SPRING RECRUITMENT AT UGA

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by shadden

Many of the houses will use their most recent initiates - theoretically this should be a cross section of the house, and with Fall pledge classes at roughly 60 for most houses, the numbers are right. I think the idea of seeing roughly the same number of girls at each house is great - should benefit the smaller houses.

For informal with a small quota, seeing this recruitment as sort of a prep for fall with the new girls makes sense.

On the other hand, if I were in charge of selecting for a chapter who would attract for my group this spring, I'd go with the folks who I thought had the strongest interpersonal skills and represented the chapter in a outstanding way. These folks might not be absolutely new to recruitment.

I think most chapters are going to do very well no matter how they decide to select participants and going with one fall pledge class avoids any hurt feelings.

There are pluses an minuses to any method of selecting them.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

The problem with appearing much smaller is you never get over that initial "Oh, they must have a problem or they wouldn't be so small". Meeting a cross-section then isn't an issue - pnms too often simply won't give them a chance. Some chapters have used members from near-by chapters to fill out their numbers - I hate that. You need to be meeting girls who might be your sisters.

I tend to think that bringing in members from other chapters actually hurts a chapter. The women may be passionate about XYZ, but they can't speak to the experience of being a member of THAT chapter, which is alot of what the PNMs will be asking about. The women from other schools can't talk about how fun the mixer with ___ fraternity was, or why they do _____ for the local philanthropy event. That leads PNMs to wonder "Why are some of the girls at XYZ from different schools, and the girls at AAA, BBB, etc. all from the same school?"

[SWTXBelle]

Agreed. I've never know bringing in other chapter's members to work. (But of course, my experience is limited.)

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Yes, I'm aware of that at large chapters. The problem could come, as KC said, if the SAME 50 women (out of 200) are the only ones meeting ALL the PNMs. At a regular rush, you at least have all the chapter members' input as far as the women they did spend time with. I mean - what if those 50 sisters you pick to do the rushing don't want anyone who's (random example) on a sports team? They could come up with bogus reasons as to why they didn't like those PNMs and get people cut who the other 3/4 of the chapter would have really liked.

You would HOPE that wouldn't happen and that the chapter would have enough brains to pick a cross section of sisters who are different in all ways, but with chapter politics sometimes you never know.

Depending on the chapter's/GLO's voting policies, who knows, they might not be able to rotate sisters - maybe some of them say that you have to see a PNM twice to vote on them. I don't know, I'm just throwing that out there.

This may seem like a silly thing to point out, but I don't think most chapters who previously had spring recruitment were doing COB/COR events with the whole chapter rushing anyway. So, I'm guessing that with the relatively small size of anticipated quota (around 200/17?), it's just not a big risk. I suspect what we're talking about is letting slightly more than 25% of a chapter pick new members who will total less than 10% of the chapter, maybe much less than 10% at some chapters.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Agreed. I've never know bringing in other chapter's members to work. (But of course, my experience is limited.)

I think I've heard of a few cases where girls were brought in to sing or stand around to make the group look bigger in the whole chapter setting, but didn't actually do any one on one rushing.

That seems like it might help if you had enough actual chapter members to still rush girls. When you've got 70 or so PNMs per party, as I think you would at UGA for first round (1200/17), I think all the chapter have 70+ members. So if you brought in some members from other chapters to seem as big and the party as full as others would be, maybe?

I honestly don't know what they do these days in terms of door chants or whatever, but I can remember all of us assembling in the foyer. If we only had 100 girls and other groups had 150+, the first impression was still different even if PNMs liked the members they met. With girls from other campuses to swell that first assembly, you could avoid that and still only really have PNMs meet your chapter. It's still a little bait and switch and for that reason undesirable, but when you're dealing with first impressions carrying a lot of weight, I'm not going to judge.

