NPC Quota, Release Figures and Quota Additions (Updated 8/7/2007)
 

How Quota is set

There are a couple different methods in the NPC book. Now, these are NPC recommendations but it's not a RULE or LAW that these methods have to be used.

#1: Quota shall equal the number of women accepting at least one invitation to the first or second round of invitational events divided by the number of chapters. For example:

Registered PNM 350
Accepting first invitational event 300
Number of NPC groups 6
300 div 6 - 50 quota
Accepting second invitational 279
270 div 6 = 45

#2 (This method is used when there are at least 3 invitational rounds including preference.)

Quota equals the number of women registering and attending the first membership recruitment function, multiplied by the average percent of women pledged during he last three years divided by the number of chapters.

Registered PNM 350
Number of NPC groups 6
Average % of women pledged last 3 years 72%
(1987 - 70%, 1988 - 74%, 1989 - 72%)
Number attending the membership recruitment function 325
325 x 72% = 234
234 div 6 = 39 quota.

Release Figures

NPC endorses a formula which College Panhellenics may use in recommending the number of invitations a fraternity chapter should issue to insure their own membership recruiting success as well as to provide an opportunity to pledge the greatest number of women. The number (percentage) of PNMs that are invited back by each chapter is derived from a complex formula based on several years' worth of statistical data such as: number of invitation extended versus number accepted, number accepting bids versus number completing recruitment events, etc.

For more competitive campuses, this could mean that some chapters will be required to release 50% or more of the PNMs when the invitational rounds begin. As a result, it is strongly recommended that PNMs continue through the recruitment process, even if the invitations they receive appear to be, at first, less desirable. As has been stated several times before, opinions change during the week. If, at the time of Preference round, a PNM still does not have a strong connection to one or more groups, they can decline to sign their Membership Binding Agreement Card.

Quota Additions

NPC continues to recommend that bids be matched to Quota only. It is recognized, however, that unusual campus conditions may indicate that some women whose bids fail to match in the normal bid matching process may be placed even if this puts a chapter over Quota.

Because most unmatched bids are a direct result of a chapter issuing more inivitations to preference events than it has a reasonable expectation to offer bids, Panhellenics using Quota Additions must encourage collegiate chapters to carefully observe the recommended release numbers.

The following procedures should be followed if women whose bids did not match in the normal course of bid matching must be placed in fraternity chapters that have already reached Quota.

1. No College Panhellenic may adopt this Quota Addtions procedure unless there is compliance with the College Panhellenics Committee's recommendation for release figures. These release figures are based on a three year statistical study as described on pages 85 and 86 of the Manual of Information.

2. The woman will be matched to the fraternity chapter she has listed on her Membership Recruitment Acceptance which is the smallest in chapter size, as long as her name appears on that chapter's preferential bid list, and that by matching her there that group does not exceed Quota by more than 5%.

3. This procedure shall never include a woman who lists an intentional single preference on her preference Membership Recruitment Acceptance or one who as failed to accept or attend any membership recruitment event for which there was room in her membership recruitment schedule.

4. No group may exceed quota by more than 5% of Quota. If 5% is a fractional number, the number shall be rounded up to the next whole number.

5. Quota Additions do not raise or increase the number of Quota and this process is only used during the bid-matching process itself. Quota Additions do not create Quota vacancies under any circumstances. Quota Additions are never involved in Continous Open Bidding.

Example: Quota is 50

Alpha Chapter - 75 members, pledged 50
5% addtion - 3
Total size: 128

Beta Chapter - 80 members, pledged 50
Total size: 130

confused
 

i remember after rush this year when everyone was talking about who made quota etc. we were told we made quota and had the biggest pledge class (42 girls). my roommate was telling me that her sorority (kkg) had also made quota and they took in 38 new members, while alpha phi had also "made quota" with 40 new pledges - is this REALLY confusing to anyone else?! is it possible for every chapter to have a differnt quota? i remember hearing that gamma phi was allowed to take in the most new members because we are the biggest sorority on campus - but this just DOES NOT make sense to me?! that would make it seem like they are trying to keep the chapters at certain sizes and potentially inhibiting their ability to grow? if you can offer any kind of explaination i would b ever so grateful!
xoxo
chantillylace

Quota is the same for all chapters. It could be that:

a) chapters were allowed to take Quota Additions

or

b) the chapter was under campus total and extended additional bids right after formal recruitment to to reach total, thereby enlarging the pledge class

I'm a little confused about quota additions. Please correct any missteps that I may make...

Let's say you have 3 sororities. 60 women attend preference parties. That means quota is 60 / 3 = 20.

