Summer Rush

[HalfWindsor]

How important is summer rush to the SECs and other chapters in the south?

I go to a big southern school, but no fraternities utilize the summer for recruitment purposes. If we started having summer parties for incoming freshman, would it look like we are trying too hard?
(we're definately a top group, but not invincible)

Thanks fellas! (and ladies?)

[LaneSig]

Summer rush parties can be very important. You need to get guys aware of your chapter and your brotherhood as soon as possible. It will also help you to know which guys you want to hotbox and which guys you wouldn't let into your house to take out the garbage. Many southern and SEC schools have a good idea of who they are going to bid strictly from their summer rush parties.

Even at my campus, Arkansas State, (not very competitive rush) my chapter held a couple of summer rush events. It was an easy and laid back way for rushees to see and get a feel for our chapter.

[TSteven]

Are you sure the other chapters aren't having some sort of informal or nonofficial summer rush events? As Lane said, these are usually very laid back events. And often the parties aren't publicized as a rush event. Nor are they open to anyone rushing and can be by invite only. In any case, find out if and of the other chapters are doing any type of informal events. If they are, then y'all should be as well.

And for all y'all NPCers (and anyone else not familiar with NIC guidelines), while some IFCs may not allow summer rush, the NIC does allow it. Think of it as a COB/COR type thing.

[Tom Earp]

Please beleive there is some sort of summer contact or should be by GLOs.


If they are not doing it, then they are not doing their Chapter very well.

Of course, The SEC plays different rules from what I hear?

[HalfWindsor]

I'm positive that no fraternity on campus holds any type of parties over the summers for recruitment purposes.

Of course groups go out and try to get 5 or 10 guys they know and want, but nothing large scale.

Should we go against the grain of the system norm and start recruiting over summer on a larger scale? Or would we look desperate?

By the way, this is an SEC- now you probably know which one. The fraternity culture here is just very lazy when it comes to recruiting. Hardcore when we're rushing, but lazy about recruiting. Does that make sense?

[SoCalGirl]

Only people on your campus can give say whether or not they would think it would seem desperate for your chapter to have summer events.

My concern would be that it could be a very slippery slope. As a top group holding summer events the other groups may feel "pressure" to also start having them too. Next thing you know it's practically mandatory!

That being said, if you want to test the waters, I would start with informal invite only events. The first invites should go to in house legacies and high schools friends that already know brothers in the chapter.

If you're sure nobody else has them, why do you want to consider starting?

[LaneSig]

You can have recruitment going on without having specific 'rush parties'.

My chapter would do it this way: Guys living in the Little Rock area would have one or two casual events and invite pnms that they knew from school, church, family friends, etc., who would be going to Arkansas State the next year. At the same time, members who lived in Blytheville area or other areas would do the same. We even had several members from southeast Missouri (like me) who would get together and do the same. After a couple of these events, we would plan a summer rush party at school. Invite those who we were interested in and who seemed interested in us. This way we could get them to meet more of the members.

Would something like that work for your chapter? Remember, it doesn't have to be a big party. Take them to play paintball, golfing, to a baseball game (minor or major league), etc.

[HalfWindsor]

Originally Posted by Sperry

The big Greek-run SEC schools (Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia) start summer rush in late May, about a week after high school graduation. Typically, summer rush will end around mid-August, usually the weekend before college starts. The big fraternities at these schools (125+ members) start giving out bids early to mid-June. For example, this is FIJI at Auburn's 2007 summer rush schedule....so yeah, summer rush at those 4 schools in particular is kind of a big deal.

I hope no one is misunderstanding me, because I think this is a fantastic idea.
None of our big chapters (We have four at 125+, two at 140+ and one at 170) do anything during the summers.
It looks like most of the events are very close to the Auburn campus. Is this pretty standard across the board, or are more events usually held in the Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile areas?

[TSteven]

My understanding is that Auburn's Summer Rush is their main rush. Thus all the events. While fall rush is more of a secondary thing to get the pledges that didn't make it to a summer event etc.

Generally speaking, most SEC schools have some sort of a combination of summer rush and fall rush. Some or more structured or formal, while others not.

