Bids distribution

[aephi alum]

I posted on this thread back in June - but after reading how various schools handle the situation where a girl is cut across the board or doesn't get a bid, I have to express my frustration at the way my school does things. PNMs are NOT called or visited ahead of time. The PNMs all show up and wait in the corridor, and one by one their rho chi takes them into a room and hands them their invites/bids or tells them "we're sorry, you were cut". So when someone is cut, all the waiting PNMs see her leave in tears.

I'm also a bit frustrated that we don't have a big rho chi revealing event - I think that would have been fun - but we allowed PNMs to defer their decisions for 3 days, so rho chis had to stay deaffiliated for 3 days after bid day.

ZTABullwinkle - I assume you mean she was picked up right after formal rush by the sorority she ISP'd. I didn't think that was allowed... or is that one of those things that varies from school to school?

[Fewdfreak]

At Iowa your rho chi tells you the night you sign your card to be in your room by 1pm the next day because that is the time when bids are going to be distributed. The next day, your rho chi then comes to your room with the envelope and you open it in front of her and accept or decline, and she reports it in and then the sorority comes to get you. Waiting for my rho chi was so stressful because things were running late, and I could hear some girls in the hall getting taken away by their houses, and I WAS SO NERVOUS! Even though my rho chi and I aren't in the same house, she was so excited for me, and we hugged, and I almost cried. She was so sweet. In terms of those who didn't recieve a bid (which I think is rare unless you suicide or there are unusual circumstances or something), I think our rho chi said that she either would call them in the morning or come by and tell them in person. I know she called if one did not recieve any invites, but I think she came to tell you personally if you didn't get a bid. As for our rho chi revealing, she had us write down what we thought she was, and why... I saw her name on a webpage for the house, so I knew, and a few other girls new, but kept it a secret of course. Then later after we signed our cards, she told us.

I think that it is terrible how other schools that make everyone go into the auditorium and open their cards. That would make everything 100x worse, I didn't even like getting my invites back with my group even though it was confidential between you and your rho chi.

[33girl]

I liked the way we did it - last pref parties were on Thursday night and women signed pref cards Friday 8 - noon. They started matching when that period was over, and you had to stay in your room because if you didn't get a bid you got a phone call. Pledge Pickup didn't start till 6 PM. This was nice because if you didn't get a bid and didn't want to view everyone else being picked up, you could get the hell out of Dodge.

[ZTABullwinkle]

aephi alum-

I PMed you!

ZTABullwinkle

[aephi alum]

Right back at ya

Originally posted by ZTABullwinkle
aephi alum-

I PMed you!

ZTABullwinkle

[KSUViolet06]

bump

[PiPhiGirl2005]

I'll assist with the bumping of this thread.

At Hillsdale, on the last day of formal recruitment, after pref parties, all the PNMs go up the hill to the auditorium and rank their first and second choice, then back down to their dorms to wait. They are all told that if they have received a bid, a Panhel member will knock on their door between 6pm and 6:30pm (or whatever). When the girls get the knock, the Panhel member says, "Congratulations, you have received a bid," but they don't tell the girls what house. The girls all gather with their friends as quickly as possible and run "up the hill" to where the dean's office is.... All the PNMs who have received bids gather there. For some reason, Pi Phi is the only group who waits outside of Central Hall where the dean's office is - the other groups wait at their houses. Anyway, Panhel hands out envelopes and the girls open them all at once, run out of central hall, and either into the gaggle of Pi Phis at the bottom of the steps or down to their houses. It's very much fun.

[lyrica9]

@UNT it gets nerve wracking, its so drawn out.
rho gammas call girls that dont get bids beforehand, but i believe this year every woman that went to pref events was extended a bid.

so we all had to get to the lyceum around 11am on bid day, which was a saturday, and we had to wait around for an hour talking nervously, and listening to the rho gammas sing all the chapters songs (saying "can you guess what we are now?")

luckily my rho gamma group was number one, because we went up on the stage in our groups. our rho gamma was behind stage, and she would call us back one by one and hand you your bid card, you open it and she would say "do you accept?" and then hand you a panhellenic ribbon and a ribbon with your GLOs colors.

then the sitting continued, and we learned a chant for our group. we then headed over to the super pit (basketball arena) and were given our shirts and got to know our pledge sisters, before each group of girls went out into the arena shouting their chant and ran to their sisters. they knew ahead of time who they got, because we got cute little pre-made name tags when we ran out. this wasn't until about 1-2pm, several hours after we first showed up!

oh, the rho gammas reaffiliated at a panhellenic-wide candle light ceremony later that night, but that was the first time they had done that, so I dont know how it was done before.

[KSUViolet06]

I didn't go through formal, but lots of my sisters did:

Bid Day is usually on a Saturday.

If you didn't get a bid, your Rho Chi called you that morning around like 8-10 a.m. The girls who did go to the Campus Life office and get their bids at like 11.

They are free to accept/decline. After that, the girls go to the MAC center (b-ball arena) where all the sororities are waiting with their balloons, signs, goodies,etc. They run to their group, the Greek Life advisor makes a speech, and the Rho Chi's are revealed.

Then everyone goes outside to the fountain for pictures and back to their houses to celebrate.