Before recruitment started, sorority A had 75 sisters, B had 60, and C had 45.

Now let's say that sororities A and B each make quota, while sorority C only matches with 15 women. That means 5 women are bidless after "normal" bid matching. Let's assume that each of these 5 women listed A and B on her pref card, in some order - no intentional single preferences.

Sororities A and B are now allowed to accept quota additions. 5% of 20 is 1, so each sorority may bid 1 more PNM. One woman will be matched to B (since it's smaller), then one woman will be matched to A.

So, what determines which of the 5 goes to B, which goes to A, and which three go bidless? Does B get whichever of the 5 was ranked highest on B's second bid list, then A gets whichever of the 4 remaining women was ranked highest on their list?

Is it then possible that you could have a PNM who loved B but matched to A during "normal" bid matching, while a PNM who loved A got matched to B as a quota addition?

Should I maybe try to figure out something easier instead, like quantum physics?? :)

If I'm understanding correctly. In AEPhiAlum's example, Sorority B would get and additional girl. Sorority A would only get quota. Sorority C would only have the 15. Four girls would go bidless.

Out of the five women, they would be divided into two piles: Those who ranked A as #1, and those who ranked B as #1. Out of the ones who ranked A #1, they would get whomever was highest on their bid list, and the same would happen for B.

As in normal matching, the PNM's preference takes priority over the sorority's preference.

That kind of makes sense... but does that then mean that someone lower on, say, A's bid list could get matched to A, while someone higher on A's list could get matched to B even if she listed A first?

To build on my previous example: Susie and Jenny each attend pref parties at sororities A and B. Each of them lists A, then B, on her pref card. Susie is, say, #16 on both A's and B's second bid lists; Jenny is #17 on both groups' second bid lists.

During "normal" bid matching, A makes quota before getting to Susie. Her second choice, B, is used, and she becomes the twentieth and last person to match to B. Jenny is bidless because both of her choices are full to quota.

Following what DeltaBetaBaby said, Jenny would be matched to A because she is the highest-ranked person on A's bid list who ranked A first and didn't match via "normal" bid matching, even though she is lower on A's list than Susie was.

Am I understanding this correctly? :confused: Or am I just overanalyzing this? :)

You are correct, AA. The computer matching does its thing, then additions are done later by hand. That is why it is done, instead of just upping quota.

So my question is, if all houses on campus hit quota of 35- 40 except one, and that one house only had 17 on their bid list, and then of those 17, 8 choose to go to that house....how is that fair when all 3 pref parties are full? It throws the system so out of whack that of the 7 houses on the campus I advise, 6 of them are at 60+ members (with ceiling at 60) and one house is at 26.

Just wondering....seen it happen 2 years in a row on my campus.
I think it gets crazy sometimes.

This is more confusing than advanced alegbra:confused:

I don't understand what you mean. If a chapter has 3 full pref parties, and quota is 35, they should have at least 105 women on their bid list.

Yes, but that still doesn't mean they'll make quota. The chapter has, say, 105 women at their pref parties. Out of that 105, 17 match to them. The remaining 88 could either (a) match to other sororities, (b) suicide another sorority and not receive a bid, or (c) have decided not to sign their pref cards. So just because you have full pref parties doesn't mean you'll make, or even get near, quota.

Precisely what I mean AEPhi....and as far as I know, suiciding is being discouraged on my campus, which I personally disagree with, because if you feel that strongly that you wouldn't even consider another house, then you should suicide and not give other houses "false hopes."

If you will pardon me saying, I never understood a word of this thread so far!

I feel that the rules are BS as at my School, there are 3 Soroitys and will not lat another one on! The Soroitys are not up to figures or what ever!

Heck, this is a School of 6,500 + and there are not enuff girls to join!

What Crapola!

Maybe those who want to join want to join a Soroity of a different nature or name?

When there are 3 out of how many ( 29 ) PHC that maybe not all want to join one of the three!?

Live or die by what you do to get membership! The Fraternitys do! We have been on the down and outs, but this Sem. we are really looking up!


This National NPC is holding back the advancement of Soroitys! Do something about it!

Now back to regular programing!:cool:

My head hurt, I feel like I'm reading game theory.

Quota and total are made to encorage a sronger greek system and aid individual groups. Otherwise, you might end up with only one group on campus that everyone belonged to. Usually Panhellenic will not invite another group on campus until the existing ones are strong and there are more women wanting to join than there are places available.

