Getting a Bid from Someone You Didn't Pref

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AOpilicious

Now - another situation entirely - I was sent off to help monitor/manage an alum-less collegiate chapter in another part of the country. The panhellenic office kept deciding who would be on our invitation lists. Right up to preference and our bid lists.

It was so infuriating. We kept releasing certain women, and they kept showing back up on our lists. It didn't matter how angry I got, or who I called, this girl ended up at our house on bid day.

Was the chapter stuck with her as a member or did she drop out?

I hope you reported the Greek advisor/panhel office to NPC and your national office.

[littleowl33]

I heard of this kind of situation occuring with a PNM I knew personally. She went through recruitment and ended up getting cut after the first round by every chapter but "chapter A", a smaller, newer group that was considered lower tier. She was a fun, sweet, pretty girl but had made the mistake of ticking off some greeks by not keeping her nose clean during her first semester (they have deferred rush).

To her credit she was consistently polite to chapter A's rushers, but obviously felt that she was "above" them. She dropped out after pref but was snap bid the next day by the higher-tier chapter B, who had cut too heavily early on and missed quota by a few (which is rare for them). She accepted and the you-know-what hit the fan. Usually no one knows or cares if someone was a snap bid, but earlier in recruitment there were girls in that chapter that did not want her there and fought hard to have her cut, so when she showed up on bid day everyone was shocked. The advisor knew this, but had snap bid her anyway without consulting the chapter so they wouldn't miss quota. The really sad thing is that this PNM knew all of this (she shouldn't have, but she did) and STILL decided to join and stick it out. She had a pretty rough new member period because of all the drama and still has few friends in the chapter outside of her big & little. But she gets to wear the letters!

It was just so disappointing to me that a PNM would drop of out recruitment to avoid getting a bid from a lower-tier group that obviously wanted her, and then take a snap bid from a higher-tier group that just needed a warm body and had a sizeable contingent of girls who made it clear to her that she was not welcome.

[33girl]

By the next day you mean bid day, right? I got a little confused.

My question is what happened to the advisor. It's stories like that one that make me kind of glad our chapter had fairly clueless non-Greek advisors.

[sydney bristow]

Most of the girls snap bid at UK are girls who have dropped out. Some are those who went to pref but didn't receive a bid to any group but that's pretty rare, especially if you attend more than one pref.

[carnation]

Over the years, I have gone to many Bid Days where numerous chapters seemed shocked to see certain girls run to their house. I wonder what happened.

[carnation]

bumping this for the current discussion--

[crescent&pearls]

^^^ Thank you Carnation. I see that this thread was started back in 2006. I wonder if someone can confirm current practices with regard to getting a bid from a chapter the pnm did not list on the MRABA? And I'm talking about the " opening the bid card in the envelope at the common place when and where NMs meet to pick up their bids" bid, not the phone call extended bid. Just to clarify.

My general understanding is that a PNM could potentially get a bid from any chapter she lists on the MRABA, regardless of whether or not she attended their preference party. Personally I've never ever heard of a PNM getting a bid from a group she did not list, and I can't see how declining a bid offered by a chapter the PNM DID NOT LIST could be binding on the PNM's part, nor should it be. That is a totally different scenario from declining a bid from a group the PNM listed, even if she only listed them in hopes that it might improve her chances of getting a bid via quota additions.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by crescent&pearls

^^^ Thank you Carnation. I see that this thread was started back in 2006. I wonder if someone can confirm current practices with regard to getting a bid from a chapter the pnm did not list on the Pref card someone help me with the correct current terminology please! (is it MSP or something close to that?) And I'm talking about the " opening the bid card in the envelope at the common place when and where NMs meet to pick up their bids" bid, not the phone call extended bid. Just to clarify.

My general understanding is that a PNM could potentially get a bid from any chapter she lists on the pref card, regardless of whether or not she attended their preference party. Personally I've never ever heard of a PNM getting a bid from a group she did not list, and I can't see how declining a bid offered in that manner is binding on the PNM's part, nor should it be. That is a totally different scenario from declining a bid from a group the PNM listed, even if she only listed them in hopes that it might improve her chances of getting a bid via quota additions.

I agree. The PNM is only bound to the groups she listed on her bid list. If she had some random group on her card, she could turn them down and COB the next day. This practice must be some odd form of Snap bidding where the girl is not called and given a heads up about the situation. Not a good practice, IMHO.

[crescent&pearls]

If there's a situation where a PNM will be placed to a chapter as a quota addition, and there's a decision to be made as to which of two chapters of exactly equal size, then I would think that would come down to a mini conference with the RFM Director and the reps of the two chapters involved, with the pnm either being placed where she preferred, or with the chapter that had her highest on their list.

As far as snap bids you are talking about offering bids from the chapter's perspective right? I agree with you totally- no chapter wants to hand out a bid to a woman they barely met once on the first day of recruitment. The combination of snap bidding and informal recruitment are designed to help chapters below total to meet that goal and absolutely offer opportunities to women that may have dropped out of recruitment or never participated. Snap bidding and informal were never intended as a "back door" plan to help women who ISP or decline a bid get into the chapter of their preference if they were not matched in the formal matching process.

No campus Panhellenic can force a chapter to offer membership to a PNM without their consent. No PNM is going to get stuck in a chapter that did not vote that woman into membership.