[Kansas City]

The chapter I advise is at a small D2 state school so I assume that UGA would be even more competitive and have a larger spring recruitment. Another concern of mine about limiting the number of actives during recruitment is this:
We have to release significant PNMs after the first day thanks to the RFM. I understand that there is a certain level of trust that sisters have when making decisions to release PNMs (many decisions can be made based on black and white issues such as year in school, grades, etc.) but having only a small fraction of the chapter meet women on one day seems like it would be unfair to both the PNM and the chapter as there would be so few people who got to meet the PNM before a decision had to be made. At least by having more actives in the room, they can gauge body language or recognize a face as "that girl that sat behind me in church" and potentially give the PNM a better shot at finding a home because she had more exposure (albeit silent) to the entire chapter and not just a small cross section of those selected to recruit.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

This may seem like a silly thing to point out, but I don't think most chapters who previously had spring recruitment were doing COB/COR events with the whole chapter rushing anyway.

SRSLY??? That's weird. To me, anyway. If a chapter is struggling for numbers, I would think they need to put every girl they can get in a COB event - it ups the chance that one of them will connect with a rushee.

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by Kansas City

The chapter I advise is at a small D2 state school so I assume that UGA would be even more competitive and have a larger spring recruitment. Another concern of mine about limiting the number of actives during recruitment is this:
We have to release significant PNMs after the first day thanks to the RFM. I understand that there is a certain level of trust that sisters have when making decisions to release PNMs (many decisions can be made based on black and white issues such as year in school, grades, etc.) but having only a small fraction of the chapter meet women on one day seems like it would be unfair to both the PNM and the chapter as there would be so few people who got to meet the PNM before a decision had to be made. At least by having more actives in the room, they can gauge body language or recognize a face as "that girl that sat behind me in church" and potentially give the PNM a better shot at finding a home because she had more exposure (albeit silent) to the entire chapter and not just a small cross section of those selected to recruit.

Of course, the whole reasoning behind recs and getting the pnms information before recruitment is to find the girls actives already know - "that girl that sat behind me in church". And if actives are in the room, odds are they are busy with their pnms, and not taking notes on girls they can see but not even necessarily identify. As it stands now, most recruitments require the entire chapter to vote on a pnm based on the input of the very limited number of actives who had a chance to talk to her. PNMs, too, have to make a choice based on their limited interaction with a few members. That's the reality, whether the whole chapter is actively rushing or not.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by 33girl

SRSLY??? That's weird. To me, anyway. If a chapter is struggling for numbers, I would think they need to put every girl they can get in a COB event - it ups the chance that one of them will connect with a rushee.

Well, it's the nature of informal recruitment events and the size of the chapters. Even the smallest chapter at UGA has more than 100 members, I think. If you only expected 20 or so PNMs, wouldn't 100 rushers be kind of awkward if you were doing pretty much anything other than hosting a party at your house? I think most of the spring classes last year for the groups who took them were in the 5 to 15 range, but I have really no idea how many girls participated at events. If they had parties at the houses for the first event, maybe they did have the whole chapter participate. You also have to remember that spring rush was sort of intentionally low key for a lot of groups and they were mainly rushing girls they already knew, I think.

Struggling for numbers here is just kind of relative, I guess.
Sure, if you had a chapter of 30, you'd need them all.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Of course, the whole reasoning behind recs and getting the pnms information before recruitment is to find the girls actives already know - "that girl that sat behind me in church". And if actives are in the room, odds are they are busy with their pnms, and not taking notes on girls they can see but not even necessarily identify. As it stands now, most recruitments require the entire chapter to vote on a pnm based on the input of the very limited number of actives who had a chance to talk to her. PNMs, too, have to make a choice based on their limited interaction with a few members. That's the reality, whether the whole chapter is actively rushing or not.

If we're talking about the idea of limiting rushers for formal just as a theoretical strategy:

we should keep in mind that with more than 1000 PNMs at UGA for formal and the nature/quality of the photos girls send in, I'm not sure the chapter really does always completely recognize everyone they know in real life until the actual parties. And unless you're talking about limiting the number of rushers to under what it would take to single rush, there are girls who wouldn't be busy with PNMs who can float and met girls, but there'd be triple this number if you didn't limited rushers.