[nauadpi]

NAU does a lot of what these other schools seem to do... Our rho chi's or the head of greek life (depending on how many women get cut, most years none) call the women who are cut... Then all the other women at around 10am meet at the soccer stadium... It is at the bottom of a hill, and the top of the hill is the all greek res hall... They all sit there, and then the sororities come down sings and cheering at the top of their lungs. When the pm's show up they are given an envelope. They do not open it yet, and are told to sit on it... So they sit up in the stadium seats on their bids, while the sororities are down on the field... Then the Rho Chi's do their revealment (usually they were layers and layers of other sororities letters then theirs on the bottom)... They all take each layer off to the music... It is very entertaining, and each of the sororities cheers when they see their letters, even if it isn't one of your sisters... Then after the rho chi's join their sororities the pm's are told to open their envelopes... Then they run/walk down to the field to join their new sisters... The women who don't get a bid from the house they want will sometimes slip out the back during all the madness...

Overall it works pretty well... Having been the sorority who normally doesn't take too many women during formal recruitment we are always there excited to take the women we get... The other factor that works ok, is that women who decide they are very unhappy will generally just leave and walk off in the maddness...

[ISUKappa]

I wasn't able to attend bid day activities because of marching band, but being on Panhellenic Exec and from what the Rho Chi's have said, this is how Iowa State's goes. (This is also coming from 6 years ago, so it may be different now)

Pref night is usually on a Thursday. PNMs sign their bid cards and go back to their dorms. Bids are matched late into the night. Early Friday morning (5 am or so), chapters get the lists of girls who are elegible for snap bidding and call Panhellenic regarding the ones they'd like to extend bids to. Panhellenic then calls the Rho Chi who then calls the girl who can decide if she wants to accept it or not. After all that mess is resolved, the bids are finished and distributed to the Rho Chis. Around noon (or whatever the time table is set up for the year) She takes her group to a private area and they open their bids--that way if there is a disappointment, it can be handled prior to the revealing. Then, about 1 pm, all the rush groups make their ways to central campus where all of the sororities are waiting in letter shirts, holding signs, usually singing and cheering. A short speech from the Greek Adviser, a speech from the VPs of Recruitment, the revealing of Rho Chis and Panhel Exec and all of the girls are let loose to go to their respective groups and enjoy the rest of their bid day. There's only a certain number of girls from each chapter allowed to go to central campus, so the rest of the chapter is back at the house, eagerly awaiting their new members.

[JessAGD]

My Bid Day seems to be similar to everyone elses. Our Pref night is on a Friday night and is not over until around 9 PM. All the PNM's go to one of our Administration Buildings and rank their choices (1st and 2nd--suiciding is not recommended, but some do anyway). The Bids are matched later that night, and if a PNM doesn't recieve a bid, her Rho Chi calls her between 1-3 AM. Saturday morning, Bid Day, all the girls who have received bids meet in front of the Greek Life Building and the Rho Chi's reveal which sorority they are a part of. Then each Rho Chi group is taken to a different area around the building, and each girl's name is called to recieve her bid--she can at that point say if she wants to accept it, decline it, or wait to talk to her Rho Chi after everyone else opens their bid. After we got our bids, we ran to the parking garage on campus where we got our Bid Day Shirts. At my university, we don't have houses (we have a sorority dorm where each floor houses a different sorority suite) so all the sorority members put banners and balloons outside of the dorm and open up the windows on their floor with signs for all the new girls. As we run with our new pledge class to the dorm, all our new sorority sisters cheer for us and do all of their chants and cheers on our way up to the suite. Also, the year that I went through, the Fraternities had the same bid day as we did, so all the fraternity guys and their new pledges stood outside of the dorm and asked us which sorority we had got and would cheer for that sorority as we ran through them. Once we made it up to the suite, we got all kinds of Alpha Gam goodies (cups, pencils, stickers, cameras...etc...) and then we started our bid day celebrations. Later on that night, our whole sorority went as a group to the Fraternity Bid Day parties and toured and hung out at all the houses on campus. The next day, we watched the video of Bid Day and us running up the stairs in the dorm and into our suite! My Bid Day was a very memorable experience, and it was so much fun!

[TSteven]

Originally posted by ISUKappa
Early Friday morning (5 am or so), chapters get the lists of girls who are elegible for snap bidding and call Panhellenic regarding the ones they'd like to extend bids to. Panhellenic then calls the Rho Chi who then calls the girl who can decide if she wants to accept it or not. After all that mess is resolved, the bids are finished and distributed to the Rho Chis.

How does snap bidding work?

1. Can only chapters that did not make quota be able to extend a snap bid?

2. Could a girl get more than one "snap" bid?

3. If so, is it "first come first serve"? Or does each eligible chapter - after review and voting to extend a snap bid - then inform Panhellenic by a specific time. And then the girl is presented with the snap bids and picks the chapter she prefers to join?

[TSteven]

Originally posted by BrownEyedGirl
3. It is definitely first come first serve, though. The Rho Chi's at my school were sent out one by one to extend these snap bids (by phone) because particular groups only have a certain number of spaces (up to quota). But if a girl receives more than one snap bid, she does take the one she prefers.

Thanks. Quick follow up to number 3.

I'm sure there is a deadline regarding accepting snap bids. So is it possible for a girl to receive a snap bid from ABC first and wait until the deadline to accept? Basically waiting for XYZ to possibly extend a bid?

I'm thinking of the girl who maybe went to three preference parties (ABC, DEF & XYZ), but only listed DEF on her bid card. (i.e. suicide) She does not get a bid from DEF, and ABC snap bids her. But if offered, she would prefer XYZ. In other words, had she completely filled out her bid card it would have been 1-DEF, 2-XYZ, 3-ABC.

[TSteven]

Thanks. Makes sense to me.