Agreed. Way confusing. But I am glad there are people outthere liek Barbara who do understand it and can explain it and enforce it. Kinda ironic dont you think? Its always been taught that men were better with math and algebra, and women were the verbal ones. I am stymied on this. I stand by ya'll gals on it, but am utterly confused. I will however print out this page for our new member educator when he is teaching on the greek systems and the inevitable question is asked, "how do we get more sororities on campus?" I'll have him throw this on an overhead, expain the differenceies, and let the thread and rule summation do the talking. It explains things far better than we EVER could...meaning, there are way more procedures in their system. Just because were all greek dont assume we operate under the same guidlines. I made that mistake when I joined. Just the way it is.

I still dont get it. On the KU outcome therad one sorority got qouta plus 10. Quota was 52 and they got 62. I thought you could only excede quota by 5% max. Whats the deal?

madmax - if they were under chapter total even after taking the quota for that rush, they can take more girls to get up to chapter total. If chapter total was 65 - and they had 3 sisters to start - they can take 62 pledges.

The 5% thing is for "quota additions" which are only usually used if there's something that guarantees all rushees get bids.

Just one more example of DAISM!:o

The deal is that the sorority that exceeded quota by so much was the second smallest sorority on our campus. Last fall, they had 108 members. Assuming 20 of them graduated in May, that left them with 88 going into formal rush. I believe total is 170 (but please don't take my word for it; all of my friends in sororities have graduated, so I'm kinda out of the loop). So, even with the 62 NMs, this sorority still has ~150 members - well below total.

IMHO, this worked out really well for everybody - 10 women got bids that might not have otherwise and this sorority is the largest it has been in years.

The whole thing doesn't make sense. If you can go over or under quota then what's the point? Just have total and take as many or as few pledges as you want up to total. The other thing that doesn't make sense is allowing sororities to go over total. Doesn't that defeate the purpose? You end up with some groups over total, some at total, some just under and some way under. Isn't that what you are trying to prevent?

The only way to go over total is by taking quota in formal rush. Usually groups don't get too far over total that way. They aren't eligible to COB then, so they can't get any new members until the next formal rush.

Groups can of course get far under total by any system! I'm sure you know fraternities that are much smaller than the others on campus. Of course a group can go UNDER quota if people don't want to join them! It's not like fraternities always get as many pledges as they want with their system either!

I totally agree that just having a total size (max size) would make a lot more sense. Straight forward, easy to understand, and even easier to follow.

I agree the whole quota thing doesn't really help to equalize the sororities on campus.... I mean think about it... at my school which has a small greek system quota this year was 18.. (HUGE FOR MY SCHOOL) My chapter got 7 women, AND since total at my school is 45 the other two sorors that DID reach quota STILL get to COB until they reach 45 girls AND even though if they reach that number they won't be allowed to rush in spring if they are still at 45 next fall they can go OVER house total and still take whatever quota is next fall...(as far as I understand, if I am wrong please explain) so the biggest chapters on campus can STILL grow... I don't see how it helps AT ALL !!!

But the problem is that it leaves too many Potential Members unmatched. If you enforce a chapter size across the board, it could be that only 150 PNMs could find homes during recruitment, leaving another 1000 girls unmatched. Not fair to the girls or the system.

In this example, forcing a chapter size across the board is exactly why it would be fair to the unmatched women and the system. If a chapter size is enforced, it becomes very clear when there is real need to add another sorority on the campus!

Thus, the bigger chapters would NOT get bigger because they could only go to a max size. There would be simple rules, less dirty rushing, and all groups would TRULY be on the same playing field! Plus, when there is a lot of women unmatched, then it is clear that another sorority needs to be added.

They had something like that at Arkansas when I rushed...quota was different at each sorority and it was set by how many actual bed spaces each house had left. It left hundreds of girls unbid. Everyone knew that adding more sororities wouldn't work because the Greek system at Arkansas is quite old--several of the sororities have been there for more than a hundred years--and if the girls didn't get 1 of those 5, forget it, they weren't going Greek. That didn't help the big sororities, the small ones, or the PNMs. In the South at old-system campuses, it just won't work to say "if they can't pledge the Big 4 or 5, etc., then they'll just have to pledge XYZ!"

Because... it won't work and the Greek system will miss out on many outstanding women. I feel the pain of the smaller groups. It's just that I've watched rush in the South for 30 years and I've observed various attempts by Panhellenic to entice the rushees into pledging groups they wouldn't have considered before rush started. Honest to heaven, the only thing I have seen work is a huge increase in PNMs, like they've had the last few years at UGa and Auburn. That'll get a smaller sorority up to size faster than anything.

