question

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

At Clemson we are only allowed to have as many sisters as the smallest chapter can provide on the floor for the first round, in order to even the playing field somewhat. I actually didn't even attend recruitment one of the nights because my bump group wasn't on the floor for that night. I don't think this extends past first round, but it's better than nothing.

I also know that we normally only hold three Preference parties when there are four time slots, which I believe gives smaller chapters the chance to hold four parties if they want to or need to.

That's the kind of thing I'd like to see NPC push. That's great

As for the one year or next formal recruitment issue if you back out- It is different for deferred recruitment schools. In those cases, there is not a whole summer to separate informal from formal. You could decide the night before Initiation in December that you're not going through with it and then participate in formal recruitment in January. Perhaps 6 months would be a better time frame? Or one full school term?

[LAblondeGPhi]

I don't know if it was my post that sparked the RFM is good discussion - I in no way meant to imply that RFM was bad, and I'm a huge fan of RFM, like most folks here. I only meant to explain the some of the disparity in party sizes and ability for smaller chapters to handle all the PNMs that they host throughout recruitment.

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

At Clemson we are only allowed to have as many sisters as the smallest chapter can provide on the floor for the first round, in order to even the playing field somewhat. I actually didn't even attend recruitment one of the nights because my bump group wasn't on the floor for that night. I don't think this extends past first round, but it's better than nothing.

I also know that we normally only hold three Preference parties when there are four time slots, which I believe gives smaller chapters the chance to hold four parties if they want to or need to.

That's amazingly Panhellenic of your Greek system! Unfortunately, I've seen systems that basically ignore the needs of the small chapter(s) on campus out of laziness and/or indifference.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by LAblondeGPhi

I don't know if it was my post that sparked the RFM is good discussion - I in no way meant to imply that RFM was bad, and I'm a huge fan of RFM, like most folks here.

I think your statement "one of the cruelest twists of RFM" would indicate that you have several serious issues with RFM. But then again, I only know what you wrote.

[dukedg]

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

At Clemson we are only allowed to have as many sisters as the smallest chapter can provide on the floor for the first round, in order to even the playing field somewhat. I actually didn't even attend recruitment one of the nights because my bump group wasn't on the floor for that night. I don't think this extends past first round, but it's better than nothing.

I also know that we normally only hold three Preference parties when there are four time slots, which I believe gives smaller chapters the chance to hold four parties if they want to or need to.

I just wanted to confirm that we do this for Day 1 at UC Davis too (we use the lower number of what the fire marshal will allow at the smallest physical house or smallest chapter can accommodate with sisters on the floor).

After Day 1, we have one optional party a day each sorority can select to do if they need to spread out the PNMs more.

[TarheelMom]

My daughter is rushing right now also...so nervous for her! She called me with her schedule this AM and the house that she ranked last wasn't on her schedule for today. Will it potentially show up again? Or once it's off, it's off for good?

[DubaiSis]

Once it's gone, it's gone.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

Once it's gone, it's gone.

Probably so. But it is possible, in rare situations, that it could show up on someone's. But since she has a full schedule today, it's highly unlikely.

[Titchou]

So if you COBed in January and dropped, you shouldn't be able to go thru formal recruitment until August of the following year - a year and a half later? Oh my....it's worse than I thought. How cruel.

[AZTheta]

The "stigma" of COB is the issue, is my take on what 33 is communicating. I can't see a way around this, myself. Unless we abolish formal recruiting and all we do is COB. All of us. Isn't that how we all started, anyway?

Yes I am being annoying.

[Titchou]

So making the woman wait 1-1/2 years to participate in FR is taking away the stigma of COB? If that's what she's thinking, she needs an adjustment. All that would do is generate more animosity towards the Greek system. Talk about exclusivity....

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by Titchou

So making the woman wait 1-1/2 years to participate in FR is taking away the stigma of COB? If that's what she's thinking, she needs an adjustment. All that would do is generate more animosity towards the Greek system. Talk about exclusivity....

Yes, we are talking about making the woman wait 1-1/2 years to participate in FR IF SHE WAS GIVEN AND ACCEPTED A CONTINUOUS OPEN BID.

[Titchou]

Oh my! Even my metaphorical pearls may not last.....

