Formal Recruitment Questions

[ASTalumna06]

Ok, so I have questions.

I’ve never participated in formal recruitment, and my campus only does COB. From what I can tell, the Greek Advisor is slowly trying to make a change to formal recruitment for at least one semester during the school year. Whether this will work or not, no one really knows. The sisters from all three chapters seem to be against the idea, but I don’t know if all of the positives/negatives have been mapped out for them. I know as well as they do that to create such a system from scratch (or close to it) can be a large undertaking. But with a large interest in sorority recruitment among freshmen this semester (more than a lot of sisters have ever seen), this might start to become a more viable option over the next couple of years.

I’ve learned a lot about the process from this site, and from reading Panhellenic rules and guidelines from other schools. But if for some reason my campus does try to begin to use formal again, I want my chapter, that I now advise, to be fully aware of what exactly this kind of recruitment entails. And what better way to do that than to ask people directly!

And while this probably won’t happen very soon, the younger girls who are active now might have to start to learn about formal if Panhellenic eases back into it. Any kind of information that you all can give me would be great.

Some specific questions:

1.) For those of you that attend(ed) schools that have formal recruitment after the start of the school year, how do rounds conflict with class schedules? I know that during COB this semester, many PNMs could not attend one or two of our events because they had night classes. Are some rounds on the weekend? Are there two nights of some rounds so that everyone is able to attend? Please explain.

2.) How does this work in Panhellenic? Are there additional positions or a committee to handle the recruitment process?

3.) How do students sign up? Obviously for freshmen who can participate in recruitment before the start of school, there must be something that is sent home to them. But when formal takes place in the spring, how does this work? Is there a general sign-up somewhere, like at a specific place in the student union (I know that we do this on my campus for certain activities)? Is it online? Do members of each sorority have individual sign-up sheets that they submit to Panhellenic?

4.) What are your rounds like? Are some of them just basic discussions among actives and PNMs? I know that Preference Parties are ceremonies that aren’t ritual, but they still seem like they are kind of “secret”. But… is there anything that anyone can tell me about these parties? Any activities or things that are discussed?

5.) How are Rho Chis (or whatever your school happens to call them) chosen? Is it an application process? Who decides who they are?

6.) Rho Chis and attending rounds… how does this whole method work? This is going to be a “simple”, hypothetical story, and I’m guessing on all of this, so bear with me, and please tell me if I have this whole thing screwed up! haha. Ok…
I am a PNM, I have one Rho Chi all throughout recruitment. During the first round, my Rho Chi comes to the first recruitment party with me and all of the other girls in my “PNM group”. The next round, I get invited back to all three chapters, but my friend Hopeful Holly, who is in my PNM grouping from the first day, only gets invited back to two. She has the same Rho Chi as myself, and I have to go to one more party than her. My Rho Chi brings the same group of girls to all of the parties, and we all have the same schedule, in terms of what times we are to be at each chapter. But since Hopeful Holly wasn’t invited back to the second party that my PNM group has scheduled that day, she will attend the first party with us, have a break (for as long as that second party lasts), and will then attend the last party with myself, our Rho Chi, and the rest of the PNM group.


This is all for now, but I'm sure I'll have more! Thanks in advance!