Preffing someone you know has made their decision

[AlphaSigLana]

Last yr I was rushing one girl that i had already spoken to. She came to our house and DZ for pref. I could tell that she had already made up her mind, but she really like our president and another girl who rushed her. I felt bad bc I kept repeating how great our house is, but to go where her heart wanted her. I could tell she wouldn't have fit in with our house even though she is great. I think she knew this too. She chose DZ and I think they are lucky to have her. So what do you do when you know the PNM has their mind basically made up or that you know they would be happier elsewhere?

[Blueyz81]

Well I'm going through pre-rush this week, and we've been discussing lots of different situations that we may encounter... this being one of them.
We were told to be understanding about what they say.. Draw from personal experiences..."when i went through recruitment..."DON't tell them they shouldn't feel a certain way. Ask what they like about XYZsorority...then maybe tie it in to your & promote our sorority(for ex:she liked the philanthropy....talk about your sorority's philanthropy). OR promote the greek system in general.
If all else fails (an they are being snotty about it) change the subject & talk about ANYTHING else (shopping,roomates, etc) to keep it going smoothly.
Hope this helps?

[LeslieAGD]

The first girl I ever prefed was a girl that I was convinced was going somewhere else. I had talked to her at two of the previous parties and really liked her a lot. Not only did I have a sense that she was going somewhere else, but she was giving me a lot of short sentence answers and I kept trying to find something else to say that would spark conversation. :(

[DWAlphaGam]

One way my chapter tried to avoid awkwardness during preference was to set up small groups during preference so that you could talk one-on-one with the pmn you were preferencing, but you were near enough to another sister and her pmn to be able to draw them into the conversation if you needed to. This works even better if you know that the pmn has a friend in her preference group; you can make sure they're next to each other and try to seal the deal with both of them. This is especially helpful if you or your pmn might be quiet and feel uncomfortable talking one-on-one.

[violets]

Okay, I can only post my own experience with this, but I know that I preffed a woman whom I was sure wanted another chapter. I was very, very wrong. She was simply nervous and a quiet girl by nature. I know I did a very poor job preffing her because of my own prejudgement of the situation.
So that's my little warning, don't be so sure.
My advice is this, stay in the moment, don't worry about the future while you're in Preference. Take the opportunity to show the woman how much you feel for your sisterhood, no matter what she may do afterwards. That way you'll know that you treated your guest to the best preference experience you could give her.
As for awkward conversation, well, the best way to overcome that is to just talk about your chapter, start from the beginning of your new member experience and go over each milestone in your life with your sorority. I know that it feels like your telling it to a wall, but at least you know you did your best.
Okay, that's my two cents on the subject.

[justamom]

This makes me wonder--
Take AlphaSigLana's scenario but add another twist-what if she is a legacy to one of the other houses the night of pref. You KNOW she will be on top of their bid list, what would your approach be? Is she killing time? Could she be undecided? I think it might be a safer approach to rush her in the same way you would anyone, because many minds are changed or yet undecided on Pref night. Of course this is barring any blatant rudeness or disinterest on HER part

[dzsaigirl]

I have preffed girls who have already made up their mind before. Girls who I met at the door and they asked me "So should I wear khakis or jeans to match y'all at bid day?" and also girls who said "I was so moved at XYZ pref, and I can't wait to be in the same sorority as my mom". Usually, if a girl just flat out told me like that, I would be sort of casual about pref...like take the pressure off of them by saying "If you are hungry don't feel embarrassed about eating the food, I know that it can feel strange to eat in front of people..." Seriously, the girls would usually chow down on the pref food once they realized that they wouldn't have to feel awkward! Then we would talk about random stuff. I am a pretty good talker, so I never had a problem with it. Actually, I managed to get every girl I preffed to tell me who their first choice was (without blatantly asking....didn't want to be illegal). What I did find is that with other rushers, if they said their rushee said she was "torn", that usually meant that we weren't her first choice and she was saying "torn" to avoid telling who she liked better...

[SoCalGirl]

I'm all for keeping the conversation neutral if you think the girl has already decided on another chapter. And don't forget, just because she's decided XYZ is #1 on her list does not mean that she's on their first list.

Our rush advisor always warned against this type of thinking. The woman that had preffed her was 100% convinced that she didn't want to be SK. She did not ask questions. She just sat there eating the cheesecake. Turns out she was soooo sure she wanted SK that she did not have any doubts. And she was starving!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Right on, SoCalGirl!

My rusher was sure I was going to a different house. In reality, I was just so nervous I couldn't think of anything to say.

Well, three years later she is still my best friend, and we laugh about it, but it goes to show that you should never count someone out.