Let me note that I'm not saying that a sorority can't do anything to increase its numbers. What I'm saying is that I personally have never seen an attempt by Panhellenic to increase the smaller sororities' size be successful.

Yes, having Panhellenic say to PNMs, "You should consider this other chapter you weren't considering," is like having a teacher say, "You have to be friends with Johnny because no one else is." It probably just means another person is going to beat up on poor Johnny.

I too think that enforcing chapter sizes across the board would be the best. At my school quota this year was 41+ 5%. In theory its great for the girls but it also completely screws over the smallest houses. Our greek system is set so for Third Sets you visit 6 houses and then only 3 for preferences. if a girl does not get matched to her top 3 she could still get matched to her fourth choice. sometimes the PNM wouldn't want the 4th house but there are also cases where the PNM would have liked to have visited fourth house. Ceiling at my school is 120 and often women in those chapters do not always know her sisters. So if house XYZ got 45 girls (when 41 is quota), those extra 4 girls are often just a number to them. My chapter is a newer house on campus so it is harder for us to get as many women. My chapter got 7 outstanding women but I believe that if chapter sizes had been enforced we probably could have gotten more women. We are not one of the bottom ranked houses on campus but rather our PNMs at preferences were going to our house plus 2 other very large and popular houses on campus. Often, girls will rank an older, larger house on campus before a newer house because they feel it is a "safe bet". Its hard to win over as many girls being a newer house without a set reputation on campus while also being comparablely liked as the most popular houses on campus. Some houses on my campus don't even have to try to rush because thier name is enough to get members flocking to the door. On my campus(out of 15 chapters), among the most popular houses are KKG, AXO, DDD APhi, ADPi, DG (those are also the houses that my non AGD friends are in!). 4 other chapters have awesome women but they recruit different personalities than the ones above and us. During preferences, most of the girls we had coming through were chosing between mostly us and ADPi and APhi.

So i think a set quota system would have been beneficial to us.

Also, our panhel set a rule that says if any sorority loses any pledges during the year, they can rush to replace her whether they have at least 85 women returning for the next school year or not. I don't think that helps the smaller houses who need women.

Although I believe that quota and cealing should be enforced (no hand matching bids to sororities when there are groups under total!), I think the best thing for greek offices to do is help the chapters that are not getting as many girls. Maybe give them a heads-up on fund raising opportunities, maybe ask them what their office could do to helpo the chapter, or help inspire greek unity. Personally, I thing a lot of times it's a group's reputation that can get them in trouble with the PNM's, and fostering a unified greek spirit, instead of letting the chapters compete against eachother would help everyone involved.
-M

It seems like things at my school are a little different.... We have a chapter total here (it's 175), but there are only 2 sororities under that. All of the other chapters (there are 11 total) are close to 200, or over 200, one is even about 250! Chapter total on my campus is basically a number that doesn't mean anything unless you are under it, and then it's just the goal to recruit to.

We also don't have anything that guarantees a PNM will get a bid. Some girls are always cross-cut, but this year there were only 15 who were, and quota was somewhere around 45 or 50.

Our system is a little screwed up, and it kind of sucks for smaller chapters. They also don't seem to care about certain chapters, because a couple aren't doing as well as they could be, yet they are inviting another sorority to campus starting next fall!!! I have to say I'm not too thrilled about the idea of doing that when all of the chapters are not doing as well as they should be.

I have to disagree.... if you have 11 houses with membership totals that high you could easily support another house....

For perspective, your pledge class is roughly the size of the all the girls that got bid on my campus.

That's not exactly true.... This is one of the ways that our system is screwed up. If we add another chapter, it diesn't mean that every house will become smaller in numbers. It means that the biggest houses, the ones that are considered "the best" will keep pulling in the bigger numbers, and the smaller chapters will suffer even more. The big chapters at my school are more concerned with themselves than they are will the greek system as a whole sometimes.

There may have only been 40 or 50 girls who got bids on your campus, but I would be willing to bet that you have a smaller greek system and a smaller school. I go to a school that has 45,000 students, and we are trying to make the greek system bigger, which is why rrecruitment numbers are so important. My only issue is that I think we should make sure that all of the chapters we have now are strong enough and on the same level as the other chapters before we worry about inviting another chapter to colonize.

It is just very frustrating when you think that the greek system that is supposed to be supporting the chapters is more worried about expanding and getting bigger than they are about the chapters they have now.

Lindz928... I had to reread your post.. I noticed that you said quota was around 45 or 50... I thought you meant regularly. So I was trying to figure out how a chapter could be significantly over 200, and as high as 250. However, I think you meant quota for Fall Formal Recruitment 2002?

