Spring 03 COB

[AlphaFrog]

Well, here at my campus it's COB time...

We have:
2 soroities close to or at total (80 ish)
3 medium sized (40-50 ish)
and 2 small (30 & below)

Since I'm writing this post you can probably guess which one mine falls into. Right now we're at 23....BUT we just lost our President (she had other issues) and several other girls have resigned postions (mostly for academics). Our VP of Recruitment is still here so we are still fighting.

Does anyone have any ideas for getting women to COB? We've tried chalking and fliers all fall semester and we got 3 girls from one party and the rest no one even showed up at. Also, right now we're covered in about 3 in of snow so even if chalking worked for us, it's not an option right now...How do you all get the word out?

[docetboy]

Have all the sisters talk to their friends and people they know, and have those people talk up the event. Sometimes the best way to get people to events is word of mouth advertising, combined with fliers as backup and re-inforcement. If any sister knows someone who they thing might be a good addition, do the personal rush towards them.

[aephi alum]

I agree - talk it up. Tell each sister to invite at least one unaffiliated woman. Posters often get ignored, but a verbal invitation from a friend/roommate/suitemate/study partner will be remembered. Look at all classes, not just freshmen.

Talk to guys too - you never know who may have a friend or girlfriend who's thinking about rushing.

Since there are so many sororities eligible for COB, it might be worthwhile for all of you to combine your efforts in advertising COB rush in general. Perhaps you could have an information session where women can meet members of each sorority and pick up schedules, then each sorority does its own thing after that.

Sometimes the low-key approach works too. A lot of women are turned off by formal rush... if there's someone you're interested in, have a few sisters take her out to dinner or something.

[astbunny]

At my campus we don't have a formal rush because the other sorority declined to participate. The event that has helped us the most has been our recruitment banquets. We have one next week with a fraternity. It is a semi-formal banquet and you invite by invitation anyone you think might be interested in joining, and during the banquet we have speakers on what activities we do and the financial and other obligations to the sorority. This is also a nice event for school administration to learn about the greek system. We have had the best response to this event because it's specifically focused to give them all the infomation without other distractions that we have experienced with other events we have tried.

astbunny
Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority

[MoxieGrrl]

I have to agree with what everyone said here & reiterate.....the best way to get women to pledge is to get your non-Greek friends interested! My chapter received some of our best sisters this way. Also, befriending a group of independent girls is another good idea. Get one interested....tell her to bring her friends....they'll (naturally!) fall in love with your chapter and pledge as a group.

A note on advertising.....yes, mucho fliers/chalk is kind of desperate looking. Rock your letters around campus and just make everyone aware that you are an XYZ. The best advertisement is you!

What types of events do you have planned so far?

Good luck!!!!!!!

[AlphaFrog]

As far as I know, we don't have any events yet...because of some things that happened over winter break, we didn't have chapter this week (which is really going to hurt because we can't start recruitment till we have our 1st meeting). We're going to try to have chapter this week but with it being a day off (we have chapter on Mondays) we can't make it mandatory, so I don't know how many will show up. Plus we have an Alumna getting married out of town this weekend, so many girls are going to that. It looks like the first time we'll have a real chapter meeting is the 27th....and that means we've already lost 1/4 of our recruitment time!

[shadokat]

Talk to your Greek Life office for the names of women who went through recruitment but did not receive bids in the Fall. Also, get a listing from Residence Life of freshmen women who aren't in sororities. Do small paper flyers and put them under the doors of those women or in their mailboxes.

While I agree the low-key approach can work for a chapter closer to total, for a group who has fallen so far below, you have to be willing to go out and find as many women as possible who are the quality you want to join.

Trust me, we've all been there, one time or another. Good luck!

[ztabchbum]

I appologize in advance if this comes off as rude. It just sounds like your chapter needs to get their priorities straightened out. While I was in school, my chapter had some problems with getting numbers during recruitment. It wasn't until the chapter really got it's priorities straight and started scheduling mandatory chapter meetings during breaks (all holidays and fall break - our rush is deferred in october) that we started to see some real results. And I too agree that the best form of advertising is wearing your letters EVERYDAY - even if it's just your lavalier or pin. We had a schedule of what to wear 1st semester, as cheesy as it sounds, it worked - it also helped because you didn't have to waste time in the morning figuring out what you were going to wear that day. Another really good idea is to plan to eat all of your meals together - again, I know this is cheesy but it works. I know at stetson, all the greeks sat in certain sections. What we would do is whoever could get to the CUB (it's what we call our cafeteria) first would put balloons on our table - kinda marking our teritory. We would also make sure, in advance, to plan to have at least 1 or 2 sisters in there during the lunch period. We would also invite PNM to sit and eat with us. Whatever your chapter decides to do, I wish you the best of luck.

[aephi alum]

Originally posted by shadokat
While I agree the low-key approach can work for a chapter closer to total, for a group who has fallen so far below, you have to be willing to go out and find as many women as possible who are the quality you want to join.

I didn't mean to imply that AlphaFrog's chapter should -only- use the low-key approach. It probably won't get you more than a handful of women. But it can be used in conjunction with informal rush parties... I can think of a couple of women from my chapter who would have run screaming if we'd called them and said "Hey, we're having a rush party" but who were open to the idea of going out to dinner with a few sisters.