For an example, you may want to take a look at the Ole Miss IFC Recruitment Rules (Ole Miss has one of the more competitive IFC rushes) to get a better idea of how Summer Recruitment (Recruitment = Rush), Pre-Recruitment, and Formal Recruitment works for them.

Originally Posted by HalfWindsor

I'm positive that no fraternity on campus holds any type of parties over the summers for recruitment purposes.

Of course groups go out and try to get 5 or 10 guys they know and want, but nothing large scale.

Should we go against the grain of the system norm and start recruiting over summer on a larger scale? Or would we look desperate?

By the way, this is an SEC- now you probably know which one. The fraternity culture here is just very lazy when it comes to recruiting. Hardcore when we're rushing, but lazy about recruiting. Does that make sense?

First off, if you feel it isn't broken, they why fix it? However, if you feel that some sort of push needs to be done over the summer (perhaps to be proactive or just to be sure to get quality men), then increase the number of guys you rush over the summer. Go from trying to get 5 to 10 guys to 15 to 25. Again, you do not have to do anything large and/or have massive parties. Just take suggestions provided and scale it to what would work best for your chapter, the event, and would best fit with your campus culture. That way, you don't look like you are being desperate.

[HalfWindsor]

Originally Posted by TSteven

First off, if you feel it isn't broken, they why fix it? However, if you feel that some sort of push needs to be done over the summer (perhaps to be proactive or just to be sure to get quality men), then increase the number of guys you rush over the summer. Go from trying to get 5 to 10 guys to 15 to 25. Again, you do not have to do anything large and/or have massive parties. Just take suggestions provided and scale it to what would work best for your chapter, the event, and would best fit with your campus culture. That way, you don't look like you are being desperate.

Thanks for the advice.
There is certainly nothing broken with our chapter. We continually get large, high quality pledge classes AS COMPARED TO OTHER GROUPS. The problem, that seems to be growing, are the numbers across the board. The number of young men rushing, and pledging any fraternity, has been steadily decreasing over the last several years. (at my school)
I just thought summer recruitment might keep our numbers up, at the very least.

We'll probably opt for smaller, not publicized get-togethers.

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by Sperry

The big Greek-run SEC schools (Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia) start summer rush in late May...

I believe they are all inviting high school seniors to visit throughout the senior year. Even the sororities. The sororities also send notes all year to their top rushees. Illegal? YES. But still done.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

I believe they are all inviting high school seniors to visit throughout the senior year. Even the sororities. The sororities also send notes all year to their top rushees. Illegal? YES. But still done.

While it may be "illegal" for NPC sororities to recruit (rush) throughout the (high school) senior year and send notes etc., the NIC allows their member fraternities to do so.

NIC Resolution
Resolution on Recruitment

WHEREAS, undergraduate membership in NIC member fraternities has declined since 1989; and

WHEREAS, the NIC and its member fraternities have long advocated a model of year-round unrestricted recruitment; and

WHEREAS, many campuses and fraternity chapters continue to recruit new members only during limited times throughout the year; and

WHEREAS, use of the term "rush" has become associated with a time-specific effort to attract new members to a fraternity chapter that is passive in nature; and

WHEREAS fraternity membership has declined despite the NIC and its member fraternities implementing a variety of educational initiatives including the Fraternity Forum model;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT The NIC and its member fraternities move from a rush model to a recruitment model based on an unrestricted, year-round commitment to actively seeking prospective members who share our commitment to fraternal values including scholarship, leadership and service; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT The NIC and its member fraternities develop resources and educational forums to teach undergraduate and alumni members how to actively engage in year-round recruitment; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT The NIC and its member fraternities call on campus fraternity advisors and IFC leaders to implement a recruitment model that provides unrestricted opportunities for students to join fraternities.

Approved by the NIC House of Delegates, December 7, 1996

[TNDelta549]

What is the best way to let people know about the summer events that you are having? I am having trouble getting anything from campus about incoming freshman. Do you receive an email list or use addresses at your universities?

[Tom Earp]

Yes, at my alma mater, we can reqeust and get info on new possible coming to the school.

It should be open information.

No booze partys allowed.

[FSUZeta]

check out the campus fraternity websites-often they either list the parties or suggest that anyone interested in rushing their fraternity contact their rush chair and they list the r.c.'s name and either email, phone # or both.