Barbie’s Guide to Writing an Honest Real Time Recruitment Story without Sabotaging Yo

[Barbie's_Rush]

Barbie’s Guide to Writing an Honest Real Time Recruitment Story without Sabotaging Your Recruitment

Most of us are painfully tired of the retro recruitment stories, particularly after the recent influx of bad fiction writers. But over the last few years, most PNMs have been reluctant to share their live recruitment stories for fear of having their recruitments sabotaged by interfering Greek Chatters. Now don’t get me wrong, some of those PNMs deserved to be interfered with, but most are pretty normal women who simply want to share the ups and downs of the process with some understanding strangers.

How can we go back to having live recruitment threads that we know and love? In an effort to help head back in this direction, I’ve decided to put together some guidelines to help PNMs hide their identities here during their live recruitments. But please be aware that no matter how many precautions you take, you may still be “outed.” So if you’re hiding your identity solely for the sake of being tacky, catty or otherwise poorly behaved here, it can still backfire on you.

Fellow Greek Chatters, please feel free to add to my suggestions as my little brain certainly can’t come up with a comprehensive list on my own.

Your School
It’s up to you to decide whether or not you identify your school or the area of the country where you’re rushing. Depending on the number of sororities and recruitment dates, it may be very easy or quite difficult to identify your school even if you don’t do it yourself. If you attend a smaller school with much better chances of being “outed” during a live recruitment, you may wish to postpone your story for a few days to make your location less obvious.

However, there are some definite advantages to mentioning your school. Many here are familiar with how recruitment works at various schools, so you could get some extra advice along the way as well as cheerleading. Things like “It is not unusual to get only 2 or 4 invites for 8 party day at Super Competitive U, so your getting 6 invites is really good!” or “No matter what the Greek Life office says, no one wears shorts for the first day of recruitment at SEC U” can help keep your spirits up and provide you with “insider information” for a more successful recruitment.

Your Greek Chat User Name and Profile
If you have any combination of your name, hometown, birthday, high school or other identifying feature in your user name, you’d be wise to create another one for your recruitment story. Also, make sure your home town, web site, instant messenger ID, etc. do not appear in your profile information.

If you have a user name that mentions a preference towards a particular sorority, such as BamaKappa2B, WineandSilverBlueAngelGirl, FleurdeLis4Ever, etc, you are made of fail.

Your Greek Chat Behavior Before Recruitment
Yes, we know you are excited, but sometimes the things a PNM does here in the months prior to recruitment will set her up for stalking and failure. If you’re guilty of any of the behaviors listed below, you should seriously consider creating a new ID before telling your story.

Don’t reveal too much personal information about yourself that can be used to identify you later. These rules apply to posts you make in ALL threads on Greek chat, not just the recruitment related ones. It often takes only a simple search of past posts to put together some seriously identifiable characteristics of a member. Some real world examples of this would be:

-Identifying yourself as a legacy to specific sororities through specific relatives. Or posting on a particular group’s forum here.

-Listing your super SAT score, GPA, high school characteristics (super small all girl’s prep in Mayberry, NC), you won the National Award for Being the Most Brilliant, Talented and Perfect Beauty Queen Humanitarian Ever etc.

-Mentioning you’re a member of an ethnic group that rarely participates in NPC recruitment at a specific school.

-Talking about being a 6’3 basketball player with flaming red hair.

-Mentioning you’re probably the only incoming freshman at Auburn from Missoula, Montana.

-You’re a fifth year senior rushing for the third time, transfer student from Podunk U, or anything other than a first year incoming freshman.

You get the picture.

Don’t behave in ways that would make Greek Chat members believe you might not be a model new member for their organization. Behave respectfully and politely. Don’t become an instant know-it-all and start providing advice to other PNMs. Many of us find that very insulting. Don’t argue with those who have already been where you’re going. Don’t curse. Write in complete sentences. Say please and thank you. Don’t ask us to write recs for you. We don’t know you and it’s rude. Don’t send private messages making outrageous requests or saying stupid things. Many of us talk amongst ourselves and will hear about it, whether in private or in public. And don’t expect to be spoon fed information, especially when it is readily available a million times over by using the search function.

If you have a super sensitive question and can’t get an answer to it out in the real world, consider creating a new identity to ask that question.

Of course all of this applies to anything you do here while your recruitment is actually happening. It seriously isn’t hard to put two plus two together.


