Rush Counselors and their GLO affiliation

[TSteven]

Another thread got me thinking about rush counselors and keeping their GLO affiliation "secrete" during rush from the PNMs.

My understanding is that rush counselors do not wear their letters. Their pictures on websites and in their house is covered up or removed. And they can not talk about their affiliation with their GLO.

But what happens if a PNM happens to know a rush counselor and/or her affiliation? Or a rush counselor knows the PNM. Say because the PNM is rushing as a sophomore or perhaps she is from the same high school.

If the rush counselor knows a PNM, does she have to declare that she knows this PNM? Would she have to remove herself or would she be "assigned" (not sure how this works) to a rush group that does not include the girl from her high school?

Are PNMs asked (required?) to keep the information to themselves. For example, Ronda Rushee knows that Tammy Rush Counselor is an ABC. She has seen her in her letters either on campus or back in their hometown. But Tammy - the rush counselor - does not know Ronda? Would Ronda have to declare that she "knows" the affiliation of her rush counselor?

[AlphaFrog]

My understanding is that they tell you to keep you mouth shut if you know affiliations of any of the Recruitment team. I assume out of respect for all the other rushees, girls comply, but I'm sure there's exceptions....Also, I believe if for any reason you don't feel comfortable talking to your own PX you can talk to any of them...

[WCUgirl]

When I went through Rush I knew the affiliation of one my Rho Chi's (or whatever they're called now) because she was actually one of the reasons I chose to go through rush. I knew her and a few other sisters from summer school BEFORE the disafilliation date (it was toward the end of summer). I didn't say a word to anyone in my group; it was understood that no one was supposed to know.

It was awkward when, on Bid Day, I didn't put her group as my top choice. I was so worried about what to do...but then I was like, I'm not joining a sorority for her, I'm joining for me. I felt so guilty when she brought me my bid and it was my top choice, but not her group. She was kind of giving me a nasty look. She never spoke to me again after that either. Oh well!

ETA: I have always thought that you can SO tell which group they belong to. On the last day of rush our Rho Chi's had us all list the name of the Rho Chi and what group we thought they were in...I know I got them all right, as I'm sure most everyone else did as well.

[erniegurl00]

When I was a recruitment counselor the people in charge made us tell them if we knew anyone going through rush. I had to because a close friend of mine was going through. She knew what I was, but I explained to her that she had to keep my affiliation a secret. I think it would be hard if I had girls in my group who knew what I was. It would be just too awkward.

[maggieaxid]

When I was a PX (rho chi, rush counselor, recruitment advisor- whatever!) we would go over lists of the girls that were assigned to our groups to make sure that we didn't know them so as not to make it awkward. some of the legs to my glo knew what affiliation i was because we had spring recruitment and they had met me before i was disaffiliated, but they never said anything. actually, they would play along with the other girls in guessing our affiliation.

[TSteven]

Thanks for y'all's responses.

So am I correct in that it seems like there isn't really any "rules" but more on the honor system?

A follow up question. What happens if a rush counselor's GLO affiliation is made know. To play devil's advocate, lets say it was purely accidental. No dirty rushing, no rush infractions etc. No PNM let it slip. Basically, somehow it "gets out" that she is an ABC. Would she have to resign or somehow recuse herself?

And what if a PNM knew and told everyone she could that a rush counselor was an ABC. Say she didn't care or want to be an ABC so she wasn't worried about getting a bid from ABC. Are there repercussions for blabbing? Real or otherwise?

[kddani]

sheesh, it's not the end of the world if someone knows your affiliation. The whole purpose of the disaffiliation thing is for the girls to feel more comfortable and get some guidance.

If some dumb girl can't keep her fool mouth shut, that's her own fault and i'm sure the other rushees would just love her. Plus the word gets around she's a blabbermouth.

[TSteven]

Originally posted by kddani
sheesh, it's not the end of the world if someone knows your affiliation. The whole purpose of the disaffiliation thing is for the girls to feel more comfortable and get some guidance.

If some dumb girl can't keep her fool mouth shut, that's her own fault and i'm sure the other rushees would just love her. Plus the word gets around she's a blabbermouth.

Thanks for putting this in terms I can understand.

[FSUZeta]

it does mostly work on the honor system. if a pnm did correctly guess a rush counselors affiliation, or actually knew her affiliation for whatever reason, and the counselor was expected to step down, that could really reek havoc . one absentee rush counselor for whatever reason would be difficult for panhellenic and the other rush counselors to work around.

as for girls trying to guess affiliations, we all did it when i was a pnm and when i was a rush counselor my pnm group tried to guess but i don;t believe any of them got it right. you see, i had friends in most of the other houses and said hello to everyone i knew as i escorted my group from house to house,so my girls were very confused! on the first two days of rush, my group was paired with another group whose rush counselor(from another house) did not even try to hide which house she was a member of. i just gritted my teeth and smiled!

