Bid Day Results

[AnchorAlumna]

DGTess, you might want to PM Titchou on this. She understands all that stuff - I sure don't!!

[Titchou]

DGTess: You don't say where you went to school or when but hopefully this will help.

Up until 20 or so years ago, the max number a chapter could pledge was quota. No one could take more than that number. No matter how many women were left over or what happened, that was it. Quota was usually set at pref or the day before by dividing the number of rushees left by the number of chapters on campus. 100 women, 5 chapters, quota is 20. If someone got a bid to AAA and didn;t want it and all the other groups already took quota, she was left out. Sorry, end of story.

Then, they (Panhellenic) decided too many women were being left out by this method so they invented a thing called quota additions. In this case, if a woman maximized her opportunities - that is, went to as many prefs as allowed and listed all on her bid card - she could be considered for quota additions if she somehow missed out on matching otherwise. QAs were limited to 5% of quota. So if quota was 20 then QA would be a max of 1. So, a chapter could conceivably pledge 21 against a quota of 20. This added a few more women back into the system who would have otherwise been left out. But some still got left out.

Fast forward to this century. PH is looking for a way to ensure more women are matched. RFM (Release Figures Method) is born. In this model, a "quota range" is determined before pref that is a range of numbers that will give the best opportunity to pledge all the women. So, if range is 23-26, final quota could be any of those numbers, based on what the computer determines places the most women. When this is done, the computer runs the lists at each potential quota and choses the one that places the most women. It could be under the old method that quota would have been 23 and 5 would have gotten left out. Under RFM, it might be that quota is 24 and everyone gets a bid....which is what we want. It also does away with the cap on quota additions and allows for all the women to be placed if, once again, they have "maximized their options."

As an example, at UAB this week, there were 115 women left after pref. Quota was determined by the RFM to be 26. It gave 26 to one group, 27 to two groups and 37 to the 4th group and all women were placed. It may be that at quota of 25, someone was left out. But it will always track to the number that places the most women.

I do have to brag just a tiny bit...DG was the one who got the 37! YEA!

This, of course, is oversimplified but I hope it helps make sense of the quota system for you. Let me know if you have further questions.

[DGTess]

Titchou, I REALLY appreciate the explanation.

When I pledged Beta Nu in 1973, I didn't go to any events from any other group. No one was concerned about maximizing anything, and on bid day, some women got 5 bids and some got none. To be honest, I'm not sure what Panhel even did.

But then, during my college career I don't think we had more than 20-22 sisters at a time, and the largest chapter on campus probably didn't break 30. Total was something like 80, so we never even bothered learning what it meant. It wasn't until years afterward that I noticed the Anchora listing those chapters who were at quota/total and began being confused.

I still detest the conventional rush system, but I'm starting to understand it better.

[Titchou]

Ah, Beta Nu in the '70s. Things are much different there now. They have a new house just this past year.

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by DGTess

I still detest the conventional rush system, but I'm starting to understand it better.

I certainly understand, but the system has developed over decades and is very efficient at sorting out a large number of women in a short period of time. Anybody who thought men were competitive has never been through formal sorority recruitment!

But thank God for COB!

[DGTess]

Originally Posted by Titchou

Ah, Beta Nu in the '70s. Things are much different there now. They have a new house just this past year.

Yep. Many of my sisters are very familiar with that house . Actually, I hope to visit at Homecoming this year; I haven't been back in 20 years. And they have over 80 sisters now.

[DGTess]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

I certainly understand, but the system has developed over decades and is very efficient at sorting out a large number of women in a short period of time. Anybody who thought men were competitive has never been through formal sorority recruitment!

But thank God for COB!

I'm not convinced "sorting out a large number of women in a short period of time" is a good thing -- but I also recognize I'm in the minority, I'm biased by my experiences, and my world view doesn't exactly support that type of membership selection. Thank god for diversity, eh? And thanks to my sisters for explaining instead of the responses I got on other threads some time back.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by DGTess

Yep. Many of my sisters are very familiar with that house .

Oooh...not a good thing....

[deadbear80]

I was told tonight that Beta Iota (Purdue) pledged 41 women! Elsewhere on GC it looks like quota was 37 or 38 so yeah for them!!

[hannahgirl]

All I can say is....THANK GOD THEY GOT RID OF HAND BID MATCHING!!!! I used to hear horror stories about all-nighters and such that went forever!

[Titchou]

And I don't miss doing it! UGH! What a pain doing it by hand is.

[AngieWashU]

Montana (Pi): Q 13 P 15. Yay!

I advised a chapter where the school still did hand bid matching. If you want to understand how recruitment numbers really work, doing hand bid matching is the way to go. No all nighters through--luckily it was a small school!

[AngieWashU]

I've got more good news!

Beta Beta (Alberta): Pledged quota (18)!

[AngieWashU]

Me again? Okay!

Alpha Phi (British Columbia): Q 25 P 25

[AngieWashU]

Gamma (Berkeley): Q 40 P 40
Eta Omicron (Univ of Arkansas - Ft Smith): Q 30 P 30
Beta (Washington) Q 32 P 33

And a little extra good news from Alpha Phi (Univ of British Columbia): they pledged 100% of legacies! What DG rock stars!