LSP Rush -- Feeling awful

[MenaceKiller]

My fraternity's first rush with me as President went farkin' awful last night.

3 PNM's showed up (we're a local, not in IFC) and my rush chairpersons apparently did not plan to do anything other than "just chat" for 30 to 45 minutes, forgot to pass out the rush literature I had to introduce all the PNM's to our system and to make them more aware of just what RUSH is, kept pestering the guys about if they had any questions, then FINALLY, after a lot of uncomfortable silence, introduced me and the alumni advisor for our speeches.

After tossing and turning much last night, I'm pretty unhappy about how I let the rush chairs run things - I had to take charge after the speeches because they had just more "chat" and "a tour of the house" which only happened to be 10 minutes long. I started a "get to know each other" game where we passed around a football and stated our favorite movie, sports team, most beautiful woman in the world, what would we bring with us on a desert island, etc. That thankfully made time fly by and we ended rush on a more positive note.

I'm afraid that the first impressions of the rushees are that we're lazy guys who couldn't get the first night underway properly. I'll admit that the two rush chairpersons were two of our most inexperienced brothers, but what also disappoints me is that no other brother decided to pick up the slack where they felt the rush chairs were lacking, except myself. I'm afraid that we've almost definitely turned off at least two of the guys who attended, and are only interested in coming back because the second night is a joint event with a sister sorority.

I'm berating myself, too, because prior to my taking charge of the games, the question of "I heard this fraternity is really a gay fraternity, right?" came up and I explained how we got that stupid label -- but then when we were asking about movies, I stated I liked a more girlish movie "The Princess' Bride" and some of the facial expressions of the guys made me wish I picked "The Matrix."

What can I do to ease my mind off these things?

[justamom]

Read lifesaver's thread for ideas and thel evel of energy it takes.
Wipe your slate clean and start OVER from square one. Get your rush chairs off their butts and tell them if they want the fraternity to survive they need to get with the program and work it! Hard truths for hard times.

What you described does sound like a bad start, but we've all had our moment when we hesitated getting out of the gate. The biggest mistake you could make is to BELIEVE you screwed up so bad it can't be rectified.

If you have to lose sleep-skip TV/Nintendo/bar hopping, do it. Positive energy attracks more positive energy. People want to be around exciting people.
YOU CAN DO IT!

[MoxieGrrl]

You are probably just judging everything more harshly because you were so nervous! Sounds like you had some uncomfortable moments, but not *too* bad!

Let your brothers know how you felt about this party and get their input. Then, maybe you guys can scheme ways to be better organized for the next one.

Oh, did you have good food at this party? That is always a big draw for my fiance's fraternity.....and when everyone is well fed, they are more relaxed.

Good luck!

[PenguinTrax]

First of all, you left the responsiblity in someone elses hands. Granted, someone should have been 'checking in' with them to see how the plans were running, BUT it seems that definite goals/tasks weren't assigned.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20...and you can only move forward from here.

So, I recommend that you and the rush chairs sit down for a planning session for the next event. DO NOT dwell on what was or wasn't done at the last event, concentrate on planning the next event to it's fullest and promoting it. No sense looking back, only look forward.

Do not lay blame, on yourself or anyone else. It's still early enough in the process to 'fix' things and make your recruitment a success.

[MenaceKiller]

I guess I put too much faith in my Vice President, who really oversees all committees, and in my committment to not "spoon feed" all the brothers who should have the right to make their own mistakes and learn from them. Perhaps I'm being too critical of minor mistakes and with my desire to make rush super successful for my year of presidency.

I'm going to recommend that food and drink be far more plentiful during rush in the future. We started rush after dinner this year so brothers decided it wasn't necessary to provide more than simple snacks like chips and dip, and sode/water.

More games are definitely a must. That and to keep the PNM's interest from the minute they step into the house.

Crap, I'm too pissed off today. I hope it's not the fact that I've been distracted dealing with crappy, petty brother issues to focus on pledge issues. Some of our most experienced brothers are "taking the semester off" because they went through some stupid stuff over summer, and now we're down from 10 brothers to 7.

[SuperSister]

I'm the president of my org. this year and mine is about the size of yours (a little larger). Here's what I do to make sure that things are getting done: After elections I talked to all my officers and committee chairs and asked them what they wanted to accomplish and told them what I would like to see happen with this year. We now have periodic chats (usually once a week)about how they're coming and what they've accomplished. While this keeps them accountable and me knowing what's going on if they're slacking of I can give them a gentle reminder with "I'd really like to see X happen in the next week or so, why don't you see what your committee can do about it." Also, as president I'm an ex officio member of all committees and I do my darn best to be at all the meetings so I can see what's going on and give a little input. This way I can be on top of things and know what's going on without turning the chapter into a dictatorship. I hope this helps!

Emily