Recruitment with all the Frills?
 

I'm wondering what a very frilly recruitment would look like. We were "no frills" at my school, so I'm always curious what a full frilly recruitment would look like!

I'll start - I was at FSU in the early 2000s, and although we were "no frills" it seemed pretty frilly to me!

We wore matching outfits - shirts and pants from Express, and we even had to get matching floral flip flops! For Pref, we were just in a black dress that we liked. Everything had to be approved in "dress checks" before Recruitment.

No food was served - but I want to hear about the personalized cookies for PNMs and fancy fruit platters!

early 1990s- skits the first two rounds with FULL decorations (we had a brady bunch theme for one skit and covered all the walls in the formal with tin foil so it looked like a giant disco ball). Food and drinks served most rounds. yard chants- think singing and jumping and yelling in front of the house to start and end each round. Oh and at the end of each preference party, you kept the flower from the house (a pink rose from DZ, a carnation from Phi Mu, a rose with yellow and green ribbons from AGD, etc). Lots of matching outfits.

I joined in the late 1990s, and by that time some of the frills had been cut down (like covering entire rooms with butcher paper and balloons). But we were still pretty frilly.

- Matching outfits for each day (these were purchased in bulk ahead of time by the Recruitment team and included shoes and nametags)
- Door songs/chants/stacks for each entrance and exit (the first three rounds). These involved not only singing but hand gestures and lots of head bobbing/hair flipping.
- An entrance and exit formation (with song) on the lawn for Preference
- Flowers, flowers, and more flowers, for each round
- Second round was house tours, and there were themes set ahead of time for each room
- Entertainment the first round (which was a song a small set of members did that replaced sorority themes/words for the actual lyrics, and involved choreography/dancing)
- A skit the third round, which involved decorating part of a room and usually had props (I specifically remember pool floaties one year)
- Each round had a themed drink and preference included food. Typically this was several different types of appetizers (I think up to 6?). Some chapters did do personalized things, like writing names in chocolate on a plate. I think the closest my chapter got was having special cookies made in our colors.

Some of this still goes on at my campus (one round of door songs/change/stacks, some pref food and formations on the lawn), but it's a LOT tamer then it used to be.

It is always kind of interesting to me when I see "no frills," because there is quite a bit of showmanship associated with Panhellenic recruitment. I'm sure it must have been much bigger and must have involved more gifts for potential members.

Theme name tags for each round. Elaborately decorated, calligraphy. Intricate shapes. Lots of ribbon, hot glue and love.

Every round, we filled the entire ceiling with helium balloons with curling ribbon strings. I was one of about 7 people who could tie a balloon, so I was up every morning at 5AM huddled around the helium tank. We had a skit round that was Planet Hollywood themed - so, movie posters and standups covering the walls.

When I rushed, one house had an outerspace theme. All blacklight and glow in the dark. Another had a slumber party theme, so we sat on sleeping bags and the walls were lined with pillows and stuffed animals. One house did Aladdin (this was 1993, so...) and turned their house into a bazaar.

Themed attire. Matchy matchy everything. Lots of bows!

One round our tables had centerpieces of live goldfish.

Lots of food. Cheesecake, ice cream sundaes, iced cookies in a shape or color of the sorority, popcorn. Cokes in the glass bottle with colorful straws. Custom cocktail napkins. We had food or drink of some kind every round.

Door stacks and lawn chants. Choreography. The skits were a big deal.

At pref, they gave you a small favor of some kind. A flower, a symbol from their sorority. You wouldn't leave with it, but they would meet you with it on bid day. People who had met you throughout the week would write notes of encouragement to be read at prefs.

The year I rushed was the last year they allowed uniform dresses at pref. One house wore them, the other house did little black dresses.

Lots of flowers, candles. Wishing wells and fountains, special music...

One of my pref houses had petit fours with their letters. A friend went to a house where her dessert plate had her name written in chocolate.

It was a lot of time, work and money.

I regret nothing.

Except maybe the goldfish.

I rushed Fall of 1970. As we left the house after pref (which at that time on my campus was called “Final Desserts,” and yes, you ate dessert at each house you preffed), on the lawn of the house were enormous 3-D ZTA letters constructed of chicken wire and stuffed with flammable material. At a signal that the party was ending, those letters were set on fire! It was impressive, let me tell you! And so was the dessert — ice cream pie!

BraveMaroon your rush sounds amazing!

I rushed fall 1978. Started on a Sunday and ended the following Sunday with bids given out at 2 pm.

