R U S H ! ! !

bjl6d · #1 06-11-2003, 07:57 PM

I was wondering if you all at other chapters have as much problems as we do getting more GUYS interested during rush. Our fraternity is starting to have a lopsided porportion of guys and girls and our most recent pledge class has 13 girls and only 3 guys.

What are some of your suggestions to get guys interested?

TigerLilly · #2 06-17-2003, 01:25 AM

My chapter had a similar problem -- my initiate class was 7 girls and 1 guy, and as a chapter we were about 75% girls. (I think it's a national problem...) Then, we busted our asses on this past rush, and our most recent initiate class had 6 girls and 7 guys -- a nice, even balance.
One thing we did was to really encourage (*ahem* heavily guilt-trip) all the guys in the frat to come to every single rush event they possibly could. It made the imbalance between guys and girls seem less obvious. We always had at least one guy and one girl at every info table, because otherwise we ran into the problem that people thought we were a sorority.
And this is kinda silly, but -- we had about 20 little flyers left over from information tables, and we decided to stick them under peoples' doors in the Honors dorm...we didn't have enough to put them under everyone's door so we only put them on the male floors!
Something else -- we're starting to plan some more fun events for rush this fall (in the past we've done basic stuff like info sessions and bowling). What we're thinking of is along the lines of sports stuff, like Ultimate Frisbee or even Human Foosball (Gamma Theta, I think, does it, and it sounds like tons of fun!). Guys might be more attracted to that kind of thing...hey, getting them to the events is half the battle, right?

bjl6d · #3 06-17-2003, 10:15 PM

Our people are so active that when we have Rush, a lot of the guys come out - I really don't think we're seen in any way as a sorority. We don't do the tables as you say that you all do, though.

I think we're going to advertise more fraternity-like stuff next time . . . perhaps focus a little more on the alcohol, and then focus on the sports and the champion-IM sports teams we have, and wear some shirts that are a little more "frat-like." I'm not sure what that'll do to our image though.

TigerLilly · #4 06-21-2003, 07:34 PM

Out of curiousity, how would you "focus a little more on the alcohol" during rush? I'd be scared to give the wrong impression. And we're not allowed to drink with our initiates...
This past semester, however, we did almost use an "Absolut PSP" graphic for our rush shirt. Is that what you mean by frat-like shirts? Or do you mean the jerseys, with the big sewn-on letters? Does anyone in your chapter wear those? I've seen them on people from other chapters, where lots of people from the chapter get the same one, which I think would be really nice. No one in my chapter has one, though.
As for champion IM (intramural?) teams, that sounds like a great thing to talk up.

bjl6d · #5 06-23-2003, 07:47 AM

We already sort of have jerseys - we put the Softball writing on the front (Phi Sigma Pi) and on the back put 02 (the year we bought it), a nickname (most of us, our pledge names or just our last name) on the top, and "Co-Ed National Honor Fraternity" on the bottom. I'd say at least 2/3 of our fraternity has and wears that. We were considering making an Absolut PSP shirt as well, and yes, that is what I mean by making it more "frat-like."

As for focusing on alcohol, I don't mean going around telling everyone that we're a bunch of drunkards. In the past we've sort of avoided the issue altogether and I'm afraid people will think we're dry then...let's face it, that's going to scare off a lot of potentials. None of our official events with initiates are allowed to have alcohol in them either, but initiates are invited to our parties, and yes there is alcohol there.

TigerLilly · #6 07-23-2003, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bjl6d
None of our official events with initiates are allowed to have alcohol in them either, but initiates are invited to our parties, and yes there is alcohol there.

Interesting...in my chapter, at least, I think it's a rule that we're not even allowed to drink when initiates are around. It's never been enforced, to my knowledge, and it's "forgotten" all the time at parties (our initiates are invited, too), but it's still out there.
Hmmm...just thought of this -- if the prospectives look through the scrapbook at rush and actually pay attention, there are quite a few pictures in there that make it quite obvious that we drink...

bjl6d · #7 07-24-2003, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by TigerLilly
Interesting...in my chapter, at least, I think it's a rule that we're not even allowed to drink when initiates are around. It's never been enforced, to my knowledge, and it's "forgotten" all the time at parties (our initiates are invited, too), but it's still out there.
Hmmm...just thought of this -- if the prospectives look through the scrapbook at rush and actually pay attention, there are quite a few pictures in there that make it quite obvious that we drink...

Our only rule with alcohol around the pledges are that they must turn their pin inside out if they are drinking.