Sorority Previews

[Florida Admin.]

Hello everyone!

I am new to this forum. I thought it would be a great idea to join this chat and see what great things greeks are doing at their schools. I have a question for the Panhellenic (GLO's) sorority members out there. At my university as we are trying to step up recruitment and market ourselves. This fall we want to have a sorority preview a week before actual recruitment starts. For those of you who have sorority previews what kinds of things do you do during that event? Thanks in advance for your help!

[PM_Mama00]

Originally posted by Florida Admin.
Hello everyone!

I am new to this forum. I thought it would be a great idea to join this chat and see what great things greeks are doing at their schools. I have a question for the Panhellenic (GLO's) sorority members out there. At my university as we are trying to step up recruitment and market ourselves. This fall we want to have a sorority preview a week before actual recruitment starts. For those of you who have sorority previews what kinds of things do you do during that event? Thanks in advance for your help!

Ours was called the Greek Orientation. We have 3 Panhellenic chapters on our campus, so what our Membership Director and advisor did (our advisor is very involved in our recruitment and really really helpful) was separate each into 3 rooms: equal number of Phi Sigs, equal number of Phi Mus, and equal number of Deephers. It was one night and held the same way as a normal recruitment round. We had themes. One year it was the Greek World and one room was Hawaii, one was New York, and one was New Orleans. I should mention that we don't have houses.

Some people didn't like it, but I loved it and thought it was a great way to get all the Panhel girls together. We all made a lot of new friends in other chapters and it was a real bonding experience.

This year we just had a Greek Open House. It was just Panhel sororities and we rented out our multi-purpose room in the student center.

one room had poster boards of different aspects of sorority life: sisterhood, retreats, financial information, history of each chapter. Also there was a chance to pre-register and they got a discount on their application fee.

the next room was a slideshow of a more in depth history of each chapter, and different pictures.

the last room was where the food was and Panhel girls were allowed to go in there and talk to the new girls, answer questions, etc.

It was really cool. We had two full days of that and we didn't get as many girls as with the Greek Orientation, but we all enjoyed the leniency in time scheduling.

[KDMafia]

We have two different previews for greek life.
The first is the sorority/fraternity showcase. It takes place on our quad and all the greek organizations have a table, each sorority usually has stuff like pin boxes or paddles and bilboards with pictures on it, and than we also have different fliers with all our information on it. This happens early in the fall before informal rush.

At the end of the first semester we have the sorortiy openhouse which is where each of our six NPC sororites each take a topic about greek life. Ours this year was philantrophy. We spend about five to eight minutes talking about our individual sorority and than we spend the remaining time talking about our topic not just within our sorority but with all the sororities. The Rho Gammas are there to answer girls questions as well.

[WCUgirl]

When I was a new member, we had a progressive dinner type of thing that we did after recruitment, but it might be a great thing to do before.

We lived on sorority halls in a dorm. The sorority on the bottom floor went first, and they had what would have been "cocktail hour" - non-alcoholic beverages and socializing. The second floor served appetizers. The next floor up served salads. The next floor served dinner, the next floor served dessert and the last floor served coffee (we had 6 groups at the time). There was a set time frame, like 20 min. for cocktail hour, 20 min. for appetizers, etc. Dinner was the longest and I think that was about half an hour.

If you have more than 6 groups you could have 2 or 3 of them pair up accordingly. As I said, ours was a new member dinner, where all the new members went through and the sisters served them dinner. This would work as a recruitment marketing event if the sisters served the interested women.

[PureGoldF2K1]

My school always hold a "Meet The Greeks" event in the student union about a week before formal recruitment starts in which 5 reps from each sorority assemble tables filled with pictures, balloons, flowers, albums, paddles, flyers etc. It's always sooo crowded with PNMs and a pretty interesting, fun night. (The fraternities are in a separate room, but many of the guys wander over to the sorority room to check it all out

Then a couple days later, there is an outdoor event held outside the Union called "Fall Bash." (formerly "watermelon picnic") It's basically the same as Meet The Greeks, but outdoors, more casual (the sisters wear letters as opposed to business attire), and refreshments are served. This is usually the less intimidating way to meet some sisters and preview the sororities.

[AXOhottie]

Our formal recruitment is in January, so we use fall to have prerecruitment events. In September, the chapters that are not at total participate in Panhellenic Informal Recruitment. The opening round is an open house and freshmen can attend this event. The PNMs go to each house for 30 minutes and they get tours. This gives freshmen a chance to see the houses and meet some of the women.

In November we have another prerecruitment event. My freshman year we did Must See TV night. PNMs got to go over to each house for 30 minutes and hang out with the Greek women at their respective houses. This year we did a Greek Game night. Representatives from all chapters (all fraternities and sororities) attended. Nobody could wear letters. There were information tables for each house. This gave PNMs a good chance to get familiar with the Greek community without feeling pressure from individual houses.

In December, we have a progressive dinner. One house serves appetizers, one house serves a main course, and the other house serves dessert. Girls who are seriously interested in formal recruitment are usually the ones who attend. It always turns out well, and is a nice way to end the semester.

Then the week we return from break we have formal recruitment. At the informational meeting, each chapter has an information table.

I think my school utilizes the first semester well for prerecruitment events and opportunities to learn about Greek life. There are usually 2-3 informational meetings about Greek life throughout the first semseter. I'm not sure how doing stuff like this would work at a school with formal recruitment in August though.