NPC Informal recruitment question

[TSteven]

I have seen posts stating that a PNM has “heard” that a chapter or chapters may be having informal recruitment (COB/COR). Yet they cannot find any “official” information about it. Replies here often suggest that the PNM check with the Greek Life Office. As such, my question is this.

Is a chapter required to notify the Greek Life office if they are conducting COB/COR or are they allowed to keep that information “secret”?

For example. A chapter is under total or did not make quota, and is looking at adding members via COR. But the chapter is not planning on any open invite events and/or already has specific PNMs in mind. Is the chapter required to notify the Greek Life Office of their intent to add more members, or can they do so, then notify the Greek Life Office of the bids?

[AZ-AlphaXi]

One reason for notifying the greek life office of PNMs who might be offered bids is to get a formal, official grade check for the PNM.

But, as far as I know, there is no NPC rule that states you have to tell the greek life office of a COR/COB event or who is attending. There may (or may not) be greek life (ie University rules) that to effect, however, as applied to "official chapter event" planning/permissions.

[33girl]

The PNM can contact the GL office to find out if the chapter in question is eligible to take more members - i.e. if they are under quota or total and how many spots they have open. That's why they should contact the GL office, not to find out about dates or times of COB events. Many rumors go around about "XYZ had 10 girls drop" or "ABC only got half of quota" etc etc. The GL office is the best source to find out whether these are true or not.

If the chapter already has specific girls in mind, they usually offer them bids as soon as they're allowed to. Any chapter under total can, according to NPC, offer bids up to total at any time during the school year, but some schools impose additional restrictions.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

At some schools, even if the GL office knows who is COB'ing, they do not tell that to the PNM's. Instead, they forward the name of PNM's to the chapters, and chapters may invite the women to events as they see fit. This allows for a certain level of discretion if the chapter would like to keep it that way, but still find women they don't already know.

[Titchou]

Ye, the Greek Life office will know if a chapter is eligible for COB as they are generally required to keep a current roster on file with the office. But they often don't want an open "cattle call" for PNMs as each group usually is targeting certain women. It is best to let the Greek Life office know you are available and interested in pursuing COB if any groups wish to contact you.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

At some schools, even if the GL office knows who is COB'ing, they do not tell that to the PNM's.

There's a difference between telling someone that XYZ is 5 women under total and that XYZ is holding COB events. A sorority's membership numbers are public information. I'm guessing this question came up because of the girl on here that said "a friend told me XYZ is having open rush." If she calls the Greek life office and they inform her that XYZ 10 over total and cannot take any more members, that puts an end to the speculation.

As it's true that sororities may not wish to do the "cattle call" sort of thing, that goes both ways - Patty PNM may only be interested in PQR and doesn't want ABC (whose party she couldn't wait to get the heck out of in formal rush) to know that she's pursuing Greek membership. The last thing ABC needs if they're struggling is to have PNMs at a party who only want letters, or see a huge amount of "nos" on a list. If you're open to multiple groups, or if it's required by the school, let the GL office know you want info about COB opportunities. If you're interested in one and only one, don't.

[AGDee]

This is also going to vary a lot by campus. There are schools with Greek systems small enough to not have a Greek Life Office. How much the GL Office manages a system varies a lot as well. In most cases, it could be a good start though. They might also pass information about women who are interested on to the chapters who are doing COR/COB.

[DubaiSis]

In short, it's a good starting point, but not the ONLY thing a PNM should do. Start there, and if it's a campus where a lot of sororities aren't at total, the Greek Life office may actually be involved in a more organized informal recruitment process. Or they could forward the names of interested PNMs to sororities who MIGHT be looking.

Immediately after formal recruitment it's a good idea if you dropped out or were cut out to let the Greek Life office know you're still interested because, for example, there may be a house that did their cuts a little too aggressively and would now like you back. Expressing interest this way would let them know without having to have an embarrassing conversation on either side.

[LocalLove9]

Generally at my school, the houses eligible to COB were given a list of pnm's who dropped or were released from recruitment, and it is then at the discretion of the houses to contact those girls if interested. For girls who never rushed at all, it more depends on people in the chapter knowing them and feeling out their potential interest for attending events. And there are always one or two girls who go to panhell saying "I couldn't rush for whatever reason" but I'd really like a bid" or "I got cut give me a biddddd." And panhell passes those girls names on to the houses who might have room to bid them. The "I got cut wahhh" girls are usually then shocked to find they don't get one though, because those houses with room are the same houses that cut them for being whiny and pouty and rude. Oh entitled pnms.

My house, which is typically eligible to COB and picks up a good number of members that way, doesn't usually have formal cob events though. It's more a matter of extending an invitation to girls to attend events usually over about the period of a week, and so they get a feel for life as a sister.

Moral: at my school,best call is talking to your friends who just rushed and got bids, or going to panhell and asking them to pass on your name.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by LocalLove9

Moral: at my school,best call is talking to your friends who just rushed and got bids, or going to panhell and asking them to pass on your name.

The problem is that some NM's aren't necessarily in the know either. Informal differs from school to school, but I think that the following are always okay:

1) Get numbers from the GL office to see who is eligible. Chapters are eligible if they did not make quota during recruitment OR if they are under campus total.

2) Ask the GL office of any events they know of and keep you eye out for flyers, quad chalk, ads in the student newspaper, etc.

3) Ask the GL office to pass you contact info along to the eligible sororities.

4) Hint at you interest to friends in the eligible chapters.

The following are sometimes okay:

5) Openly express interest to friends in the eligible chapters.

6) E-mail the recruitment chairs of the eligible chapters to express interest.

7) Express interest to your friends in non-eligible chapters, and see if they can make any introductions. If you had an unsuccessful formal recruitment, you may be able to reach out to your rho chi.

The propriety of 5, 6, and 7 differ by campus and chapter. However, I will go ahead and say that, if one or two chapters are noticeably smaller than the others, you can directly express interest. This does not mean that they are desperate for members or that it's guaranteed they will offer you a bid. It simply means that it is probably no secret that they are smaller and participating in COB, and they're probably more interested in getting quality women than in keeping their COB efforts a secret.

[rollthedice]

Funnily enough, this year at my school EVERY chapter is participating in informal recruitment. They are making it mandatory for PNMs to go to a Greek info session thing, but then they're allowed to go to whatever house's events they like. It seems like it's going to be a super competitive informal recruitment for both sides. All the houses want more girls and a lot of girls are going through.

Also to answer your question, all of our chapters have been advertising they're doing informal either through facebook or just posters on campus. Pretty much all of the houses were required to inform the Greek Life office that they were doing informal.

[TinyDancer98]

Originally Posted by rollthedice

Funnily enough, this year at my school EVERY chapter is participating in informal recruitment. They are making it mandatory for PNMs to go to a Greek info session thing, but then they're allowed to go to whatever house's events they like. It seems like it's going to be a super competitive informal recruitment for both sides. All the houses want more girls and a lot of girls are going through.

Also to answer your question, all of our chapters have been advertising they're doing informal either through facebook or just posters on campus. Pretty much all of the houses were required to inform the Greek Life office that they were doing informal.

Informal recruitment is not always the same as COR. COR can be conducted at a chapter's discretion, when and where and with whoever they want (provided they have the space). Informal recruitment tends to more structured with a set timeline and Panhellenic involvement.

[rollthedice]

My mistake. Just saw the topic of the original post and misunderstood the question. I apologize.