Your Recruitment Story
So recruitment’s here and you’re eager to tell your story! You’ve done all the things mentioned above. There are still a few things to keep in mind in order to stay in stealth mode until you receive your bid:

-If something super unusual happens at a party, do not mention it or be specific about it. If the drapes caught fire or a sister dropped an entire tray of drinks on top of several PNMs, it will be very obvious which party and chapter you were at and will narrow you down to only a handful of PNMs. If you feel you have to mention something because it’s important to your story or decision, you can say something like “Something really awkward happened at the XYZ house but they handled it with such class. It really made me feel like I wanted to be a part of their sisterhood!”

-Do not talk about wardrobe specifics each day. If you want to talk about what you wore, say something like “I wore a sun dress I love and felt really good in” NOT “I wore a pink, green and white floral Ann Taylor sun dress with hot pink Lilly Pulitzer sandals and these amazing 4 karat pink diamond earrings.” And for God’s sake, don’t mention your pink sequined pantyhose! (Or any other “signature” piece you may be wearing through recruitment.) Also, don’t mention what you wear even in the vaguest terms if it was very different from what other PNMs wore that day. So if you ended up in a tee, shorts and flip flops while everyone else was in dresses and heels, zip it.

-Likewise, don’t mention any physical appearance specifics. Things like “I seem to be the only Indian woman going through recruitment” or “My heels were so high that I ended up being over six feet tall and was preffed by someone who was five feet tall” can slip out and identify you.

-Don’t get too specific about conversations. Say “I had a great chat with a member who has the same major and plays the same sport as I do” not “I talked with someone who is also an applied astrophysics major and is on the synchronized swimming team.”

-Mix up the order you visit the houses.

-Don’t get too specific about your Rho Chis or the members in your group. Things like “My Rho Chi is from the tiny town of Mayberry, population 500” and “I’m one of only two blondes in an entire group of brunettes” can quickly single you out.

-Mention legacy details with caution. For instance, if you’re a triple legacy to a house, it’s probably better to say something like “I was really excited to get to this party because I am a legacy.”

-In other words, don’t mention anything in detail that will make you stand out and be easily identifiable here.

Most of the people on Greek Chat are wonderful, nice and normal people. But this is a public board and you never know if something you say here will be taken the wrong way by a crazy person. Keeping your identity under wraps until you accept your bid will help you tell your story with a greatly diminished fear of retribution. I sincerely hope I have helped and encouraged some of you to tell us your 2009 story!

[court4short]

Thanks so much for this! It is SOOO helpful. As a PNM hoping to share her live recruitment story in the fall, I can say you're probably saving me some stupid mistakes !

[spoonfulofsugar]

^ Agreed. I am happy I read this before I posted anything!

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by Barbie's_Rush

Barbie’s Guide to Writing an Honest Real Time Recruitment Story without Sabotaging Your Recruitment


Your Greek Chat User Name and Profile
If you have any combination of your name, hometown, birthday, high school or other identifying feature in your user name, you’d be wise to create another one for your recruitment story. Also, make sure your home town, web site, instant messenger ID, etc. do not appear in your profile information.

Can't they just take this info out of their GC profiles?

[court4short]

Originally Posted by texas*princess

Can't they just take this info out of their GC profiles?

I believe she's referring to a username (ie. UFloridaJane) or something that gives away who you are/where you go to school.

[violetpretty]

Originally Posted by Barbie's_Rush

Your School
It’s up to you to decide whether or not you identify your school or the area of the country where you’re rushing. Depending on the number of sororities and recruitment dates, it may be very easy or quite difficult to identify your school even if you don’t do it yourself. If you attend a smaller school with much better chances of being “outed” during a live recruitment, you may wish to postpone your story for a few days to make your location less obvious.

However, there are some definite advantages to mentioning your school. Many here are familiar with how recruitment works at various schools, so you could get some extra advice along the way as well as cheerleading. Things like “It is not unusual to get only 2 or 4 invites for 8 party day at Super Competitive U, so your getting 6 invites is really good!” or “No matter what the Greek Life office says, no one wears shorts for the first day of recruitment at SEC U” can help keep your spirits up and provide you with “insider information” for a more successful recruitment.

-Mix up the order you visit the houses.

Consider the pros and cons of mentioning your school, but do realize that the number of chapters and start date alone are almost always enough to identify your school, even if you don't intend to identify it, and the more chapters your school has, the easier it will be to identify your school.

Do make sure to mix up the order in which you visit chapters ESPECIALLY during the first round. In the first round, many schools have a "rotation" where PNMs visit the chapters with their Rho Gamma groups. Everyone visits the chapters in the same order, so if you give enough information to identify one chapter, you've identified them all. Subsequent rounds may not be a big deal because only Panhellenic and the Rho Gammas should have access to your schedule.