That seems a bit lower then in the past for UTx. We have averaged 59 New Members/per rush over the last four recruitments, not including this past recruitment. However, for TX Alpha to be over 200 members/as well as other chapters that would mean UTx Greek system has a very high retention rate. Which is awesome!!! I will use Pi Phi as an example, only because I am more familiar and know the numbers... Not including this past recruitment if we lost no members, Spring 2002 we would have 234 members. To be over 200, our retention rate (as well as others on campus) would have to be near 90%. Which don't get me wrong.. is great.. I have just rarely seen it across the board in a Greek System!

Your retention rate is that high, I could not imagine not adding another chapter. The majority of the chapters would be way to big if the system continues to grow. How far under are the smaller chapters? and what do you think the other chapters or the system can do to help improve that?

Since you are actively involved, I would love to hear more.

I can't figure out how some campuses decide to more or less write off 1 or more smaller groups when deciding whether to add a group. Like they'll have 5 groups of 100 women each and then 2 that hover below 30. If they don't add another group, the big 5 can take more new members but for some reason, PH decides to bring in an 8th group and that kills off the 2 smaller groups. I couldn't tell you how many times I've seen it happen--like PH privately decided,"Those 2 are as good as dead anyway, let's just move on."

:confused:

ahhhh!! carnation, I SOOO agree. I don't understand why some schools have almost every group at or near quota, and many women not receiving bids, and WON'T add a group, and then some schools have the problem you described--adding a group when some chapters are already in trouble! It seems to me the latter group should work on improving overall Greek image and unity, not expanding, while the first should try to expand and diversify the Greek system while still remaining exclusive!

I think that the Greek Community should pull together and help the smaller chapters. However, (only speaking for southern Greek Systems)... I have noticed that once a chapter has a stigma of being small or the fall back chapter it is hard to pull out of that...

Yes, if the system pulled together and the PNMs would join those chapters, than everyone would be equally strong. However, that does not happen, many PNMs would rather be GDI than join the marked group(s).

Does that mean a school should not bring in a new group that has the potential to succeed? Look at Delta Zeta at UF... There are a few chapters at UF that are under total. Delta Zeta brought out 500 PNMs?... That says something... Why aren't those 500 PNMs trying to fill up the chapters that have room?

I understand that the Greek Community opened their arms to DZ... Maybe chapters feel they have opened their arms to the other chapters and no longer have the interest in helping them? If this goes on at UF.. then I am sure it is an issue on other campuses.

Should PNMs go without a home? Or current chapters become as large as 250-300 members just because you can not bring an additional chapter in until all chapters are at total?

I hope what I am saying makes some kind of sense... I am in a rush to get my daughter to school and then I have class...

Discuss... :D

This almost happened at my school. 4 out of 5 groups were over total (80), but AEPhi had just been colonized around a year earlier, and we only had about 25 members. The Panhel president really wanted to open the school for expansion, on the grounds that there were a lot of women not receiving bids. She announced this out of the blue at a Panhel meeting one day (I was AEPhi's Panhel rep at the time) and my jaw just hit the floor. We fought the expansion and won - bringing on a new sorority at that time would have destroyed my chapter.

Carnation, you put perfectly into words what I was thinking. It is VERY frustrating for me. I am our chapter's panhellenic delegate, so I see what is going on and I don't know if there is anything my chapter can do about it. The new chapter was supposed to come to campus this past fall recruitment, but the numbers were so low last year (2001), that it was decided in panhel to put it off until we could see how this year's numbers were. And this is what I remember them saying at the panhel mtng that decided this.... We will invite the new chapter pending next year's (2002) recruitment numbers, and we will revote on whether we think the other chapter should be invited based on those numbers. Well, we never revoted, because I know my chapter would have voted no.

I would really like to know what my chapter could do about this, or if there is anything that we can do. AEPhi, what you said almost happened to your chapter is exactly what I am worried about. While our greek system might be bigger, it is relatively the same. Chapter total at my campus is 175, and quota for the chapters in recruitment every year is usually somewhere around 50. My chapter has been making huge improvements in the last couple of years, and I want to see that continue. I know that if we have the support of the rest of panhel on our campus, we can become just as strong or stronger than the other chapters that are here. But, just like Carnation said, I feel almost like we have been written off by those in charge. They say they support us, but they seem to do nothing to show it.

I may be completely off in what is going on, and I may be overreacting, but I don't think so. If someone has any advise, please let me know. Thanks alot!!