel they can make it work, then find out later they simply cannot, which is why they choose to resign.

[unarose]

If I may ask…why is your campus Panhellenic raising total if not every group is meeting the old number? (I'm not in a panhellenic so most of what I know about quota and total, I learned here on GC. )

Also, regarding finances, is there anything you guys can do to help them, like maybe fundraising or payment plans?

[DubaiSis]

It's based on chapter average, and it's what should be done. It sucks for the smallest chapter who is having trouble keeping up but it keeps total fluid, which it should be.
A better solution would be getting panhellenic and the other chapters fully supporting that little chapter that could. But that's easier said than done!

Keep at it! I have high hopes for you.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by lilabelle

we are working to re-recruit the women we have lost so far

Funk dat. If they want to flounce, let 'em flounce. You will not do your campus reputation or your chapter's self-esteem any good by begging these girls to come back. Any time we "begged" a girl to pledge, she ended up being a POS sister.

Living well is the best revenge. Go after new pledges, set your sights HIGH and make those girls sorry that they were so stupid as to drop.

And are you guys the only sorority with the finance problem? If so, is it because your dues are appreciably higher than the other groups? If that's the case, re-evaluate and see where they can be cut. If it's national dues, knock your local dues down as far as you possibly can. But if every group's dues are around the same amount and you're the only group having women drop because "it's too expensive" - then you need to 1) start giving them an experience that's worth the $$ 2) stop bidding wishy-washy women. Don't mess with money issues. If they can't afford it, DON'T BID THEM. Trust me, it is not worth it.

[GammaPhiAud]

Thank you so much for making this thread. Gamma Phi at BG has been under total for a very long time and we are working hard to recruit more quality women. I'm rooting for your chapter and I wish you the very best!!!

[lilabelle]

Update time! Not much to update, but thats OK.

We initiated right under 3/4 of our formal recruitment NM class this past weekend. We are still under total by double digits, but We are a lot closer to being at total than We have been in a very long time and everyone is very excited about that.

We have yet to bid a woman through open recruitment this semester, but our cor committee has been discussing and we've (finally) decided that we need to reduce our goals down from the huge number required to get to total, to a more reasonable goal (like 8 women), then create a new goal once we reach that goal. We have a very good shot at reaching total next semester, or at least being like single digits under total, which i think is where most of our motivation is coming from right now. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to begin a new (big!) NM class and I'll have fun things to post later on! We have a lot of cor events coming up in the next few weeks, hopefully they will help push "maybe" girls over the edge...

[AOIIalum]

Originally Posted by lilabelle

We have yet to bid a woman through open recruitment this semester, but our cor committee has been discussing and we've (finally) decided that we need to reduce our goals down from the huge number required to get to total, to a more reasonable goal (like 8 women), then create a new goal once we reach that goal. We have a very good shot at reaching total next semester, or at least being like single digits under total, which i think is where most of our motivation is coming from right now. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to begin a new (big!) NM class and I'll have fun things to post later on! We have a lot of cor events coming up in the next few weeks, hopefully they will help push "maybe" girls over the edge...

That sounds like a strong plan to me. Sometimes when there's this *NUMBER* looming overhead, it can be overwhelming. Breaking it down into reasonable steps and readjusting after each one can be key to achieving your goals in growing your sisterhood. Because that's what it's all about, it's not about numbers, it's about your sisterhood. Good luck!

[DubaiSis]

Congratulations on the progress. I think it's important, when you've started to have success to take a deep breath and not get too enamored with the number over the quality of the girls who are suddenly showing up at your doorstep. It sounds like you have a solid plan. If you've been under total for forever, then waiting 1 more year to get there the right way isn't gonna kill anyone. And if you get a great group this fall, who knows? Maybe you can get another great group in the spring. I've seen it happen!