I understand your point about the issues of MS at large recruitments, but I'm not sure that limiting rushers wouldn't make the problem even worse.

For informal, I don't think it's a big deal and with the relatively small size of the PNM pool might actually keep it from being awkward and overwhelming for the PNMS. I suspect they will still have actual conversations with the same number of members they would have in formal.

[SWTXBelle]

I don't think it would be needed, or work, at every campus. I do think there are situations where it would, and one thing I like about NPC offering different kinds of recruitment is the idea that different campuses needed different approaches. I just think limiting rushers would be one possible approach to help some chapters at some campuses.

[Kansas City]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I don't think it would be needed, or work, at every campus. I do think there are situations where it would, and one thing I like about NPC offering different kinds of recruitmentis the idea that different campuses needed different approaches. I just think limiting rushers would be one possible approach to help some chapters at some campuses.

This I can agree with. I recognize that this is a UGA thread but my concerns are obviously for my D2 campus. Rush is not competitive and recs are very few and far between when recruiting girls at my campus so there is no way for most of the chapter to know who is coming that door until they hear a name or see a face. Until the first party, there is very little intorduction of a PNM to chapters on my campus. I'm not totally opposed to NPC offering different kinds of recruitment ideas to solve problems on different campuses but just don't see how limiting the number of active members would assist on my particular campus where the recruitment environment is smaller (300-350 PNMs during formal) and very non-competitive. Instead, in my situation, I think that it would benefit both the chapter and the PNM to meet each other as much as possible.

[KSUViolet06]

For those interested, the schedule and details (including some FAQs) are up on the UGA Panhellenic site:

http://www.uga.edu/panhellenic/recruit/index.html

January 25 – Online registration closes

January 29 – Informational meeting at 5:00 p.m. in Tate Theater, Tate Student Center

January 31 & February 1 – Open House events at ALL chapters

February 3-5 – Round Two events

February 6 – Round Three events (PNMs only attend up to three events)

February 8 – Bids extended by Panhellenic from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (PNMs pick up bids in the Greek Life Office)

February 8 – New Member Activities at sorority houses: New Member Breakfast/Brunch (12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.)

ETA:

How many events will I attend during Recruitment?

During the first two days of Open House events, you will visit all 17 chapters for 15 minutes each. This will give you a chance to see what all of the chapters are like. For Round Two, you will be allowed to attend 30-minute scheduled events at the chapters which invite you to Round Two events. You will then select up to three chapters you would most like to visit for Round Three events. Round Three events will be 45 minutes long and you may attend up to three events. After Round Three, you will rank in order the chapters you would most like to join.

[KSUViolet06]

Some FAQs from the website:


What if I am already friends with members of a specific chapter?

We encourage you to keep an open mind towards all of our 17 chapters as each one has great things to offer. It is important to know that the opinion of one chapter member cannot promise you membership into a certain chapter or prevent you from joining a certain chapter. Additionally, no sorority member should invite you to a Pre-Recruitment event (luncheon, tea, etc) or promise you any future connections with the chapter she belongs to (invitations to Recruitment events, a bid, etc). This is inappropriate and unfair to you – any such actions should be reported to the Panhellenic Advisor or a member of the Panhellenic Executive Board.


What if I am a legacy?

If you have a mother or sister who is a member of a sorority, you are considered a legacy to that sorority. Some sororities also consider granddaughters, nieces and cousins to be legacies. Panhellenic has no policies regarding legacies because each sorority has its own policy. If you are a legacy, it is important for you to consider your compatibility with the group and not feel obligated to a group because of your family members. Chapters vary from year to year and from campus to campus, so basing your decision on the experience of a relative would be unfair to you.


What about recommendations?

Recommendations (recs) are letters or statements from an alumna recommending a PNM for membership into a sorority. Panhellenic is not facilitating a process for recommendations for Spring Recruitment, they will handled internally by each sorority.

The site also includes a list of email addresses for the person who is in charge of recs at each chapter (I'm assuming they're the VPs of Recruitment)

[FSUZeta]

thanks ksuviolet06...you rock!