Four rounds of rush...actives at each house wore their own clothes for rounds 1 & 2, then matching outfits for the 3rd and 4th rounds (skit and pref). Pref was usually all white or all black dresses or pastel colors (big back then) - their own dresses, although matching color. The songs they sang as they came out for each round were amazing...I remember being stunned when the girls raced out onto the lawns singing, often with dance type moves. I remember Chi O singing the Greek alphabet then singing, at the end something like "go Chi Omega, oh don't you want to go Chi Omega?". Theta used the tune from the Dr. Pepper ad song (I'm a Theta, she's a Theta don't you want to be a Theta, too, be a Theta, Kappa Alpha Theta). Very catchy.

Skit parties had decor in the house to match the theme, that's when we got house tours. Houses had huge bowls of M&M's or other snacks in the girls' rooms to nibble on as you took the tour. A large array of food served in the dining rooms of each house, always matched the party theme.

I loved the pref parties - one of my pref house's decor/food/set-up was particularly memorable as it was so elegant and seamless. The dessert was a small square piece of white cake with white frosting and the rushee's (first) name inscribed on top in the sorority color; there were also sugar cookies in the Greek letters. The piece-de-resistance was the ice cream treat: a small real flower pot filled with some type of invisible liner with vanilla ice cream in it topped with oreo cookie crumbs. There was a tiny, practically invisible plastic flower holder in the middle that held the sorority's flower so it looked like a real plant with the flower.

The pref party was split into two: one girl took you through the first part where you sat in the living room and chatted, then had dessert. Another active took you through the second half - music ("You've got a friend" from Carole King), actives speaking, etc. There was a large fountain out front and as the active walked you out, you were handed a carnation, the sorority's flower. She walked you to the fountain and told you to make a wish as you threw the carnation into the fountain. This house had a long sidewalk so the lineup of actives singing their farewell song, as you were walked out by your active, was rather magical.

It's so interesting to read what "frills" recruitment is like, especially considering my school does even less than what some campuses consider "no frills"! There are no crafts for philanthropy, no drinks (not even water), and a max budget of I believe $500, which includes recruitment videos.

This is the best: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=88050

Y’all I don’t have time right now but I will tell you about yard dances when I can.

We didn't have the same type of formal rush most of ya'll did -- didn't have to go to all parties, and I rushed only DG. Our pref party - called "Final Party" - was held at an alumna's home about two blocks off campus. Each attendee was given a memorable keepsake. When I rushed, it was black velvet chokers with a handmade silver anchor. I'm pretty sure we each got a cream rose, also. There were so few women at the school, and of course fewer rushing, so final parties for the five sororities were scheduled such that you could attend more than one, but each chapter only hosted one either a Saturday or Sunday evening.

For 1 party, we had mini root beers floats!
For Pref, we had petit four cake with our first name on it & made a wish by dropping a white carnation in a wishing well — so do I know one sorority NYCMS went to on Pref? Many chapters still do the wishing well today.

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I went through recruitment well after the frills phase, but these are some pictures of my chapter from the late 60s. These dresses were made locally and were made of satin and had to be worn with the long gloves. They wore them at preference and a few other more formal events. One of the stories I remember being told was they once had a luau-themed recruitment event, complete with fraternity pledges shirtless and in grass skirts, tiki torches all over the lawn, and an actual pig roast.

We were partial frills, and the fight to keep helium balloons went on much longer than the fight to keep food after I left.

In my time (2003-2007 at Case Western) we had a budget for the food and decor for each party, but it didn't include things the house owned (like platters or christmas lights.... so many christmas lights) or stuff we borrowed from alumnae (like table clothes). Also alumnae could donate up to $X in food for each party so it was pretty frilly. We did recruitment out university buildings because not every chapter had a house so there was always some random stuff on the walls we either covered or worked into our decor.

One year one of my sisters who was amazing at embossing did special embossed name tags for each party. I need to find a picture of those.

There was one party that I am going to see if I can find a picture of that was just over the top. We had a punch fountain and chocolate covered fruit inside of a light covered tent. I don't know how that was on budget....

We would literally cover the room in christmas lights and helium balloons.
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We often did a winter wonderland theme and had snowflakes hanging from the ceiling.
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For skit days we would do elaborate backdrops and props. These were the frills I loved.
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My favorite frilly party was Candy Land (how sweet it is to be Phi Mu!) and had areas of the room decorated like parts of the game and colored squares along the floor, though one of the PNMs (a future sister) tripped on one coming into the party.....
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