[lilabelle]

Beginning of semester update:

As a chapter we are very optimistic for the coming semester. With permission from our nationals, we have extended bids to several women already, and are looking forward to the fun recruitment events our COR committee has planned in the coming weeks to help build up our NM class even more. So far, this is the largest informal NM class we have had since I have joined, which is very very promising as their NM classes haven't even begun yet! We have an officer from our Nationals coming to visit this week to help kick off the semester's recruiting efforts in a really positive light, and I think it will be very effective for the rest of the chapter. A lot of us are still very burnt out on open recruiting, myself included, but the recruitment committee and alum advisors have finally realized that pressuring us to recruit 35 women in 6 weeks is extraordinarily unlikely for our campus, and that smaller goals are the way to go, which I am thrilled about. It helps that we have some new women on our advisory board who are more recent graduates from other schools, so they have lots of fresh ideas that we are hoping will be successful on our campus as well.

My school's Panhellenic does not hold any kind of a formalized spring recruitment like some other schools do, as there is simply not enough need; all open recruitment is up to the chapters. Because of this, the sororities significantly under total (ie more than 2 or 3 women, though this number depends on the sorority of course) have taken it up on ourselves the past few years to implement our own "formalized" informal recruitment weekend event, where we work together to hold house tours, mixers, etc on the same weekend and encourage women to attend events at all the houses that are open recruiting, and this is coming up soon. It has been very successful for us in the past, plus it's great practice for the newest initiates for formal recruitment, so we're very excited for this year's event and hoping it goes well.

As far as numbers go, we are beginning the semester about 20 under total, which is AMAZING. We have the potential to make total through formal recruitment next fall, which would be the first time we hit total maybe ever. I am not sure when my campus implemented a campus total, but I can almost guarantee we have never consistently been at total - maybe reach it one semester, then have a bunch of women graduate + drop and not be able to recoup the numbers, that sort of situation.

I know this isn't an overly exciting update, but I know how much you all love success stories, and as things are beginning to finally look up for my chapter, so I wanted to share anyway.

[cinder1965]

Great job!! Slow and steady seems to be paying off. You and your chapter should feel really good about your progress. Let us know how your spring recruitment goes!

[etadrisophila]

Originally Posted by lilabelle

I know this isn't an overly exciting update, but I know how much you all love success stories, and as things are beginning to finally look up for my chapter, so I wanted to share anyway.

But this IS an exciting update! The fact that you are able to now create smaller, more manageable goals is a huge step! The fact that you are back - posting an update shows your enthusiasm and commitment to recruiting.

Thanks for the update - and please keep us posted!

[DubaiSis]

While you have women from headquarters there try to get some formal rush practice in so they can help you with things like conveying enthusiasm without breaking any rules. I think small chapters tend to take too literal an approach to the rules and the result is the rushee thinks you're not as interested as the larger chapter. So some time spent role playing can be valuable.

[lilabelle]

Mid-Semester:

The informal recruitment weekend we organized was a success, and all chapters that participated were actually able to bid the number of women they had hoped from the event, which is awesome and I'm not sure that's ever happened! Plus, I think like 98 or 99% of the women bidded accepted, which is great.

As of right now, we're less than 10 from total, counting our current pledge class. Things seem to be slowing down with COB, we met our initial few smaller goals and people are really starting to get burnt out now that Spring Break is over. Assuming all women initiate and we have 100% retention (other than those graduating/going alum, of course), we will begin the Fall semester ~15 under total, meaning with our Quota trends we will be above total through formal recruitment. This is super unlikely, as I know of several women already planning on resigning after this semester (and several who would, if they weren't graduating or going alum), but hopefully with their negative attitudes gone, it will help recruitment a lot. I feel like we say that every semester, but since things seem to be turning around so well for us this past year or so, maybe this will be the time it really does. I guess we'll see then, no sense in worrying about it right this second.

Morale generally seems up from this time previous semesters, which is helpful as well. I think a lot of people are seeing that we're so close to total and feeling like that pressure is finally being taken off our shoulders - or at least some of it is - which is helping a lot. We're trying to work with other sororities on campus more also, to help increase our notariety and improve our reputation on campus, which seems to be working as well.

[33girl]

This is the time of year when everyone hates everyone and everything. Those women planning to resign next fall might feel differently after a summer back home. If they don't, you're absolutely right - let 'em bounce.