Poaching Legacies
 

Is poaching another group's legacy a big deal at your campus?

It's kinda neat when another sorority's legacy comes back to you. But then your sorority's legacies are bound to go elsewhere, too.
We did have a great-great-great niece of a founder cut us after first round. We were disappointed she didn't even give us a chance. Oh, well.:cool:

I do appreciate the challenge of "poaching" a legacy, as it were, but I've had more frustrating experiences with that than anything.

For every legacy we've poached, we've had many more legacies string us along, which is frustrating. We've had many legacies come through and go out of their way to swear that they weren't just interested in their sister's/mom's/cousin's chapter, and in some cases emphasizing that they weren't interested in their family member's chapter at all (trust me, this information was offered by the PNM without prodding on our part, we knew better than to ask).

So of course we have to take that at face value. Since we liked these girls, we kept them, and kept them, at the expense of another woman who wanted to be there. Of course, it was telling when the legacy would go out of her way to let the other chapters know that she didn't really want her family member's chapter, only to pref at AXO and her legacy chapter - hmm..... Later, we found out that most of these women only wanted their legacy chapter all along and were "grooming" us to be the fallback chapter in case the legacy chapter didn't work out.

Their insincere interest is really frustrating. It's better for a legacy PNM to just keep their mouth shut and avoid the subject than to fake enthusiasm for a chapter or to lie about their legacy chapter. I mean, yeah, I'm sure these legacy PNMs might have been worried they'd be heavily cut for their legacy status, but we honestly thought that some of these women were interested in Alpha Chi for it's own sake due to how enthusiastic they appeared, not just interested in us a distant second to their legacy chapter.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, I know it's kind of an unfair generalization but I'm kind of bitter about those experiences.

One reason I wondered: I know of so many legacies being cut early on by their legacy chapters. Since the sororities usually don't know where a PNM is returning (at least at really big schools), it seems like a lot of girls are being cut because the other groups assume that they're headed for a bid from their legacy chapters, when actually they were cut after first invitationals.

If I were NPC Queen for a Day, and had the power to change the minds & actions of every chapter (!), I would open the eyes of every sister and make them realize that the Legacy system has somehow got to expand!

In the last year alone, I've heard of chapters who literally had more legacies than Quota R-ing, legacies who were cut by their mothers'/sisters' chapter just prior to Pref, IN HOUSE legacies cut, and all sorts of nasty R-ing. It's got to stop, and the sooner, the better.

Maybe those schools with more legacies that Quota need to add another chapter - it blows my mind that schools who have over 200 members only have 9-10 chapters! In the long run, that's probably the same amount of PNMs involved as, say Illinois or Penn State. ADD A CHAPTER - it will NOT hurt your prestige!! Maybe some of the double legacies will have a better chance, because that new chapter will be a legacy chapter, too!

Well, I could go on and on, as the legacy situation as it stands is my pet peeve, but I have a 60th wedding anniversary to attend. Expect me to add more later!!

Now, I've never had direct experience with recruitment since release figures were fully implemented, but I would guess that all the groups are aware that certain groups seems to have a couple of new member classes worth of legacies going through at each year at the really big recruitments.

My point is that all the other chapters would also know that at least two thirds (or more) of the XYZ legacies were going to end up elsewhere, so it wouldn't make sense to release a girl you were interested in simply because she was a XYZ legacy. Now if you happened to know that a particular girl is an in house legacy or that she had an "XYZ or I'm dropping out of rush attitude," that's another story.

I think things are so intensely competitive for some chapters at big recruitments that the other groups probably take a wait and see attitude as much as they can about the legacies from these groups. And for the chapters that are pressured to make massive cuts because of release numbers, personally, I think they probably know who they want long before recruitment even starts and that legacy status isn't playing that big a role, period.

Huge deal. It was considered a big accomplishment if you could poach a legacy from a rival sorority....especially if that legacy's sister was a current member of the rival sorority!

This would actually decrease quota...not sure I understand how that would help.

Sorry for the double-post, but at Illinois, they did not tell us who was a leg to what chapter, unless it was ours. Is it common practice at most schools to make that info public?

The information forms used by the colleges I attended and later was an advisor to had a place to list family greek ties - so everyone would know which houses you were a legacy to if you listed it on the general form.

DeltaBetaBaby,

It's been a long time since I've see any on-campus recruitment forms, but UGA used to disclosed it to all the chapters.

Also, the rec forms that groups get from alumnae also often mention the legacy connections, so the chapter would likely know even if Panhellenic had quit passing the information along.

(It's probably on an local Panhellenic recruitment information form.)

Legacy poaching is a big deal at my D's campus and I say why not, IF the groups at the campus aren't emphazing legs?

My D made the effort to get recs from each house on her campus. Because of this, we looked at all the HQ websites and downloaded MIFs where they were available so we could see what the GLOs wanted for info. Every MIF that we saw (not just the panhel form) ask if you have NPC relatives and if so who and to which house. I don't think it would have been honorable for her to lie and say no affiliation but at the same time then XYZ knew she was a legacy.

Not only have I seen this, I've also seen them string a chapter along as a "spy." They'd fake interest in their legacy chapter's rival on campus just to try and get them to commit an infraction. Then pledge the legacy chapter and file the infraction - just to get the rival chapter in trouble.