Good luck

[33girl]

Originally posted by AlphaFrog
It looks like the first time we'll have a real chapter meeting is the 27th....and that means we've already lost 1/4 of our recruitment time!

If you are under total, you can give bids ANY time during the year. Plus, I think with Advantage they can start pledging at any time...if not, signed bids can be held for one year unless the campus prevents it. This isn't something national or panhel is really crazy about doing, but it is permitted in the Green Book.

[shadokat]

Oh, no, I totally realize that aephi I just sometimes think that when you get down lower on the sorority ladder, you don't have the luxury of being "quiet". You have to shout your letters in order to be heard, so to speak

Originally posted by aephi alum


I didn't mean to imply that AlphaFrog's chapter should -only- use the low-key approach. It probably won't get you more than a handful of women. But it can be used in conjunction with informal rush parties... I can think of a couple of women from my chapter who would have run screaming if we'd called them and said "Hey, we're having a rush party" but who were open to the idea of going out to dinner with a few sisters.

Good luck

[MTSUGURL]

I don't agree that the amount of advertising put out by XYZ makes them look desperate. It makes them look more open and inviting to girls they don't already know. They may appear that way to some other chapters, but they're not trying to attract members from the other chapters, right? Speaking as a (newly) independent here, I think they've done a great job with the amount of advertising, and know of several girls who will be attending because they saw a flier or chalk.

[FuzzieAlum]

Holiday meetings will definitely not work for every chapter; many GLO bylaws forbid the scheduling of mandatory meetings during breaks. (Not to mention girls who live far from school may not be able to shell out the bucks for a plane ticket!)

When you are a small chapter, getting your friends to rush does not often work, especially if you've been in for more than a semester. Hey, if they were interested in Greek life, they would have rushed already. And they know you - they know your chapter; it takes a bid from a big, impressive chapter to make them decide Greek life is for them. From their perspective, what is the benefit of joining? They're not sold on the Greek aspect, and they already have your friendship.

A better bet are your acquaintances. There's a cute, smart girl in your class ... an outgoing girl down the hall. Talk to them, get to know them a little better, and start introducing them to your sisterhood. Unlike your friends, they probably haven't already considered and rejected your org. And unlike your friends, if they join they have a whole other circle of friends to bring in.

I do have to agree with what some other folks have said; what works for a large chapter with simply a few slots open does emphatically NOT work for a chapter that's struggling to increase its numbers to campus average. If you're subtle, no one will know you're there.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally posted by MTSUGURL
I don't agree that the amount of advertising put out by XYZ makes them look desperate. It makes them look more open and inviting to girls they don't already know. They may appear that way to some other chapters, but they're not trying to attract members from the other chapters, right? Speaking as a (newly) independent here, I think they've done a great job with the amount of advertising, and know of several girls who will be attending because they saw a flier or chalk.

I disagree strongly, but I think it depends on the campus.

If you are at a small school where most students, even independents, know the reputations of the chapters, it can look really bad to look desperate.

My chapter is under total--we are the smallest chapter on campus. However, we are not way way way under, but we would love to improve our numbers as we typically have a less than perfect formal rush. But, this year we have been aggressively pursuing COB--maybe too aggressively. We got lists of all the PNMs who were not placed in formal rush. Many of them have already come to COB events. But now we are hearing word that "the XYZs keep asking me to things... don't they see that I'm not interested?" (answer: NO, because you keep accepting invitations, doofus) and that "well, ABC has a better reputation and they had girls depledge last year and then they COB'ed people, so I'll just wait til that happens" (explanation: ABC hazes, and guess what? they cut you during formal--why would you get a bid now?" ). So I think you can be too aggressive in COB. On a larger campus where people legitimately don't know your chapter--yes, go all out. For example, with us a few years ago there were a lot of members who didn't particularly like to party and go out. Now those people have mostly graduated--but everyone knows that we are not "the party house" and we "study all the time" (hey, I thought a high GPA was a GOOD thing)--if we pressure these girls who are mostly really upset that they didn't get the houses they originally wanted, they are just going to be that much more bitter. We are having better luck with the girls who didn't go through rush at all at this point.

I guess my basic advice is to be balanced and cool. Don't pressure people, but make sure they know about you.

[cherub]

We're doing informal recruitment currently, but don't have a panhell so we're always doing it on our own. It's hard, but this semester our recruitment chair and the rest of the chapter really got down to business and we had 15 girls at our last party. For us, this is huge, as traditionally winter recruitment is a lot smaller than fall. Our avg is usually 6 PNM.

Here's what we did this year:

Put flyers up off campus in the mall parking lot (yes, we only have one small mall) and in local businesses frequented by undergrads

Printed and distributed business cards with our name, chapter email address and recruitment chair phone number

Painted the snow. Yes, we did! It totally worked, the words really stood out. Traditionally we paint a cannon on campus, which serves as our message board. This time we did it and the surrounding snow. Whatever works!

Chalked classroom chalkboards

Put classified ads in the student newspaper. Pretty cheap, but effective since many people post ads for a variety of events there

Somehow, this all worked together to bring out a great group of PNMs. I'm excited to see how things turn out!

Hope this sparks some ideas for you...