[luv n tpa]

Just throwing in my two cents coming from a campus that treated informal recruitment like formal, with a few exceptions.

We had a structured week of parties, registration, rho chis, etc. There was no disaffiliation, members could speak to PNMs outside of parties, no MRABA, and PNMs could receive bids to both pref parties they attended (same amount of parties as formal). Not once did I come across any additional chapters offering bids to PNMs that did not attend a pref party. As a deferred recruitment, informal was held in the fall and specifically meant for upperclassmen.

Despite no MRABA, if PNMs accepted a bid during informal, they could not participate in recruitment again for a calendar year. On this type of campus, it was "equal" because there was very little difference to the PNMs during which type of recruitment they participated in. This was the only way COB was conducted - additional new members were distributed bids as a COB only prior to any new member education began. The option was there for us to extend bids year-round, but none of the chapters participated in doing so.

CPH has been doing incredibly well the past few years - at least one or two chapters (out of 5) during informal are at total and do not participate. It will be interesting to see if they move away from a structured informal recruitment, but I believe they will still hold the bylaw of accepting a bid = bound for one year.

[Titchou]

Yes, I am still clutching my metaphorical pearls. And I'll tell you why. First, I don't know where most of the folks here went to school. And unless you have your GLO in your screen name, I probably don't know which one you belong to. I really don't bother keeping a chart of all that. So this is not directed at any of that.

I've been a regional or national officer with my GLO since 1980. I also served as an interim Greek Adviser at a small public commuter school with only 4 NPC chapters. I went to BIG SEC school. During my time as a regional and national officer, I worked with all sizes of chapters, chapters with alll levels of success, traveled for the Fraternity from New York to Florida to California to Oregon...and many places in between. I learned a lot about regional and campus differences. My goodness, some places didn't even have housing! How could they exist like that? We had some successes and we had some failures. And I learned a lot. So here's what I know:

RFM is the single best thing to come along since sliced bread. Seriously. Some of the campuses I worked with would have benefited soooo much from RFM. But the limits placed by the old method just didn't allow WRCs many options to succeed. Yes, it was hard always being the one chapter doing COB. Yes, you had to be creative to handle all the rushees at a party when you were smaller. Yes, you needed help from other chapters and maybe even a few alums on the floor but CPH often wouldn't allow you that latitude. Yes, it was hard to pay for that house when you were so far below total. True your national didn't help as much as you hoped. Yes, you were blind sided when the chapter closed. Yes, yes, yes to all of your complaints. Because mine closed too...and was gone for 32 years. So I know exactly how it feels.

But that is ancient history. And it isn't doing anyone any good to come here and spew your venom, complain about things that are decades past and talk as if it's common place now. It isn't. RFM has truly helped the WRCs increase their numbers. I can site many instances but I don't want to call out any specific groups or campuses. But they are all around. As for the numbers on the floor recruiting like at Clemson, that is not the only place that happens. It's very common, ladies. I've seen it many times. Often it's the Fire Marshall who controls the numbers allowed in the suite. That was the case at Auburn. And it helped the smaller chapters a lot because it wasn't obvious they had fewer members as the total number allowed was limited. Pretty much all you have to do these days is ask CPH for help and they'll give it. Some places, not so much it's true. But NPC and the I/NPs have forged an alliance and they are really working for the good of all.

Pardon a couple of shout outs here: 3 cheers for AST for pulling up stakes in Birmingham and moving to Indy where they have more options to co-op programs with the other GLOs who have their HQs there. It's helping them immensely to be able to do that. And to the TPA on here, one of your most revered alums is a good friend of mine and I'm not so sure she would agree with your point of view. She's on a different campus at least once a week or more and i know she must have been at no less than 4 Conventions this summer. She's coming to a place near you. GO see her. She's awesome!

[luv n tpa]

Originally Posted by Titchou

And to the TPA on here, one of your most revered alums is a good friend of mine and I'm not so sure she would agree with your point of view. She's on a different campus at least once a week or more and i know she must have been at no less than 4 Conventions this summer. She's coming to a place near you. GO see her. She's awesome!

I didn't provide a personal point of view. I elaborated on how it was dealt with on my campus at the time. If she doesn't agree, not my problem.