[WCUgirl]

Most of our Rho Chi's did that too - they would talk to and wave to girls from other GLO's.

I just think it's obvious because usually these girls look like the girls in the same group. I don't know...I know that sounds stereotypical, and I'm not meaning it to be, but all the girls just have a similar look.

There was one Rho Chi when I went through Rush who wore a necklace with a turtle on it. She had me the most confused because she had a haircut similar to one that most of the DZ's had at that time. I was like, "This girl could so be a DZ!" But I knew that her wearing the turtle necklace was done to purposefully throw off us rushees. It turns out, she was an AZD and had borrowed the necklace from one of the other Rho Chi's to try to confuse us!

[adpiucf]

Back when they were still called Rho Chi's at my campus, I was a Rho Chi.

We were EVIL! Our university is VERY Panhellenic, and the sorority women all have friends in other chapters. There are, of course, stereotypes, about the look of the women in each chapter, which is ironic, because each of the sororities at our campus are very large, with members from every conceivable background, major and interests. With chapters of up to 180 women, it's impossible to achieve a cookie cutter image.

But I digress--- Anyway, as a PX, we would get our PNM's to guess our affiliation at the end of each day of recruitment! The answers ranged, and we would try to throw them off by each exibiting a "stereotype" each day--- wearing ribbons and pearls one day, and then dark eyeliner and lipliner the next, very preppy or very contemporary (well, as personalized as you could get with all the PX's wearing the same t-shirts!)

I did run into 2 circumstances as a PX where 1) my roommate was in my traveling group and she knew my affiliation. But she was great and kept my secret! 2) And I also had a girl in MY group that I had preffed the year before who hadn't gotten us and wanted to come through again. She was a sweetheart and didn't tell a soul!

Being a PX was a great experience, but the best part was running home on Bid Day and being attacked with hugs and sisters telling me "I missed you SO much!"

[sugar and spice]

I think, like other people have said, it's mostly on the honor system. One of the girls from my high school rushed at the same time as I did, and she knew that one of my Rho Chis was a Tri Delt because they worked together -- but she kept the secret.

As for knowing which girl was in which sorority by looks -- I think it depends on the size of the sorority system. For small-to-medium-sized systems I think this might be true, but the bigger it gets (both in terms of numbers of chapters and number of girls in the chapter), the more difficult it is. Here I think it is pretty easy to narrow it down to two or three chapters, but generally pinpointing the exact one is tougher. Going through rush, my rush group had three Rho Chis. We thought the Alpha Phi was a Theta, the Theta was a Chi O, and the Tri Delt was a DG or a Kappa. One of the things I love about my sorority is that there really isn't a "Tri Delta look," so none of the rushees ever guess that our Tri Delt Rho Chis are Tri Delts -- in the past two years they've guessed our girls were Kappas, DGs, Gamma Phis, AXOs, Thetas, Pi Phis, and probably more.

And yes, some of the Rho Chis do things to purposely throw the girls off.

[SigKapQueen]

when i was a rho chi last year i had the most fun tricking all the girls in my group and they had no idea what chapter i was in. the only thing is i have a tattoo of my letters on my foot and had to wrap it with bandage tape everyday to not show everyone my affiliation. girls from different groups heard about me and totally came up to me and said," I KNOW WHAT CHAPTER YOUR IN, everyone in ABC has a tattoo of their letters on their foot!" i just smiled at them and knew they had no clue. granted i knew the people they were takling about, but they werent in my chapter. the only other sister in my chapter that has an identical one on her foot went alum and helped out during recruitment.

another thing chapters do here is cover rho chis in composites with symbols of their sorority......so my chapter decided to do famous people. so we had christina aguilera, britney spears, mary kate and asley olson as honorary sigma kappas. i personally told my chapter i wanted to be hillary duff for next years recruitment!!!

[FAUNikki]

During Fall 03 rush, we had a PNM come into our room and tear off the cover over a Rho Gamma (as they are called at my school) and tell everyone "Dana is a Phi Sig" I knew it! It was bad, she was very rude to us and we just tried to be nice for the rest of the week, but it was hard. I think someone should have spoken to her about doing that and it being wrong, but no one did

[MTSUGURL]

We had one rho sigma that carried around a keychain of her roommate's sorority so that the girls wouldn't guess which she was actually in.