Originally Posted by Barbie's_Rush

Write in complete sentences.

Using correct punctuation, spelling, capitalization, etc would also be great, since you are in college. It wasn't until Greek Chat that I observed the epidemic of not being able to differentiate between "apart" and "a part". I've added it to my long list of pet peeves.

[KSUViolet06]

I know you're trying to keep your identity hidden, but:

DO NOT LIE ABOUT THE NUMBER OF CHAPTERS AT YOUR SCHOOL.

DO NOT LIE ABOUT THE SCHEDULE.

You don't have to say where you go or when the exact days are, but when you start saying:

"Well, in the interest of protecting my identity, I'm going to leave out some chapters. There are only 8 chapters in my story."

OR

"I'm going to change the number of chapters we visit every day to keep my identity secret. We went to 15 chapters over 3 days!"

Your story starts to sound FAKE.

Because if the number of sororities is fake and the schedule is fake, then what's REAL?

So be aware that if you do this, people are going to question the authenticity of your story. Don't be mad.

If your story has so many "changes" that it starts to sound ridiculous and fake, someone is probably going to call you out.

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by court4short

I believe she's referring to a username (ie. UFloridaJane) or something that gives away who you are/where you go to school.

ahhhh gotcha... for some reason I thought it said the user info

[ASTalumna06]

My honest opinion...

If I was going through recruitment and wanted to post my story in real time, in order to not risk getting into trouble at all (both with sorority sisters at my school, and members of Greekchat), I'd post it all on the morning of bid day. I'd write my story, day by day, in Microsoft Word so that it was all in real time for myself. Then I'd post it all before I got my bid. This way, people on Greekchat aren't waiting two weeks to hear a full story, it was all written "in real time", I wouldn't give away who I was too early, and I'd still leave everyone in suspense about where I'd be pledging.

However, if you do choose to post your story each day, definitely take Barbie's advice to heart. The last thing you want to do is ruin your chances to be in a sorority because you just HAD to tell your story to a bunch of strangers on the internet.

[gee_ess]

I love ASTalumna06's advice!

[foreverinpink]

Wow, what wonderful advice!! Thank you barbie and others- you might have just saved me from a disasterous recruitment and recruitment story!

[KSUViolet06]

Another thing:

You know those posts you make in other forums besides Recruitment?

We can READ those.

When you post (for example) in Phi Mu's forum how you "go to Southern U and looooove Phi Mu, and everything it stands for! I soooo hope I get bid to Phi Mu and if not, I'm going to talk to my school about expansion," WE CAN SEE THAT.

It generally does not look good for a PNM to post in a specific group's forum about how they LOVE them.

Why?

Because you have likely never even met the chapter yet, so how do you know?

And you don't even know if you'll get invited back there after the first round!

It's also just a little creepy.

Put it this way, if you wouldn't walk up to a Phi Mu at your school and SAY that, you probably shouldn't post it.

[Zillini]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Put it this way, if you wouldn't walk up to a Phi Mu at your school and SAY that, you probably shouldn't post it.

That sums everything up quite nicely.

[DGTess]

Remember also -- not all sorority women will stalk you on line.

Not all will go seeking out information you don't volunteer.

Some will recognize you change things to avoid being detected, and that is not a challenge to test others' google-fu.

Some will realize that you may not know all the unwritten "rules" of greekchat.


It is not smart to state on Day 1 that you wouldn't consider a bid from XYZ if they were the last organization on the planet. Or that the girls could only ask about egg foo yung once they saw you were Asian.

Those who would "out" you against your will are those who give sorority selection processes a bad name.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by DGTess

Remember also -- not all sorority women will stalk you on line.

Not all will go seeking out information you don't volunteer.

Some will recognize you change things to avoid being detected, and that is not a challenge to test others' google-fu.

Some will realize that you may not know all the unwritten "rules" of greekchat.

Those who would "out" you against your will are those who give sorority selection processes a bad name.

Oh but some folks are like that. It's no fun, but it's reality.

To be honest: You are making your recruitment public info. No one is seeking it out.

99% of the people here are not people who seek out stuff. Most of us only figure things out based on what the PNMs put out there.

Also, people forget that ANYONE can read stuff they post here.

Half of the time, if a PNMs thread negatively affects her recruitment, it's because a sorority member from HER SCHOOL saw it. Alot of times, they don't even POST here, but they happened to read it.